What is your favorite RTS game ever?

[JaceArveduin]

Spoiler

While obviously far from being the best, my favorite is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. One of my favorite things is how the music would change depending on whether you were having a little skirmish or a full-on invasion. And it would even recognize when you were charging with the Rohirrim and play their theme. Plus, summoning a squad of angry hobbits on top of a grounded Nazgul was one of the funniest and most satisfying moments.

Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II

Sooooo many hours were spent in skirmish mode, playing co-op with a buddy against 4 (or 6, I can't remember) other CPU controlled factions, reaching our respective unit command limit and pitting our armies and powers against each other, Tom Bombadil landing the killing blow on the Balrog by dancing into it.

*sigh*

Fun times...

Spoiler: Still holds up pretty well, I'd say

These guys have the right idea, though I was more fond of the Rise of the Witch-King expansion myself.

Large battles? Got it. Quick and dirty fights to the death, fighting tooth and nail to keep your resources defended while destroying theres? Check. Custom maps of doom? Of course!

Goblins best faction ever, even more so for the "patch" I made for it! And if you guys didn't know, you can still get games on Gameranger, and Gamereplays.org has the unofficial patches that they use for clanwars.

 

[Pikey Mikey]

That I've played? Dawn of War II: Retribution, hands down.
Followed closely by Dawn of War 1 (with expansions (never played Soulstorm though)) and Emperor: Battle for Dune (DEVASTATORS!).

Honorable mentions; Stronghold Crusaders, Cossacks (Back to War or European Wars, forgot which), Total Annihilation aaaand I suppose StarCraft/WC3.

 

[duwenbasden]

Starcraft and Starcraft 2, the only game where throwing tier 1 units at the enemy late game is a perfectly viable strategy.

 

[Elidibus]

I'm very happy to see Battle for Middle Earth 2 on here.

Some of the best times I had was playing with my best friend. We always played as a team online and we were a room apart, shouting orders and indicating what we've seen and what to do. So much fun. I really hate that EA closed down the servers. I know some private servers still exist, but it wouldn't be the same without my friend playing Men and rolling into the base after I've warg-rushed the elven player as Isengard. I was also the first person in my town to buy it. Collectors edition all the way!

For all you people that played it, here's a little nugget of trivia. The top ranked person on the 1v1 ladder for a long time was a person named TKE_Turtle. My buddy was actually really good friends with him and he was the reason we got into this game to begin with. Well, long story short, we decided to have a FFA match. And I was actually able to beat him by pretending to side with my friend and steamroll Turtle, but then stabbing him in the back after our first push while he was weakened. He was still no joke since he mained Dwarves. He's actually a really cool person IRL and we've hung out a bit when I lived closer.