How to deal with cossacks?

[Tatran]

I went to war with Russia,razed a few cities no problems so far
until the first cossack appeared.18 strength + 50% versus cavalry.
So my cavalry is useless.Pikes also don't have a good change to win.
Even a fully upgraded pike with 12 experience points right from the start
can't take out a cossack on flat terrain.(6 strength + 100% versus cavalry +
combat 1 + combat 2 + combat 3 + formation).

 

[Vindicator7]

You're screwed. The Cossacks are nearly unstopabble in their era. The best thing you could do is probably tons of pikemen. Other then that, just hole up in your city with fortified units and watch as the Cossacks pillage the countryside.

 

[BobCobb]

Not true. If they are slaughtering you, get a couple cannons/catapults with collaterall damage and sack those against them. Then take your calvary and try again.

Also, if you have veteran calvary or pikeman, don't throw them away. Use lesser experienced units to attack until your veteran's odds are better.

 

[vyapti]

Play Cathy!

 

[The Last Conformist]

Do you have Riflemen? Riflemen with the anti-cav upgrade (I forget the name) and a Combat or three do pretty well against Cossacks.

 

[DaemonDivinity]

Foot soldiers. That means Riflemen. If you're the Brit's, Redcoats will just wreck them, even in the field.

Still, no denying it. Cossack's are a powerful UU that dominate the field for some time. Either you design your military to fight them or you die to them.

 

[HFB]

If the pikeman is your best possible counter you're screwed. If you're not behind in techs get riflemen, they beat them pretty handily. They might pillage you to starvation but they cant beat you where you stand.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

Whenever I play against Russia I make researching and creating rifleman a priority, otherwise you're screwed!

 

[Gufnork]

Riflemen means the Cossacks can no longer take your cities, forcing them to war of destruction. Since the Riflemen are cheaper, you should win that in the long run.

 

[LeConquerant]

against Russia, a good tactic is to deny them access to iron or horses... maybe hard if they have already built their own cossacks.

 

[zafyro]

I´ve been on the other side playing rusians and yes cossaks are big expansion time :} quite unstopable if managed properly

 

[Draax]

Cossacks and Redcoats are beautiful UUs. When they're both in play, it's a great chessmatch. Either the 'sacks starve the 'coats to death, or the 'coats push the 'sacks into the ocean. Always fun, either way.

 

[insectile]

I´ve been on the other side playing rusians and yes cossaks are big expansion time :} quite unstopable if managed properly

Yeah, I love it when I get my cossacks. One of my favorites is if I get pulled into a war with someone close by that I don't want to fight, I just send in some cossacks to ruin their improvements. This has two benefits - first, the AI generally will not bother sending any units into your territory until it deals with the cossacks, and second - cossacks can get deep quickly, destroy tons of improvements, and hold their own if someone attacks them. As few as five cossacks can make an unwanted war almost a non-issue (at the right time).

...at least for me, I play with weird settings, so YMMV.