What is your Fav. RTS?

Rome Total War is a game which occupied so much of my life it's obscene..

The trouble with Medieval and Shogun is that, once you've played Rome, you physically can't go back and play them. They don't feel smooth or elegant, every battle has a tendancy to turn into a meat grinder, and you don't get that feeling of joy from watching a unit of superheavy cavalry smash something..

Homeworld was a really good idea.. but I hated the interface, and the fact that winning basically revolved around bringing more firepower to bear than the enemy. I'd like to see a space combat game with more resemblance to old style naval combat (i.e. the ability to cripple systems quickly, and a high emphasis on maneuvering rather than static firing.)

However, for the number 1 spot, I'm going to pick X-Com 3: Apocalypse (squad level RTS!) as, whatever purists tell you, it was the best X-Com style game ever made, and considering my love for squad level strategy, this is naturally going to make it one of my favourite games ever made. Why the hell someone can't make a Windows XP patch so I can play it, I'll never know..

The recently released UFO: Aftershock borrows some nice elements from it, but just doesn't have the same charm.

lLonginus said:

The_Giant_Mantis, since you're into squad-based games, I strongly recommend Star Wars: Republic Commando. Follows the standard FPS routine, but you have three squadmates that you can assign tasks and tactics.

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Yes, I have seen it, and thought about playing it. The trouble is, I have bad memories or repeatedly ****ing up at Hidden and Dangerous (I was only about 15!) Somehow I just couldn't get the fact that the strategy elements needed to be combined with the FPS action elements, got very confused, and screwed up badly.

X-Com was an isometric strategy game. The first two were turn based, but they mercifully scrapped that idea in the 3rd. Apocalypse was just plain, addictive fun rather than a massive slog which took half an hour to resolve each engagement.. and the tech level curve was also much better than the originals.

Along similar lines.. anyone remember the Commandos/Desperados type games.. Those can almost be considered a subgenre in themselves. I enjoyed them too, though not nearly as much as X-com.

Conventional resource gathering you say, probably C&C generals, because I got quite good at it (unlike any other 'generic' RTS game.)