My favourite game-playing experiences are in games without missions and storylines - highly replayability such as a soccer or driving game or an online RTS. One of my favourites was playing the skirmish mode on Warcraft II, but it always felt a bit limited and these days I think it would seem dated.

So I'm after a classic RTS - the same sort of style as the classic C&C/WC/TA games though it doesn't have to be old - which offers great skirmish (offline multiplayer) functionality. An active online community is nice but I hate APM games and find that really only playing against AI lets me indulge my preferred playing style without getting frustrated. So the AI needs to not be too repetitive and dull.

Obvious candidates seem to include Warcraft III or Red Alert II but it needs to run smoothly on Windows 7 and not look like crap. But if there are some indie games out there - even ones you've been involved in yourself - do share them. Perhaps there is a perfect game out there for my taste which I'd never heard of...

I noticed there are C&C3 and RA3 games which are still "classic RTS", is that true?

I came across Homeworld Remastered as well... never played the original but I remember the hype around it.

cossacks was always one of my favourites.

Don't know that one. What do you like about it?

If we're going off the big-name list (which is quite small) I'm personally in favour of RTS games where building a defended base and putting together an army is preferred over sending a trickle of small units as fast as possible... larger, longer battles where you actually get to develop your tech-tree and so the war can swing backwards and forwards. Ideally, being able to form alliances with AI players ... I loved that you could have 8 players in WC2 skirmishes.

Darn, this just gets me excited and wanting to go off and build such a game but I haven't the time :(

Infested Planet is awesome. Not sure if it will scratch the same itch, but it has a really good single player campaign.

EDIT for random title toss outs: Company of heroes 2? Sins of a Solar Empire and it's expansions?

EDIT2: Also Kohan is great for skirmish, with lots of custom AIs and moddable AIs, low APM required, and random maps. Now on Steam as well. Not quite sure it would fit the classic RTS mold though. I'm gonna push it anyway just cuz it's something more people should experience.

Kohan is one I actually have played, recommended years ago when I asked a similar thing! I did enjoy playing it but it didn't quite grab me in the same way. Good call though, rarely do you get to murder horses in games.

edit: looking at screenshots I'm not 100% sure I'm thinking of the same game though I definitely have played Kohan, I have the CD on my shelf. What's the one where you get to murder horses?

I’m a big C&C fan so that’d be my first suggestion. You can get the Ultimate Collection, which includes every C&C game for just $20, which is absurdly cheap. (they’re all classic RTS except Renegade and C&C4 – also although official multiplayer support has ended, you can still play online with other services like cnc-online or gameranger)

I’ve also had a lot of fun with singleplayer in Sins of a Solar Empire, which is kind of classic RTS but with a bit of 4x as well, the nice thing about that game is that skirmish games tend to last a long time and with big random maps it doesn’t get very repetitive. There’s a long tech tree and some diplomacy options as well.

Maybe Age of Empires series too? I’d suggest BFME2 as well but it’s pretty hard to get copies of that these days.

Dungeon Keeper 2 ?

"Pet Dungeon" and "Skirmish" modes have no story line, or missions. It's better to play the main campaign mode if you play for long periods of time.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a great classic game - 1 map, 1 campaign, many outcomes.

Only issue with that is it's turn based.

Overlord is more of a story driven strategy / puzzle game, but should be played any way.

Command and conquer tiberian sun is free to download and fun for skirmish, you can also save your skirmish and carry on later. I have skirmishes going on in there that are 8 plus hours long, with seven AI players and a turtle strategy.

"Kill Krush And Destroy: Extreme" is great. Live action campiness too, just like C&C.