Nope, it's not an RTS, but back in the 90's - when computers were bulky, few, and preciously expensive, Internet access was charged by the minute, and friends not always within PC carrying distance - hot-seat games such as the HoMM or Worms series were winning the battle for screen-time over the likes of StarCraft or Quake in basically almost any social context.
We'd sometimes meet up and try to take turns to beat a particularly difficult mission, but by the time anyone had a second (imagine!) computer in their house, broadband Internet was getting widespread. My first ever StarCraft LAN was in 2009, IIRC.
In high school I was living very close to the school and me and a group of friends gathered at my PC to play Worms after school and sometimes during school. HoMM took longer so needed more organization.
We'd sometimes meet up and try to take turns to beat a particularly difficult mission, but by the time anyone had a second (imagine!) computer in their house, broadband Internet was getting widespread. My first ever StarCraft LAN was in 2009, IIRC.