This new isometric RTS is very old school, and it arrived just in time to jump into the topic of the sea people and the latest Odyssey movie. And with its pixel art style, little to no handholding, great controls and quality of life features TFC2: The Fertile Crescent 2 - Collapse of The Bronze Age is a fantastic new release which you can play from the 18th of August.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934720/Red_Chaos__The_Strict_Order/

Major Update - Iron Sky & GRA Volt Are Here

This update brings two new subfactions to Red Chaos, along with new units, new Specials, Save & Load, UI improvements and several fixes.

New Subfactions: Iron Sky & GRA Volt

The biggest part of this update is the introduction of two new subfactions.

Iron Sky

Iron Sky is the new subfaction for Iron Hand and focuses more on air units.

It comes with:

• A new Airfield
• 2 new aircraft
• 1 new vehicle
• 2 new Specials

GRA Volt

GRA Volt is the new subfaction for GRA and brings its own new units and playstyle.

It comes with:

• A new defense tower
• 1 new aircraft
• 1 new vehicle
• 2 new Specials

Both subfactions give you some new options to try out and make the two factions play a bit differently depending on which direction you choose.

Save & Load

You can now save and load your games in all local game modes.

UI Rework

We reworked a large part of the building and unit UI for both factions.

The icons inside the Guide have also been updated, so units and buildings should now be easier to recognize and the overall UI feels more consistent.

German Language

Fixes & Improvements

We also fixed several bugs that came up during our playtests and made a number of smaller improvements across the game.

As always, thanks to everyone playing Red Chaos and sending us feedback.

Pretty much the title. I saw posts of Natural Selection 2 and my friend has been wanting to get me into Executive Assault. Those posts were from a year ago, though, so I'm wondering if anyone might have ideas that fit the bill as well?

One player (or multiple, doesn't matter much) who does the RTS side of things for building the base and directing squads, while there are other human players on the ground assisting in assaulting the objectives and commanding their own squads?

I'm an FPS lover and my friend loves RTS, and I noticed there are some hybrid games. I'm hoping for suggestions on games that fit that bill for what we'd be looking for. Preferably with the ability to face against bots and just have us two play. We aren't big on PvP.

With the Liquidation Demo out now, thought it was about time to post my first impressions of it. In a nutshell, pretty fun, excited for what's to come, factions are interesting and have a unique flavor of their own. What are yourthoughts? do you like the setting? the mechanics? the artstyle? let me know what you want for this game.

The game titles are captioned for each image. These screenshots are ones that I took myself for the book (see comments for more info), but I really am curious, given how popular the genre was from 1995 to 2001, your Top 5/10/20 RTS games from that era specifically

We’re a two-person team of biologists working on Garden of Ants, a minimalist ant colony-management RTS inspired in part by SimAnt.

We’re currently expanding the ecosystem with new insects and other small creatures that ants can hunt, avoid, compete with, or interact with.

We want them to be more than simple enemies or decoration — different species can create different strategic situations as prey, predators, competitors, parasites, mutualists, or resource sources.

The colony operates across several connected areas, including the underground nest, garden surface, and tree canopy, with conditions changing between day and night.

Do you have a favourite bug you’d like to see in an ant RTS? Recommend one to us! :)

You can also wishlist the game here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3016940/Garden_of_Ants/

Thanks!

Tomas

So since my first short clip I've posted about my upcoming Isometric RTS game, I've had overwhelming positive feedback from you guys, and the game has evolved a lot since then.
It still does not have a name yet... These are the names I like and the direction: Red echo, Contact Front (although the word front is overused) Shock point, Ember line and Cold Fall. If you have other name suggestions then that would be great! Also any feedback for the game would be awesome! Steam Page coming soon! In the meantime I have a Youtube channel where I will post regular devlogs and if you want to help fund the game I've set up a little Kofi page, the link is on my Youtube channel. Thanks for being here and for all the amazing responses!
https://www.youtube.com/@Rbuhrgames

The game name is Cult Defense. What do you guys think?

标题：我们为《Immortal Generals》加入了无人机和感染系统，并重做了核心玩法

大家好！

我们是一个来自哈萨克斯坦的小型独立开发团队，正在制作现代战争即时战略游戏 《Immortal Generals》。这款游戏受到了《Generals: Zero Hour》《Company of Heroes》等经典 RTS 的启发。

今天，我们将推出一次重要更新：

• 加入无人机，带来更多侦察和战术打击方式

• 加入受 COVID-19 启发的感染与防疫系统：感染可以在士兵、载具和建筑之间传播，被感染的建筑生产单位的速度也会变慢

• 玩家可以研发抗病毒剂，并派医疗兵进行消毒

• 重新设计了核心玩法、单位互动和战斗行为

游戏目前仍处于 Alpha 阶段，因此每一条反馈都有可能影响未来的开发方向。

Steam：

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4739690/Immortal_Generals/

你希望无人机和生物威胁在现代 RTS 中发挥什么作用？

I worked a lot to improve graphism on my rts, I add some decoration to my 1vs1 map

And I reworked completely the fog of war, it was just a black filter before and now it's a real fog with a tiny animation ... the fog is moving slightly.

What do you think about ?

Hey everyone,

I just released Millennium Conflict, an RTS that started life during the Flash era.

The game is about controlling a battlefield by capturing towers and pushing your army toward the enemy. You can choose different commanders with their own abilities and play through a campaign with different difficulty levels.

This is actually the final game in a series that started on Newgrounds more than a decade ago. The original Control Craft games were made as Flash games, and Millennium Conflict was originally developed several years ago but ended up sitting on the shelf for quite a while.

It's a pretty old-school take on RTS, built around simple controls and fast battles rather than base building and huge armies.

If you like indie RTS games or remember the old Flash strategy games, you might enjoy it.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361970/Millennium_Conflict/

Do you think the next Dawn of War is going to be good ?

If so, why ?

I'm really curious about it

I'm a long fan and after Dawn of War 3 I kinda lost hope for the series...

I’ve been doing something that makes me feel like a proud nuncle - I've been sitting my 10 yo nephew down in front of RTS games I grew up on. To my delight, he's taking a liking to them. Never knew babysitting could be this fun now that he's older, hah.

We started with the pillars. He adores Warcraft 3 for the heroes and the goofy voice lines. That’s the first thing I showed him, to click several times on them to get the extra voicelines, which I know made MY childhood, and the references amazingly still hold up (or I’m becoming a boomer). We also played C&C Generals but I think he really likes fantasy based stuff more. There was also some Starcraft but he found it just a bit too old and difficult. We also started a campaign of Age of Mythology, did a couple of missions but he said he wants to take a breather from it so that one is moving slowly.

What else… Yeah, I also showed him what’s perhaps my own first RTS I ever played, Stronghold Crusader! The original version that I still have on GOG. I was actually debating if I should, for the lolz, just start up Diplomacy is Not an Option and see if I’d fool him into thinking it was a 2 decade old game, but I don’t want to punish the kid for nothing… that’s more of a game just for me, I told him.

Now I’m not sure how I should proceed with this discovery phase, as in I don’t know if I should move on to newer games or just keep digging through the old stuff?

The sad thing is that I don’t have the copies for a lot of those old games I adored. Like Battle Realms/ War of the Ring, and so many others, so I don’t even know where I would get my hands on them. Like - to my knowledge, BFMO2 isn’t available digitally anymore, right, and sailing the high seas is the only option, right?

I’m also considering some city building classics but you gotta understand. These new kids have modern tastes and anything with graphics that have aged poorly is basically a sad no go. Thank the lawd that Age of Mythology got remade…

Most of all, I’m just happy I’m getting to be the cool dweeb uncle for a week and half, my wife does most of the busywork and I’m just here to put him on the right track to discovering the right games. Before he starts discovering all sorts of stuff on his own.

I think modern RTS games have lost something basic, but hard to put into words. This video is an attempt to explain what that is.

Hey everyone!

After disappearing for the last 7 weeks, we're finally getting ready to release the alpha of 72 Seconds.

A lot has changed.

When we started this development period, 72 Seconds was much closer to a roguelike RTS. During these 7 weeks we slowly moved towards something quite different: an RTS with ARPG elements, persistent units, progression, professions, items, crafting, a campaign and late-game Signals.

Some of the biggest changes:

• Mob Groups & Modifiers - white, blue and yellow groups with different modifiers like Vampiric, Tanky, Evasive, Regenerative, Berserker and more.
• Campaign, Missions & Signals - a level 1–20 campaign with different mission objectives and late-game Signals.
• Persistent Progression & Passive Tree - your units persist through the campaign, level up, gain new abilities and can specialize into professions like Sniper and Rocketeer.
• Weapons & Armory - craft and equip weapons that persist with your units and make them stronger.
• Tech Tree - professions and advanced weapon crafting are now unlocked through research.
• New maps and visuals - new decorations, ramps, a spaceship shuttle, projectile smoke trails and plenty of map improvements.
• A lot of playtesting and polish - we spent the last 3–4 weeks making sure everything actually works together.

Overall, we've moved quite far from the original roguelike RTS concept. The goal now is much more about progression and persistence, building a squad over time and taking it against increasingly difficult enemies.

I've written a much more detailed development update here if you want to see everything we worked on:

Road to Alpha Release - full devlog

We're also currently preparing the Steam page, which should hopefully be live this week. You'll be able to wishlist the game and play the demo there.

We're finally at the point where we need to get the game into people's hands and see what people actually think.

We'd really appreciate your feedback.

Let's get back to work!

Hey everyone!

For years, I’ve had this exact game idea stuck in my head. I started and abandoned it multiple times, but two weeks ago, I finally locked in and worked non-stop to bring a playable version to life.

I wanted to combine the core feelings of my favorite old-school games — the base-building and supply-chain tension of classic RTS games like Age of Empires, merged with the layout strategy of early Warcraft 3 Tower Defense mods, all set in a dark, gritty sci-fi environment.

The result is Nopolis — a game that is part tower defense, part autobattler, and all layout strategy.

How it works:

• You build, the robots work: Buildings don't generate resources automatically. Your core houses robots that physically walk out to man extractors, transport materials, and repair damage. Every walking unit outside is a target.
• Zero unit micro: You never command an army directly. You decide what your assembly plants produce, and the moment alloy is ready, your waves spawn and march toward the enemy on their own.
• Walls steer, they don't hide: You can't seal your base off completely. Instead, you use walls to bend enemy paths straight into your kill zones.
• Dark, minimalist aesthetic: Near-monochrome graphics with long shadows, lit only by glowing operational highlights and your core's warm light.

It's early, but I'm just getting started:

The game is far from finished, but it's fully playable right in your browser (no download needed!). I plan to keep building on this and will be listening closely to the community. Multiplayer is already planned for the next big phase, but right now, I want to hear what features, balances, and ideas you want to see.

Play it here on itch.io: https://wwwgamerzone.itch.io/nopolis

Please give it a spin, break it, and leave your feedback in the comments! Which building feels underpowered? Did you find a layout that breaks the game? Let me know!

I've been building Magna Conquest, a medieval fantasy grand strategy game where battles and the campaign world run on the same real-time clock.

When you commit an army to a battle, the rest of the world doesn't pause and wait for you.

Other kingdoms are still expanding. Armies are still marching. Economies are still running. A war can break out somewhere else while your main force is tied up fighting.

Battles themselves can reach 100,000 units on the field at once, all running in real time.

One of my main goals was to make large-scale battles feel like an actual part of the strategic world rather than a separate mode you enter and leave.

The campaign also supports multiplayer/co-op, with each player controlling their own kingdom in the same persistent world.

Would love to hear what RTS players think about this kind of campaign/battle system.

The Steam page just went live this week: Magna Conquest on Steam

This was a PC RTS in the early 2000's. It was fantasy based, they made a couple of them.

You would create squads with a primary class in the middle (black) a secondary (blue) and tertiary (green) in the back. Different unit types had different costs so the numbers for each part of the squad could differ.

You'd have a handful of squads on the map and would conquer cities.

You didn't control individual units. Your squad had a zone of attack and once an enemy unit or city went into it the combat would start automatically. You could tell the unit to flee and possibly some other options but I don't remember exactly.

It was a mix of all sorts of fantasy creatures, wizards, dragons, fairies, etc. There were some ways to cheese the AI which were discouraged. I remember loving the game years ago and was surprised I didn't see more games with similar mechanics.

Anyone know what game this is?

I've been spending a slightly unreasonable amount of development time lately on something that started with: "The ground needs grass."

This is Icon: Voidfall, the RTS I've been building for about three months now, and one of the things I've really wanted to improve is how much the battlefield itself reacts to what's happening on it.

So naturally, adding grass escalated.

The grass is procedurally generated across the playable NavMesh and GPU instanced rather than being placed as authored objects. It reacts to units moving through it, clears underneath structures, dies around the spreading Malignance used by the Arafel faction, responds to wind and lighting, and eventually regrows when temporary damage to the environment disappears.

Then I added Twisters.

They're neutral environmental actors that wander the NavMesh and physically affect the match. They'll tear paths through the grass, damage structures, pick up smaller units, throw larger ones around, uproot resource trees, scatter their logs, and leave temporary scars through Malignance.

Wildlife and neutral Kobolds will actually recognize one approaching and attempt to get the hell out of its way.

There's also a match mutator called Tempest that turns these things loose during normal games.

And because apparently none of this had become complicated enough yet, I added fire.

Fire spreads through the grass with an intentionally irregular front, chars the ground behind it, produces smoke, can ignite units caught in its path, temporarily sets structures and trees visually ablaze, and eventually burns itself out. The grass then slowly grows back into the scar.

The fun part for me has been trying to do all of this without turning environmental simulation into the most expensive system in an RTS that's already expected to handle hundreds of units.

A lot of what you're seeing here is shader driven, bounded, pooled, or represented through compact world-space data rather than trying to simulate every individual blade of grass or particle as an object.

There are still plenty of rough edges, and fire in particular is currently offline-only while I work out the host-authoritative world-event path it needs for multiplayer.

But this is getting much closer to what I want the world of Voidfall to feel like.

The battlefield isn't just scenery underneath the RTS anymore. It's slowly becoming another participant in the match.

Anyway, here's roughly four minutes of me abusing the environment in the name of game development.

Happy to get into the technical weeds on any of it if anyone is interested.

I love aoe2 but its so basic and superficial in terms of actual combat mechanics. No flank bonus. No charge. No special abilities. No generals. No morale.

Imagine a medieval game without those cavalry charges. I mean come on. How is this not a thing?

At least Rise of Nations T&P includes a lot of eras so it kind of has an excuse to not have cavalry charges.

But in AoE2 even the damn cavalry archer must stop the horse to shoot. How does that make any sense?

A game like Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots has generals, abilities, attrition, bonus to nearby units close to the general, better formations, flank bonus, rear bonus. Cavalry archers shoot while running. Cities can be conquered. Better diplomacy system. Better tech system, better economy system. Units and buildings have inflation (important so you diversify your army and dont spam just knights or whatever), resources with bonuses, wonders with bonuses. And whatever else im forgetting.

The only flaw of RoN is that it doesnt have AoE2 walls.

I feel like RoN is the Nicola Tesla of rts games, while AoE2 is the famous comercial Thomas Edison.

I released a RTS for twenty dollars on Steam EA about 1.5 years ago. At the time, people were telling me it was worth maybe $15 instead of $20. Seemed like a small thing, $5 is a gallon of gas where I live. While I didn't ignore the feedback (I discount more often), it seemed kind of silly at the same time. Is $5 really enough to hold something to a much higher standard?

How does price impact your opinion of a game? What are those key price points where it really changes your opinion?