This morning, out of nowhere, I remembered two games which I didn't think about in what feels like a century or more. Both are about all-robot RTS - the first one was Machines - Wired for War, where you controlled red robots the classical RTS way or picked a unit to control in 1st person. Buildings, ressources, and all that stuff.

But the other game, I just can't remember the name. It had more of a base rush gameplay, I think, you didn't build things other than units, from your base - and these were kinda similar to the walking "Machines" robots, with long legs. As far as I can remember, the units all looked alike because all that was different was the turret-like part on top of the legs. I think there were units with guns, lasers, an EMP one... and you could take advantage of the water in many levels, with electricity... it's all a bit hazy, but I know exactly what it LOOKS like. It had better graphics than Machines, as it was released a few years later, I think. If I only could draw...!

Does that ring any bells?

Total Annihilation?

Naah... as far as I can remember, the units all had 4 or 6 legs [there were no other units in the game if I remember correctly], and the camera was much closer to the ground - I think the base you had was some kind of glowing energy dome or something, and I remember building up units from some kind of currency / ressource that I DIDN'T mine - it was all battle... the levels were mostly some kind of maze, made from some kind of pipes or other stuff, and a lot of these levels had water ditches along the "road" / land - and certain units could fry other units when they stood in the water.

Generally, the maps were very barren.

Could it be Universe at War: Earth Assault?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpqI7frKiaM

Still those levels with pipes don't add up.

Storm over Gift 3 ?

O M F G.
That's it. I had that from some PC games magazine I think. The second those heads showed up, I had flashbacks again. That's it, that's the game! Holy crap. THANK YOU, this has been bothering me far more than it had any right to, for several hours today. Wow. Give this Tumbleweed a medal!

And whoops, turned out I remembered wrong with the legs there - but I think there was a unit with crab-like legs.