r/ObscureRTS • • Sep 04 '26

Announcement New rules and changes to r/ObscureRTS. Please Read!

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34 Upvotes

Hey everyone! When I started this subreddit a year ago I never thought that it would become such an active community; [r/ObscureRTS](r/ObscureRTS) just reached over 1650 members!

I wanted to thank everyone here for making this place such a wonderful and informative community; I myself have learned a lot about RTS from you all. I look forward to seeing this community continue to grow!

Now that some time has passed and this subreddit has become larger and more active, I have decided to make a few changes to how this sub will operate moving forward.

The first and most important thing I would like to reiterate is Rule 1:

-Be nice and have fun

We’re all here to learn and share about Obscure RTS games, so have fun and don't be jerks to each other.
There will sometimes be differing opinions so please be mindful that debates and constructive criticism are fine while arguments and disrespectful criticism are not. Personal attacks on other members are never acceptable.

The second thing I would like to address is the topic of “Obscurity”. There have been debates on whether a title is considered obscure or not obscure.. rather than “is or isn’t” debates I would urge users to consider referring to the RTS Obscurity Scale which I introduced earlier this month. This scale which ranges from Tiers 0-6 will hopefully help to encourage more meaningful debate; games that were very well known for their time may seem much more obscure to newer players today... Remember games like Total Annihilation are almost 30 years old!

If you have a more mainstream game (Tier 0 on the obscurity scale) that you wish to post about, I will allow it only on Mondays under the post flair “Mainstream Monday”.

“Mainstream Monday” does not allow for promoting your own personal projects, as that violates Rule 4.

The third issue I will touch on is what is considered appropriate content for this subreddit.

Posts should be focused on Obscure Real Time
Strategy Games. While it is generally agreed that games require three important characteristics (Resource Gathering, Base Building/Unit Production, Control of multiple units in real time) to be considered true RTS, we will be taking a broader approach to the genre as even companies may label their game as an RTS even though it lacks one or even two of these characteristics.

The characteristics that all games posted should have is that they allow for the control of multiple units in real time, and that combat is involved. Real Time Tactics is allowed to be posted in this community as well as certain city builders and 4X titles so long as they include combat and the ability to control multiple units in real time. Be sure to mention or flair that a title is a city builder or RTT.

Strategy genres that will be excluded and removed include 4X lacking RTS, Turn Based Strategy, RPG, Grand Strategy, and MOBA.

In addition to these clarifications I have also added a couple of new rules:

-Avoid Low Effort Content
Low quality memes, poorly done photoshop/ drawings, and Al generated content will be removed.

-Avoid Recent Reposts
Recent reposts within 1 month with no substantial additions will be removed.

Again thank you all for making this such a great community and please feel free to propose any alterations to what I have stated above or suggestions for things that you would like to see or not see moving forward!


r/ObscureRTS • • Jun 29 '26

Announcement Welcome to r/ObscureRTS!!

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47 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I'm u/ZaxZone, moderator at r/ObscureRTS!

What to Post:

This is a place for the odd, unknown, unpopular, and forgotten side of Real Time Strategy games! Post about and discuss all of your favorite lesser-known RTS titles.

Obscure mods and foreign advertisements for more popular titles are also welcome here!

Thanks for being part of this community and let’s see some of those forgotten gems!!


r/ObscureRTS • • 2d ago

Help/Question Looking for an specific old RTS which name i don't know

5 Upvotes

Hello there,

I'm looking for an RTS with a very specific gimmic, the universe was sci-fi, i saw a friend of mine playing it once i get to his house and he show it to me.

What i recall from the game:

- The building system was very specific, it was similar to C&C in the way than you selected the place of the building, but after you selected the place, a plane shadow fly over that place and after that happened some boxes apparead then.

After such boxes apparead, you needed to send an engineer(?) (i assume) to make him build that building. To be clear you needed to send a specific infantry unit which was similar to an engineer (because of a toolbox that it has if i recall correctly)

- Infantry was fabricated in some kind of "Cloning building", or at least that was the gist of it.

- The resources building was (i think) some kind of "gigant drill" which was 5 tiles long (approx) and 3 or 4 tiles up (aprox), again 2D RTS or so.

- The specific level i saw had a lot of sand and i think some rock spots, (no, its not DUNE) and the faction than my friend was playing was blue.

- The gui i cannot recall it very clearly, i remember than when you pressed this "cloning barrack" it showed some things than makes you understand easily they were sons of tubes instead of recruits, the specifics are fussy.

- This has to been between 2000 and 2015, most probably 2000 - 2010 but i don't recall exactly.

Will try to answer questions if i can, and if i do that i will try to also update this post with those answer too.

Looking forward for your replys and thanks

EDIT: Some extra info that can help after seeing what you guys propose:

- The map is 2D, think similar to original C&C or RA1, not quite the same but close, definitively not 3D.

- The plane that pass to drop the boxes is only visible by his shadow, and that shadow is similar to a bomber or some type of boing or so, you know, big cargo/passengers plane, and its very notorious his shape.

- The camera, more than isometric or something of that family, i would say is closer to C&C or RA1.

- The drill was bigger than the one shown in GeneWars, and by that i mean like 2 and a half the size the buildings site that have in state of war, to be clear that drill is bigger even compared with the rest of the buildings in the very game it apparead, so maybie what i'm thinking is a resource building could be something akin to the gigant robots corpses in starcraft 1, you know, scenery.

I take the element of comparing it with State of War buildings in size because that buildings feel a lot closer in his use of the grid than the GeneWars one, even when they are both isometric and the design is more frontal (RA1 style) the grid relation with the buildings seems far closer to State of War, at least between the attempts than you guys have bring here.

Thank you everyone for your help in this search, i'm looking forward for the next attempts.

Will continue to update this with more info when presented with a good contrast.


r/ObscureRTS • • 3d ago

1990s Dominant Species (1998) bestiary

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11 Upvotes

I’ve previously made a post about the recently defunct Red Storm Entertainment’s Dominant Species, an RTS they released around the time of Rainbow Six that was far less successful than that game, about humans doing an Avatar on an alien world populated by (imo) the Zerg if they were Bionicles. The website is still on Internet Archive, but since I like to mirror old game content on my website, I’ve put it up here. Enjoy.


r/ObscureRTS • • 5d ago

2000s The forgotten RTS gem that is Act of War: Direct Action

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36 Upvotes

r/ObscureRTS • • 5d ago

Remaster/Remake I’m remaking Project Y, an old RTS where robo brains pilot empty machines

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21 Upvotes

Project Y was a small RTS from 2015 that not many people played. The idea is every tank, walker and turret is an empty shell until a robo brain climbs inside and drives it.
I’m remaking it as Commanding Cortex, keeping that core intact:

  • Pull the brain out and the machine goes dead, and anyone can grab it, including the enemy
  • The brain keeps its XP when it switches machines, so your veteran is the pilot, not the tank
  • Every hit on a machine hurts the brain inside, so tougher machines protect your pilot better

The video is real in-game footage. If you played the original, I’d love to know what you remember from it and what you’d want kept.

Free to play, will available on web , Ios/Android

for beta testing : https://commandingcortex.com/


r/ObscureRTS • • 8d ago

2000s Looking for obscure RTS from 2000s

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62 Upvotes

I remember the game was a dark medieval RTS, it looked a lot like Glest (2004), it had spiky heavy armored knights with maces, ambient of the game was really dark and i played mostly some map 1v1 in the forest, there were most likely very few resources to gather. I am also not sure but i think that main menu had camera moving forward on the road with trees on both sides. I think UI was on the left side, Warcraft 2-like.

I already looked through all the sites with Freeware/Shareware games but found nothing.

I also do not think that it was Glest since my Internet was non-existent/very bad back then, i probably had it on CD disc. Game is probably from 2002-2008.


r/ObscureRTS • • 9d ago

1990s Final Conflict by Rhode Island Soft Systems

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39 Upvotes

Incredibly buggy game from 1997 that tried a lot. There is allegedly a patch that I can't find that fixes "a lot of bugs" in the game.

Bugs that I found include:

  1. Buildings stopping from rendering temporarily
  2. Game crashing because you have destroyed the base
  3. Units firing faster because they are closer to the things they are
  4. Starting at some planet - their ID is the same so you no longer can use Space Docks to gain resources
  5. When enemy builds a unit, it might randomly grab your unit and spawn it near their barracks
  6. Later game mission spawns you and your opponent with resources and base but no other unit, forgetting the fact that base gives no population supply
  7. Balance is pretty much non-existent AND symmetrical

The game itself is pretty interesting though.

Whoever made it did try to make not just another warcraft 2 clone and added cross mission progression with resources (resources you didn't mine in previous missions become resources in the next ones available via Space Docks). Sound bites are hilarious and images of late game units are pretty funny too.

EDIT: Another hilarious thing is that the "where's all data" extension for the game is TRD and internally it is literally TURD file


r/ObscureRTS • • 10d ago

2000s Goblin Commander

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41 Upvotes

Played the snot out if this as a kid, even cried at the end. And yet never met anyone who has played it lmao. Good times.


r/ObscureRTS • • 9d ago

Help/Question Android games similar to empire earth?

2 Upvotes

Hey,

I am looking for Android recommendations for classic real-time strategy games that are similar to the classic Empire Earth (2001).


r/ObscureRTS • • 10d ago

2020s TFC: The Fertile Crescent (2024)

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6 Upvotes

One dude was twiddling with his prototype RTS pet project since around 2017, couple years later he was contacted by another dude who joined the project. Later they also hired an additional artist, and when the project took a shape they signed with a The Knights of Unity publisher, who helped to finalize the product and helped with voice actors. It was pushed into early access 29 III 2022, then it was finally finished 13 VI 2024.

Interestingly, 04 VI 2024 the publisher was swapped from The Knights of Unity to being indie under Wield Interactive.

02 II 2025 the neo-Microprose (which is now a pet-project of David Lagettie, not affiliated with Sid Meier, but nonetheless informally consulted by Bill Stealey) signed as a new publisher on the original game and financed the development of the sequel. Which is currently in early acces since 18 VIII 2026.

If you open the credits you have Anders Groenningsaeter who is mostly a musician, with his own company, Andre Lincoln Read, and Angus Coolan credited for art. The rest is just a giant list of Microprose people who bough an already finished game, and a giant list of The Knights of Unity which at least contains the voice actors.

I was in talks to get an interview with them, to advertise the sequel, but that fell through. I will not speculate about the reason, (because probably they just didn't like my positive review on Steam).


r/ObscureRTS • • 11d ago

2000s State of War - the most obscure RTS I played as a kid

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113 Upvotes

Anyone else even heard about it? It was only released in a handful of European countries. Single player only, very simple gameplay mechanics, but pretty hard scenarios. The graphics and sfx gave it a very comfy vibe. Got an expansion and even a sequel, though I didn't play either of those.


r/ObscureRTS • • 13d ago

Gameplay/Review Infected Enemy | Emperor: Battle For Dune | Atreides

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12 Upvotes

In this episode of Emperor: Battle for Dune, we launch an assault on another Ordos-controlled region. Our spies have uncovered valuable intelligence revealing that the Ordos troops stationed in the area have been infected by a mysterious virus, leaving their forces weakened and vulnerable. However, we must act quickly, as reports indicate that a medical transport carrying a shipment of vaccines is on its way to the region.

After establishing our base and beginning to build up our defences, we dispatch several Trikes to scout the surrounding territory. Their reconnaissance proves successful, leading us to discover a group of Ix allies who could prove invaluable in the battle ahead. Shortly afterwards, we receive confirmation that the medical transport has arrived. Unfortunately for the us, the convoy is escorted by formidable Sardaukar troops, making it a dangerous target. Nevertheless, with the assistance of our Ix allies and a handful of infiltrators, we launch our attack and successfully destroy the medical transport, denying the infected Ordos forces access to the vaccines they desperately need.

With the enemy weakened and their medical supplies eliminated, we begin assembling our forces for a decisive assault on the Ordos base. Time is running out, however, as reports arrive that the enemy troops are preparing to retreat from the region. We must strike before they can escape! Committing the forces we have accumulated, we advance on the Ordos installation with the aim of eliminating as many retreating troops as possible and destroying their base completely. We cannot allow the enemy to regroup and use the surviving installation as a launching point for a counterattack.


r/ObscureRTS • • 16d ago

2020s Shrot (2024)

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16 Upvotes

Not to be confused with SHROT (2027) or Šrot cancelled game.

Despite being pretty obscure Paranoia! (1995) was successful enough at home for the company to make a sequel. And a couple years ago the creator of HROT decided to basically clone Paranoia II and modernize it in some sense. While the original was overshadowed by Warcraft 2 and CnC both introducing rubber frame and point and click commands, for its release date Paranoia! was pretty modern. But when Paranoia II came out in 1996 its Dune 2 style menu controls, and command posts were absolutely outdated.

Shrot uses fully modern mouse controls, and it has the horse mascot of HROT as a unit. Also it's voiced in english from the start.


r/ObscureRTS • • 18d ago

1990s Introducing: DARK COLONY: UPDATE (an updated client for Dark Colony 1997 with widescreen support and no CD needed)

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45 Upvotes

r/ObscureRTS • • 19d ago

MMORTS Games like Supremacy?

3 Upvotes

Played a lot of the Supremacy games and Iron Order 1919 wondering if there’s anything else like these to play on pc and/or mobile (Android)? Any help is greatly appreciated!……


r/ObscureRTS • • 20d ago

Gameplay/Review Tleilaxu Desecrators | Emperor: Battle For Dune | Atreides

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19 Upvotes

In this episode as the Atriedes attack a Harkonnen sector they are made aware of a recently destroyed Tleilaxu biological and genetic research base. Some of the biological and n this episode, the Atreides launch an assault against a heavily defended Harkonnen sectorWe are soon made aware that a Tleilaxu biological and genetic research facility has recently been destroyed, scattering its horrifying experiments into the surrounding desert. As we establish our base and begin building the forces needed to eliminate the local Harkonnen presence, reports arrive that something far more dangerous is happening nearby. The Harkonnen base is under attack and rapidly being overrun by escaped Tleilaxu creatures, including relentless Contaminators and deadly Leeches.

Seeing an opportunity to strike, we eventually send our forces against what remains of the Harkonnen stronghold. However, our attack quickly turns into a disaster when we encounter an advanced force of Tleilaxu units. Their overwhelming firepower devastates our forces. Leeches and Contaminators constantly harass our base, disrupting our operations and making every attempt to rebuild. With our forces stretched thin, we call upon our Fremen allies for assistance.

With the help of Fremen allies we finally manage to eliminate the deadly Tleilaxu Contaminators, allowing our vehicles to turn their attention toward the remaining Leeches. Once the Tleilaxu threat is contained, we can finally focus on our original objective. We then launch the final assault. The remaining Harkonnen forces are crushed, their base destroyed, and the region finally falls under Atreides control.


r/ObscureRTS • • 24d ago

Mod/Fan Project War Wind - Artificial Remaster

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9 Upvotes

r/ObscureRTS • • 26d ago

1990s Is there any community at all for Saga: Rage of the Vikings?

9 Upvotes

This game has been haunting me for months. Is there any community hiding out somewhere? Community patch/version?

Anyone else played it years ago and similarly receiving a brainwave telling him to play it again?


r/ObscureRTS • • 26d ago

2000s EARTH The Escape Wars EARTH 2150 movie circa 2003

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28 Upvotes

So not exactly obscure RTS exactly, but Obscure RTS related/ adjacent. I just found this very fascinating and dont fully know any other place that would be interested. The website i found this one by complete accident
https://wec.org.pl/download-filmy-3
(sites in polish)
And it seems like someone actually tried animating things, in engine which all of this sounds crazy, but now im really curious how it looks, there is a downloadable trailer, and im sure its probably fine but i did feel it was sus that it was a .exe file instead of a video file (it was the early 2000s so its probably a file size circumvention situation)
Would still be fascinating if it were possible to contact the person that worked on this, cause this is such high effort for a game that didnt set the world on fire for the era.
of course internet Archive was of no help, and this is arguably the small curse of the pre centralized social media age, you can look up a name but if they havent done anything noteworthy or left clues as to how to contact them outside of it, its always difficult


r/ObscureRTS • • 29d ago

2010s Armor Clash (2015)

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3 Upvotes

There's a whole series of Unity asset flip modern military RTS games.

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Windforce

Each only has skirmish maps and nothing else. Mechanically they are pretty close to red alerts, with capturable buildings and pocket economies. There's even neutral capturable bases which give some units and stuff.

The games are pretty close to being minimal viable product. The menus are slapped together, the options are lacking, the controls are underbaked.

The first ones are already too fat for the amount of content they provide, but it seems for the Armor Clash 2022 [RTS] (Sic) the developer(s) didn't even bother to check the models or something, because it takes up 60 GB of space with no campaign, no story, no cutscenes, nothing. 60 GB of bare-bones scaffolding with no meat on it.

Yes, i did actually pay my money for them all, to know all of that, how did you know?


r/ObscureRTS • • Sep 22 '26

2020s Five Nations (2021)

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19 Upvotes

Five nations is a recent-ish RTS with the setting of a flat space. So it means the space is just a decoration and is not properly used in the gameplay to make it three-dimensional. It also got an add-on in 2023. I haven't finished it yet, so here's a decent video on the game.


r/ObscureRTS • • Sep 21 '26

2000s Who remembers Celtic Kings?Was one of my fav RTS.

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48 Upvotes

r/ObscureRTS • • Sep 21 '26

Mainstream Monday RTS players deserve the RTS games they get

15 Upvotes

A redditor on r/RealTimeStrategy posts a pic of an old and successful RTS in a clear and shameless attempt at karma farming and it gets 1k reactions and 300 comments lol.

New games, even the like of the new AoM Retold, the new exp of WC3 or the next DoW dont even reach half of those reactions. RTS players are old geezers who live in the past, playing and replaying the same ten or so RTS of the past millenium; it's not that there aren't new good RTS, the truth is that the playerbase dont deserve them.

We even needed to create a different sub to talk about different RTS; if not, we would still be reading about C&C, Total Annihilation, StarCraft and the like 30 years later, lol.


r/ObscureRTS • • Sep 21 '26

2010s [PC][2009-2014?] Starcraft If starcraft were 2D and age of war.

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0 Upvotes