Rediscovering Lost Legends: 22 Forgotten Real-Time Strategy Games 

Don't miss part 2 of this clip "22 more Forgotten Real-Time Strategy Games" - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VIs58LRgrHs.html

Love battle realms and played the hell out of it when I was a kid. The game has a lot of unique game mechanics that aren't even seen on rts games, like peasants trained to be fighters, units having stamina meter, units having both melee and ranged attacks, battle gears, catching mounts first before you can ride them, needing to douse water first on a burning structure before you can fix them, etc. it was certainly ahead of it's time.

Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Simulator. This game totally changed my life. I was a child when it came out and it blew my mind. Its gameplay that made me feel my units truly alive, its humor, its graphic and sounds... everything was perfect for me at that time and I still love and play it today. It's the game that made me love fantasy in all its shades and RTS games aswell.

These games was when gaming was prospered by gamers, back when the Golden Age of Gaming was at it's prime.

OMG the games are so nostalgic. LotR battle for middle earth, Battle Realms, Red Alert, and others. Remembering the old big monitor used to be the most advance in those days.

In Age of Mythology there aren't 9 civilizations, there are 3, or 4 with the "Titans" expansion (Greeks, Egyptians, Vikings + Atlantis in the expansion). For each faction/player there is a choice of a main deity out of 3 (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades for Greeks - Isis, Ra, Seth for Egyptians - Thor, Odin, Loki for Vikings - Gaia, Uranus, Chronos for Atlateans), that give some different buffs, a couple of unique units, a unique power, but nothing massive. And in terms of specific playstyles and tactics every choice even for minor deities for every age progression matters. But the main differences are on the "culture" choice

Metal Fatigue was an enjoyable gem. It's a mecha rts, where you start on land, but may expand underground and to the sky for resources. You are one of three factions with graphically distinct designs, and your mechas are built in parts. When mechas battle, they often drop those parts, which can be picked up by workers and rebuilt into a frankenstein of cross faction robots.

I am still playing Rise of Nations from time to time. One of the best. And still exiting.

Warlords Battlecry is the biggest late discovery for me - I love this game and I would pay a lot to see remaster or IV. Awesome blend of RPG and RTS. LOVE IT! (and I played most of games listed here)

Armies of Exigo was.. pure fucking gem. I remember me and my friends playing the hell out of it on daily basis

Age of mythology is still in my heart. I started to paly it when I was 11, played it on every LAN party, played it solo, I LOVED IT. First, it looked much better in graphics than AoE, second, I love mythology so it gave me so much knowledge. It's a shame that this game was so underrated in its own brothers shadow - the Age of Empires...

Nice to shine a light on these forgotten Gems. You could easily do another two videos. I remembered at least 10 RTS Games in my mind right now that are missing here.

I recall a few other great rts games: Populous: The Beginning Z game 7 kingdom

Warlords battlecry 3 is such an unique game, not only through its unmatched number of playable races (though there is some unit overlap and balance is shaky at times) but also bor being maybe the one true RTS/RPG hybrid out there, with units gaining experience and becoming stronger (and you being able to carry some of those stronger troops between missions provided they dont get killed, allowing you to carry with you a few units from races other than the one you play) and of course the hero also gaining levels from mission to mission with a point allocation system that's really meaningful and classes that really matter. Your hero could end up as a good old warrior, strong and durable, a frail oneshotting machine (based on RNG) that creates gold every time it kills something in a single hit, a mage with very potent spells for both offense, support, or other purposes such as summonning, dispensing random buffs/debuffs or even creating items and trading one ressource for another, or a weak economic powerhouse that is pretty worthless in a fight but bolsters your economy just by existing on the map, and everything in-between including classes that are hybrids of those archetypes. It's really a great game and one of my RTS classics to this day.

Thank you for reminding me about Battle Realms - it has unique way of recruiting soldiers as well as upgrading them to higher tiered ones. Even till now No RTS has it and its such a shame.

YES, PARAWORLD. This is still my favorite RTS of all time, I albolutely loved it and basically played the entire campaign in one go. At the end, they even have a massive "to be continued" cliffhanger so I was very exited to get more of it, but that never happened... Such a great game, I highly encourage everyone to give it a go.

Ohh Submarine titans, love it

hi. I know that a lot of time has passed today but how pleasant it is to remember everything from that time. I remember so much a game that is very similar to Dune, it is or rather to almost all the video games that you have uploaded in these videos. only this one was about aliens fighting soldiers. In order to generate soldiers, bases, machines, one had to go look for energy sources which were prostrate on the ground, the aliens had to do the same. Likewise, one had to get to know the terrain so that it became clearer because it was all dark. As you passed levels, you unlocked machines and tanks. As for the aliens, it was the same, even they had yellow shirts and were white with big eyes. The soldiers were dressed in black special suits. In the soldiers' team, a captain was differentiated, I think a cursor differentiated him. The game had cinematics that were saved in the PC folder, I even remember one of those videos because of how a deceased alien was. I played this game in 2003/2004. It was a very good game, at that time I was a little kid. If you have any idea how to find it or what it's called, I would be totally grateful, you made me remember all those games, very good video. By the way, this text is translated

Beautiful games... I have played 15 of them and they are some of the best games of the strategy genre. Good to know that there are people with good taste.

Battle realms and Age of Mythology was enough for me back then, I spent countless nights playing with my brother for so many battles.

This is peak quality content. I went to hit the subscribe button and it turns out I was already subscribed.

THX Man this a real good ideas for forgotten RTS!!!

Praetorians should be included. It's an underated game back in the days

Gosh, it's been a few years since we hear that RTS are coming back but all the games are always pushed back to the following year... At this point, I don't even hope for 2024 ! So many of these games deserve to be remade, we need a new golden age of RTS !

Star wars empire at war was never forgotten tho

Man, you brought back Kohan 2 and Battle Realms into my mind

Age of Mythology was the best for sure, very deep game lore wise. Lord of the rings both parts also were amazing

Submarine Titans was the first game I actually owned. Great memories.

I'm still playing some of these, these games give a feeling that modern titles often miss.

i used to love playing praetorians. the music of the menu was dope

Bruh the Lord of the Rings the Battle of Middle Earth HUNGERS for a remaster.

Submarine titans , imo a very hidden gem , thanks for featuring!

I remember playing Submarine Titans when I was a kid. Great game, will probably play it again one day. :)

Хорошая подборка,сохраню чтоб не забыть)

Tzar Burden of a Crown is a great AoE inspired RTS. Cool campaign!

Almost all of my favourite games ❤ . Thank you.

How amazing would an Age of Mythology 2 be. Great vid

I did not expect to see Armies of Exigo as most people do not know about it. Glad to see it here. It was an undeniable Warcraft clone but it had fine graphics and a nice story. I still remember some quotes of units from that game.

Ground Control 2. Also, Rise Of Legends - although it's a direct sequel to Rise Of Nations it is still so unique and very, very genuine.

Battlezone II was an amazing game. We need more games like those.

Here's my dream game - a soft reboot of the entire Command & Conquer series into a single game featuting all factions with 3 Generals each: USA (Airforce, Laser, EMP) Europe (Chrono, Cryo, Sonic) Russia (Radiation, Tesla, Magnetism) China (Napalm, Miniguns, Tanks) Japan (Psionic, Mech, Naval) GLA (Toxin, Demolition, Stealth) Scrin (IonStorm, Phase, Spacecraft) NOD (Prism, Tiberium, Plasma) Yuri (Mind Control, Genetics, Robotics)

Rising Kingdoms stands out for me in my memories regarding old RTS games. I was enamoured of its visual style at first sight. So outlandish... Good memories

This is an absolute gem!

9:52 AoX (Armies of Exigo) has orcs as a neutral, non playable faction, appears in their alterego faction, the Beasts' campaign as enemies, and in the first cinematic only. Though this game is a hidden diamond, I still play it nowadays.❤

Rise of Legends, sequel of Rise of Nations, is a forgotten masterpiece. One of the best RTS I've ever played

Man, you forgot to mention Metal Fatigue. That game was so exciting.

It's crazy how submarines titans and galactic battlegrounds 2 look alike x)

Orignial War Trust me ....its my beloved game from childhood

i remember impossible creatures which was a very interesting concept for rts and had whacky story. i used play that game a lot in my younger days

what an amazing list. wow. have to play a lot of these. armies of exigo sounds fascinating and age of mythology.

Honorary mentions should go to: -Universe at War: Earth Assault -Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far -Extreme Tactics -Dark Reign

Netstorm - quite an unusual RTS, where most of your attacking units are fixed towers. It has a unique setting, progression and gameplay. Sacrifice - not sure if you could call this an RTS, because you play from the 3rd person view centered on your main character. And even though your main character can cast spells, they are really just support for your main army. Creating a well balanced army with the limited resources you have is key.

Some of these are my childhood and they were absolutely amazing. Cossacks was just on another level, and the LotR was so epic! I overbuilt every map in Age of Mythology, Ancient Wars: Sparta was quite unique and challenging and I never understood Tzar hahaha.

Awesome list! It is nice that I know every game from it and played in most of them :) 13:48 it is funny that we use stone and wood to build nuclear bombers and futuristic mechs ;P But game was very fun and epic nothenless.

I can't believe you forgot about one of the most iconic RTS games. Total Annihilation. You know, that game still has a very small community.

My favourite RTS Game when I started playing on PC was Defcon 1 War Games PC edition, 2 factions (NORAD (Humans) vs WOPR(AI/Machines)). It had 30 missions (15 on each faction), and you were always in disadvantage on each mission by 1 or 2 unlockable units. It was a challenging game. Rise of Nations was very good, they should remake this one. Other RTS that is not mentioned is Real War(Air, Land, Sea). Very good for a modern tech war game.

Warlord battle cry 3 - omg! This game was soooo good

Some of those are hardly forgotten (AoM, LotR, star wars EaW) but love to see a mention of Warlords battlecry, Paraworld and Dragon-shard (not dragons-hard !). I remember all those games at least by name, except the submarine one, never heard of that ever.

man Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2 was so awesome , Battle Realms and Empire Earth was nice too

4:55 I’ve searched everywhere for the game but I couldn’t find it anywhere, it really was fun to play.

4:52 split screen eh. Really cool I remember you could do split screen or multi monitors with Supreme Commander. I appreciate any effort to help players manage screen changes.

🤔 - Kingdom under Fire: The Crusaders & Heroes (but also what came before that) - Kessen 2 - Earth 2140 (and the sequels)

❤ I still play worlords battlecry, rise of nations (and rise of nations rise of legends), Battle for Middle Earth, and Age of Mithology ❤ great video

The last game shown in the outro is Tzar: The Burden of the Crown It's playable in a browser (except campaing) vs AI or other players. Browser version is known as Tzared.

I'd argue that some of those RTS games are forgotten. Age of Mythology not only is very fondly remembered but it's getting a remaster.

Very good. I have a few of those. I really need to learn DOSbox.

I was so happy to see Tzar on your list, this game was very important from my childhood till now....but i was sad cause u said no word to this game :(

grew up on some of these like Praetorians, Cossacks Back to War, Settlers 5: Heritage of Kings, Age of Mythology later in life i tried Rise of Nations, American Conquest, and bought Tzar

The game that got me into RTS games was a demo that I found on a computer that was donated to me back in 2003 after I moved to the USA. The game was called Tsar the Burden of the Crown, and oh boy did I play the hell out of that demo, staying up playing up to 6 or 7 am. Unfortunately that is computer crashed and I forgot the name of the game because I could barely read English back then but about 5 years ago I recognized the game on GOG and without hesitation bought it right away, I still play it to this day.

Talking about interesting forgotten strategies, you should mentioned: 1) Majesty: the fantasy kingdom sym. Unique strategy with undirect control. Each mission is a puzzle. The sequel is not so good because of poor AI. 2) Metal Fatigue. Had real-time battle robots constructor. 3 layers of action: ground, air, and undeground, where robots can not be used, only regular technique. Very innovative game. 3) Universe at war, Earth assault. Classic rts with very assimetric gameplay: there was race with a mobile battle base or race with 2 modes, which allows you to transform all your units at once. And all races get resources by deconstruct buildings.

Thanks....Aarklash was a nice discovery

'Dominion: Storm Over Gift III' was a wild & weird R.T.S. of Sorts!

Hahaha, jokes on you! I never forgot about Warlords Battlecry 3 :) Damn, i loved this game as a kid.

Thanks for this video. I've played a game in an internet cafee like 20 years ago but I've never remembered its title. I've tried to find it several times but without luck. I think that game was Battle Realms (it looks and sounds familiar despite of the fact that it was long ago and I played it just once... weird).

Castle Strike has been too very interesting strategy game and then Celtic Kings has been quite good too, remember spending days on these games in the past. :D

Empire Earth was so much fun. My friends and I played it for years on lan parties

I still remember when Para World came out and all critics said, this was the future of RTS! It was great and the army control box on the left was great. I wish it would have made it into the rest of the RTS world. This is a feature i really miss!

I really loved the Imperivm series (Celtic Kings, etc)

Thanks for not allowing them to be forgotten...

Nice list

Шикарный список! Последняя игра - TZAR, в русской локализации звучала как "огнем и мечом", не знаю почему о ней ни слова, но отличная вещь! Автору респект!

Star Wars Empire at War, cheap, but the modding community which has been going basically from launch, have really kept the game alive. I often go back to it, to AOTR or Remake, Clone wars, FOTR. Tons of genuinely great mods foe the game

I remember them all and still play a few of them

god i loved warrior kings and warlords battlecry, its a pity we dont have any modern analogues for them :(

Battle Realms and Praetorians were my favorite RTS games. Followed by CnC Yuri's Revenge and Generals: Zero hour. Just plain simple and easy to understand RTS games.

I don't want to repeat games you already mentioned, but I would like to IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES, it was Microsoft RTS game where you go around collecting animals on the map, extracting their DNA and then making HYBRID animals which served as your units. For game which released in like 2002-3 this was such novelty, we never had RTS game where you could basically make your own custom units as you like. Really wish this game gets more love and descent remake or remaster.

I chuckled at the Empire Earth's competent AI comment. That AI wasn't competent. It just cheated. Literally! Still one of my favorite RTS games of all time though and I would love to see a remastered version.

"Battle for middle earth" is the name of the game...

I wish you had metal fatigue in there. One of the absolute peak of the games that had insane potential but lacked polish. A high quality remake of the game could become one of the literal best RTS games of all time.

Cossacks are TOP, same place with Stronghold crusader. For me it's definition of RTS games.

Yoooo warrior kings Battles. I remember starting a modding community some years ago but had to leave due to personal stuff. Good times though. Sin is a legend

It's a pity that Total Annhilation didn't make it onto this list.

So happy to Warlord Battlecry 3 on the list

I would like to add The History Channel: Alamo - Fight for Independence. The game take place during the Mexican-American War. The game is quite short and only have campaign mode. You gather resource by sending engineers to the mine or buildings then carry the resource back into the HQ. There are walls that can be destroyed by cannon and be rebuild overnight by soldiers. Engineer can main the cannon. Gate can be grenaded by enemy troop although the playable troop can't use grenade. Gate can also be destroyed by cannon but the player must force fire it. All rifles and pistols are muskets, thus the fire rate is slow. The game have day and night cycle where the enemy come attack during the day and everyone go back to the flag to rest during the night. The game objective are either dominate the flag, siege, defense against siege or kill the final boss. The game is now abandon ware and can be downloaded for free.

Star Wars empire at war has one hell of a modding community. The game if released today with those mods would cost a fortune.

these kinds of videos need the chapter feature

command and conquer, the best military strategic game ever. even after 20 years, its sti gooooooooooood.

There was a strategy game I played when I was a kid, and cannot find anywhere because I do not remember much. It was like sci-fi with wierd alien races or at least one, that had blue and pink or purple colors with buzzsaw like scaleappendages or something like that, and I do not even remember other races or what did they do. Remember some brighter colors and alien planets....

I remembered about an old RTS game back in 2001 called Strifeshadow by Ethermoon Entertainment.

Played 7 from this. I love BoME campaign. I got competitive in American conquest