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[Robsoie]

The old Shogun Total War and Medieval: Total War were having their real time battle with 2D sprites that could go up to several thousands of them duking it out.

edit : oops didn't noticed it was already mentionned

[askovdk]

You may be interested in Battlefront's 'Combat Mission' series.
It is 'pause-able realtime', and of (IMHO) very high quality.

They have good demos on their page: http://www.battlefront.com/
Go for either 'Battle for Normandy' or 'Fortress Italy' if you want WWII.
Or 'Shock Force' if you want a 'hypothetical' invervention into Syria. 

[Sinistar]

There's also Entente: WWI Battlefields.

It plays and looks almost identical to Cossacks 1, only in WWI setting. I had, uh, a copy of it a while ago. It's a very specific kind of fun. The recruitment rate of basic cannon fodder is even quicker than in Cossacks, there's usually even more soldiers on the battlefield and the ultimate (land) weapon, tanks, are even slower to make than cannon in Cossacks. But are also absolutely hilarious to use. Hundreds of soldiers die in mere second, no kidding.

Though I didn't play it much beyond some basic skirmish games. It felt kinda basic, compared to Cossacks, not much unit diversity and all. And I could understand not including trenches (due to gameplay and engine limitations, my guess), but it felt kinda lame there was also no sight of barbwire.
Then there were troubles with using pontoon bridges, basic AI similar to Cossacks, really basic squad management, campaign didn't really pull me in...

Still, I think like Cossacks, this kind of game would be absolutely blast to play over net. And right now it's even on sale on GamersGate, imho 3.74€ is just about worth it. Basic price of 14.95€ is not, especially when you can get Cossacks Gold for even lower.

[Geltor]

There's also Entente: WWI Battlefields.

It plays and looks almost identical to Cossacks 1, only in WWI setting. I had, uh, a copy of it a while ago. It's a very specific kind of fun. The recruitment rate of basic cannon fodder is even quicker than in Cossacks, there's usually even more soldiers on the battlefield and the ultimate (land) weapon, tanks, are even slower to make than cannon in Cossacks. But are also absolutely hilarious to use. Hundreds of soldiers die in mere second, no kidding.

Though I didn't play it much beyond some basic skirmish games. It felt kinda basic, compared to Cossacks, not much unit diversity and all. And I could understand not including trenches (due to gameplay and engine limitations, my guess), but it felt kinda lame there was also no sight of barbwire.
Then there were troubles with using pontoon bridges, basic AI similar to Cossacks, really basic squad management, campaign didn't really pull me in...

Still, I think like Cossacks, this kind of game would be absolutely blast to play over net. And right now it's even on sale on GamersGate, imho 3.74€ is just about worth it. Basic price of 14.95€ is not, especially when you can get Cossacks Gold for even lower.

i know this game as well and i consider it a part of cossacks. i didnt really feel like the wwi setting was fitting seeing as how many units are set in an improper scale and it just feels strange..plus the reasons you mentioned

[Anvilfolk]

Cossacks 2, for me, was the best in the series. You can find it on Steam. It's in the Napoleonic era, and you have dozens of formations, each with 120+ people, plus cannons, cavalry, etc. There's a risk-like meta-campaign, where you conquer territories, and as you do, your general levels up and allows you to have more formations. Then there's also the main "story" campaign, which is sort of meh, but hey, Cossacks 2 gameplay. And then there's skirmishes. Each map can have lots of towns strewn about, and those towns give you a specific type of resource if you capture them. No coal or iron, and your troops can't fire. Very, very tactical.

Have a look at the Celtic Kings series as well, it had a similar feel, though with less troops. Also sprite-based.

[Geltor]

what im missing in these games is the depth of the gameplay. for example what i loved about total war was how you could zoom in fully to even see what the unit sees. while it may sound kind of unnecessary, i always loved watching my last 3 out of 60 troops wander around a completely destroyed huge city looking for enemies

[Jopax]

Huh, I was under the impression AC went free a couple years back. Eh, could've been a freebie weekend or something :S

[Aklyon]

The more you post, while it does help describe what you're looknig for further, its starting to sound like you just want to find another total war game.

[Mech#4]

"Warhammer: Mark of Chaos" is like Total War with units of troops fighting each other on a battle map. However, the campaign is rather simple, so is the battle tactics and combat feels split between commanding your troops and controlling your general during his duel with the enemy general.

It's more like Battle for Middle Earth 1 or 2 really, without the base building.

For that matter, Battle of Middle Earth 2 has a campaign map (I think, vaguely remember the option) and battles tend to involve larger than average armies.


Have you looked into mods for Medieval 2: Total War? They can be rather large to download but the main ones I'd recommend looking at are "Third Age: Total War" and "Stainless Steel". There's also "Call of Warhammer" or "Rage of Dark Gods" as it's now known, but I hesitantly suggest it because while it's impressive it's rather unstable and difficult to install properly.

[Orb]

Ultimate General: Gettysburg

It's not out yet though. 

[Il Palazzo]

"Warhammer: Mark of Chaos"

I was just going to suggest the Warhammer games, although not Mark of Chaos specifically. Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen were superior. The graphics in those two is very dated, but unlike MoC, they were challenging to play.

SOTHR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLLSRNsTvYU

DO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIt7ZJjpMs0

[Mech#4]

Also could go with "Warhammer 40,000 Epic: Final Liberation". That's got sector control and since it's based off "Epic 40,000" you have huge stompy Titans to demolish enemies with.

This, along with "Shadow of the Horned Rat", and I assume "Dark Omen" have a kind of army maintenance. Units gain experience and level up as you win battles, and new units are hard to come by so keeping your units alive is quite important.

"Shadow of the Horned Rat" especially. I remember buying new units was really expensive and you didn't get enough money to keep it up all throughout the game.

[GiglameshDespair]

I don't think Final Liberation was real time? Turn-based, isn't it?

Shadow of the Horned Rat was amazingly impossible, though.

[Il Palazzo]

Yeah, SOTHR was really oldschool hard. The WH rules that allowed for random "your mortar explodes" criticals didn't help.
DO was much more casual with way too much cash to spend, as well as the ability to buy stuff after each battle. Then MoC came and made it look hardcore.

DO was probably the first game(I know of) that had support to multiplayer battles. I remember fondly duking it out with my pal over dialup.

[Mech#4]

Ah, yes it is. It's kind of like X-Com in that regard, units take turns then the computer moves. Also FMV sequences that from what I've seen are better than you'd think.


Ooh, maybe one. The HD updates of "Stronghold" might be worth a look. They're real time castle builders, but the "Stronghold: Crusader HD" has huge masses of units all over the place. You have battles involving swarms of archers, macemen, knights and the like. It's like a unit cap of 10,000 on a single map.


"Mark of Chaos" isn't a bad game, as has been said it's just easy. The units look nice, spells are neat and there's customisation, but there's no real tactics to use, flanking doesn't do much and a powerful general can nearly solo an army himself.