Poll: Real Time Strategy games: Quantity over quality, or quality over quantity?

[Jaeke]

I'm going to base my answer off a very discreet console (but yes it had a PC version that was a bit better and there were more options to it) RTS that I even liked playing multiplayer better than StarCraft II, called Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II.

I loved everything about it, the resource system, the hero dynamic, the fortresses, the last-builder-standing, just everything about it was solid.

You had to balance armies to properly to accomodate in a Rock, Paper, Scissors dynamic with Calvary>Archers>Sword Infantry>Spear Infantry>Calvary and so on, then use either of the 6 races benefits to adapt to your enemies race. THEN you had the hero dynamic that had leveling elements as compared to a MOBA, then resource systems that were based on percentage of yield/space they took up.

Just one example of a strategy I loved to use in Early-Game (EVERYONE would play this map called Buckland, always 2v2, and you ALWAYS had to have a microphone or you would be kicked):
- Race: Humans. Pump out two Archer Towers and make around 2 battalions of Gondorian Archers. Then I would summon Boromir and get him to kill a wight (Wights, spiders, trolls and cave goblins were comporable to jungling mobs in League of Legends) and raise a couple levels to get his AoE stun.
After that, upgrade the Archer Towers, start buying Ithilian Rangers with fire arrows, and then reinforce them with a couple Gondor Soldiers (sword), and about 3-4 Tower Guards (spearmen). This would have been done within 10 minutes. Also, something to mention, the community for this game, while competitive was GREAT, everyone obeyed to rules invented by the players such as "no rush(which means no attacking main bases/resourches) for "X" amount of minutes, usually 15 minutes). This gave me extra left over time to fully upgrade my soldiers with magic weapons and golden armor, and maybe add a couple more Ithilians and about 2 spearmen for every 1 archer unit.

Anyways, after the rush-time ended, I would hide units in trees (as trees would stealth units unless they attacked or the enemy got too close) and wait for my enemy to attack. Once they were in range I would send in Boromir with a couple regular arches and 1 sword infantry and 1 spear infantry. After they took the bait, I would use the MASSIVE stun to lock their army and heroes in place and then follow with a volley from the Ithilian Rangers, that combo'd with their fire arrows would set an entire area on fire and anyone caught in the radius would be DEVASTATED, followed by a calvary charge from my teamate to round up the routing enemy.

Check & Mate.

Damn I'm getting excited just thinking about it...

Spoiler: Youtube vid on PC version

Really I could go On and ON about it since I have nothing but nostalgia since the game is literally dead.
Real shame EA blitzed the servers to focus on Battlefield 3

 

[Parivir]

No mention of Dawn of War yet.
If there ever was an example of what a quality unit should be I have one answer. Terminators. Give them lightening claws and they can solo super-heavy units and there is only 3 guys.
I play Eldar however so my tactics rely on ample quantity of firepower and quality of positioning. The ability to deal high amounts of damage in short periods of time despite being fragile means I have to engage on my terms at all times.
The only problem with Eldar is that they are super specialised, they don't have a jack of all trades unit so I have to mix it up depending on opponent, both in RTS and tabletop. That's what makes Eldar fun to play however, when your orchestra of death comes together.

Necrons here and the plan is simple, Teleport rush my commander into the enemy base and keep deep striking flayed ones. The HQ is destroyed before they know what happened.
Should all else fail the fact that the Nightbringer is a timed unit not health based is sweet too.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

If it's realistic like MoWAS then it really depends. Of course you need a certain amount of infantry to hold an area, but anything with HE shells can obliterate them. Then again mowas probably isn't the best example for this thread, seeing as one costing 140 with a rocket launcher can kill KingTiger costing 2400 in one well placed shot.

So skill over both I think.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Been playing the hell out of Rome Total War and urban cohorts take 2 turns to train and are pretty much the heaviest infantry in the game and I prefer 5 units of them to 20 units of barbarian warbands. Smaller armies are easier to manage, in many cases cheaper to maintain, and are easier to conceal.

Good lord, the Cohortes Urbanae were broken as fuck and anachronistic as hell in R:TW. Used them once, wept, and never used them again.

The only problem with Eldar is that they are super specialised, they don't have a jack of all trades unit so I have to mix it up depending on opponent, both in RTS and tabletop. Thats what makes Eldar fun to play however, when your orchestra of death comes together.

I really don't like playing them in DoW... though the Warp Spyders are a sort of jack-of-all-trades unit since they're fast moving enough and have enough firepower to take on most infantry types... though the Eldar do kinda suck in the anti-tank role.

OT: Like most have said, depends on the game and faction involved. Spamming in DoW as any of the non-Marine factions is a one way route to certain obliteration (seriously, ever tried spamming when playing as the Dark Eldar, total suicide). In some of the C&C titles and Starcraft if you're quick fingered enough, sure, an early game spam will win you the game.

But, as with reality, I prefer a combined arms approach. In the TW titles, use up the shitty troops I start the campaign with, a go with a standard line up slowly upgrading it as I go. To be fair, the TW titles are the only 'RTS' (emphasis on the inverted commas) games I'm playing at the moment, so it's not exactly the best example (primarily because I never spam in them, tis a waste of time and population). There is one exception: the ancient Greece mods for R:TW ('cos hoplites is all you gonna get...)

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

AoE III is pretty brutal on new players because of how devastating and lop-sided a competent rush can be. But it's extremely rewarding when you learn how to take your hits and live to fight another Age and realize the economic and technological advantage you have held out for is overwhelming.

As for directly answering the question, it just depends on the situation. In the best games no two matches are exactly alike.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Quality on the defense, quantity on the offense.

 

[Bernzz]

Depends on my mood. It's always fun to overwhelm the enemy with a horde of cheap, unrelenting units, but there's also something awesome about a few high quality units holding off a similar horde on their own.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

No mention of Dawn of War yet.
If there ever was an example of what a quality unit should be I have one answer. Terminators. Give them lightening claws and they can solo super-heavy units and there is only 3 guys.
I play Eldar however so my tactics rely on ample quantity of firepower and quality of positioning. The ability to deal high amounts of damage in short periods of time despite being fragile means I have to engage on my terms at all times.
The only problem with Eldar is that they are super specialised, they don't have a jack of all trades unit so I have to mix it up depending on opponent, both in RTS and tabletop. That's what makes Eldar fun to play however, when your orchestra of death comes together.

Necrons here and the plan is simple, Teleport rush my commander into the enemy base and keep deep striking flayed ones. The HQ is destroyed before they know what happened.
Should all else fail the fact that the Nightbringer is a timed unit not health based is sweet too.

I never liked playing against or as Necrons until Soulstorm toned them down a little. They were simply too good. That tactic however might be stunted by my early base setup. I get shroud as quickly as possible and make my base invisible with turrets, plus my Farseer always rolls out of the Aspect Shrine first to mind war stuff. Unfortunately if it was tabletop I would use Howling Banshees to counter Flayed Ones but for some reason in Dawn of War are better than Banshees.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I tend to prefer using a medium size combined force. I've recently got into SupCom Forged Alliance, and my tendency is to use a mix of cheap tech 1 infantry and tech 2, with a thin smattering of tech 3. However, the job of these is basicallyntonsurvivemand shrug off attacks, while my air force does the damage. It works rather well, I must say.