looking at my notes, I’m wondering if you could draw a few lines.
You mention you’re interested in combat RTS, not economic/4X games, fair enough.
But what about the following situations (for example):
- “Versus (AI/player)” games without clear analogues to those three categories, like Populous (god sim), Dungeon Keeper (asymmetric base expansion and defense), or Herzog Zwei (action-hybrid)
- Combat RTS with no explicit building or raw resource management (Myth, Battle Bugs), particularly small scale “squad” games (Syndicate, Commandos) or strategy RPGs (Rage of Mages)
- Games which handle enemy/NPC encounters in a different mode (Ogre Battle)
The actual number of Japanese RTS which are similar to the genre-defining classics already listed in the document is pretty small, but there are a lot of weird hybrid and fringe cases. I’m fine with whatever criteria, I just don’t want to waste time with clearly ineligible suggestions.