Line #67 GameBreaker/RealTimeStrategy


1	{{Game Breaker}}s in real-time strategy games.
2
3	!! Games with their own pages:
4	[[index]]
5	* ''GameBreaker/ThirteenSentinelsAegisRim''
6	* ''GameBreaker/AgeOfEmpires''
7	* ''GameBreaker/CommandAndConquer''
8	* ''GameBreaker/CrusaderKings''
9	* ''GameBreaker/CrusaderKingsIII''
10	* ''GameBreaker/DawnOfWar''
11	* ''GameBreaker/EuropaUniversalis''
12	* ''GameBreaker/HeartsOfIron''
13	* ''GameBreaker/ImperatorRome''
14	* ''GameBreaker/IronMarines''
15	* ''GameBreaker/{{Stellaris}}''
16	* ''GameBreaker/TotalWar''
17	* ''GameBreaker/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun''
18	[[/index]]
19	----
20	!! Other games
21	* In any game where building is based on adjacency to other structures rather than builders, there's the possibility of "base walking;" constructing a line of the lowest-cost structure that still has build adjacency towards somewhere you want to go. Whether this is simply another tactic or a game breaker depends on how into TacticalRockPaperScissors the game itself is; if base defences hose ground units, it can be used to very rapidly gain control of map areas with static defences that have no real business being where they end up. ''Dune II'' was the ur-example, since even cheap-as-free concrete tiles had build adjacency.
22	** This was even turned in a sort-of requirement in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'', specifically in the last Soviet mission, because otherwise the enemy would send countless reinforcements by sea so unless they were blocked from accessing the beaches the player couldn't actually focus on the mission.
23	* ''Tzar: Burden of the Crown'' had a faction where you could spend money to create "relics" that could increase your units' stats. The game breaks when you could play with unlimited resources and have units carrying relics that increased stats by 10 times.
24	* ''Noblemen: 1896'':
25	** Even though it's only the 2nd weapon in the Tesla category, the Tesla Cutter is by far the best weapon for your Nobleman. Unlike the other Tesla weapons which are MagneticWeapons, the Tesla Cutter is a LightningGun that has almost HitScan levels of speed. All Tesla weapons have good to great armor-piercing, do a lot of damage (in fact, they get a further damage bonus on top of their already high damage base) and in a game where having a [[OneStatToRuleThemAll large ammo supply and]] MoreDakka can be the most important stats for a gun in this game, the Tesla Cutter has by far the largest magazine and firing rate. It's only drawback is its initially poor range, but with upgrades the Tesla Cutter can get a respectable amount of distance. In a game where, you'll often prefer duelling an enemy with your sword because aiming is so awful, the Tesla Cutter can wipe an entire enemy army off the map because it's so powerful and easy to use.
26	** Williams guns and Tesla Heavy Gunners are very effective high-tier units, but [[HeroUnit officer versions]] of them are far more powerful and can really dominate the landscape. Tesla cannons are clunky to use and have scant ammo, making it AwesomeButImpractical. However the Tesla Heavy Gunner (regular and officer version) override these weaknesses so that they're able to fire at a steady rate. While the projectile is a bit slow, they are accurate and have incredible range plus they cause an area of effect explosion and greatly reduce enemy morale per hit. Each shell has a very high armor-piercing capability and no other weapon matches the Tesla cannon per hit. Additionally Tesla Heavy Gunner officers have the highest health by a wide margin over any other unit in the game. The Williams guns can be fairly well-armoured, so officer versions can be very hard to damage with conventional weapons. Williams guns are artillery pieces that use an autocannon rather than a machine gun or large cannon that most other artillery pieces uses. This gives you a unit that has MoreDakka and high damage per hit plus very good armor-piercing from long range. If you fill all three officer slots with Tesla Heavy Gunner or Williams guns officers, then the only times you can lose is in skirmishes where enemy has far more heroes than you do.
27	** If you are lucky enough to get some legendary armor that has an armor rating of over 100, only enemies with the highest levels of armor-piercing can hurt them without a lucky critical hit (such as the mighty Whitworth cannon or enemies that carry Anti-Armor rifles like 15mm elephant guns or Tyrannosaur 15mm).
28	** There's a silver/gold exploit, where if you try to buy something from the War Shop and are short by up to 400 Silver or 10 Gold then the game allows you to watch an ad which will give you 400 Silver or 10 Gold. This bypasses the normal 20 minute cool-down time between watching an ad for currency. And normally most items in the War Shop cost between 25 to 375 Silver, so you can instantly buy them. So effectively you have near unlimited wealth.
29	* ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'' has a major problem with air units in general. Air units are supposed to be balanced by their high cost and frailty. However, when massed, air is much more powerful than ground units can possibly be, because air units can stack up in the sky, creating a rolling wall of death that will focus tons of damage on anything in its way. By contrast, ground units are limited by the amount of space on the ground, so you can't have many focus on one point. Also, air units are several times as fast as ground units and don't have to worry about terrain obstacles, so a single death ball can threaten the entire map and fly circles around their supposed counters. If they are outmatched, they can quickly retreat to heal or attack somewhere else.
30	* The first ''VideoGame/BattalionWars'' has Anti-Air Vets, which for being multi-hit along with causing knockback to any land unit except the [[MightyGlacier Battlestation]] causes high damage with ''each hit''. Want to know how bad this gets? A lone one can ''solo the two Battlestations in the final mission''. That isn't even anything close to within their job description and they manage it anyway, along with cutting down all of the infantry along the way including the [[DeathOfAThousandCuts Acid Gas Vets]]--in fact, Flame/Acid Gas Vets are supposed to do this job. Assault Vets in the first game, as well as Bazooka Vets in the sequel, can't even compare to this.
31	** However, let's not let either off the hook, partly because both, like the Anti-Air Vets, are infantry who can pull evasive maneuvers against enemy units, which isn't a bad thing considering the games generally center around infantry, but also because both get overboard with their power:
32	*** [[FragileSpeedster Assault Vets]] in the first game deal Heavy Tank armor piercing damage with each shot. Of course, this also means that a manually controlled Assault Vet can turn destroying heavy units (except the Battlestation, which is mercifully immune to the bullets) into a game of balance-the-meter to keep shooting rapidly without suffering the overheat. Something is wrong when a lone unit can kill the local DemonicSpiders effortlessly. And something like this that can happen sums it up:
33	---->'''Xylvania infantry''': * sits in position ready for enemy attack*
34	---->''(Two seconds later, the Xylvania infantry are all dead, with a lone Frontier Assault Vet standing in the middle of the dead bodies and the medpacks.)
35	---->'''Frontier Vet''': Never knew what hit 'em!
36	*** [[GlassCannon Bazooka Vets]] in the sequel have been toned up from the shoddy damage that a lone one deals to ''Light Tanks''. However, problems arise because against infantry, they are {{Mighty Glacier}}s, with good potential for ''{{One Hit Kill}}s''. In addition, a lone manually controlled Bazooka Vet can solo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9r1WL-qpk&fmt=18 an already nicely guarded Battlestation]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4j70KwM5kk&fmt=18 2 Battleships]]. A lone Mortar vet can solo a Battlestation more easily, but they just run into trouble with evasive infantry. The Lone Bazooka doesn't.
37	* In early versions of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', an Ironheade player who spammed Fire Barons was virtually unbeatable. Fire Barons are a Tier 1 unit (anti-armor units are mostly Tier 2) so they could come roaring out the gate, their strength and speed let them casually roll over most enemy units and their fire damage let them quickly destroy structures and the enemy Stage. Enemy players would have to personally intervene with a Double Team to stop it (only to get flanked by more Fire Barons). Fire Baron spamming was so overpowered that it nearly killed the game's online multiplayer community. Eventually Double Fine released a patch that gave Fire Barons a much-needed {{Nerf}}.
38	* Many people consider the King Tiger in ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' to be this. It's a one time use unit that drains 2000 manpower over the next few minutes after being fielded. It's also slow. However, it has tons of health, is heavily armored, can be called in at a moment's notice, does not require you to 'pay' to field it, and damage done to it can be repaired. It is essentially a supertank that you can call in for 'free' (you don't need to save up for it) and can be added to your existing army to give you a massive edge over the other player. The other player will need to field lots of AT Weapons to take it down, but these are costly and take time to make, and on top of that, they still have to deal with your existing army while trying to set up and defend these AT Weapons.
39	** The Western Allied counter to that would be the American Pershing, which is close but not quite up to the King Tiger's power. But unlike the once-per-game-if-you-loose-it-you're-screwed KT, you can literally SPAM these things at the Germans from here to doomsday as long as you have the funds available. And suddenly it's the GERMANS who are having their tanks chewed up and spit out like paper. ALL OVER THE MAP. And as long as you keep some engineers nearby to do the obligatory repairs, these things gain experience easily, which makes them only more dangerous. Suffice it to say by the end, the German elite armor will struggle to scratch these things.
40	** While the King Tiger can be a tough nut to crack, it by no means "breaks" the game. It's rather slow, and a single sticky bomb essentially makes it immobile, or at least slow enough to be taken out by pretty much anything with good armor penetration and/or long range. The turret is very slow, so the KT can be kited by anything that hasn't got its engine blown or tracks damaged. KT is excellent at soaking damage, so the American or British players shouldn't focus on it unless it's alone, but doesn't exactly destroy everything in sight within seconds. Considering the things that have been in the game (and have been removed or tweaked since then), KT seems like pretty much any "ultimate" power of any companydoctrine of any faction, and is by no means unstoppable.
41	** If anything, the Commonwealth's artillery is a game-breaker. Once the Artillery doctrine abilities are acquired, every British artillery piece on the map can shell the enemy's main base simultaneously, reducing all that work to rubble, and forcing the enemy to slowly rebuild their entire production capacity. Setting up three or four 25-pounder artillery pieces takes a bit of resources, but then again the British have amazingly powerful defensive emplacements to boot, and can just sit back and gather resources for a while. Even a King Tiger can't stand up to a couple of British AT emplacements - they're some of the most powerful AT weapons in the whole game.
42	** Originally, the Tiger Ace in ''Company of Heroes 2'' didn't have an upfront cost, but '''completely''' stopped all income gained for the rest of the game. It turned out this ''still'' didn't counteract the power of having a Tiger with double health and damage, causing many specifics of the unit to be changed - most notably, it instead penalized manpower and fuel income while active and became a Tiger with full normal veterancy benefits off the bat as well as some bonus sight range.
43	** Soviet Scout Sniper squads used to be able to garrison into [=M3A1=] Scout Cars. With a bit of micromanagement this would allow the Snipers to work their magic against infantry while keeping far away from any potential Wehrmacht attackers for a while since the vehicles needed to catch the Scout Car would take a fair bit more time to get and just about anything on foot would have no chance of catching it, it was basically free map-control and enemy losses for sufficiently skilled players.
44	** Obersoldaten used to come with their [=LMG34=] for free, and in general their combat effectiveness was once at a state commonly derogatorily likened by players to that of action heroes or Franchise/{{Terminator}}s.
45	*** Volksgrenadiers' veterancy bonuses used to include a lot of received accuracy reductions. With their Panzerschreck upgrade that used upon vehicles let them gain veterancy much faster, it was a frequent complaint Volksgrenadiers with Panzerschrecks could quickly become only slightly less than bulletproof as they ran past Allied infantry to shoot their Panzerschrecks at Allied tanks. Said Obersoldaten had no trouble taking care of those Allied infantry anyway.
46	** B4 artillery pieces used to get a damage bonus from veterancy, and an ability (For Mother Russia) with the commander that can build them could be used which would also increase their damage. Their Direct Fire ability, used to shoot at vehicles, could literally OneHitKill numerous late-game tanks if it hit in combination with the aforementioned damage bonuses.
47	** ''2'''s infantry gameplay's speed was dramatically changed on March 25th, 2014. Unfortunately, in that same update, the G43 upgrade ended up just more or less being a completely broken upgrade with no obvious weaknesses and made Grenadiers upgraded with them largely unmatched by any other infantry... and could be combined with an [=LMG42=] with sufficient munitions to completely crush Soviet infantry's hopes and dreams. The G43s' long-range effectiveness was reduced and the G43 and [=LMG42=] upgrades became mutually exclusive.
48	** The Soviet Industry commander on release reduced the time it took for tier buildings to be made and increased fuel gained at the cost of manpower immediately. While the drawback made losses punishing for its players, the bonuses could allow them to buy tanks long before Wehrmacht opponents could expect to get sufficient AT tools and snowball the game from there - the reduced tier building time was removed, and the bonus fuel at the cost of manpower had a heightened command point requirement to fix the problem.
49	* ''VideoGame/{{Constructor}}''
50	** Mr Fixit's plumbing sabotage. It can level an entire block, takes three repairmen to counter, and the AI doesn't know how to deal with it.
51	** Killing off the enemies repairmen. The enemy will have no defense against it and this works for any tile but the one where the enemy's homebase is on (all of the repairmen will go back there). Just attack them with your gangsters once you have the mafia (gangsters will get new weapons very fast). All of the enemies buildings will explode one by one, so this otherwise very hard game will be a piece of cake even on hard mode with two enemies (however the game will be an Early Game Hell until you have access to the mob)
52	* Lashes in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' have an incredibly small contact area, travel very very fast, and do blunt damage. This leads to people's brains being knocked out of their skulls - it's easily possible to one-shot a ''dragon'' doing this.
53	** Maxed out strength and Throwing Skill results in decapitating Bronze Colossi... with empty saddlebags.
54	* ''VideoGame/EmpireAtWar'' introduced the Zann Consortium in an expansion pack. Nearly all of their basic units are far stronger than their Rebel or Imperial counterparts, and most of them can take on things they're supposed to be weak to after a single upgrade (even the base trooper). The ''Vengeance''-class Frigate, ''Aggressor''-class Destroyer, ''Canderous''-class tank, Skipray Blastboat, and ''[=StarViper=]''-class fighter are particularly overpowered and do an excellent job of covering each other's bases, making Consortium armies tricky to remove. In the Galactic Conquest mode, Consortium units all become available at Tech Level 2 while the other two factions have to build up to that level. Then there's a grab bag of other completely needless advantages, like cloaked infantry transports that can run infantry over despite being repulsorcraft, the Consortium's ground building being shielded unlike the other two factions, and Corruption abilities being utterly retarded and expensive to remove.
55	* The King Tiger tank from ''VideoGame/EmpiresDawnOfTheModernWorld''. Extremely overpowered and for some bizarre reason, the fastest tank in the game.
56	* In ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'', enemy agents [[YouCantThwartStageOne won't show up in your island before you reach the first objective]]. Therefore, if you build enough lockers to hold 100 [[{{Mooks}} construction workers]], get 100 of them, send them all overseas to steal money, and leave the game running for at least 2 hours, you'll end up with a strongroom holding at least... [[Film/AustinPowers Pinky raise]] ...''Three '''Million''' Dollars''! This is a war chest that can last you for the ''rest of the game'', and you no longer have money problems until you conquer the world.
57	** Plus Lord Kane's Smooth Operator ability will freeze any agent he targets with it until he gets into range to actually use the ability. Even your basic worker can knock out a Super Agent if Kane has a long way to run.
58	** If you manage to build an [[http://wiki.n1nj4.com/index.php?title=%C3%9Cber-trap Über-trap]] and put agents into it, you've got an instant and limitless cash cow, as the game awards monetary bonuses to trap combos. With several agents in the trap, you will never need to worry about funds again. Even more, there's a cap on the number of agents on the island, so if you have 50 agents on the island (on your trap) no more agents or super agents will come.
59	* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleCreatures''
60	** Lobsters are surprisingly useful. They've got nearly unrivaled armor, the ability to swim, regeneration, and exceptionally powerful claws. Mixing a lobster with a large creature (hopefully with a powerful head-based attack like a crocodile) leads to a creature that is not only physically very powerful, but also just happens to have an array of surprisingly useful special abilities.
61	** The archerfish has a range attack that does a lot of splash damage. Just combine something big with one and watch them destroy herds of creatures. The attack also can be upgraded to do piercing damage, which makes it even more of a GameBreaker. The only downside is it's one of the few attacks in the game that can damage ally units.
62	* The Noble Werewolf from the final ''VideoGame/{{Majesty}} 2'' expansion is easily the most powerful hero ever seen in a Majesty game. Nobody else even comes close. By the time an average hero would get around 1k HP the Werewolf has 4-5 times as much, making them extremely difficult to kill. They also get ridiculous health regeneration and a large array of conjuration skills and powerful melee attacks that allow them to simply wade into a crowd of enemies and wreck total havoc. What really makes them devastating, though, is how easy they are to create compared to other top tier units- you only need a level 2 palace and a decent amount of gold to start recruiting them. The standard Human faction really has nothing that can compare.
63	** This is somewhat balanced out by the fact that the Monster faction which the Noble Werewolf is a part of has no basic healing units, which cripples them compared to Human armies early on.
64	* In ''VideoGame/{{Outpost 2}}'', Eden's [[LightningGun Thor's Hammer]] has the longest range, deals the most non-explosive (i.e., Starflares and Supernovas) damage, and ignores line of sight requirements. Due to the AI's [[ArtificialStupidity lack of finding alternate routes]], a couple of these set along the path the AI will take with some obstacles in the way to slow them down (or better yet, on a cliff) will render your base immune to direct attack.
65	* Hood the Rabbit in the flash game ''VideoGame/{{Paladog}}''. By virtue of being an archer, Hood is capable of hitting enemies before they even come into range, which is an enormous advantage as this means they can completely avoid getting hit. It's intended to be balanced out by a slow rate of attack, so that the enemies that survive a hit can get in range and take out Hood, who stat-wise is a GlassCannon...but then you realize that Hood is very cheap to summon (as in, second cheapest unit in the game) and that you can just summon nothing but Hood the Rabbit. A slow rate of attack means nothing when the enemy is facing an enormous ZergRush wall of these attacks.
66	* In ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin 2}}'', you get purple Pikmin. They can kill around 90% of the enemies in a few throws, making most bosses ridiculously easy (in fact, this game's Prima guide just says to throw purple Pikmin on said bosses). Their weakness? They're slow. Yellow Pikmin in the first game may also count due to their ability to carry bomb rocks.
67	** Not only that but the purple Pikmin can home in on enemies which means you don't have to be that accurate when throwing them which can work wonders on groups of enemies. Even if they don't land on an enemy or boss they can still stun them when they land on the ground. (Bosses require more pikmin for this to happen.) They can also instantly disable geysers when they land on them.
68	* Two wonders in ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'':
69	** The Terra Cotta Army, one of the earlier wonders, produces a free infantry unit every 30 seconds, with an additional half-second added for each unit produced. Given how long games can last, this will translate into a very large army.
70	** In late game, the Statue of Liberty. It makes all your land and air unit upgrades free, AND reduces attrition.
71	** The Space Program (removes fog of war) and B2 Bomber (absurdly fast and powerful, capable of wiping out cities in short order) is about as deadly as combos get. If you've got both, the game's pretty much over.
72	* In the single-player campaign of ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'' Sirocco the Dragon can be obtained at James' 2nd level. She is the HeroUnit of the dragon, Persephone's ultimate creature, and will one-shot wizards, buildings, creatures, and practically ''everything'' for the next 6-7 levels. She also flies and, to add insult to injury, can resurrect your other creatures. On the flip side, she will abandon you if you don't play for James, Stratos or Persephone. [[spoiler:And, if you play for Stratos, once he backstabs Persephone.]]
73	* In the game ''VideoGame/StarControl3'', the race of Doogs starts out an enemy, but can be converted into friends early in the game. Their ships are maneuverable, relatively fast, have a short-range cannon which can auto-fire on nearby ships, AND can quickly regenerate damage. No other enemy ship in the game comes close to challenging a Doog ship, making basically every battle after you get a Doog ship a matter of selecting the Doog ship and blowing up the enemy ship.
74	* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' will try to keep you in Earth's solar system until you gather the PlotCoupons with hordes of tough Slylandro probes. Fortunately, there's a Spathi ship lying nearby that's just ''perfect'' for killing them and gathering resources by the thousand before the game story hardly begins.
75	** That same Spathi ship walks all over the main antagonists [[spoiler:(the Kohr-Ah)]] when you run across them. Probably lucky for the rest of the galaxy that the Spathi are cowards.
76	*** Makes you shudder at the possibility of the Black Spathi Squadron.
77	** There is one ship that is banned from serious netplay, and that is the Thraddash Torch. While it does have a counter, it can destroy most of the ships in the game without much risk, due to the fact that it's a FragileSpeedster (in fact, the fastest ship in the game) and has the range to pick just about anything without giving the opportunity for return fire. It also makes the game incredibly tedious when someone does this, because said long-range weapon, while completely safe to use, [[DeathOfAThousandCuts does 1 damage and has a low rate of fire.]]
78	*** This ship is principally broken against the AI, which is often not smart enough to avoid running into its secondary weapon.
79	* While not breaking ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft\|I}}'''s famously balanced multiplayer, Protoss Carriers with an Arbiter in tow are overpowered in single player scenarios against Zerg. The Arbiter generates an invisibility field, and while being visible itself the computer doesn't bother to go after it if it's stays in the background. As soon as you can build this air fleet, you'll be able to kill AI Zerg with impunity.
80	** And in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', anti-Zerg missions are easy with a large amount of Reapers, who are cheap, attack and move very fast, and do stupid-huge damage to buildings. They can also jump cliffs, meaning they can strike pretty much anywhere, anytime they feel like it.
81	** While were on the subject of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', might as well mention a few of the mercenary groups you can hire. The ''Siege Breakers'', the elite version of the ''Siege Tanks'', are just...not fair to the enemy. Have all the upgrades possible and these beasts can dish out 150+ damage on single-targets (in addition to having an extremely powerful splash-damage).
82	*** The triple ''Viking mercenaries'' aren't too shabby either. They are, hands down, the best anti-air units in the game, and the price to buy this group in-game is an absolute steal for what they can accomplish.
83	** In ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', Protoss players in 1v1 Bronze league are notorious for using "Cannon Rushes", building pylons and Photon Cannons close the enemy's mineral line as soon as possible. What makes this a gamebreaker is that your oppponent will not have anything other than workers to stop the cannon if the rush is fast enough, and the cannon will kill a worker in 2 shots, while the opponent is probably throwing down 1-2 more cannons. The Cannon Rush isn't such a big deal at higher levels of play due to everyone being aware of it and its considerable shortcomings (if the cannon rush fails you have no tech, military or economy to speak of; meanwhile, the cannon itself can be overwhelmed with early t1 units or surrounded by workers if it isn't built fast enough, especially if the opponent is scouting his base perimeter and watching for "cheese" tactics), but newcomers will be overwhelmed and maybe even turned off by this seemingly unstoppable tactic.
84	** ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' Protoss players had the infamous [[FanNickname Archon Toilet]], a tactic where they used the Protoss Mothership's Vortex ability to trap enemies and then sent in Archons after the enemies. Since Archons dealt SplashDamage, all the units emerge at the same time and are overlapping each other, this allowed the Archons to ''[[CurbStompBattle shred]]'' the opponents in mere seconds. It proved to be so overpowered that Blizzard attempted to {{nerf}} it by giving all units that emerge from the vortex MercyInvincibility. Eventually, due to the inability to properly balance the Vortex ability, it was replaced with the Time Warp ability in ''Heart of the Swarm''.
85	* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada 2''
86	** The Borg fusion cube, in which 8 regular cubes are merged into one giant cube which has an insane amount of firepower. It can pretty much wipe the map on its own. But that's not the best part! The Borg also have the tactical cube, which is basically a regular cube on steroids with armor plating and super-charged weapons, and 8 of those can be merged into the unholy Tactical Fusion Cube! If you build a Tactical Fusion Cube, you're pretty much guaranteed to win that scenario. And just to put icing on the cake, a FC/TFC is not especially expensive to build.
87	** The Klingon Frigate, the Koloth Class, can qualify as well. Combine a couple with some Science Ships for the [[StatusEffects "Death Chant"]] buff and a fleet of heavy cruisers and watch your fleet tear through the enemy's fleet and base. It's not as durable as the Fusion Cubes but still delivers incredible mass destruction.
88	* ''VideoGame/StarWarsRebellion'' is full of these. The first is the Alliance Escort Carrier. Seems unassuming, until you realize X-wings are arguably the best starfighter in the game, until the TIE Defender comes along. You can easily take down a Star Destroyer. The second is the Death Star, but only as a defense platform. Put one around Coruscant with plenty of starfighter protection and a shield, with plenty of troops to protect the shield, and hilarity ensues.
89	* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' has always had some, erm, ''issues'' with game balance.
90	** The release version included balance issues that had been identified in the beta but not actually addressed, including the Cybran Mantis being ''ludicrously'' overpowered in the early game and the UEF Broadsword gunship likewise in the late game; both were nerfed repeatedly.
91	** Even with the units above, the entire Aeon ''faction'' were completely overpowered at release, typically having the best or at worst the second best of every unit type. Aeon were all but impossible to beat on water maps, trading the useless deck gun of other faction subs for a second torpedo attack and having a basic T1 tank that was amphibious; they also had a missile defence which couldn't be overwhelmed at all, a T3 artillery which was pinpoint accurate and fired twice, and the Harbinger, a Siegebot which had the best cost versus damage of any unit in the entire game. The Aeon superiority on maps with water was at one point so severe that ''all'' water maps were removed from competitive play.
92	** The ACU destruct nuke used to be a completely normal nuke; it was nerfed because every game was ending in draw-by-combombing.
93	** AA weapons used to have no priority system of any kind, leading to a common tactic of building a gigantic number of cheap-as-free Air Scouts to support a Strategic Bomber attack; this effectively made air defence a waste of time.
94	** An attempt to make the UEF T3 mobile sonar into something actually useful accidentally turned it into a ridiculously overpowered motor torpedo boat, requiring ''another'' patch to stop the ridiculous sight of flotillas of things which were technically buildings chasing battleships around.
95	** The Seraphim of the ''Forged Alliance'' expansion are far stronger than the other factions, combining the strengths of both the Aeon and UEF with none of the weaknesses. Every single one of their experimentals are potential game-ending units (including a nuke launcher that can build nukes in ''seconds'' and an extremely tough strat bomber that can destroy entire bases in one strike), destroyers that can submerge underwater, powerful and fast T2 and T3 land units, and their T3 Yathsou - a submarine that happens to be the most powerful naval unit in the entire game by a huge margin. Their only weakness? Their units cost more resources to field, which rapidly becomes a non-issue on most maps as the game progresses.
96	*** Play Seraphim. Get the rapid restoration upgrade on your ACU. Then march it directly into the enemy base. Only experimentals can stop a RRF'd ACU, and the Seraphim can get RRF by the beginning of T2.
97	** The [[http://supcom.wikia.com/wiki/TVG_(Total_Veterancy) Total Veterancy]] mod adds an RPG element to the game, but it stands out as it gives infinite levels to everything. These infinite levels apply to both combat units and production structures, the latter capable of gaining experience through merely existing. Expect your commander and builder units to be overpowered twenty minutes into the game and strategic missiles being spammed at a regular basis, though.
98	* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' allows to quickly build air transports and use them to pick up anything... including the enemy commander, which you can now kill by detonating your aircraft or letting other enemy units shoot down it. There is nothing the AI or an unaware player can do for that after you load the commander.
99	* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' has the entire Zhon race as a gamebreaker, as they can create units anywhere without the need for buildings. The ability to conjure up an army at a moment's notice in almost any point of the map, not to mention that of relocating a base simply by walking most of it away, makes the Zhon much more versatile and efficient than the other races. As for specific units, the Zhon lightning tower is cheap, quick to build, powerful and long-range, making it ideal for both defending and attacking by fortification-walk.
100	* ''VideoGame/WarCraft''
101	** Bloodlust in ''VideoGame/WarCraftII'' is a spell which triples damage and is cast by the Orcs' primary attacking unit which is already somewhat of a LightningBruiser. The Humans' equivalent get extremely inefficient healing and a spell that only affects two, rarely-used, undead units (Death Knights and their Skeleton minions). Needless to say, Orcs have a huge advantage on land maps.
102	** The "Mage-Bomb" tactic is one strategy that can be game-breaking in the single-player campaign; If you're human, it involves making a [[GlassCannon Mage]] invisible and then sending that invisible Mage who can cast Blizzard into the enemy's gold supply lines, raining a deadly ice storm upon the line of workers harvesting gold. It is devastating, if not decisive against the enemy's army production. Playing as Orc, the same strategy is done with Death Knights, and an Invulnerability & Haste spell cast upon the caster.\
103	\
104	Mage-Bombs were fearsome in multi-player matches too. If the enemy was a Human player, the only way to ensure defense against this tactic was to use your own army to wall off your base. One false move, and a mage would be inside of your base and your workers would be dead in seconds. If your goldmine was within 12 spaces of a Mage, then the Mage/Death Knight does not even have to enter your base.
105	** In ''VideoGame/WarCraftIII'', the Orc Blademaster hero. He's among the fastest heroes, also among the toughest with his high armor score and agility, and with Critical Strike acting over his item-boosted melee damage, is easily the highest direct damage dealer hero. But the real kicker is his Wind Walk - a spell that not only allows him to move even faster and, at higher levels, stay invisible most of the time, but allows him to make rapid escapes whenever threatened by letting him move through other units and hence escape traps. Needless to say, he's one of the best hero rushers, excellent at hero killing, very hard to kill himself if properly used and generally a pain in the neck for any opponent, with no clear weaknesses.
106	*** Always having an item on-hand like the ''Gem of Trueseeing'' to be able to see the Blademaster when he windwalks and to reveal the fake clone images helps immensely.
107	*** There's also the Human Archmage to consider, having a level 6 ultimate that allows the Archmage to mass-teleport himself and a group of your units to the location of a unit you own. Kinda like the mage example mentioned above for ''VideoGame/WarCraftII''. A clever Human player can sneak a unit (especially with the Sorceress' invisibility spell) into the back of an enemy base and use the Arch Mage's mass-teleport to instantly get his army to where the workers are at and wreak havoc.
108	*** In the bonus orc campaign of ''Frozen Throne'' the tomes of Intelligence, Agility, and Strength that you can buy from certain vendor stores are this. If one is patient enough to grind gold to buy the tomes to continuously buff up the heroes they control (These being Rexxar and Rokhan, and later adding Chen and Cairne to the group), you'd end up with a group of overpowered heroes that would absolutely annihilate anything in their path.
109	*** And even that is nothing compared to the loot you get. An item that increases everyone's movement and attack speed? Sure, sure, but why not give it the ability to summon high-damage ranged units as well. Fountains of Health are nice (they passively regenerate 2% health per second) but let's make one portable, and have it restore 200 health to a unit on use as well. Need to give your healer a damaging spell? Here, have a gem that lets him cast ChainLightning. For no mana. And while we're at it, we'll throw in this nifty shield that sets enemies on fire while boosting your stats, that goes quite well with this spiffy hat that fries individual enemies. None of these are available in normal multiplayer for very good reason.
110	*** ''Frozen Throne'' also gives the player the ability to use a pseudo-5th-race at certain points in the campaign; the Naga. Because this race is only used in the campaign, Blizzard chose not to bother attempting to balance its units in comparison to the four main races. This is extremely apparent with the Naga's flyer unit, the Coautl. The Couatl are almost an exact carbon-copy of an Orc Wyvern, but Wyverns take four food to build while the Naga's Couatl only takes TWO. The 5th Blood Elf mission when you can just mass about 50 of these beasts to steamroll the Fel Orc bases is just...not fair.
111	** Against the AI, the Necromancer/Meat Wagon/Obsidian Statue combo is nearly unstoppable. Necromancers to swarm the enemy with multiple skeletons, meat wagons to create corpses when the enemy isn't dying fast enough (and shoot the enemy from out of tower range), and obsidian statues to refill life and/or mana to multiple units at the same time. Air units will put a significant crimp, but the AI never builds more than two or three at a time, and would you look at those Crypt Fiends just waiting to web something up.
112	** The Dark Ranger has hilariously overpowered abilities: the ability to drain large amounts of life very fast from an enemy, prevent multiple units from casting spells, creating tough melee units whenever an enemy dies, and a short-cooldown, low-mana, ''nearly-unblockable,'' '''permanent''', CharmPerson. The only ability that comes close to Charm is the Alchemist's Transmute, which instakills an enemy and gives you gold for it.
113	** In a rare example of the game (and the StrategyGuide) ''recommending'' a GameBreaker, Reign of Chaos had the Goblin Zeppelin / Sapper combo. Load the autocasting [=AoE=] explosion sappers eight at a time in the zeppelins, and watch them destroy a base with the enemy able to do very little about it. This was made impossible in the expansion, and carried over to the original if installed (yet the prompt to load them up still appears).

Context GameBreaker / RealTimeStrategy