RTS/Strategy Games with Physics

[The Civs 6]

This is kind of a random thought, but it has been floating in my head for a while. Are there strategy games that make use of robust physics engines?

I'm thinking of things like the possibility of guns missing/friendly fire/ricochet, or whatever depending on the context.

Total War kind of does it, but it's not really the kind of genre I'm thinking of. Also, I'd like to think that a game could push the physics engine further, although Total War does have some fairly good material, like archers missing and how it does splash damage. Age of Empires 3 has a few physics features, mostly with regard to splash damage from cannons and cannon fire levelling trees. I guess this is the issue that interests me more, because it's kind of interesting that cannon fire causes the felled tree to become unusable as a resource. I guess Red Alert and the other Westwood games kind of have it, with vehicles being able to run over people, explosives and garrisonable neutral buildings. But these are really narrow gameplay ideas.

I think a RTS with a very detailed physics engine could be interesting. I'm almost thinking of what I have heard about 40k - where if you are shooting at a big tank, you roll to see how much damage you do, and if you kill it, you roll to see if it explodes and causes other damage. I dunno, I guess I'm looking to see if there are RTS's with that kind of chaos factor.

 

[sherbz]

Best game for this IMO is Total Annihilation. And to my knowledge its still not been usurped from its spot in the RTS arena. It was the first game to really use a proper physics engine - with terrain, altitude and AOE all featured in a realistic way. That is until the Total War franchise came along. But if you were after a top down red alert style RTS then you cant go too far wrong with TA. That said, it does have a spiritual successor called Supreme commander. Which i have not played so cannot comment. Although it does have decent review scores. Might be worth you checking that out if you cant stomach the 90s style.

 

[Solver]

I think Company of Heroes is the best RTS game ever, and it made great use of physics. For instance, heavy vehicles can drive through and destroy walls, and artillery strikes create craters that become usable for cover. Neutral buildings can be garrisoned, which is nothing unusual, but the impressive part is how a building's layout matters - infantry will only shoot out of windows, but damage to the building can blow new holes in the wall which can also be used by the men inside. Sometimes you get fun stuff like an out of control tank running some infantry over before it explodes.

For a game from 2006, the physics are very advanced. I don't have much hope for a good sequel, but I'd be beyond myself with excitement. One of the amazing things about a sequel could be precisely the physics, modern computers are capable of doing much more!