Back in the "good ol' days" when RTS's weren't expected to be competitive spectator sports.

Every modern RTS wants to be the new starcraft which includes the fast pace gameplay, they dont want the slow dark age gameplay that may bore spectators

I play tons of the old Starcraft, X-Com Apocalypse, Jagged Alliance 1.13, Alpha Centauri Alien Crossfire, Faster Than Light, Company of Heroes 1, etc. Maybe Transport Tycoon Deluxe could be sort-of decribed as a RTS also?

Older games from the 90s-early 2000s have this certain enjoyment factor that many (but not all) newer games lack. Being able to also cheat in an old game is amazing, like absolutely dicking down an enemy with a squad of 12 Terran Battlecruisers. Or modifying weapons like the early-game laser cannons in X-Com: Apocalypse to fire extremely fast and at longer ranges, to then subsequently level 90% of the city in a constant maelstrom of piss because a UFO spawned in. Oh and also there's so much piss onscreen that a modern gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 starts to dry-heave on a game released when Nelson Mandela was still president.

Death to AmeriKKKa

i used to love RTS as well but have the same complaints. can't do tactics it just feels like the games are designed for twitchy fast paced multiplayer e-sports.

WARNO (latest in the Cold war era Wargame series) seems pretty slow paced. it even has a way to give commands while paused in single player (or virtually paused, i think it's at like 1/100 speed) also unlike the others it seems to be designed around single player

no resource gathering though i think you just secure objectives to gain more points to spend for units. plus side you can use cool Soviet tanks and troops

sure, but I think I'm not into the fast paced games because I'm getting old, but I also don't like the trend in general. I think there's an untapped market for good turn based strategy games, which I'm currently working on a crappy indie game to address.

I only like RTS games where you can pause and issue orders for this reason. Like Kenshi puts you in brutal situations all the time, but it rarely feels unfair (or at least unfair in a way that's different from what you expect) because you basically play as a hivemind where at any point you can stop time and do everybody's thinking for them.

And if I'm playing something larger scale it's even more important, because you're telling me that I, the person commanding all this, wouldn't be constantly delegating and being briefed on shit? I have to check up on all the resources, keep track of all the units and equipment, build all the buildings, and personally schedule every troop movement from paratrooper assaults to scouting parties? Fuck you, give me time powers! I understand it's boring to realistically say "destroy this point" and then have a bunch of your underlings make a plan and carry it out with their underlings, but in their effort to avoid that boring layer of disengagement, they've added the anxiety of having to do the work of a general and their lieutenants. I just think the way most RTS games simulate total control without a chain of command sets them up for this pitfall.

Also I just want my little infantry squads to mean something, you know?

There's no combat (it's more of a resource manager), but you would probably like "against the storm".

RA3 is slower than RA2, which is one thing that people complained about with regards to the former.
RA3 was specifically designed to make the game slower, with fewer resources in order to promote more thoughtful military compositions and strategy.

If anything, I find the 90s RTS games, played at high speed (which is seemingly the standard for them) seem to be much 'faster' than the more modern ones.

This is probably why my favourite rts's are also the slowest, supreme commander and Homeworld 1

Me playing Total Warhammer battles at 0.5x speed so I have anything even approaching a chance to do the necessary micro for using chariots (I still can't)

I'm a huge RTS enjoyer but never could get too into the faster modern RTS games so let me recommend Dune: Spice Wars or Northgard, both are made by the same devs and go for a very relaxed and tactical pace, there are still moments where you might have to react to something happening fast, especially in Dune (sand worm might be about to eat your army, if you aren't paying attention they will all die within like 10 seconds) but they are both pretty fun. Sins of a Solar Empire also has a pretty deliberate pace, I haven't tried the new one yet though.