When I see so many new RTS game releases and freshlyannounced games, I can’t help but wonder how can there be people online who still claim RTS games are dead? Because I’m seeing quite the opposite and will show you amazing AAA, double AAA, and indie projects in all stages of development along with mentioning Tacticon and Steam and showcasing some great community-made mods for your favorite old RTS games. I know all of you have been waiting for Dwarf for a long time. And while I can show you only a small update in this video, I have done an interview with the developers who will be sending me a lot of footage from their latest playable version. So, very soon I will post a dedicated video on my channel with both this interview with the developers and Dwarf’s newest footage. Link to which I will add up here and down in the description along with the links to all other games and demos. We do want to have a full campaign for each of the free factions on launch just like all the good old school RTS games have. Until then, you should know they have made great progress with their logistics-based resource management system, base building, and mixing 2D gameplay with 3D features, which makes it possible for both land and air units to obey terrain elevation differences while moving. This helps to create an even more immersive experience for us as players while keeping the game looks very old school. allies. You will strike at the heart of py. Since World War II seems to be an inexhaustible source material for countless games, we can expect to enjoy the fifth Sudden Strike game and its real-time battles in 2026 with versions for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. I know many players who own these consoles are going to be happy to hear about a new RTS game to play on them. Equally important and exciting news about the next Sudden Strike game is that you can already apply for its closed beta testing using a link provided on its Steam store page and the publishers website. Its main features are the 25 mission single player campaign, over 300 units across several nations, theaters of war covering Europe and North Africa, as well as a system of customizable commanders, and lastly, skirmish and multiplayer. They are claiming this is going to be their biggest game ever. And as someone who adored the first few, but lack time to play the latest sequels, I’m excited to see what you all think of this fresh new game announcement in the comments. I read and answer all of them, as I respect your opinions and attitudes towards both game franchises and their developers or publishers. This is why I know you won’t fault me for what I am about to say. So, while Creative Disassembly is busy milking Warhammer content in their Total War franchise for all its worth, another indie dev studio, this one behind the name Armchure History Interactive, is taking a musket shot at their historybased large-scale unit battles with their own game titled Master of Command. The setting is the 18th century, specifically the Seven Years War, meaning you get to command various superpowers of Europe at that time, from British and French forces to Prussians and Russians. There is more to this game than just spectacular real-time battles, as you can fully customize your unit regiments with equipment and weapons, directly changing their accuracy, stamina, morale, and other stats. These units are also persistent across the campaign as they gain experience, their officers level up, and your choices carry across each region. Interestingly enough, not only is the campaign procedurally generated, making it different each time, but you also get to find fresh troops, trade or pillage for supplies, and offload capture equipment in different settlements on your way between battlefields. These resources play an important role in deciding your playthrough success. So while strategos is scratching that ancient warfare itch, Master of Command could be a fine substitute for Empire 2 Total War. We never got that leaves just one more time period to cover the future. This is what we have Zerospace and its demo for considering its sci-fi setting with multiple alien races already and able to wage a galaxywide war. I have made many videos on this upcoming base building RTS game before, but as I see a lot of potential in it, I can’t not mention it again. Shocking all, boys and girls. This brand new demo started on the 11th of July and will last until the 21st with PvP, skirmish, and survival gameplay modes, as well as the Galactic War mode and the campaign which will also be showcased during Tacticon, a special event I will talk more about later in this video. Besides organizing a tournament with a pool of prizes, developers have been busy improving zero space and adding content to it, like a new unit for grill or new ability for the protectorate. The whole game looks better due to new lightning effects and materials, while the two new co-op missions were added to the Galactic War gameplay mode, making the current total six. This is the mode that resembles an MMO because of its super structure obstacles like the Trade Federation Solar Collector and focus on cooperative play. As for the campaign, we finally get to travel in our own spaceship through the prologue missions, see cutscenes, and experience the characters interactions. Hey, by my count, we’re even. But I appreciate your impeccable timing. Another upcoming game with a fresh new demo is Klex, which is that strange base building and sci-fi unit combat game versus an alien organism that spreads over a planet’s surface and attempts to prevent you from mining its riches. It is a very interesting concept, and these indie devs have done a great job turning it into a functioning game one step at a time. This new demo came with a challenge mode and five new maps. The enemies got an upgrade as well as extra Kix plants with new mechanics. And they can even level up now, becoming stronger enemies as the mission goes on. To help you fight these, players can order up some brand new units while a new resource can be collected off the alien planet and sold to earn credits using the new harvesterbased mining system. A feature I know many will enjoy seeing added to the game are balls, which you can easily draw on the surface, including pylons. And as you burn off the aliens tentacles and spores of the planet, you can find and connect your base to boost modules which will provide bonuses to you. There is more of course like the soundtrack, quality of life features, UI scaling, rebinding keys, and so on. But most importantly, the tutorial for learning how to play this fascinating game has been updated. And I hope to read your impressions in the comments. And as a reminder, to be able to keep track of all my RTS news videos and gameplay previews, make sure to subscribe and like my videos as you watch them. Another way that is helping me bring you more videos and fresh games each month is having sponsored segments, but this time it is about a game you might be interested in playing. This is Colonizer, a base building RTS set on a far off planet with human colonists using ancient forms of weapons and combat, but spiced up with MMO features. This game is designed to give you 90-day long matches with many players fighting over resources on huge maps with the ability to recruit massive armies. It mixes old and new elements, like for example, an old school camera type because of the gameplay inspired by Age of Empires 2. Previously when I showcased this game, it was using a different camera view and now with this change came Lightning tweaks as well with the aim to enhance the look and feel of the game. This change helps to affirm the retroesthetics developers are aiming for despite adding new gameplay elements like a tech tree which will let you customize your own colony in unique ways. This footage is of course from a work in progress version which is currently in a play test phase and developers are actively looking for new players to help them with making the game everyone will enjoy playing. If you decide to help out, you can request access on Colonizer Steam store page and the official Discord server. Now, I’m happy to report that The Scouting has a release date and it is out very soon on the 12th of August. in fact, letting us play custom multiplayer battles as part of its early access release on Steam. But that is just the start of my news about the Indie Gem, as their demo has been updated with a co-op map procedure for two players to survive against an onslaught of orc hordes. Additionally, you can now rotate the map while playing and make maps yourselves. The map editor allows you to design maps, but also to do scripting and create scenarios, set up AI behavior or even design your own gameplay mechanics. Lastly, you can tweak units, factions, buildings, and items, making everything customizable for your projects. When you finish these, you can share them with other players. Developers have even written out guides for both map making and mod making and invited everyone with a creative flare to try these new additions out. I personally love the aesthetics and gameplay of Discovering and hope to see many players online once it goes live into early access. Currently, this game is just one of many showcased during Tacticon, an event that is live on Steam from the 17th to the 21st of July and which celebrates the best in strategy, management, and simulation games co-hosted by indie publishers Fire Squid and Hooded Horse. Both of these are responsible for discovering and helping great games to get finished and published like Manor Lords or Against the Storm. This year’s Tacticon opens up new such opportunities for upcoming games and also brings a special sale with many demos becoming available for testing. I should tell you that I recently received a great idea from a fellow content creator over at Easily Distracted Games about hosting one such Steam event myself to bring more attention to artist games and especially indie ones I keep finding and helping to reach their future players. If you think that is a good idea and you have your own take on this, feel free to write to me about it in the comments. The next important RTS game release happening in August is the definitive edition of Warhammer 40k Dawn of War on the 14th. This is a game fans are divided over. Some seeing it as a shameless cash grab by the devs who split from their publisher and need new ways to stay afloat, while others see huge potential in the technical update, which will allow both old mods to shine and new amazing ones to be made. Personally, I want to see this new relic survive with no publisher holding it hostage, but the audience is the one holding wallets and will ultimately decide the outcome. The new definitive edition starts with the cost of 30, but players who already own the anniversary edition get a 30% discount. To realize just how protective and sensitive players are about this game, it is enough to say that they noticed one single sound difference between the original intro video and the new 4K version. The iconic roar of the blood ravens as they charge into battle. So, developers have had to make an update and fix this. Not the best way to start. Anyway, the first old school game and a massive mod for it I want to talk about in this video is The Age of the Ring for Battle for Miller 2. Previously called The Horse Lords. Its committed developers have published the 9.1 version which has a standalone installation setup you can download from their MADB website making installations simple and easy for any player. Since the mod is based on the second game of this franchise, you can create and customize your own captains/heroes and use them in skirmish battles. The mod has two scripted campaigns and one map conquest mode while you can play in multiplayer as well. There is the War of the Ring campaign, a massive battle between orcs of the Misty Mountains and Dwarves from the Third Age, and the Lord of the Rings campaign. You can choose from 11 different factions, each with different buildings, units, heroes, and powers, giving every single faction a unique style and gameplay. They have an official Discord server. And the mod works out of the box, which I hope will make you try it out right now. Another completely new game that has just recently been announced is titled Battle Plan. It is a historical World War II real-time strategy game with a focus on realism and plays like a simulation of battle with you as the overall commander. It will let you create armies as well as customize your order of battle and chain of command. It will feature a campaign for the liberation of France where you will use a persistent army across battles. This is finally a game which allows you to directly draw your plants on the map. Something I have read as a wish from many of my viewers and their comments across many videos. These can be very elaborate with multiple steps while you employ different tactics like defense and depth counterattacks, preparatory bombardments, planned withdrawals, and more. Devs want you to be able to experience massive and very long battles with hundreds of thousands of troops which will be led by officers who will follow and carry out your orders for individual companies. Logistics and supplies are an important part of this kind of gameplay as well as upgrades for units and promotions for officers. You will be able to play 10 massive historical battles set in the campaign for the liberation of France and grow your persistent army. As for another historical game and a freshly released one at that, I can only praise both game developers and their audience for the amazing milestone of 100,000 sales of Stronghold Crusader and its brand new definitive edition, which acts as a remaster of sorts. Its low price definitely helped grow this number faster, but that doesn’t mean devs didn’t put a lot of effort into this version. Beyond remaking the art, animations and music, devs have added larger maps, new lords, new modes of play, a 10,000 population cap, new units, and entire new campaigns featuring original voice actors. Skirmish is an important element inside the game, and you can even play with up to eight players in multiplayer. There is going to be lots of post-release support with autumn and winter updates, new buildings, maps, even paid DLCs, which will consist of new AI opponents, and more. If you didn’t notice, devs also answered questions about Stronghold Unreal. And they said they are still working on this project, which they consider to be their biggest game ever with new ideas, new talent, and new tech. Hopefully, we get to see a teaser of it soon. Yet another new release, but this one from an indie dev is Echoes of the Architects, which will be available on Steam from the 25th of July. This is a fast-paced RTS game with certain automation of modular programmable units, which make up your custom army. This customization system is designed to let you build armies tailored to your chosen play style. Units are created by combining modules for mobility, weapon systems, and repair tools. As you advance and fight many battles, you will unlock new modules, unit classes, and tactical options, so you can adapt to higher battles and try new approaches on diverse planets and environments full of challenges. The multiplayer is designed to be asynchronous, meaning you can enjoy stress-free gameplay with possible battles and unlimited always on replay-ability. There is a story and lore the dev created and I hope you will enjoy learning about it as you play. Do let me know in the comments what you think of such an approach to RTS games. Another completely original approach to RTS gameplay is the one found in the Empire of the Ants where the player takes control of an ant leads his fellow insects into conquest of nature itself. This game was released a while back, but it has now received a large update called Form Together featuring co-op play with friends against the AI. Each player gets to have their own two nests and have to cooperate to defeat the enemy team of insects. More new modes and content which came with this update are the horde mode and story challenge mode. A new Riverside map designed specifically for these new large scale 2v2 battles. There is also a new stealthy support unit, new AI difficulty levels, and a new Ferommon storm power. [Music] Your majesty, our building has been upgraded. One of the most interesting RTS like gameplay concepts is Fantasy Kingdom Sim, which I personally have been enjoying for decades in the few games which play like this, pioneered by Majesty. And this new game titled Laseria not only brings back this game play but also the primary voice actor of that fantastic old gem. You can still try out its play test on Steam while the dev team is preparing to release a brand new demo of it. In essence, this is a base building RTS with indirect unit control using a system of offensive and defensive bounties. The base units are straight out of Majesty, but the more advanced units will bring new types to the game. Another colorful and fun game is Counter Clash by an indie dev who managed to find a publisher and released the game in early access on Steam back in April. Now, he has posted a major update which covers difficulty balancing, save system, visual updates, and a complete building remake. With this update, explosions and tornadoes or units like stone giants and spider mecca will throw units they defeat into the air while the remains will stay on the map permanently. There are many more visual changes like that. While on the gameplay side, all upgrades affect your current troops. You can use shift to chain commands and chariots shouldn’t get stuck anymore, which is just one of many such fixes. The game is very cheap and fun, so I hope more of you will try it out and enjoy playing it. The second mod for this video is the update for Dawn of the Tiberium Age, which allows you to play the NOD campaign and its 13 missions in co-op with friends. This standalone mod is built in a customized version of Tiberian Sun engine, and you can even play battles on multiplayer maps using factions from Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert. This update also contains the shadow reprisal nod mission which these modders have been working on for a very long time. This mod gives players an easy way to upscale the game to very high resolutions while keeping it running at native display resolution, but it is recommended you play in borderless windowed mode. If you’re a fan of this mod or have some other ones you really like, tell me so in the comments below. Lastly, I want to mention the large update called Fate and Fire for Saints of a Solar Empire 2. Developers have introduced new population orbital structures across all three factions, which are designed to boost immigration and population growth on planets. Players who prefer the Advent faction will be happy to know that their planets now have a focus track, while new planet items are themed around the hive, asteroid, and oceanic planets. Planetary shields have been massively redesigned and now work very similar to ship shields, complete with health pools and shield burst mechanics. This shift makes planetary bombardment and super weapon gameplay more dynamic, adding depth to the game. A new map for 1 v one matches titled cutthroat has been introduced. It is a really challenging map by the looks of it. There are more changes and balancing updates, but I want to tell you about a fantastic already playable mod for this game that is currently called Stargate Races 2, and it is still in development. It lets you choose between playing with the agents or raids. The ships are incredibly detailed and look amazing, as well as straight from the TV shows. Devs of this mod will try to eventually add classic replicators as some sort of an event or a scenario, but not a playable faction. Mods like this will extend since to replayability even more than that of the original game, especially because of how gorgeous they can look. Now, I want to invite you to watch more of my videos using the cards on the screen and links in the description. Thank you for watching and I wish you all happy gaming.