Looking for recommendations of some obscure little RTS games. Steam's store UI is terrible for finding them.
Games in the image are 8-bit Armies, Rusted Warfare, Creeper World 3 and SWINE HD, all of which are examples of the kind of weird little games I want. Jank is fine.
Grey goo? The engine is janky and unpolished, but there's an attempt there, and each faction's uniqueness is quite original.
That looks good, thanks user
Kohan: Ahriman's Gift
creeper world is absolutely autistic, I love it
have you tried the CW4 demo?
I saw that the demo was available but my autism overcame me and I've done a full series run before I play it. Currently half way through CW3, and then I will try 4.
Not very obscure, but DEFCON if you haven't already played it.
This is exactly the kind of thing I am looking for, thanks user.
This game legit used to have MP threads on Zig Forums every day when it released and yet I never played it. Gonna pick it up now.
I don't know if its obscure, i never heard anyone EVER mention this game called Real War from 2002 or so
That's definitely obscure, thanks user
Impossible Creatures
Heroes of annihilated Empires.
Runs on the same enginge as Cossacks BtW/EC/AoW, so tends to struggle with huge unit counts and probably leaks memory.
They launched this running at 1080p and fixed for windows 10 on steam with zero fanfare, huh?
Thanks user, picked that up
I had the demo for one called Outlive when I was little, it's abandonware now you can download free no problem.
Another game, called Hostile Waters, that had elements of RTS iirc. Again I only had the demo, I think you controlled a drone that collects scrap military vehicles, then you turn them into actual functioning drones that you can use in battle or something. It's on steam.
Definitely getting hostile waters, ty
'Clonk 2 Debakel'
Not really RTS, more "grand strategy meets, ehh, 2d city builder meets combat", NOT on Steam, but is freeware + code.
'Rising Kingdoms'
Neat WC III wannaBe, features onMap non-player-faction Cities, similar to native villages in Age of Empires III.
Comes with powerful Editor tools.
'Ancient Wars: Sparta'
Bronze-era "historical" RTS, featuring "villager -> weapon-> training"-progression similar to Battle Realms.
Seems to run on the pretty stable "Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War" Enginge
I played the shit out of this as a kid, better than AoE, dont (you) me. Also Total Anihilation, but thats not so obscure
More condensed and balanced Empire Earth, so yeah, better than AoE I
Amazons and Aliens
Also called Alien Nations. It was my first RTS.
Warzone 2100, you design your own units.
Turns out steam has a cap on how many transactions you can do per hour, I am now compiling all of these into one big purchase
Honestly both halo wars games if you havent played them. 1 is on steam, 2 is on gamepass. 1 is made by the AOE guys. 2 is made by creative assembly
'Celtic Kings',
both titles, although Punic Wars is more or less superior.
Features mostly map control, towns = supply, units need supply or die.
Low-key techtree/hero system.
'Against Rome'
Condensed base-building, focuses on small troop sizes, asymmetrical factions
Not on steam, but more or less abandonware, should be easy to find.
Oh 1 is also on gamepass.
For me? It's Command & Conquer
Cultures games.
that's not really all that obscure though
This game is called "America: No Peace Beyond the Line". This picture of the back of the box has the best screenshots I could find. I remember playing it when it came out. Not sure if it was just a demo or if my family owned the full game. It seems like the game was probably only distributed here in Germany and Russia, and the Russian one was a bootleg according to this website:
ogdb.eu
Seems like there's no official English translation out there.
Damn that looks comfy tho
Wasn't this called "No man's Land" in germany?
That's a shame, that looks great.
Metal Fatigue
Based game where the main units are mechs you pick the parts for.
According to the link I provided, it was only ever called "America: No Peace Beyond the Line" here.
Hmm, mabye I missremember.
I played the demo of that
I think a Youtuber plugged that recently. I read about it PC Gamer but never played it.
You are thinking of this game, which was by the same company
No, you were almost right. I just found this:
ogdb.eu
It's the sequel that was supposed to be called "America 2", but because of some legal stuff they renamed it "No Man's Land". I never knew that this existed. There's also an American release this time around with English translation.
Have to get it from GOG but I recommend Sid meiers Alpha Centauri
Dark Colony
Try out Syrian Warfare unironically a great, complex and underrated game with a bit of jank.
I vaguely remember this. The aliens were sweet