How about a variable speed RTS, with penalties for slowing down below normal speed? Penalties could be lower scores or prohibitions on using some of the special abilities at slower speeds. This give players the option to exercise caution and discretion, or attempt to act more deliberately, when they feel that the normal game speed is too overwhelming.
When a player changes game speed, an autosave could be forced, permitting them to recover to that checkpoint to play the scenario over again. In other words, permitting variable game speed shifts the player's focus from tactics to strategy, from adrenal to analytical.
Wouldn't this be a good mixture of playing options? And, there's no change to the engine formulae or database statistics. Just add a few score-penalty switches, a "zoom" function on the game clock, and one more control to the UI. Voila!
