Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade

"There is no such thing as innocence.... only degrees of guilt" Still one of the best RTS I ever played. Excellent campaign and the new races really add to the excitement and strategy.

Very possibly the best RTS experience for any game ever made. Yes, it lacks a lot of the mechanical depth and prestige of Starcraft, but playing Craftworld Eldar and Tau in the conquest mode is one of the most pleasant memories I will ever have with a game, ever, under any circumstance. A legendary feat for its time. Even with the terrible pathfinding, I have so many iconic memories of cloaking everything as Eldar and sending the Avatar of Khaine to solo other bases. Fighting desperately with Soviet meat wave assaults against Necrons as the Guard, watching helplessly as Tau sharpshooters ambushed me from destroyed buildings. During the real life battle of Mariupol in the post 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a Ukrainian Azov soldier cited his doctrine of fortifying several key parts of the city on the way to the Azovsteel works facility, based on how the Tau prepared their urban defense in Dawn of War - Dark Crusade.