Your favorite jewel of Real Time Strategy Game

[Xpwn3ntial]

I'm sorry. I know you said no Starcraft, but it's Starcraft. People say it's overrated, but can it really be overrated if it deserves its popularity?

A good second is Star Wars- Empire at War: Forces of Corruption. It has land battles, space battles, galactic conquest, and is pretty damned balanced for an RTS.

With mods? Dawn of War: Soulstorm. You heard me. That game has awesome mods.

 

[band43seat]

goblin commando is a decent one for the ps2,

 

[bootz]

Rise of nations omg I bought that game 4 times.
Borders and attritrition and AoE like gameplay

 

[floppylobster]

C&C: Covert Ops. You have to play C&C entirely and learn the strength of every unit to be able to pass the expansion. And even then you'll probably have to slow it down to the slowest speed for some micro management. Plus there's the secret dinosaur levels (which are sadly too easy).

Also, C&C Generals: Zero Hour was okay but a bit repetitious. And the downloadable Red Alert 3 expansion was great in the amount of hours of gameplay it provided and the variation. Each level taught you a new tactic. And defeating three Russian generals with your lone Japanese base on the hardest difficulty took some time and tactics.

 

[Kris015]

STARCRAFT!

No, seriously though, I'm going to have to say Sacrifice here, because it leaps immediately to mind, and was terribly underrated and under appreciated for its time.

This, except the last part, SC II was only bigger because now there are more gamers, not due underestimation for SC.

OT: Battle for Wesnoth? If you don't mind TBS

I'm gonna second Battle for Wesnoth. It's also available on iphone/ipod.

 

[Aeonknight]

I'd have to say 3-way tie. Company of Heroes, C&C generals, and C&C Tiberian Sun.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Legion Arena was a very good game but I think that's more real time tactics than real time strategy.

 

[Farther than stars]

Definitely Commandos 2 for RTS, since with a limited amount of units it actually requires a certain amount of strategy other than "build enough tanks to stomp over the opponent's base" since you have such a limited amount of recruits per mission. Also, because of that you could care about them more and there was more detail and a better level structure throughout the game. Definitely the most concise RTS ever to be created in my opinion.
But why is it always about RTSs anyway? I mean one of my favourite strategy games ever, Advance Wars, is basically one of those "build enough tanks to stomp over the opponent's base" but it's not an RTS and its asthetic was just so colourful. Sure, it was easy, but it was fun as well.

 

[Halceon]

AI War. I keep coming back to it and drawing ever more people in with each time.

 

[darca]

based on the hours put into its i'd have to say the europa universalis series...its kinda more turn-based rather than realtime but eh, its compolicated but fun.
age of mythology had some aspects i really enjoyed..others not so much..

 

[spartandude]

Either Age of Empires 2 or Dawn of War: Dark Crusade

 

[TheSchizoid]

I love the RTS. I just can't play them. A short time in my brain goes "Boring!" and I have to go away from it. However, I keep playing Lego Battles on my DS. It's tame as far as RTS games go but it's pretty fun. Until you complete the missions and just run around collecting every little item you can like in every other Lego game. Yeah, right now I have to say Lego Battles.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I'll have to say Sacrifice, although I'm still a huge fan of the blocky and simple graphics of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. I also had lots of fun with Red Alert 2, back in the day.

If I really had to choose? Yeah. Sacrifice, hands-down.

 

[Quantom Quak]

B. Lizards Stark Raft.

 

[Mcupobob]

I like Company of Heroes. WW2 setting aside it did an interesting shack up of the genre game play wise.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Red Alert 1&2. I have nothing against 3, I just haven't played it yet! RA1 and 2 are just brilliant though, I love them completely. I guess the actual battles in Total War games (specifically Medieval 2, I love that game so much), I've spent days of my life playing that game.

Oh, and a question: Is Dawn of War any good? I've been thinking about getting it from Steam, as a WH40K player and an RTS fan, it looks pretty good. I'm just worried that if it sucks I'll be really, really disappointed.

 

[BleedingPride]

Black and White, then Black and White 2 (because they're pretty seperate in terms of gameplay)

 

[Fiad]

Awhile ago I was really into Pharaoh, a ancient Egypt based RTS city builder type game. Combat wasn't its main focus but it did have it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh_%28video_game%29

 

[Yokai]

Yeah, the Supreme Commander series is pretty great. I hated it at first, but it grew on me, and now it's among my favorites.

Otherwise, Warcraft III was a better game than Starcraft in every possible way, and the best thing Blizzard has ever put out, and probably ever will. It holds up even today.

Rise of Nations, and to a lesser extent, Rise of Legends, were also brilliant. The first one because it did a pretty great job of simulating nearly the entire course of human history, with different units, buildings and technologies for each of the five or so stages, and the second because of its beautifully insane Da Vinci-themed steampunk versus Arabian Nights sorcery versus Aztec aliens setting. I really wish they'd done more in that universe, it was awesome.

Also, everything Relic has ever put out. Ever. Even Soulstorm. Oh wait, except Impossible Cratures. That was stupid.