Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns

DEVELOPER : TimeGate Studios
PUBLISHER : StrategyFirst
RELEASE DATE : Mar 2001

Later this month, Strategy First is going to release the game Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. I have been playing a Beta copy, and knowing how discriminating the tastes of strategy gamers are, it is my intent to prep you on what to expect. Strategy Gaming Online will of course have a full review, but the Beta copy gave me a fairly complete picture of what to expect from the gameplay. First let me say that there have been games like Kohan before, Seven Kingdoms and Majesty immediately springing to mind. But the design is still a very unique approach to the fantasy empire-building genre. A real-time game that covers the strengths and many tactical intricacies of a turn based game can be quite a strong combination, and if Kohan's final version succeeds in hitting the right cord with gamers, we could have a hit on our hands.

The story behind Kohan is that an old race, known as the Kohan, was mysteriously wiped out but reborn in a future time. Playing as one of these Kohan, you must lead your side to a glorious ascendancy. Since my Beta copy does not include the campaigns, that is all the story I know. But I'm sure that it will be fleshed out nicely within the missions. So basically, this leaves me with a rundown of the gameplay. I started with the included basic and advanced tutorials, which were extremely helpful and refreshingly simple to follow. Each tutorial focuses on one aspect of the game, so you won't find yourself immediately playing a full game with mere hints on how to proceed. This means that the tutorial mode takes a good amount of time to complete, but it delivers what a tutorial should--a clear understanding of the game's mechanics. Who is complaining? But hey, you can always just jump into a skirmish round or try your hand at the campaign right away. I wouldn't suggest it, however. There are some unique aspects to the game that can make things a bit confusing at first. I will delve into these later, but first I'll give you a brief overview of the options for setting up a skirmish game.

It is literally jam-packed with customizable features. Being a real-time strategy game, the terrain is always an important facet, and Kohan lets you customize it to your heart's content. You can change numerous amounts of variables-grass, rough, forest, jungle, desert, hills, water, and mountains--using a slider to change percentage values, thus creating the terrain you want to play in. You can also change the size of the maps, the number of mines, monster lairs, outposts, and towns, the victory conditions (wealth v. conquest based), etc. The generated maps can be played by as many as 8 human or computer opponents. If you are not playing multiplayer, you can choose to play against random AI or choose among various historical leaders such as Alexander and Xerxes, each with their own level of difficulty. In the Beta I could only randomly generate new maps, but the final version will include numerous pre-made multiplayer maps.

Once you start a game you will have a settlement from which to expand across the map. Depending on the level of this settlement you will only be able to construct a certain number or structures within it. Subsequent upgrades will increase that amount, but at the expense of gold. There are a variety of structures to build within your city, some affecting your resources, others allowing you to build new units and upgrades. Unlike traditional real-time strategy games, there are no units needed to gather resources. As long as you have the structures necessary-a quarry for stone, woodmill for wood, blacksmith for iron, mines for gold-a certain amount will be added to your coffers every minute. Similarly, any structures or units you have that require an upkeep cost will detract from your funds every minute, so you are just left to balance this out. This essentially frees you from too much resource management, but at the same time leaves enough of this aspect so as not to eliminate one of the most attractive features of empire building-getting rich. Of course, you will still have to send out engineers to build mines for gold, but other than that resources are collected within the respective cities. Once you have built a sufficient economic base you can move on to building other structures, such as the barracks and library. Besides allowing you to commission more powerful troops, they also allow you to research a diverse range of improvements. Some will help you with resources, such as being able to convert wood, stone, and iron into gold, others will increase the attack or defensive strength of certain troops or give them other abilities. My one complaint is that the structures you build are not represented on the map. In fact, nothing is to scale. Your troops are huge when compared to your city, and the only way you know what structures it contains is by clicking on it and viewing a list of building icons. But fortunately, this does not detract much from the game, as there is quite a bit going on all over the map. Besides both your own and enemy settlements, there are mines to be built and protected, ruins that can be searched for bonus artifacts and gold, and various monster lairs. These distinctive looking lairs spawn a variety of creatures. Although I could not play the campaigns, which will undoubtedly weave many fantastic creatures into the story-line, just looking through the included map editor showed me just how high the variety of creatures are-golems, storm drakes, dragons, they're all here. There are also 4 different factions to choose from-Nationlists, Royalists, Council, or Ceyah-and each allow for a different variety of units. The Nationalists have your typical cavalry, footmen and archers, but the Ceyah's infantry are zombies and skeleton warriors, their cavalry Shadow Beasts. Plus you get access to dozens of more powerful units and heroes as you upgrade and research. Kohan's units are quite varied and sure to keep things fresh.

One of the most appealing aspects of Kohan is how combat is treated. While the actual fighting does not differ much from most real-time strategy games, the tactics are of a much greater variety. Case in point, the way you commission troops. Instead of pumping out different units and having to group them in a haphazard way, you actually create your own companies from over 40+ units to meet your current needs. For instance, if you want to build a new settlement but have not explored the terrain sufficiently, you can create a company with settlers and rangers, who will be able to scout and move faster than if they were grouped with, say, swordsman. Or if there is a mountain pass that you need to guard but cannot devote infantry to it, commission a combination of archers and sorcerers to attack from long-range while you bring in reinforcements. What adds to the importance of different compositions is that each unit type has unique attributes that will effect the entire company. For instance, group scouts with cavalry and the latter will have a 110% increase in their line-of-sight. Putting footmen in your company will increase the effectiveness of all attacks against cavalry. Or throw a magician in with your archers and increase their morale, thereby decreasing their chance of retreating in the event of a melee. There are literally dozens of interesting combinations to be made and experimented with. Adding to the tactical variety is that you can choose from a few different formations such as line and column, which will also change your army's attack and defensive values. Also, another interesting aspect is that if you send companies back to the support "zone" of you settlements, you will slowly regain troops that were lost in battle. This greatly increases the benefits of a strategic retreat.

Aesthetically the game is pretty good. The terrain could have used a bit more detail, but it is certainly decent. Also, while there are a few different settlement graphics depending on what side you play, I would have liked for these and other map structures to be bigger. It would have greatly added to the atmosphere for your scouts to happen upon an enormous enemy outpost instead of a representation that is only twice the size of the units. Where the graphics shine, however, is in the animation of units. I'd say it is comparable to Age of Empires II. Cavalry will fall off their horses when defeated, heal spells have a beautiful blue ring effect, and giant arachnids will shoot out webbing to ensnare you soldiers. The Beta I played did not have music, but did have limited sound effects. They are adequate, but I simply can't be impressed any more by the sound of horse hooves or a unit responding, "Your orders, sir?" But I don't want to put a negative spin on the preview, so let me just say that any qualms people have with the graphics are sure to be overlooked in light of some unique gameplay. Another plus is that I never experienced one crash or glitch while playing the Beta-it was very stable. Also, load times are next to nothing.

I found Kohan to be fun, pure and simple. At first glance the game seems simplistic, but once you get into the intricacies of building your armies, you will see just how detailed and varied the game truly is. It is true that Kohan is more focused on combat due to the simplistic nature of building and resource gathering, but you will still need to exercise your strategic muscles as well as your tactical. While we will have to wait and see how the campaigns hold up, the game has enormous longevity already-multiplayer, a wonderfully customizable skirmish mode, and a very intuitive map editor. One thing is for sure, the game design is similar to unique titles like Seven Kingdoms II, but is much easier to get into due to a more streamlined approach and intuitive interface. Whether Kohan is going to be deemed a classic is yet to be determined, but I am assuming that the final product will turn out even better than the Beta I played, and that is saying quite a bit.

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Previewed by Anthony Micari