[General Battuta]

If Ground Control 2 were up there I'd struggle between it and Homeworld.

Mechcommander and GC1 would probably turn me into That Guy Who Insists That RTTs Get Their Own Poll.

[Scotty]

Seconded (the RTT poll).

[Klaustrophobia]

i voted C&C.  not that i think it is the perfect RTS, but i enjoy it most and its really the only one i play.  i don't like all the fantasy stuff.  never played homeworld, i should probably fix that.

[NGTM-1R]

Had to go with CoH simply because it was brilliant and it's not fair it didn't get a single vote till now.

If Eastern Front were official, or even completed...

[Grizzly]

I found the controls of Homeworld 1 sorely lacking. O.R.B. was far better in that respect.

[General Battuta]

I found the controls of Homeworld 1 sorely lacking. O.R.B. was far better in that respect.

you crazy

CRAZY

[NGTM-1R]

I found the controls of Homeworld 1 sorely lacking. O.R.B. was far better in that respect.

O.R.B.'s resource system was severely screwed up in comparison to Homeworld's. I never did finish the Malus campaign, so I don't know how it ended, but I did finish the Alus campaign, and it was...well it definitely wasn't as grabbing as Homeworld. It wanted to be, but the presentation wasn't up to it. The missions were effectively "unit puzzles" about having the right weapons on hand and then instantly reprocessing them to have the next set of right weapons ready.

The control systems were about even.

Honestly, the only thing O.R.B. had really going for it was the models were considerably cooler in concept.

[Liberator]

C&C.  Because it proved you could tell a badass story in 18 2 min movies.  And anyone who admits that C&C4 exists is a foul heretic of the highest order and will be purged.

[Klaustrophobia]

is it REALLY that bad?  i haven't played it yet.

[Titan]

No love for Galactic Battlegrounds? I spent years playing that as a kid.

[SpardaSon21]

Because Galactic Battleground is Age of Empires IN SPACE!

[Mongoose]

Exactly.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, but it's essentially a reskin of Age of Empires II.

[CP5670]

I voted for TA. It introduced numerous gameplay and technological innovations and had a very "complete" and polished feel to it. I think it was a much better game than Starcraft back then. C&C1 is a close second though for its top notch story and campaigns. They still hold up well today, unlike the earliest RTSs such as Dune 2. The subsequent C&C games never quite reached the same heights again, although C&C3 was excellent.

Homeworld looks interesting too. I only got it recently but it's next on my to-play list. Another series worthy of mention is Battlezone. These games aren't purely RTSs, but they were totally unique and there has been nothing remotely like them since then.

There are lots of user made maps, mods, and custom units, but there is no built-in map editor like in most other RTS games, and there are no custom games like in StarCraft or other RTS games, there is only melee in Total Annihilation (destroy your enemies base and kill his/her commander).

The mods and TCs it has are better than what most other games have though. UTASP and Final Frontier are excellent examples.

[AugustusVarius]

is it REALLY that bad?  i haven't played it yet.

C&C 4 is so despised by most of the hardcore series fans because it removed the thing that WAS C&C: base building.  A LOT of people, myself included, absolutely refused to spend $50 for what we considered something that wasn't even worthy of belonging to the series.

Still going to have to go with Command & Conquer, since I found Homeworld (1 and 2) rather clunky.  I was also never that interested by the story, which is often what really draws me into a game.  The Age of Empires series was great until they made AOE 3.  I will never forgive Ensemble for trying to come up with some BS campaign about the fountain of youth.  Since I was FIVE I had been waiting for historical campaigns from that era.  That **** with the generations of the family was too much.

I must say that I'm surprised Empire Earth isn't up there, as even though it had crap sequels, the original was very well polished.

[CP5670]

I haven't paid much attention to C&C4 after it came out. I was actually open to the idea of a C&C game without bases, but from what I read it has some absurd design decisions and sucks as an RTT game too. The story was supposed to be crappy too, and it had annoying DRM to top it off.

C&C as a series has had a few stinkers in it, despite the high points of C&C1 and C&C3. Aside from C&C4, there was also Sole Survivor. Does anyone remember that?

[Klaustrophobia]

I haven't paid much attention to C&C4 after it came out. I was actually open to the idea of a C&C game without bases, but from what I read it has some absurd design decisions and sucks as an RTT game too. The story was supposed to be crappy too, and it had annoying DRM to top it off.

C&C as a series has had a few stinkers in it, despite the high points of C&C1 and C&C3. Aside from C&C4, there was also Sole Survivor. Does anyone remember that?

i thought 2 was the best of the tiberium universe.  3 is good, but the gameplay doesn't feel like classic 1 # 2 tiberium C&C to me, more like RA.  and say what you will, but generals is my all time favorite. 

[carbine7]

I think we can all agree that C&C4 failed on every conceivable level and should be erased from history.

You know, I actually enjoyed Dune 2000 and Emperor.

[headdie]

with C&C 4 they should have done another "generals" type move away from the main story arch to test the ideas on the fans then done a "fixed" version of the game play for 4 if they were so determined to move away from the traditional style of play

[Colonol Dekker]

I've got a limited time window to post so I've not read any posts above mine. I voted Total Annihilation, I love command and conquers style, and it was the first RTS I ever played (apart from Herzog zwei on the megadrive) homeworld draws me in every time, especially cataclysms beasty moments.
 
But for sheer scale and tactical fun I LOVES TA. I bought the original release, then the commanders battle kit box thing. Then supreme commander came out, unofficial sequel as it may be, it's the best RTS I own.
 
 
Total Annihilation's my favourite though, and Firespawn and I still LAN it up. ARM ETERNAL!

[Vidmaster]

HOMEWORLD

Unmatched. True 3D. God I still play HW2!

Starcraft had a good balance but what the hell, it was not innovative.