Take Shogun or Medeval Total War games and turn them into 3D.
Or, If you're not familiar with the Total War series. Then take LORDS of THE REALM and pilfer it's turned base econmic/army mustering system and add 3D battles with 1000's of polygons on the screen at once.
One thing that I love about this game is the Cavalry Units. In preivous RTS games, Calvary was nothing more than a glorifed Foot unit. They never had that much of an edge over ground infantry. Sure you could travel faster, but in combat, there was no difference. You would charge a ground unit form a distance. You'd race up to the enemy, then stop on a dime, and begin hacking away with a weapon. What's wrong with this picture? Well, horse units don't stop and attack.
How does RTW deal with this?
Depending on the nature of your charge - From a hill top, over flat land, into a tight cluster of troops or loose formation, what type of ground unit, what type of mounted (heavy, light calvary, camels, elephants)- your charge will differ.
A charge against most infantry is like this: You'll have pack of 60 or so cavarly units, you'll order them to attack say, a cohort of legionares. First off, you'll assemble into attack formation. A slow gallop which increases in speed as you approach the enemy cohort. As you get closer, your company leader will yell "charge". At the call of "charge" all your men will unsheath their swords or postiion their spear and yell "ahhhhttack". Trust me, it sounds cool. They will pound themselves into the cohort like a bat out of hell. Enemy ground troops will be flung back, into the air, about 5 meteres. Some will get trampled by your horses, some will taste the steel of your weapons, some will run away in fear. Ground men that fall, well, your horses will just jump over them in a quick ass style that makes it look so real. And upon landing will reap havoc on the surviving enemies. The point it, not all of your units will stop on a dime and attack, some that get bogged down will, but most will just run past the enemies and come back again for another round of combat. What I'm trying to say is the fighting is realistic and very well designed.
Of course, the charge does not always go so smooth. If you're feeling retarded, you can charge a greek phlanax head on (ie. not try to out flack the shanks on the end if their spear tips.) Your cavalry units will not just fall over like lifeless slugs, they will die big time. Horses will get impaled on spears and your riders will be tossed off their mounts fall to the ground and die.
This game is just so sweet.
This post has been edited by Jordan: 18 January 2005 - 08:27 AM