They perfectly exemplified the best of what a utility unit can be, and are easily one of the most brilliantly designed units in any RTS, period. While only of middling HP, they could turn enemy strategies on their heads while casually walking through friendly-fire damage like Blizzard and Flamestrike. Spell Breakers were one of the ultimate Human disruption units, shuffling buffs and debuffs, taking over summoned units, and completely immune only to negative magic.
And my favorite instance of Mana Burn, is the Spell Breaker. Introduced in the Frozen Throne expansion of Warcraft 3, the Mana Burn mechanic was easily my favorite addition, punishing opponents for overproducing spellcasters and not utilizing them (that is, stockpiling mana for battles). Any mechanics that increase the fascinating counterplay of spellcaster relation to larger armies is welcome to me. Right off the bat, let me say that I tend to favor anti-spellcaster units and mechanics in general: spell casters tend to be “glass cannons” that can wreak havoc on enemy armies… unless they’re caught in the open and then tend to die horribly. I think throughout my list, you’ll find a combination of brutality and utility, and I think the Necron Monolith exemplifies that brilliantly: a deadly weapon, that can produce units and call Necron armies from around the map. It combines the best parts of super unit and mobile factory the ultimate Necron “F U” to the other factions, providing Necron Warriors more nuanced use of their Defensive Teleport ability and making Flayed Ones so very happy. Once the Necron player navigates their tech tree, the Monolith uproots and can start teleporting around the map causing extreme havoc and woe. The Necron Monolith is, in Dawn of War 1, the Necron faction’s super unit and also happens to be their HQ and production structure. And their greatest weapon is the Special Rules brick of death, the deepstriking Living Metal block of doom – the Monolith. Those causers of angry rules arguments (due to the ambiguity of their custom rules). Those undead of the Warhammer 40K universe, whose basic infantry can crit a vehicle and who can take a Lascannon in the face and stand up again (provided you have a Necron Lord in close proximity with the appropriate wargear, of course). Necron Monolith, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War: The Dark CrusadeĪh, the Necrons. It’s perhaps not one of the most iconic Red Alert units (mind controlled squids, anyone? Tesla Troopers?) but its utility and visual design provide it an enduring place in my RTS hall of fame.
The Desolator is a good offensive and defensive unit with tons of character. In its alternate or ‘deployed’ mode, a Desolator generates a large area of radioactive desolation around itself that can wipe out infantry and damage (most) vehicles that travel through it. In its primary mode, it deals hot acid death from a generous range against both infantry and vehicles in spectacular fashion – infantry units that die to its effect collapse in a green goo-coated tarantella that is glorious to behold.
The Desolator is a unique unit from the Iraq sub-faction and boy, is it a doozy. Perhaps games were better ‘back in the day’ or perhaps nostalgia is rearing its head, but to me, some of the most memorable and straight-up fun units in the RTS world harken from the hoary days of the year 2000. Wayward’s Picks Desolator, Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge Which, of course, is what the writers at Wayward Strategist are going to be doing over the course of the next several thousand words. Real time strategy games are often taken quite seriously by players and writers: in-depth articles are penned (or more often typed, I suppose) on income/expenditure ratios, the balance or imbalance of games at a given point in their history, the minutia of balancing such-and-such a mechanic… and for people ‘on the inside’ – that is, serious players of the game being discussed, this information can be interesting and beneficial for improving play.īut every now and again it’s worthwhile and even important to revel in the joy of the design of these games – not necessarily the pacing or mechanics, but sometimes the art and the story, or maybe just grin like overgrown children while we extol the virtues of our favorite units.
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