Almost a decade after publishing its initial retrospective celebrating iconic real-time strategy (RTS) units—ranging from rocket trucks to nimble spiderbots—the gaming publication PC Gamer has returned to the subject with a definitive, community-driven mission. Abandoning endless, circular debates and subjective editorial panels, the publication has launched a high-stakes, 16-competitor single-elimination tournament designed to answer one fundamental question: What is the absolute greatest RTS unit in gaming history?
Rather than relying purely on tactical utility, competitive win-rates, or cosmetic flair, the tournament embraces a democratic philosophy. The definition of "best" has been left entirely up to the voters. Competitors can advance based on any metric the community chooses—whether that means sheer dominance in a one-versus-one brawl, jaw-dropping polygonal design, historical gaming impact, or simply an uncanny ability to masquerade as an ordinary tree.
Chronology of the Clash: How the Tournament Unfolds
The tournament structure was meticulously designed by the editorial staff over the course of several weeks, narrowing down an expansive legacy of strategy gaming into a curated shortlist of 16 legendary units.
- The Shortlist Phase (Previous Week): Staff writers across various desks nominated their personal favorites, drawing from decades of genre-defining software. Editorial consensus was intentionally bypassed in favor of personal passion projects, setting up a chaotic and wildly uneven playing field.
- Round One Launch (Current Week): The 16 contenders were randomly paired into head-to-head match-ups, creating bizarre tactical juxtapositions. For instance, humble, low-tier resource gatherers find themselves facing off against galactic superweapons capable of wiping out entire armadas.
- Community Voting Window: Fans have been given a strict 48-hour window per round to cast their ballots. To accommodate the massive influx of nostalgic strategy fans, Round One polls will remain open through Sunday evening.
- The Quarter-Finals and Beyond: Winning units will advance to the next bracket tier early next week, culminating in a grand finale that will ultimately crown the undisputed champion of the strategy genre.
As part of the event’s housekeeping rules, editors clarified that where units appear across multiple iterations of a long-running franchise, a specific version was chosen based on its distinct flavor, visual design, or mechanical quirk.
Supporting Data: Tale of the Tape – The 16 Contenders
The tournament bracket features an eclectic mix of industrial machinery, fantasy beasts, and pop-culture behemoths. The match-ups showcase the sheer diversity of the RTS genre:
1. Peon (Warcraft 3) vs. Glass Dragon (Rise of Legends)
- The Peon (Blizzard Entertainment): Nominated by Online Editor Fraser Brown, the Warcraft 3 Peon represents the overworked, underappreciated backbone of the Horde. While woefully ineffective in direct combat, their value lies in logistics and survival instincts. They avoid conflict not out of cowardice, but because the entire survival of their civilization hinges on their ability to mine gold and chop wood. Plus, their endearingly goofy aesthetic sealed their spot.
- The Glass Dragon (Microsoft/Xbox): Championed by contributor Russell Adderson, this stunning unit hails from Rise of Legends, a cult-classic RTS that uniquely blended steampunk aesthetics, Arabian mythology, and extraterrestrial elements. Armed with the ability to slag enemy armor and rendered in gorgeous, primitive polygons, the Glass Dragon remains a visual marvel.
2. Mammoth Tank (Command & Conquer: Red Alert) vs. Petard (Age of Empires 2)
- Mammoth Tank (EA): Put forward by News Writer Joshua Wolens, this trundling Soviet juggernaut is a monument to brute force. Implacably slow and eye-wateringly expensive, it embodies Cold War-era military excess forged in steel and pig iron.
- Petard (Microsoft/Xbox): Also backed by Wolens, the Petard is a unit with a singular, explosive purpose: sprint toward the nearest enemy structure, detonate, and reduce it to rubble. While the unit dies in the process, the psychological terror of sending a circus-like horde of demolitionists toward an opponent’s base is unmatched.
3. Psyker (Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War) vs. Rohirrim (The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth)
- Psyker (Relic Entertainment): Senior Guides Writer Sean Martin nominated this tragic spellcaster, lauded as one of the best voice-acted units in gaming history. Mechanically, the Psyker perfectly encapsulates the grimdark lore of the Warhammer universe: utilizing magic requires tapping into a hellish dimension of soul-hungry daemons. This is represented by the "Perils of the Warp" mechanic, giving the unit a chance of instantly dying or suffering a catastrophic head explosion whenever its powers are overused.
- Rohirrim (EA): Hardware Managing Editor Jacob Ridley championed the horsemen of Rohan, inspired by cinematic history. Equipped with forged blades and heavy armor, a properly formed flying-V wedge of Rohirrim acted as an in-game cheat code capable of trampling Sauron’s darkest legions beneath thundering hooves.
4. High Templar (StarCraft 2) vs. Pride of Hiigara (Homeworld 2)
- High Templar (Blizzard Entertainment): Hardware Writer Jacob Fox highlighted the sheer dopamine hit of executing a Psionic Storm. By teching into High Templars, players could instantly melt entire armies of Terran Marines or Zerg Zerglings, transforming a standard Protoss death-ball into an unstoppable engine of Area-of-Effect (AoE) destruction.
- Pride of Hiigara (Gearbox Software): Fraser Brown returned to nominate the iconic mothership from Homeworld 2. Functioning simultaneously as a mobile base, massive factory, and fleet carrier, its ability to literally spit out capital ships makes it an engineering marvel of science fiction strategy design.
5. Mirage Tank (Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3) vs. Ballista (Warcraft 2)
- Mirage Tank (EA): Another pick by Fraser Brown, the Mirage Tank subverts the traditionally loud, performative nature of military armor by disguising itself as a completely normal tree. Once an unsuspecting enemy wanders close enough, it unleashes a devastating spectrum dispersion cannon.
- Ballista (Blizzard Entertainment): US Editor-in-Chief Tyler Wilde offered a wonderfully straightforward defense for the Warcraft 2 Ballista: "This thing shoots a giant arrow. What are these other units gonna do against a really big arrow? Nothing."
6. Attack Cycle (Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun) vs. Executor Super Star Destroyer (Star Wars: Empire at War)
- Attack Cycle (EA): Joshua Wolens highlights Brotherhood of Nod’s disposable scout vehicle—a machine seemingly built from recycled beverage cans that embodies the faction’s core philosophy: victory through sheer numbers, blistering speed, and lethal affordability.
- Executor Super Star Destroyer (Lucasfilm/Petroglyph): Senior Editor Wes Fenlon brought undeniable scale to the tournament. Spanning 19 kilometers of durasteel and bristling with turbolaser batteries, Darth Vader’s personal flagship dwarfs standard destroyers and can bully entire rebel fleets single-handedly, rendering cinematic A-Wing kamikaze tactics useless.
7. Atreides Sonic Tank (Dune 2) vs. Dolphin (Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2)
- Atreides Sonic Tank (Virgin Interactive): Russell Adderson selected this bizarre, genre-pioneering unit from the granddaddy of modern RTS games. It vaporizes infantry effortlessly while capturing the surreal, imaginative essence of Frank Herbert’s universe.
- Dolphin (EA): Fraser Brown rounds out his picks with Red Alert 2’s aquatic assassin. Dismissed by many as mere scouts due to their light armor, a coordinated pod of Dolphins can unleash devastating sonic blasts capable of dismantling entire naval fleets and coastal fortifications.
8. Peewee (Total Annihilation) vs. Priest (Age of Empires)
- Peewee (Wargaming/Cavedog): Sean Martin spotlighted this incongruously cheerful robotic infantry unit. Despite fighting in a grim, millennia-long robotic apocalypse, the Peewee marches with energetic enthusiasm, discharging relentless streams of energy balls from its arm-mounted blasters.
- Priest (Microsoft/Xbox): Weekend Editor Jody Macgregor submitted the ultimate micro-managing psychological weapon of the original Age of Empires, summarized succinctly with a single, legendary soundbite: "Wololo."
Official Responses and Industry Context
The tournament has ignited passionate discourse across gaming forums, social media, and internal editorial channels. While the tournament is ostensibly framed as a lighthearted community event, it touches on a deeper industry truth: the RTS genre, though historically less dominant in the modern marketplace than it was during the 1990s and 2000s, retains one of the most fiercely loyal fanbases in gaming.
Publishers and developers have increasingly looked toward nostalgia to sustain community engagement, and PC Gamer’s multi-tiered tournament approach—running parallel brackets for ultimate FPS modes alongside the RTS unit showdown—demonstrates a growing appetite for interactive, community-driven retrospective journalism.
Broader Implications for the Strategy Genre
Beyond the fun of internet voting and bracketology, the tournament highlights how individual game units transcend their original software to become enduring cultural touchstones.
Units like the Command & Conquer Mammoth Tank or the Warcraft Peon are not merely mechanical tools designed to solve a puzzle of resource management and combat ratios; they are repositories of player memory. They evoke the late nights spent huddled around family desktop computers, the frantic clicking of LAN parties, and the cinematic triumphs of overcoming insurmountable AI odds.
As the tournament progresses toward its weekend voting deadline and subsequent quarter-finals, the ultimate victor will remain entirely in the hands of the audience. Whether the crown goes to a multi-kilometer space dreadnought or a humble, tree-chopping orc worker will serve as a fascinating mirror of what the modern gaming community values most in the storied history of real-time strategy.
