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Just what the title says. I'm looking for the most realistic long-term strategy game, preferably with an RTS component. Also, what's the most realistic RTS in general? By realism, I don't mean eye-candy, but rather adherence to real life military principles.

Whooo... tall order there partner.

For pure strategy, I hear very good things about Hearts of Iron 2, though I have not played it myself.

With the "RTS" component (RTT, more accurately, which generally adhere more to realism and tactics), you'll be hard-pressed to find much outside of the Total War series.

For standalone RTTs, the original Blitzkrieg comes to mind. I also hear good things about Combat Mission, I think it's called.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:For pure strategy, I hear very good things about Hearts of Iron 2, though I have not played it myself.

HoI2 (vanilla) has some pretty unrealistic moments.

I have a friend who plays as Germany, he can reach the Urals in under 3 months as Germany.

So, it has realism, to an extent.

Most realistic RTS that spring to my mind: the Close Combat series from SSI published by MSFT.

I think the Combat Missions series is pretty good.

Combat Mission is turn-based, though. After a fashion. I mean there's the orders phase, and then the action phase. Great games though. I never bothered with the thrid one, Afrika Corps- I find that theatre of war totally uninteresting.

Of all the RTS I have played, my vote goes with Total Annihilation. Sure, the premise wasn't realistic, the the battle phyics and unit abilities were very, very well done for their time. Planes actually flew like planes, the physics of the guns was cool (better range from higher ground, ballistic flight path, etc.), the nukes weren't the pussy nukes of other games (really, a nuke should do nuke scale damage damnit).

Gandalf wrote:

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:For pure strategy, I hear very good things about Hearts of Iron 2, though I have not played it myself.

HoI2 (vanilla) has some pretty unrealistic moments.

I have a friend who plays as Germany, he can reach the Urals in under 3 months as Germany.

So, it has realism, to an extent.

Well, if you make it too realistic one runs into the problem of Germany always loosing.

Ground Control had good physics too and was quite realistic, even if sci-fi. The Total War games would be up there too, especially when you have routing units. No other game seems to have the idea of morale, they all seem to command mindless automatons.

I think the most realistic RTS will be Company of Heroes, which hasn't been released yet. Small scale WW2 RTS with destructible terrain and buildings, etc.


EDIT: Dawn of War has morale. I believe Company of Heroes will also have morale (ie troops under fire will likely ignore your commands to charge a machine gun post)

Unfortunately, if you want any more a realistic game than the ones already listed, you will probably need to resort to hex-based wargaming. If you want to go with that, I have heard good things about Korsun Pocket, though I don't have actual experience with it.

Other than hexgames, I would have to say Medieval: Total War is your best bet. The AI blows though, and online everyone just whores dirt-cheap Spanish calvary and goes for a "frontal charge and then surround them and hope their morale breaks" strategy.

Blitzkrieg is good for RTS tank combat. Armour and the piercing powers of weapons have been modded well. So infantry cant slow a tank down and a Tiger can take out a Sherman with one shot.

Realistic RTS is a pipe dream. There are plenty of neat turn based strat systems, and some nice turn-based tactical engines... but 'RTS' is a genre full of rubbish.

I'll tell you what. You find one, you let me know, okay?

Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2 with the German Soldiers Mod is about as hardcore realistic as they come.

Don't go mentioning games I couldn't get working, Ando. EB will get suspicious if I go back and say 'yeah... well... I think it'll work now'.

RTS is not strategy. It's resource wars. Fight over minerals, gold mines, Tiberium, oil, it's all the same. In any real war simulator your forces would be present at full strength at the beginning of the conflict and constructing sizeable forces on the fly just isn't realistic. And RTS usually have a research component, again not realistic.

Realistic RTS is an oxymoron .

Brian

The Sudden Strike series is 'realistic' if you take realistic to mean '100% accurate guns where everyone dies in one hit'. They're fun... but somewhat inane.

Soldiers was cool - having your men hunkered down in ruined buildings (demolished by artillery fire) with their AT grenades, waiting, waiting, waiting for the first Sherman to come rolling into town...

Or popping PzIIIs and PzIVs as they advance on your infantries position with a KV-1 then getting into duel with a Tiger...

Ground Control II. Realistic in the scale and tactics to be used, not so much in the units themselves and so on.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ground control 2 is... hahah... oh, mercy. Thanks, that woke me up. To torrents!

Stark wrote:HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ground control 2 is... hahah... oh, mercy. Thanks, that woke me up. To torrents!

Hey. It's the only RTS that doesn't have 2000 soldiers coming out of a single tent.

LOL PWNED. So true, so true. It does have the eponymous dune-buggy rocket thing, IIRC, though - a true RTS staple. I guess the inclusion of off-board reinforcement does really take it a notch above the manufacturing games.

Shame it's uninspired rubbish, even compared to GC1. Nyah!

GC1. Jaegers. Artillery. The only 2 units you EVER need.

I know some fun tactical games that are both realistic and cheaper than dirt.

Steel Panthers: World at War go to the "Downloads" section, it's free.

Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank this one is free too!

Turn based is not real time.