Sudden Strike Gold

Sudden Strike defines the Real Time Tactics genre, as there is no base-building to be done. There are no resources to collect, no units that the player has any ability to spawn, and no technologies that must be researched. Therefore, it is not a race to any technology, special unit, or army size, like a typical RTS. In Sudden Strike, you are given a fixed amount of units to order around at the beginning of the mission. Often you will receive reinforcements, but rarely do you have any intentional influence on when they will arrive. You simply cannot beat your enemy by mobbing them, or by spamming them. Instead, you have to figure out how to flank the machine gunners, how to keep the armored cars away from your foot-soldiers, which building to hide your sniper in, and even who to re-supply in the heat of the fight. Each of your units has experience. Ones that have survived more fights can see further, react faster, and hit more often. That being said, they are still not super-human, and two enemies at once will take them down. Each unit feels real. When you send three men to a front-line AT gun, you root for them. You try your best to preserve every single person, including those that jump out of your burning tanks. You come to care for your little guys, because you can't just spawn a thousand more. There are hundreds of unit-types, and things seem to be less restricted by balance and focused on what sorts of weapons and machinery was available to each side in WWII. The missions are well-varied. Some are to defend a front, and some are to attack a front. Some give you just a small group of men, and some give you an army. Some missions are long (don't worry, you can save any time), while others are over in minutes. Many RTT games never make the transition from several squads to an army, while Sudden Strike plays both. It even comes with the scenario editor used by the creators themselves. Sudden Strike is difficult and realistic, but a lot of fun.