History AwesomeButImpractical / RealTimeStrategy

* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' for some civilizations in the iron age, there is available a temple technology called jihad (the game is set in ancient age so this term is anachronistic but the DEfinitive Edition renamed it Zealotry) which made [[WorkerUnit regular villagers]] stronger, more resistant, and also faster, allowing them to be used as cheap military units made for [[ZergRush zerg rushing]], capable of building defensive towers in the middle of a battle, be the first in line on an enemy base-assault, and to immediately build a new base where the previous enemy one was by exploiting what resources remain. Using them in battle is easier in the first game than in the sequels, due to smaller army sizes, military units lacking complex combat functions, and if you're more used to micromanaging. However, jihad also cripples gathering capacities of the villagers, adversely affecting your economy and nullifying all economic upgrades you bought in previous ages. To make things worse, the effects can't be deactivated and this technology costs a bankrupting-amount of gold.

* Superweapons in general tend to be like this, from ''Red Alert 2'' on. They can leave costly destruction inside a base, or even take out an army, but they have a significant "charge-up" time. Also, every player receives a warning that one has been built, and their location is revealed through the fog-of-war to everybody, provoking every opposing player to besiege you. They are the most expensive thing money can buy at 5000 credits (compare this with a basic battle tank that costs about 600-1100 credits, and is useful immediately after production). It is normally wiser to focus on building a standard army against a human player rather than building one (or two) of these giant "Attack Me!" beacons. There are aversions to this rule such as an insurmountable defense by the other player, but a general purpose army is far more flexible.

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[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gdimammoth2.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:320:It may be tough, but you can get out and run faster!]]

** The Human Alliance Knights seem like they'd be pretty good heavy melee units, are very fast, and are available at the Castle stage immediately, from the Barracks. However, their combat effectiveness is relatively poor for tier 3 heavy melee and they tend to suffer from being a MasterOfNone. In direct engagements, they tend to fare poorly compared with the equivalent units of other factions and their fast speed isn't that much of factor unless one can find a way to to use them for hit-and-run attacks on enemy bases.

[[folder:Command And Conquer Franchise]]
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gdimammoth2.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:320:It may be tough, but you can get out and run faster!]]

[[folder: Command And Conquer: Red Alert]]

* ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' has the Scarab on the Covenant's side. A big, lumbering four-legged alien walker with a FrickinLaserBeam that can deal good damage to anything, especially base structures. It costs as many resources and population as fielding half of an army (which is usually more useful). Most mainline units and some counter-units (even counter-units designed to counter other stuff) have special abilities which can kill it fairly quickly. Its biggest problem is that when you've put half of your population cap into it, even its {{BFG}} isn't killing stuff quick enough to be worth it before it inevitably dies, and adding any more armor would risk make it a GameBreaker. It also has no upgrades when other units do.

* The Chinese nuclear missile is hands down the worst of all three superweapons. Yes, it has a wide area, kills just about any unit caught in it, and irradiates the ground for a while, but the radiation is ineffective on buildings (unlike the Scud Storm's corrosive toxins). While a GLA base will be leveled and any units inside destroyed, their buildings automatically respawn shortly after. The Particle Cannon and SCUD Storm have no issues eliminating GLA structures (if only on a line of targets for the former). All of this and it requires 6-minutes to arm a missile for launch, so you're left waiting longer than any other superweapon.

* The Chinese nuclear missile is hands down the worst of all three superweapons. Yes, it has a wide area, kills just about any unit caught in it, and irradiates the ground for a while, but the radiation is ineffective on buildings (unlike the Scud Storm's corrosive toxins) While a GLA base will be leveled and any units inside destroyed, their buildings automatically respawn shortly after. The Particle Cannon and SCUD Storm have no issues eliminating GLA structures (if only on a line of targets for the former). All of this and it requires 6-minutes to arm a missile for launch, so you're left waiting longer than any other superweapon.

* The Chinese nuclear missile is hands down the worst of all three superweapons. Yes, it has a wide area, kills just about any unit caught in it, and sets the ground on fire for a while, but the damage is simply not high enough to completely destroy buildings (while a GLA base will be leveled and any units inside destroyed, their buildings automatically respawn shortly after), which the Particle Cannon and SCUD Storm can do (if on a single target for the former). All of this and it requires 6-minutes to arm a missile for launch, so you're left waiting longer than any other superweapon.

[[caption-width-right:320:It's like the mascot of the series, and [[MightyGlacier very tough]], but their top speed seems barely an upgrade over walking!]]

* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' for some civilizations in the iron age, there is available a temple technology called jihad (the game is set in ancient age so this term is anachronistic) which made [[WorkerUnit regular villagers]] stronger, more resistant, and also faster, allowing them to be used as cheap military units made for [[ZergRush zerg rushing]], capable of building defensive towers in the middle of a battle, be the first in line on an enemy base-assault, and to immediately build a new base where the previous enemy one was by exploiting what resources remain. Using them in battle is easier in the first game than in the sequels, due to smaller army sizes, military units lacking complex combat functions, and if you're more used to micromanaging. However, jihad also cripples gathering capacities of the villagers, adversely affecting your economy and nullifying all economic upgrades you bought in previous ages. To make things worse, the effects can't be deactivated and this technology costs a bankrupting-amount of gold.

* The [[TankGoodness King Tiger]] in ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' is an armored juggernaut with a huge gun that can obliterate almost anything. [[MightyGlacier Too bad it's so damn slow]] that the only way it would destroy anything is if it's target just stood there and let the giant thing potshot at it. Unsupported, the King Tiger is particularly vulnerable to American Rangers, Airborne with Recoilless Rifles, and even just bog-standard Riflemen with Sticky Bombs. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JKIZR9zuns Hilariously]], even a British Tetrarch light tank could [[CherryTapping theoretically destroy one]] if you have good micro skills. If that wasn't bad enough, it's the very last thing you unlock in the Terror Doctrine, so by the time you have it, your one invincible super-heavy will be the coup-de-grace to a match you've surely won, or too little too late. What's that, you say? One? You can only call in one King Tiger in the whole match. Unless you have a Panzer Elite ally with a Bergetiger recovery vehicle, if your King Tiger gets destroyed, that's that. And then there's the fact that an Allied player can destroy a King Tiger by rigging a bridge with explosives and blowing the whole thing sky high when the King Tiger attempts to cross - now, the obvious solution for the German player is to just avoid bridges like the plague, but this still often forces them to try and get the King Tiger through other, less favourable terrain, such as river crossings which offer "open" anti-cover that increases damage taken by all units in it and significantly hinders their movement.

* The ultimate spells in {{VideoGame/Sacrifice}} of every fraction are generally the flashiest, most breathtaking spells. They are also highly situational at best, worthless at worst. Either they do pitfull damage (Tornado, Meanstalks), are easy to avoid (Volcano, Meanstalks, Bore), or will keep the enemy busy but prevent you from moving in as well (Death, Tornado, Volcano). By contrast, the penultimate spells you get at the same time are BoringButPractical in comparison.

*** The berserker is a [[OneManArmy single uruk]] armed with a [[BigFuckingSword two handled giant sword]] that is as fast as regular cavalry and costs the same as one entire uruk warrior battalion. It also can activate explosive mines and climb up siege ladders to be prepared to attack immediately any units in the walls when the ladder reach them. Where's the problem? Both in BFTME and it's sequel it needs a rank 2 uruk pit to be built, can't be upgraded like other Isengard infantry units and it also can't level up (only in the first BFTME). While these flaws can be compensated with it's overall high combat stats, it lacks of any kind of HealingFactor and with the [[NoCureForEvil lack of healing powers in the evil factions]] it will never restore the health that it loses in one battle event, making it most likely useless in the next one. Other units come in battalions so, even if they can't restore their health individually, the lost units of the battalions are substituted by the time with new ones with full health. Also logically it's ability to activate mines can only be used once.
*** The previously mentioned explosive mines can also enter in this category. They can make a massive level of destruction in enemy structures and units, but it's difficult to make a good use of it. It is slow and can't reach the enemy base without protection. If you're unlucky and your enemy sends you a battalion of archers with the fire arrows upgrade, they can detonate the mine with one hit and [[TotalPartyKill wipe out your entire escort mercilessly in one second]]. Also they need a rank 2 siege works to be built, while a rank 1 one can built a more accurate and practical ballista for the same price. The ballista is still slow and fragile to infantry, but can attack the enemy base from a safe spot. Moreover the ballista has unlimited ammo. One mine, of course, has only one use.
*** In the sequel, Isengard has it's own special power [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons "dragon strike"]] which consists of summoning a dragon to attack the enemy. The first problem is that this is not a proper summon power like the Balrog or the summoned dragon (another of the evil powers). Instead, it is an area damage power which consists of sending an uncontrollable dragon to a determined area of the map to desolate it with its fire breath. Area damage powers in the game are usually awesome, like rain of fire (Mordor only), earthquake, [[MakingASplash flood]] or [[ThePowerOfTheSun sun Flare]] because they have an instant effect in the battle field and can destroy a [[TotalPartyKill big number of enemy units at once]], but is not the case for dragon strike. It takes time to activate because the dragon must come from a corner of the map and the enemy units can have time to escape before the dragon makes it all the way. Moreover, unlike other area damage spells it can also affect your own troops and the enemy can disable the spell if it has strong range units that can destroy the dragon before it start attacking. Unlocking this power cost 25 power points, these points can be better spent on more practical powers.
*** The warg sentry. It is basically a defensive building which consist in a plot decorated with bones and dark dirt inhabited by a warg. The point is that the warg will attack any enemy that moves near your base, like a guardian dog but bigger and more powerful. The first problem is that there are only one warg and while it can be helpful with weak early-game units, it is more likely that the enemy will wait to have a big and powerful army to attack your base, and then the warg will be overpowered easily. If the warg dies you have to buy it again in the main sentry. As a defensive building the lookout tower cost the double and have less hit points, but can attack constantly to the enemy with arrows or fire arrows from the distance, occupies less space which can be used to build more towers and can garrison units inside. One good thing that can be said about the warg sentry is that the warg don't consume command points, so you can build some on a safe space and them free all of them like an extra army. However, the free wargs can't be controlled from that point, they will move randomly across the map and attack everything that is in their sight, like hero units, summoned beast, defensive buildings that barely can take any damage... and from the point that you free them you can't send them back to the sentry. You can't even buy a new one until the previous one dies.
** The mumakil is the most powerful, big and expensive monster unit in the mordor faction, but comes with some drawbacks. When is not charging is pretty slow and have serious problems to move in narrow areas. However it's most notorius flaw is that it is very weak to fire. If enemy archers shoots [[ArrowsOnFire fire arrows]] to it, it will became crazy and can be dangerous for both the enemy's and your units if they are near. Forgot to mention that fire arrows is an upgrade available for all factions (in the first game). It also needs a specific building to be made.
** Some heroes in skirmish and multiplayer mode can fall in this, specially the ones that don't have a leaddership bonus or the ones [[MagikarpPower that took time to level up to unlock their most profitable ability]]. All the huge ammount of resources that they cost can be spent in make more units.
*** In the Sequel this trope is more remarkable. While in the original game the heroes don't cost any command points (so you can built them to have an aditional support to your troops when the command point counter is in the maximun capacity and you have an stock of resources), in the sequel they also can consume command points so if you make them, your final army will be a little smaller.
** In the sequel the final upgrades for the fortress can be also this. All of them require a previous upgrade for the fortress to unlock them and both upgrades are generally expensive. Every fanction have a different problem.
*** The isengard's wizard tower, the mordor's gorgoroth spire and the dwarves' mighty catapult have the power to attack an area near the fortress making a lot of damage to all enemy units in it. The problem is that is hard to calculate when and where to use it because the time that it tooks to hit the target depends on the distance of the targeted area to the fortress. If you don't calculate it right, by the time that it hits the selected area all the units that you wanted to attack simply have passed that area, so you have to wait a long cooldown to use it again after missed the target.
*** The goblins have the dragon's nest that allows to make a fire drake, wich is a fire breathing dragon that can't fly but is fast, can burn entire areas and can counter well [[ZergRush zerg rush]] strategies. The problem is that fire is a double edge weapon in this game. If you attack with the fire drake and other not heroic units at the same time, they have the risk to enter in the fire breath zone when the fire drake attacks and get as burned as the enemy. Also the areas where it has passed are recognizable because have burned zones. If you accidentally make your units pass through a burned zone, they will burn as well. Moreover it is more frail that it seems, and upgraded range units and hero units can take down it easily. They also can't make much damage to most fortifications. Forgot to mention that if you want to make one of them you don't only have to built the fortress upgrades, but also you have to pay for this unit, and it's very expensive.[[note]]The Web cocoon upgrade needed to build the dragon nest cost 2000 resources, the dragon nest itself cost 2500 and the fire drake another 2000, making a total cost of 6500 for just one. If you want a comparisson, Drogoth, the most powerfull flying hero unit in the game available for goblins cost 5000, goblin infantry cost 75 and stone throwing giants cost 1300. The upgrades price has been cheapened in the expansion anyway. [[/note]].
*** The elfs have the eagle's nest that can build a [[GiantFlyer giant eagle]]. The eagles are not that bad, the only problem is their price (the same as the fire drake) and that unlike other flying monster in the game they don't have other ability apart of descend from the skyes and hit a group of enemies.
*** The men of the west have the Ivory tower, that don't have offensive capacities but can make visible a huge portion of the map, helping to predict enemy moves. This is more a case of BoringButPractical.
* Megastructures in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are almost only build for the novelty of it. You need two ascension perks (Voidborne and Galactic Wonders) to build most of them (a third for the [[RingWorldPlanet Ringworld]], called Ring of Life) and they cost an insane amount of resources:

* The Mammoth Tank Mark III ended up this way thanks to a {{Nerf}}. They were originally ''too'' powerful in PVP, due to being self-sufficient enough to steamroll opponents by spamming the tanks. They became a MasterOfNone: The Slingshot (Kane's Wrath) is much better at AntiAir, the Predator Tank is more cost effective ($1100) and moves more quickly, and at $2500, the Mammoth III is one of the most expensive and vehicles in the game.

* The Apocalypse Tank is essentially the Soviets' successor to the Mammoth and it possess obscenely powerful cannons this time around in addition to their signature missile packs. They're still very slow to move and build however, so a savy player will be able to prepare in advance to have counters ready. In ''Yuri's Revenge'' they suffred from PowerCreep as there are much better anti-armor options available to all factions, while Yuri's overpowered faction can simply mind control the Apocalypse(s).

* The Apocalypse Tank is essentially the Soviets' successor to the Mammoth and it possess obscenely powerful cannons this time around in addition to their signature missile packs. They're still very slow to move and build however, so a savy player will be able to prepare in advance to have counters ready. In ''Yuri's Revenge'' they suffred from PowerCreep as there are much better anti-armor options available to all factions.

[[caption-width-right:320:It's like the mascot of the series, and [[MightyGlacier very tough]], but their top speed looks seems barely an upgrade over walking!]]

[[caption-width-right:320:It's like the mascot of the series, and [[MightyGlacier very tough]], but their top speed looks like barely an upgrade over walking!]]

This oddly makes [[NukeEm General Tao "The Nuke"]] better at tank warfare right off the bad as they start will all the nuclear upgrades, moving faster and hitting harder without needing to buy upgrades from a Nuke Silo. Also, Tao can build artillery support including the Nuke Cannon (requires no General's Point) to pragmatically support his tanks, making Kwai appear look amateur in his tactics.

This interestingly makes [[NukeEm General Tao "The Nuke"]] better at tank warfare due nuclear engines coming standard on main battle tanks, along with the depleted-uranium shells, and even his [[MadeOfExplodium disadvantage]] (negated with the $2000 "Isotope Stability") of tanks taking friendly fire from units destroyed, can be gamed by sending a tank or two into the enemy army to act like a [[TakingYouWithMe suicide unit]]. Also, Tao can build artillery support including the Nuke Cannon (requires no General's Point) to pragmatically support his tanks, making Kwai appear quite amateur in his tactics.

* General Alexis Alexander's "Super Weapon" faction of the USA faction has perks such as 50% cost on all [[WaveMotionGun Particle Cannons]], a super-sonic bomber with a payload that hits even harder than the standard payload, A discount on the USA HeroUnit Colonel Burton, high-efficiency power plants (upgraded), and base defenses that disable vehicles with EMP charges. However, the faction cannot use tanks, certain useful units are more costly, and in online matches, the faction can be taken out with a well-executed rush.

* The fanmade 1.5 mod for ''VideoGame/EmpireEarthII'' adds the Titanic as a buildable sea unit in the modern age. It has more HP than any building in the game, has a cargo capacity of ''500'' (as opposed to 24 for regular transports), and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic plays snippets]] of "[[{{Film/Titanic|1997}} My Heart Will Go On]]" when you click it. Unfortunately, it's also ''huge'' (meaning it has difficulty turning around) and can only load units through the prow, can only unload part of its cargo at once due to beach space limitations, [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound and plays snippets of " My Heart Will Go On" when you click it]].

* Level 8 (formerly Chillingo) iOS game "Modern Command" has rail guns and homing missile launchers you can research and buy. Rail guns have high armor penetration and damage with a moderate firing rate while Multi-purpose Missile launchers can rapidly dump a large number of homing missiles on aerial and surface enemies with complete accuracy. Unfortunately both these weapons cannot use special ammo and special ammo gives weapons a huge boost. Worse yet, when the enemy starts fielding units with force fields, everything other than lasers and weapons with energized ammo will do only ScratchDamage - so rail guns and homing missiles are worthless.

* The fanmade 1.5 mod for ''VideoGame/EmpireEarthII'' adds the Titanic as a buildable sea unit in the modern age. It has more HP than any building in the game, has a cargo capacity of ''500'' (as opposed to 24 for regular transports), and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic plays snippets]] of "[[{{Film/Titanic|1997}} My Heart Will Go On]]" when you click it. Unfortunately, it's also ''huge'' (meaning it has difficulty turning around) and can only load units through the prow, can only unload part of its cargo at once due to beach space limitations, [[MostAnnoyingSound and plays snippets of " My Heart Will Go On" when you click it]].