I don't particularly enjoy RTS games any more, but back in the day they were pretty much my favourite genre.
Age of Kings, Red Alert 2, StarCraft and Warcraft 2.

I'd expect it to surprise anyone, and I think it still holds up extremely well today. Doesn't look like it plays much like the first game either, judging by the screenshots at least. But I'll admit, I'm definitely a sucker for its weird mystical atmosphere and unique art style. The only other god rts really is B&W, but compared to POP:TB it's campaign always starts too feel too cumbersome for me at some point.

KKND? There are way, way too few Mad Max esque rts games around :(

Agreed with Mad Max RTSes, but when it comes to KKND, I just can't remember being impressed by anything about it, not even the atmosphere of the game. I'm sure if I played it again I'd remember all its faults, but there are so many other great games that deserve my time, and still I haven't even tried them out. So many games, so little time...

Strange i didn't play many RTS from the 90s as it seems since i just checked a list of all strategy games.
Few i remember were starcraft with brood war add-on, populous the beginning, total annihilation commander pack, earth 2140 trilogy, warzone 2100, tiberian sun. Can't remember more that were 90s released games, but i did play some more released from 2000 on.

Yup :(

The thing that stood out for me about KKND back then was the effects first and foremost. The gunfire and the explosions all felt like they had real 'oompfh' and impact to them if you get what I mean. Like this:
https://youtu.be/8hqOin122lI?t=192
Compare that to a couple of infantrymen in C&C attacking an enemy unit. Not that C&C has bad effects mind you, it's just that I find those in KKND far superior.
And apart from that, personally the atmosphere and graphics really clicked with me.

I hadn't payed too much attention to sound effects, until I started playing more FPSes, and the weapon sounds in those games does make a huge difference. And from that clip it's clear that the sound effects in KKND are very good. Which makes me curious, what else I might have missed. I guess, I should retry KKND. :)

Great! good luck to you in that case :) it gets very difficult iirc (think my first two attempts to complete the game I gave up on the same level :P), at least up the point where you unluck the highest tier infantry unit, at which point the difficulty drops again. Kind of a weird difficulty curve

Command&Conquers, Age of Empires, Starcraft, KKND, you name it.

Speaking of KKND (haven't played the first one yet), I still remember the last Series 9 mission against Survivors in KKND2 where I spent 11.5 hours (yes you read that right) in that mission alone.

It was a great game but it had one severe balancing issue. Yes, I'm looking at you Touch of Death. Great idea to make a rapid fire lightning generator with no pause between shots for the same price as all other top tier turrets with no additional drawbacks..... Evolved missions were pathetically easy because of that. Just build one or 2 at max and you cannot lose because the AI can't deal with them (as it does not build custom vehicles and hence artilleries which are probably the only way to adequately deal with them).

And some missions required very unconventional tactics like soaking up damage with your mobile main building to preserve your units. Or loading up a transport full of suicide units and let it get shot down in the middle of their army/building cluster. Or, what I loved the most, letting my planes get shot down so that they fall on and wreck the enemy base. The plane crashes are absolutely bonkers in that game and I love it.

Sign me up.

Hmmm, we used to play a lot of Starcraft, sometimes Age of Empires. Others sadly I only played in single player mode like Red Alert 2 etc.

It used to be my favorite genre until pretty much the death of it. Played known ones such as Dune II, Red Alert, Age of Empires 1/2, Empire Earth, Cossacks, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes etc etc to lesser known stuff such as Thandor, Ground Control, Battle Realms, Warlords Battlecry II/III, Spellforce, Conquest: Frontier Wars etc as well as more unique ones like Armies of Exigo and Sacrifice. Well, those were the good old days.

Age of Empires (1 + Rise of Rome, Age of Kings + The Conquerors) was *my* game saga. I played all of those to death. Really great times, and helped me learn quite a bunch about Ancient & Medieval history.

Well, I may not be regular enough, but yeah. I played a lot of it back then.

Age Of Empires (I)
Warcraft II + Beyond the Dark Portal
Total Annihilation + Core Contingency + Battle Tactics
TA:Kindgoms (but not the expansion...but I got it today! Glad to have the gog version instead of dealing with the cd)
Starcraft + Brood War
Dark Reign
Dungeon Keeper (RTS?)
C&C + Covert Ops
Red Alert + Counterstrike + Aftermath
Star Wars: Rebellion (Supremacy for you UK folk) (sorta RTS).

RTS was my favorite genre back in the 90s. I've spent way too much time with games as Age of Empires, Starcraft, Command & Conquer and Homeworld. I probably spent houndreds of hours with Starcraft's map editor to build huge terran military bases with outposts, heavily guarded entrances, marines patroling the perimeter, an airfield, and a garage for vultures and tanks. I just loved how these bases looked with all the things you could do with the terrain and useless "decoration" objects. Starcraft's editor was just awesome. Of course these maps were more the "infiltrate with a fixed number of units"-missions (they wouldn't have had a chance against a player who can build units as he wishes).

There were other "RTS-like" games I loved, too, like Commandos (more a "real time tactics" game without base building) and Anno (focus on real time management without any real troops and battles).

Here's one! ;)