I arrive at the capital city of the snakepeople, myself a snakeperson. I am following a lead that a certain snakeperson, angry at the elves, basically opened a gate to the plane of fuck.
They promise to tell me more, but first I must defend the capital from the imperial humans who are invading. They already have the coast, and they're pressing on the capital...
I agree, and pay some extra dosh to field an extra-large retinue in the fight. I arrive and... huh. I'm in an empty square in the middle of the map. Defensible, but there's nothing here. Oh... building is allowed. I didn't bring builders.
My hero (heroes can build, though barely) rushes to set up a base, but the Ssrathi builder units don't come from the initial building. By the time I have an economy started, waves of imperials (and orcs, what the fuuuck?) have overrun me.
RIP snakepeople - oh except the campaign mode allows failures, and even updates the journal with specific messages which marginally explain the failures away!
The Ssrathi will rise again, yesss
(and did, in my next attempt. The retinue fees were sunk, but the Mayan-expy snakepeople gave me a suitable reward)
Warlords Battlecry 3
This game isn't remotely balanced, but it's a fun RPG RTS. Campaign is surprisingly interesting. Doesn't make you hold territory like Dawn of War or Dune 2000, but you can manage relations with the dozen other factions. If they like you enough, your hero can lead a different faction into battle.
My snehk is a merchant, meaning I can spend points to get discounts. A universally useful skill in a RTS. I hope to make many allies, yesssss.