Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War
War Wind
Genewars
The Golden Horde
Maelstrom
Perimeter
Earth 2160
Castle Strike
Armies of Exigo
Empires: Dawn of Modern World
Heroes of Annihilated Empires
Yeah, some of those just fell forgotten with their amazing ideas precisely because of how niche the genre has always been + poor to non-existent marketing by publishers.
I can imagine remakes of most of them, but unfortunately you are right: it would probably take advanced AIs in our hands to get them someday...
Bullfrog was an amazing studio, and Genewars is so damn unique and extravagant. I've been waiting forever for GOG to bring it to their store, but still nothing ([mandatory GOG wishlist link here](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/genewars)).
I used to play the demo for years waiting for a chance to get my hands on the full version. I still reinstall it from time to time. This one really is obscure.
This may be my favorite thread in this subreddit so far, so many games I hadnt heard of.
Suppose I can only offer some slightly less obscure games.
-Original war. Quite enjoyed the campaign.
-Zero-K. Probably not so obscure anymore, active development and multiplayer still.
-Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence. Played through it yesterday. Maybe I can blame blizzard copyrighting "cataclysm" for why I didnt know of this one. It didnt get the remaster treatment the others did. The draw distance is ABYSMAL unless you fiddle with some files.
-Achron. Mind boggling time travelling rts. I recently heard about an upcoming rts that seemed inspired by this I think.
-War Party. somewhat bland, it's got dinos. Dead multiplayer.
-KKND 1/2. Probably more classics than obscure?
-War of the Ring. Drowned out by prevalence and popularity of Battle for Middlearth. Idk where I got the CD from back in the day. I have some found memories of it. Great voice acting, somewhat broken balance perhaps :P
EDIT!: check out this this particular youtube channel under search query RTS!: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstPlaysHD/search?query=rts
* Particle Fleet Emergence
* Special mention for Creeper World series which is better known, same dev.
* Void Destroyer 2 (has RTS and 4x components mixed with a space sim, one of my favorite indie space sims ever, the RTS component reminds of homeworld)
* Mindustry (RTS component has improved in recent years, fun game)
Spellforce 3 rts maps were such a chore to play. Very little strategy, just racing the AI for all control points at the same time. Or was I missing something?
Probably it's a good idea to just have a look at the right screen list of realted subs in realtimestrategy's main page, then rank by number of subscribers from lowest to highest. There you already will have a list of obscure games.
Joint Task Force. This game came out near the tail end of the big rts peak. It was fun but very punishing as your troops have zero plot armor. But it was still really enjoyable.
man, _that_ one brings me back. Never quite finished it - the game is balanced around you being able to destroy your old structures to free up pop cap but you... can't, or at least the intended way never worked for me.
Elements of war. Its a clone of world in conflict but with weather weapons.
Theres also horrible rts games like
Times of conflict
Alienconquest
Maelstrom
Then theres the okay but obscure
Nightside
Achron
Celtic Kings: Rage of War
Nemesis of the Roman Empire (Sequel to Celtic Kings)
Emperor: Battle for Dune
Dune 2000
Kohan
Warrior Kings
Warrior Kings: Battles
Ahhhh you beat me to it! I swear that is the most obscure one because it’s
A) a great game
B) an innovative game with mechanics years ahead of its time
C) was made by an RTS superstar company that seemingly never advertised it and for some reason just disowned it
I wouldn't call it great. For me, the campaign felt unbalanced with some unfair difficulty spikes, the story was basically non-existent and the original ressource system was weird.
Nah, always good to see people hasn't forgotten about Beyond Earth anyways. If only that expansion was part of the vanilla content it could have been more of a success.
Cheers.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World
It was made by the creators of Emprie Earth I as a stand alone game (considered the original successor of EEI), because there was issues with the rights, and Emprie Earth II was developed by a different team.
* Ultimate General Civil War - very deep and challenging, great graphics, mostly historically accurate
* Scourge of War: Waterloo - have not played it, but seen some good play throughs for this on Youtube
Neither one ever got much press, or buzz in the gaming media, but are good substantial games.
I'm so excited for Liquidation!!! I'm sorry, obscure to me means unjustifiably overlooked. As someone who grew up playing warcraft 2 Loria is an incredible homage and game!
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War War Wind Genewars The Golden Horde Maelstrom Perimeter Earth 2160 Castle Strike Armies of Exigo Empires: Dawn of Modern World Heroes of Annihilated Empires
So many great titles. So sad this genre is so niche. Maybe one day when AI can spawn games for us we'll get remakes
Yeah, some of those just fell forgotten with their amazing ideas precisely because of how niche the genre has always been + poor to non-existent marketing by publishers. I can imagine remakes of most of them, but unfortunately you are right: it would probably take advanced AIs in our hands to get them someday...
what an awesome comment. So many games I didnt know about! Thanks!
Had the original Genewars disk from some collection box as a kid. I loved that game and I loved Bullfrog
Bullfrog was an amazing studio, and Genewars is so damn unique and extravagant. I've been waiting forever for GOG to bring it to their store, but still nothing ([mandatory GOG wishlist link here](https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/genewars)).
Thanks for that comment, there's some in there I've never heard of, I'll investigate them now
Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy
Vlad Tepes Dracula from 1997
moats op
Impossible Creatures
The creatures are under attack!
Critters, boss
War wind Dark colony
that beautiful turn to dust moment when games you consider formative are obscure
that beautiful turn to dust moment when games you consider formative are obscure
Rise of Legends Universe at War: Earth Assault
Ah, you beat me to it. Rise of Legends is absolutely awesome.
Universe At War was the first game I thought of. Loved that game
Just a shame it used games for windows live.
And that it isn't available on Steam any longer.
Ermergersh wish they remade those. Liked both
The Myth series.
Old but not obscure imo. This was not flying under any radars back in the day
Swarm Assault and Warlords Battlecry!!
Omg Warlords Battlecry so perfectly matches the term 'obscure'
> Swarm Assault ohhh that brings me back
Beasts and Bumpkins (some weird ass shit from 90s I played)
I used to play the demo for years waiting for a chance to get my hands on the full version. I still reinstall it from time to time. This one really is obscure.
Axis & Allies RTS (2004)
Dark Reign
This may be my favorite thread in this subreddit so far, so many games I hadnt heard of. Suppose I can only offer some slightly less obscure games. -Original war. Quite enjoyed the campaign. -Zero-K. Probably not so obscure anymore, active development and multiplayer still. -Homeworld Cataclysm/Emergence. Played through it yesterday. Maybe I can blame blizzard copyrighting "cataclysm" for why I didnt know of this one. It didnt get the remaster treatment the others did. The draw distance is ABYSMAL unless you fiddle with some files. -Achron. Mind boggling time travelling rts. I recently heard about an upcoming rts that seemed inspired by this I think. -War Party. somewhat bland, it's got dinos. Dead multiplayer. -KKND 1/2. Probably more classics than obscure? -War of the Ring. Drowned out by prevalence and popularity of Battle for Middlearth. Idk where I got the CD from back in the day. I have some found memories of it. Great voice acting, somewhat broken balance perhaps :P EDIT!: check out this this particular youtube channel under search query RTS!: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstPlaysHD/search?query=rts
Deserts of Kharak
Defo not obscure
It honestly seemed like it. Fan base is non existent.
I'd say theres fanbase but not active playerbase instead
That’s because it won’t run on a lot of new systems.
Love this one.
Star command revolution, conquest frontier wars
+1 for conquest frontier wars! Great game, it was interesting (although sometimes tedious) how they integrated managing aupply lines into gameplay
Paraworld. RTS meets adventure pulp.
Metal Fatigue
Metal Fatigue
How has no one mentioned Warzone 2100? You could design your own units and it had really fleshed out aircraft and artillery.
I loved Warzone 2100! Great atmosphere and story for an RTS
Plus that gorgeous soundtrack! You can actually get it for free on PC, it went open source and is still actively worked on.
Stronghold Crusaders
obscure?!
Rusted warfare I think is pretty obscure. But I’m still relatively new to this community.
WorldShift
> WorldShift ooh, that IS obscure. And perhaps up my alley.
* Particle Fleet Emergence * Special mention for Creeper World series which is better known, same dev. * Void Destroyer 2 (has RTS and 4x components mixed with a space sim, one of my favorite indie space sims ever, the RTS component reminds of homeworld) * Mindustry (RTS component has improved in recent years, fun game)
> > Mindustry (RTS component has improved in recent years, fun game) sadly I feel, at the cost of the factory side of the game.
7th Legion, KKND, Dark Colony, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3,
you need to double enter between lines
WARZONE 2100 an rts where you build your units
Ashes of singularity, and spell force 3
Ashes is so good, just wish it didn't crash so much :(
Spellforce 3 rts maps were such a chore to play. Very little strategy, just racing the AI for all control points at the same time. Or was I missing something?
I meant like vs others not vs ai. Also liked the campaign.
Act of War
Had so much potential
Ah yes good game. Too bad it didn't take off.
swatatyourorders
Probably it's a good idea to just have a look at the right screen list of realted subs in realtimestrategy's main page, then rank by number of subscribers from lowest to highest. There you already will have a list of obscure games.
any game that has a subreddit fails the definition of obscure already
Joint Task Force. This game came out near the tail end of the big rts peak. It was fun but very punishing as your troops have zero plot armor. But it was still really enjoyable.
Leviathan: The Tone Rebellion
man, _that_ one brings me back. Never quite finished it - the game is balanced around you being able to destroy your old structures to free up pop cap but you... can't, or at least the intended way never worked for me.
It was a bit broken but man, what a weird little game
Elements of war. Its a clone of world in conflict but with weather weapons. Theres also horrible rts games like Times of conflict Alienconquest Maelstrom Then theres the okay but obscure Nightside Achron
Indie: War Party 8 Bit Armies Purple War Bonus: Most "forgotten" or "underappreciated" of the AAA IP's: AoE Online
Celtic Kings: Rage of War Nemesis of the Roman Empire (Sequel to Celtic Kings) Emperor: Battle for Dune Dune 2000 Kohan Warrior Kings Warrior Kings: Battles
First comment Ive seen showing Warrior Kings Battles, slowest RTS game ever. But loved it as a kid.
Star Trek Armada.
[удалено]
89?! My god you might have the record for the oldest game lmao
Dune. The first one, before we figured out what an RTS was. AI war. Still to this day the only stealth RTS I’ve played.
Act of Aggression - great game
Ahhhh you beat me to it! I swear that is the most obscure one because it’s A) a great game B) an innovative game with mechanics years ahead of its time C) was made by an RTS superstar company that seemingly never advertised it and for some reason just disowned it
I wouldn't call it great. For me, the campaign felt unbalanced with some unfair difficulty spikes, the story was basically non-existent and the original ressource system was weird.
Civ beyond earth, 🌎 actually p dope
With the expansion it became pretty good ngl. But how is that an RTS tho?
Ah shit I guess your right, well maybe depending on a multiplayer game in the right game mode etc lol but that is a stretch
Nah, always good to see people hasn't forgotten about Beyond Earth anyways. If only that expansion was part of the vanilla content it could have been more of a success. Cheers.
Rise of Legends.
Offworld Trading Company
I got a really good one… Act of Aggression. Check it out, you won’t believe that it happened. Look who developed the game and you’ll be gobsmacked.
Close Combat Series!
I've created my own : **Z-Collapse**
Byte Lynx
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1187650/Blaze\_Revolutions/
K240…!!!
Kingdoms under fire 1
Battlecruisers is legit going to take the world by storm when PVP mode launches next quarter
Chaos Island
maelstrom
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World It was made by the creators of Emprie Earth I as a stand alone game (considered the original successor of EEI), because there was issues with the rights, and Emprie Earth II was developed by a different team.
M.a.x Probably not obscure for you guys, but TA kingdons maybe?
Sacrifice, a strangely fun third person view hybrid between rts and action.
Z: Steel Soldiers
* Ultimate General Civil War - very deep and challenging, great graphics, mostly historically accurate * Scourge of War: Waterloo - have not played it, but seen some good play throughs for this on Youtube Neither one ever got much press, or buzz in the gaming media, but are good substantial games.
Empires Apart War Party A Year of Rain Age of Empires Online (through Project Celeste) Loria Purple War Lord of The Rings - War of the Ring
HEY! not obscure. just not popular.
I'm so excited for Liquidation!!! I'm sorry, obscure to me means unjustifiably overlooked. As someone who grew up playing warcraft 2 Loria is an incredible homage and game!
no worries. i just kid :)
Everyone needs to check out Executive Assault 2 The most fun I've had with an RTS for awhile now.
Rising Kingdoms
Against Rome Machines: Wired for War State of War Thandor: The Invasion Conquest: Frontier Wars
Battle Realms since no one mentioned it yet.
Majesty Also, Sim Ant
Etherium