There was a game called "Seven Kingdoms II", it was kind of... hybrid of RTS and city builder? You could play as either various humans, all sorts of old world cultures, or as frythans, various monster races like rock golems, giant lizardmen, meat demons(?), minotaurs and other sorts.
Humans had towns defended by forts. You built structures like mines or factories, or temples and science towers, which all pulled workers from your towns. Drafting soldiers also drew from your populace. Unemployed people were considered farmers, they generated food. Mines and factories build goods to sell at markets, with most other structures revolving around military stuff at some point.
Each culture had a vaguely different base soldier, and a special structure that built a unique soldier as well. Japanese got special samurai, while Egyptians got chariots. Each also got a unique "seat of power," a big temple that summoned a unique god each with a different function. Egypt got Isis, who could bless towns and give them 20 population, while the Chinese got a dragon cat that breathed fire. It was possible to absorb other cultures by converting over neutral towns by building a fort, but generally each kingdom only gets one seat of power.
Frythans were much simpler, and geared much more towards constant aggression. They only had a lair for housing and creating new creatures, as well as a unique ability/structure for each species. Minotaurs got alchemy, lizards could build mage towers that cast spells, one species builds siege engines, so on.
Frythans needed to enslave neutral human towns for a flow of tribute money, but also they needed life force which they got by killing enemies. Frythan kingdoms starved without conflict. You could also mix species under one kingdom, by recruiting neutral lairs of the other species.
There was also SimAnt. You controlled a single ant in a big colony. There was another colony of red ants you had to outgrow and eventually exterminate. This mostly involved hauling food to your colony, but also recruiting swarms of fellow ants and leading attacks onto the red colony. All while managing your ant's energy and avoiding other insects and spiders, or the human's lawn mower.
There was a 'full game' mode that involved a greater strategic grid of the back yard and into the human's house. You could breed drones and queens to spread new colonies into the yard, and eventually into the house. Again the goal was to exterminate all red colonies, but also infest the house so much the human moves out.
There was a fatal flaw with the full game though, only the colony you are at is really simulated, and the game doesn't remember colonies you left. It only really cares about the relative black and red populations of each square. Leaving and returning to a colony just means an entirely new and randomly generated map and colony, not the home you left.
Author
Topic: Games that were only made once and never replicated (Read 10852 times)