Hi. Could anyone recommend an RTS in which you can slow the game down to real time, so that theoretically it could run for months or even longer? I heard about a game of Civ 2 that lasted for years, so hopefully I'm not barking up the wrong tree. It could be anything from a Civ type game, a city/population builder, or even something way more complicated like Supreme Ruler 2020. What are some of the best that suit this criteria?

Thanks.

I'd say that the Paradox games qualifies for what you want. Stuff like Europa Universalis series, Crusader Kings series, Hearts of Iron series, Victoria series, Sengoku, March of the Eagles. Also the Supreme Ruler series. They are complex, real-time strategies with slow time option.

The old SSI Great Naval Battles were WW2 naval sims where you could play entire campaigns, in the Atlantic or Pacific depending on the game, in real time 1 second equals 1 second if you chose. Good luck with that.
Of course what any normal person did was set their strategic movements, repair schedules etc and then speed time up until something of note happened and then dropped back to real time for moving fleets in combat, directing guns, and so on. But they were genuine real time. Not most peoples cup of tea though.

Civ2 is not really RTS because you have turns and you can make a break. Also I guess the Civ 2 that lasted for years was probably saved many times in between and not played during the nights, some days. It was probably a game by email where you make like one turn per day. Hadn't they been in this mode and if the players would have played uninterrrupted the game would probably only last several hours to days. A good Civilization game may take up to say 50 hours maybe.

Many browser/smartphone strategy games are similar. You only spent a couple of minutes per day and then the go on kind of forever. First I was fascninated by them but lately I do not find them a lot of fun anymore. Mostly they are putting emphasis on grinding/levelling and the overall goal is quite boring - you attack some other players, others attack you.

If you need something long lasting - what about campaigns. I needed several months to finish Age of Wonders 1 (with many breaks in between).

And otherwise, RTS that run slow would be boring unless they are epic in scale - so that you always have something to do. But then it could become kind of repetitive and grinding.

Could WoW be seen as a kind of real-real-time RTS maybe even though it is also a RPG?