"The Hunter Tux"

Kohan: Rise Of Immortal Tux

Introduction | Links | KIS Screenshots | KAG Review | KIS Films

Introduction

Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns (or KIS in short) is a real-time strategy game with a fantasy theme, originally developped by TimeGate Studios and ported to Linux by the good people at Loki Games.
After Loki's demise, TimeGate didn't receive the code developped by Loki and chose to allow Transgaming to release KIS based on their WineX technology. Subsequently, KIS was re-released, together with the Special Awards Edition and its prequel, Kohan: Ahriman's Gift (or KAG).
When I mention KIS on this page, I am talking about the Loki port, whereas KAG refers to the Transgaming version.

Links

TuxGames (my preferred Linux games reseller ;-)
TimeGate Studios
Loki Games
Bernhard Fruhmesser's fan site
Jason Andresen's fan site
Petition for a Linux port of Kohan 2

KIS Screenshots

A few screenshots immortalising various battles...

19.12.2001 - Daniel vs Fabrice
19.12.2001 - Daniel, Fabrice, Thomas
19.12.2001 - Fabrice, Thomas, Daniel and Bernhard
19.12.2001 - Thomas vs Bernhard
11.02.2002 - Thomas, Amra, Relnev
11.02.2002 - Thomas, Bernhard, Amra and Relnev
11.02.2002 - Wulf, Bernhard and Nessus
11.02.2002 - Wulf, Bernhard and Nessus, part 2
08.03.2002 - Thomas vs Amra
08.03.2002 - Nessus vs Spoogicus
09.03.2002 - Nessus vs Spoogicus, part 2
09.03.2002 - Thomas vs Bernhard
12.04.2002 - Paul vs Lousa
12.04.2002 - Paul vs Lousa, part 2
12.04.2002 - Fabrice & Raymond vs Paul
12.04.2002 - Fabrice, Raymond & Thomas vs Paul & Lousa
10.08.2002 - Amra vs Wulf
10.08.2002 - Amra & Bernhard vs Wulf & sHINOBI
10.08.2002 - sHINOBI vs Amra
10.08.2002 - sHINOBI vs Amra, part 2
21.09.2002 - Raymond vs Wulf
21.09.2002 - Raymond vs Wulf, part 2
04.10.2002 - Amra vs Wulf
04.10.2002 - Lousa vs GrosBill
19.12.2002 - Amra, Bernhard vs Wulf
19.12.2002 - Thomas vs Spoogicus
19.12.2002 - Raymond & GrosBill vs Amra & Bernhard
16.04.2003 - Amra vs Spoogicus
16.04.2003 - Amra vs Spoogicus, part 2
27.04.2003 - Amra & Bernhard vs Nessus & Zigomar
27.04.2003 - Amra, Bernhard & sHINOBI vs Nessus & Zigomar
27.04.2003 - Spoogicus vs sHINOBI

Note that some of these screenshots have been taken in windowed mode because I wanted to boast about my nice Redhat 7.2/Gnome 1.4 desktop :-)

KAG Review

So after thinking about it for three days, weighting the pros and cons, I made the jump and armed with my credit card bought Kohan: Ahriman's Gift from Transgaming. Before I go any further and start with the review, let me say a couple of things. First off, I bought several titles from Loki and I still think that 100% native ports are the way to go. Transgaming WineX and Wine in general is a stop-gap solution that should only be considered when a native port doesn't exist, which was the case here. I hope that TimeGate will release a Linux port of Kohan II. Finally, this won't prevent me from buying Majesty and Neverwinter Nights when Linux ports are released, not because I want to "support the Linux community" but because I use Linux exclusively for my gaming needs and these games are brilliant.
KAG is available for download only so don't expect a nice DVD-style box. I would have been willing to pay more for a boxed product, especially since the skeleton-in-black-spiky-armor on the cover looks so cool :-) It comes as 211 Mb file, with a 4 Mb big version of WineX specially tailored for Kohan. Both are available as tar.gz, RPM or DEB files, which is handy.

First day impressions
I chose the RPM version and installed the whole thing on my home machine (Redhat 7.3 on an AthlonXP 1800+/256Mb RAM/GeForce2 GTS 32Mb/SB Live ! with kernel driver). I would have preferred the game to use something like Loki's setup tool as all my games are in /usr/local/games and here everything is installed in /usr/lib/kohan/. Never mind, I can live with that.
The startup script "kohan_ag" is added to the Gnome/KDE menus. The first run fires up a window where you are asked for the registration number you were provided with after completing the order online. This then downloads a "system-specific executable tuned to run only on your computer". More details on this would be welcome. How does that work ? Am I free to install it as many times as I want ? Can I install it on my laptop too ?
After finishing that, I then fired up the game. The first impression was relatively good. The game runs full screen without any graphic glitch, it all feels smooth and responsive on my system. Sound on the other hand seems a bit rough around the edges at times when Kohan characters speak to give you instructions. Vashti's (here called Mistress Javidan) part doesn't sound as good as in KIS. I have never seen KAG on Windows so the person who plays her role may be to blame. I am maybe a bit picky here...
Before I forget, one thing I find annoying is the screen flickers between the cut scenes and the briefings, where you very briefly see the desktop, and the inability to toggle between full screen and windowed mode like in KIS (or most Loki's titles) with Alt+Enter. That said, it may be possible to run the game in windowed mode by modifying the config files, just like with regular Wine. I haven't investigated that.
There are three campaigns available in single-player mode. The first one which I had time to begin playing puts you in the role of Mistress Javidan, freshly awakened by a mysterious hooded figure who tells her she will soon rule Khaldun. So yeah you play the Ceyah and it's a bit disturbing to hear demons tell you they have put villagers homes to the torch after you capture a town or that your enemies bones will make worthwile fodder for your armies ;-) The background music is sinister enough to fit the mood. The whole atmosphere reminded of playing the Zerg in Starcraft :-)
So far, it feels like a native port.

More...
Right, so I played for a couple of hours yesterday and I ran into a couple of snags.
At startup, when the Transgaming anim starts playing, the resolution changes to 320x240 (I think) and there's like one or two seconds where you face the top-left quarter of the main loading screen before the anim actually shows up. I tried running the game with "noreschange" which forces the game not to change resolutions for the cinematics, but then they appear in the middle of the screen. This is ugly.
There are also issues with sound, where sometimes the selection screen music doesn't stop when you choose a mission and instead dies during the briefing.
The third problem I ran into deals with a sudden and unexpected frame-rate drop, even though I was playing a single-player mission. I quickly switched to a virtual console to see if any crom or daemon process was running, but there wasn't any. So it very much looks like a problem with WineX. I had to exit and restart KAG. This happened only once.
I have got mixed feelings about it now. The game itself is certainly good, but the emulation layer is in need of more polish !

Finally
Apart from a few annoyances, I am quite happy with that game. It's not as ground-breaking as KIS was when released, but it's got enough single player missions to keep you busy for days.

KIS Films

As of January 2002, I won't update this page with film reviews and stuff but instead contribute to Bernhard's and Jason's excellent fan sites. ´Nuff said !

22 Nov 2001

Rhaksha Herd (Kohan v1.3.1)
3 players : Bernhard, Thomas and Fabrice
Destruction of the rogue Ceyah and the weak followers of the Creator by the mighty armies of the Dark Master ! would be a fitting description for this film :-)
When realizing that Thomas is roughly where I wanted to build a new village, I rush with 3 zombie companies and 2 mixed skeleton companies fronted by Kohans and quickly take possession of his towns. Then it's Bernhard's turn 8:)

King Of The Hills (Kohan v1.3.1)
3 players : Bernhard, Thomas and Fabrice
This film isn't actually a complete one as, for the first time, I lost connection. The two others were kind enough to stop playing and look for me in the forums :-)

02 Dec 2001

Conquest (Kohan v1.3.1)
8 players
This has to be the longest and baddest game I have played so far. It's in Conquest mode, so settling is not allowed and one has got to defend his towns to the death :-) Oh, it lasted only 3 hours !

06 Dec 2001

Fortresses (Kohan v1.3.1)
5 players : Bernhard, Thomas, Raymond, Wulf and Fabrice
Nice game, though unbalanced as Wulf and Fabrice ally early in the game against the three other players.

18 Dec 2001

2 random games (Kohan v1.3.1)
First game
6 players : Bernhard, Alan and Daniel vs Thomas, Paul and Fabrice
The first team attacks Thomas early on. Then it's the usual tides of armies fighting each other in countless battles, and victory is finally snatched by the second team.

Second game
4 players : Thomas and Fabrice vs Daniel and Bernhard
Daniel stumbles on one of my settlements and quickly conquers it. With the help of Thomas, we slowly regain ground and mount a counter-attack against the second team. It was a relatively short but excellent game due to the proximity of the two sides on the map.