Trent Polack has started writing what looks like will be a very long history of the genre. (Like me, he separates the Total War games from the core RTS definition.) {spotted at Tacticular Cancer}

The most interesting part of the initial chapter is an obiter dictum on the lack of “strategical prowess” in your run-of-the-mill multiplayer RTS session.

There are numerous instances in the history of world conflict where a country’s forces have entered into a battle completely overpowered, outnumbered, and generally outmatched, but yet have managed to “win” the battle by most counts due to the strategic brilliance of their commander. Most RTS titles, though, don’t generally allow for this to happen; an inept player with massed units, in some games, can simply enter a fight with a superior player in command of very few units, and pull out with a total victory. Does this prevalent shortcoming of the genre really change the way we look at games under which it’s labeled? I’d say no, but it raises interesting questions which the next generation of real-time strategy games — Supreme Commander in particular — are looking to remedy.

First, an inept player will almost never accumulate mass units of any power against a superior player. That’s not the way the games are built. In an online world where superiority is demonstrated by a win/loss column, I don’t know how we would even recognize strategic brilliance in a player who keeps getting outmatched in production. When an RTS player does use small forces to destroy larger ones, this is often derided as “dancing” or “micromanaging”.

Second, those historic instances Polack refers to are few and far between and heavily reliant on external factors. Even in those cases where one giant mind was able to win a battle, like Hannibal at Cannae, the war was often lost because the Romans or Russians or Mongols kept pumping out units. (In RTS terms, think of velites needing a serious nerfing or increase in cost.)

Third, if Supreme Commander can, in fact, make last stands by superior minds a fruitful strategic avenue, I’ll preorder tomorrow.

I’ll update and summarize when Polack finishes his magnum opus. (As a history, it is quite good so far.)