What decent progressive RTS games are there?

By progressive I simply mean not chugged along by a story in which you lose all your progression upon the next mission? (Story games where you keep what you build next mission would be nice also).

If it could have relatively decent graphics for this day and age would be a huge plus : )

Thanks guys

Oh brotha/sista i to have been searching for this ilusive game.

I to get anoyed when you have to start everything over and over again.

And it seems its a lost cause if you want anything recent(aside from starcraft 2)

But if you dont have anything against some aged games then i recomend Rise of Nations And Rise of legends.

EDIT: Black and white 1 and 2 also have similar things you are looking for

Starcraft 2 does a little bit iirc (the mercenaries you can call in?).

Age of Empires 3 has the 'home city' mechanic, which allows you to customise your options as you go through the game.

I'm pretty sure Anno 2070 (more city-builder than RTS, but seems worth including) lets you keep your city exactly as it is between missions (within a mission set), whereas the older games would just give you a rough approximation of what it expected your city to look like from the end of the previous mission.

Dawn of War 2 (more RTT than RTS, but seems worth including) lets you progress in the sense that you keep the same handful of units and they improve over the course of the game.

There are a lot of examples in the Total War mold, which actually probably offer the closest thing to what you're asking for (Total War itself, Hegemony (ish), King's Crusade, King Arthur etc.)

Dawn of War 2 and its expansion Chaos Rising are exactly what you want. Decent story, good writing and no base management whatsoever. Your units level up as you progress, have stats loot etc and you only ever control 4 at a time or 2 in coop.

In Warcraft III and Frozen Throne you are progressively leveling and gearing up your hero(es) throughout the campaign.

In Starcraft II you are earning resources that can be used to purchase evolutions for your units that persist from mission to mission.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I have owned Dawn Of War II and all its expansions for a long time now - purchased in a steam sale - I have just not gotten around to playing them yet, but I will have to now : )

Rise of nations I played and really enjoyed, can't say the same for Rise of Legends. I also own Starcraft 2, was a very enjoyable game but very hardcore online so I don't bother. As to who ever mentioned the Anno game, I will definitely look into it, thanks : )

Games I have recently been playing are Tropico 4, which I really enjoy it just hasn't gotten any persistency to it. But if anyone is looking for a pretty and enjoyable RTS experience, then try Tropico : )

Off the top of my head, Total War games.

The Empire managment phase is turn based, but you don't lose anything you've build up towards unless you've lost it in battle or had a city conquered. ect. There is no 'reset button' in the game.

Dawn of War II and its expansions also spring to mind.

I would not call Tropico an RTS experience. Tropico is straight up a city builder. The biggest difference between it and Sim City is that if people don't like your reign, they can leave the city and become rebels that can/will attack your city. Also, you have to worry about your relationship with other powerful nations like the US who will begin bordering your island if you begin to become suspect. Even with all that, the game is still just a city builder at its core. There is no unit management, unit upgrading, nothing at all that would resemble a real-time strategy game.

I am still rocking Command and conquer Generals here.

I think Men of War kind of meets your requirements? As does Wargame European Escalation. I think.

Does Ogre Battle count?

Dawn of War II and the Total War series come to mind.

@Silock: The only RTS game I've played where you keep your units after every mission is LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth (the first one.) It's such a great game in that respect - you feel a real connection with the units you've "saved" from the beginning to the end. The best part is during 3 or 4 sequences, you get to call in your whole army for backup - and the size of the back-up army depends on how well you've maintained your units. It's especially important during the final battle.

No one has mentioned Homeworld yet?  You keep everything from one stage to another.  Everything.

@Turambar: I was going to say Homeworld.

Homeworld.

Starcraft 2 has SOME amount of it in that you can upgrade your units/hire mercenaries and the like.

@chrissedoff said:

@Turambar: I was going to say Homeworld.

Homeworld.

iv never played it, but i just know thats the way that game works for some reason, i should really play that game

Age of Empires 2 and the Total War games come to mind, even if Total War is part TBS and part RTS if you're talking about the campaign of each game.

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade's campaign lets you keep what you built when you conquer an area, almost all the strategic points too. It makes it a bit too easy when you can just already contain the enemy right in the beginning of the game and you're beating them economically too. You also get to have your own bodyguard units when you conquer certain areas, if they die you have to buy them again on the the campaign map. Also your general hero unit unlocks upgrades over time when you have completed certain achievements.

Warhammer: Dark Omen.

If I remember correctly, Company of Heroes had veteran units available if they didn't die in previous missions. Even if it doesn't, you should still play Company of Heroes. Great series.

Since Homeworld has already been mentioned, I'm going to throw out Myth 2, which had some limited persistence across missions if I remember correctly.

Actually, I'm going to also throw out Battle Realms, which doesn't have unt persistence per se, but which had such a unique way of building units and kept all units as being useful that there wasn't really a tech tree as such.

It also still looks pretty great despite its age