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Real Time Strategy recommendations
- Thread starter Sybrix
- Start date
Big Baller
Al Pachinko, Konami President
Total Annihilation
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Honestly, honestly, honestly Halo Wars 2.
I don't personally care for the campaign of any RTS but the online versus is still easy to get a game on and good fun. Free on Gamepass, but if you like it, there's campaign DLC and extra commanders too.
I don't personally care for the campaign of any RTS but the online versus is still easy to get a game on and good fun. Free on Gamepass, but if you like it, there's campaign DLC and extra commanders too.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
struggler_guts
Member
Dungeons 4 came out recently on pc gamepass and I'd never heard of it, but its a pretty good mix between rts and whatever the original warcraft games are catagorized as
killatopak
Member
Uhhh… Starcraft?
AndrewRyan
Member
Bad North is bite sized rouge RTS that plays well on a handheld. Edit: There's a demo.
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Hudo
Gold Member
Off the top of my head, Id' recommend looking into these:
Bonus: Real-time Tactics (focus on combat, no base building):
- Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
- Age of Mythology: Extended Edition (A Remake is in the works, called: Age of Mythology: Retold)
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (try it first somehow before you buy, if you can. It's quite different from how Age 2 plays)
- Age of Empires IV
- Homeworld Remastered Collection
- Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
- Homeworld 3 (To be released in 2024, fingers crossed)
- Total Annihilation
- Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
- WarCraft III (NOT Reforged)
- StarCraft Remastered
- StarCraft II
- Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
- Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
- Command & Conquer: Generals
- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
- The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth
- The Lord of the RIngs: Battle for Middle-Earth II
- Battle Realms: Zen Edition
- Star Wars: Empire At War (although I am not a huge fan, it has a very dedicated community and mods galore... like almost all of the RTS games I have mentioned so far)
- Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
- Company of Heroes (2 and 3 are garbage)
- Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
- Rise of Legends (I personally don't like it due to technical reasons)
- Empire Earth (it didn't age that well... YMMV)
- Stronghold: Definitive Edition (I know Stronghold is almost more like a city builder. But out of all the city builders, it's the one that is closest to an RTS. Because let's face it. All "proper" city builders have absolute garbage combat)
- Stronghold Crusader HD
- Populous 3
- Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
- Halo Wars 2 (unfortunately it's locked behind the fucking Windows Store. Or you get it on Xbox)
- Tempest Rising (an upcoming Command & Conquer-style RTS. I found the demo to be mid, so YMMV)
- Stormgate (an upcoming StarCraft clone by former Blizzard devs. It's going to be free to play. If you are really into StarCraft, it might be cool)
- Dune 2000 (really cool, imho. A Remake of Dune 2, basically.)
- Emperor: Battle for Dune (It did age better than Empire Earth, imho)
Bonus: Real-time Tactics (focus on combat, no base building):
- Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II
- World in Conflict
- Ground Control
- Warhammer: Dark Omen
- Myth: The Fallen Lords
- Myth II: Soulblighter
- MechCommander
- MechCommander 2
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OuterLimits
Member
Damn, thanks for that list Hudo. Appreciate it!
kvltus lvlzvs
Member
Nebulous fleet command is a really interesting take on rts, focusing on load outs, electronic and reconnisance. It's similar to the space combat of the expanse, vibe wise, though plays out more slowly.
Dawn of war 1 with the ultimate apocalypse mod for a bit of silly fun lol
Dawn of war 1 with the ultimate apocalypse mod for a bit of silly fun lol
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This is the definitive rts list dont think you missed anything lol.
Hudo
Gold Member
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, maybe. But I haven't played that so I don't really know how it is. But if it's really just "Age of Empires 2 but Star Wars", it might be pretty decent.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The Stronghold remaster just came out last month. That game is a classic.
If you like the city building and supply chain logistical aspects of RTS games, then Anno 1800 might be up your alley.
If you like the city building and supply chain logistical aspects of RTS games, then Anno 1800 might be up your alley.
Kiya's Guard
Member
Im currently playing the entry before, dungeon keeper 3. 4 is basically the same with some qol things, and less army decision from what I've heard
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
My wife is really into Northgard. RTS isn't my thing.
Jigsaah
Gold Member
Stel
laris
Go buy it now and play your first 5 games...then watch videos on it. It is the most involved grand strategy game I've ever played.
you got space, you got planets, an entire galaxy to fight wars over, and end game crisis that tests your proficiency in one of the most unforgiving ways I've seen. Multiple and I mean like hundreds of different builds, you got origins, alien races. You manage your population, the populations of other civilizations, you can enthrall, enslave, form galactic corporations, theres a got damn galactic senate and you vote on bills that affect the whole galaxy. You can win the game by being a pacifist, a megacorporation, an undead civilization, you can become the fuckin end game crisIs. Stellaris is absolutely insane. Get it, NAOWWWWWW.
larisGo buy it now and play your first 5 games...then watch videos on it. It is the most involved grand strategy game I've ever played.
you got space, you got planets, an entire galaxy to fight wars over, and end game crisis that tests your proficiency in one of the most unforgiving ways I've seen. Multiple and I mean like hundreds of different builds, you got origins, alien races. You manage your population, the populations of other civilizations, you can enthrall, enslave, form galactic corporations, theres a got damn galactic senate and you vote on bills that affect the whole galaxy. You can win the game by being a pacifist, a megacorporation, an undead civilization, you can become the fuckin end game crisIs. Stellaris is absolutely insane. Get it, NAOWWWWWW.
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Krappadizzle
Member
I've never played this series myself, but I had a buddy I was stationed with that was obsessed with this game. This and Shogun: Total War were the only games he played.Stel
Go buy it now and play your first 5 games...then watch videos on it. It is the most involved grand strategy game I've ever played.
you got space, you got planets, an entire galaxy to fight wars over, and end game crisis that tests your proficiency in one of the most unforgiving ways I've seen. Multiple and I mean like hundreds of different builds, you got origins, alien races. You manage your population, the populations of other civilizations, you can enthrall, enslave, form galactic corporations, theres a got damn galactic senate and you vote on bills that affect the whole galaxy. You can win the game by being a pacifist, a megacorporation, an undead civilization, you can become the fuckin end game crisIs. Stellaris is absolutely insane. Get it, NAOWWWWWW.
Jigsaah
Gold Member
honestly the only downside is the insane amount of DLC it has. You don't have to buy it right off the bat, but once you're hooked, you'll wanna buy it. Luckily they often have huge sales on the DLC as well.
demented waffle
Gold Member
EU4 is my jam atm, but there a A LOT of DLC with that game.
Flutta
Banned
Hudo
Gold Member
Only the ones I think are worth checking out! I omitted stuff like the Dark Reign games or Warlords Battlecry or weirder stuff like Black & White 2 (is an RTS, IMHO) or Impossible Creatures.”Off top of my head”
Bro you just listed all of them
There were a lot of mid RTS games released in the 90s and early 2000s.
GnomeChimpsky
Member
Manor Lords is gonna be the tits when it comes out in may.
killatopak
Member
I don’t think Stellaris is an RTS? It feels more like a 4X game.Stel
Go buy it now and play your first 5 games...then watch videos on it. It is the most involved grand strategy game I've ever played.
you got space, you got planets, an entire galaxy to fight wars over, and end game crisis that tests your proficiency in one of the most unforgiving ways I've seen. Multiple and I mean like hundreds of different builds, you got origins, alien races. You manage your population, the populations of other civilizations, you can enthrall, enslave, form galactic corporations, theres a got damn galactic senate and you vote on bills that affect the whole galaxy. You can win the game by being a pacifist, a megacorporation, an undead civilization, you can become the fuckin end game crisIs. Stellaris is absolutely insane. Get it, NAOWWWWWW.
Flutta
Banned
Yeah i know, It’s a good list either way.
Have you checked out The Riftbreaker, not s pure RTS but a mix of that with base-building, survival game with Action-RPG elements.
Worth the time. Had alot of fun with this game. You should check it out if you havent.
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diffusionx
Gold Member
Rise of Nations merged Civilization and AOE into this near-perfect game that is so underappreciated. The sequel went in this weird steampunk direction but it's still really good. I didn't have the technical problems Hudo did, in fact it all worked great for me when I tried it on my modern PC (even has UWS support).
Supreme Commander is the best "large scale" RTS.
Homeworld is very original with some of the best art design/scale ever but it's quite difficult.
Company of Heroes is maybe the best RTS ever - COH2 isn't quite as good but Relic put a ton of work into it over the years and it has a ton fo content. COH3 killed the franchise.
StarCraft/StarCraft 2 - totally obvious but both should be played, SC1 even got a good remaster.
There's a lot of other stuff, like Battle Realms that is getting ongoing modernization/QOL upgrades, and then you get into other games that mix other genres but there is something about the pure RTS that I always found appealing. WarCraft 2 was the first game I played on my first PC.
Supreme Commander is the best "large scale" RTS.
Homeworld is very original with some of the best art design/scale ever but it's quite difficult.
Company of Heroes is maybe the best RTS ever - COH2 isn't quite as good but Relic put a ton of work into it over the years and it has a ton fo content. COH3 killed the franchise.
StarCraft/StarCraft 2 - totally obvious but both should be played, SC1 even got a good remaster.
There's a lot of other stuff, like Battle Realms that is getting ongoing modernization/QOL upgrades, and then you get into other games that mix other genres but there is something about the pure RTS that I always found appealing. WarCraft 2 was the first game I played on my first PC.
Neon Xenon
Member
Star Wars: Empire at War should be highlighted here, since it very recently got a Major Update on November 20th that brings fixes, game changes, and the biggest update being that both the original game and the Forces of Corruption expansion have been brought to 64-Bit. This is big news for both game stability and and mods (of which Empire at War has a LOT of).
steamcommunity.com
The tradeoff for updating EaW's executables to 64-bit is that previous save games from the 32-bit version will no longer be compatible, but Petroglyph has also allowed players to access to the 32-bit version to play their older saves by going into Properties -> Betas -> 32-bit_version.
It's a great game and only $6.99 for the Steam Autumn Sale. Also, I think it's just cool that Petroglyph is still around and is still working on Empire at War. You love to see it.
Official Patch Update Thread (Updated 10/22/24) :: STAR WARS™ Empire at War: Gold Pack General Discussions
Hey Empire at War Fans! Working in conjunction with Disney and Lucasfilm Games, we are happy to release our latest update to the Empire at War Gold Pack. This update contains a number of gameplay fixes and improvements reported by the community over the last year. It should be noted that these...
The tradeoff for updating EaW's executables to 64-bit is that previous save games from the 32-bit version will no longer be compatible, but Petroglyph has also allowed players to access to the 32-bit version to play their older saves by going into Properties -> Betas -> 32-bit_version.
It's a great game and only $6.99 for the Steam Autumn Sale. Also, I think it's just cool that Petroglyph is still around and is still working on Empire at War. You love to see it.
diffusionx
Gold Member
that is just incredible support on a 17 year old game, kudos to the devsStar Wars: Empire at War should be highlighted here, since it very recently got a Major Update on November 20th that brings fixes, game changes, and the biggest update being that both the original game and the Forces of Corruption expansion have been brought to 64-Bit. This is big news for both game stability and and mods (of which Empire at War has a LOT of).
Official Patch Update Thread (Updated 10/22/24) :: STAR WARS™ Empire at War: Gold Pack General Discussions
Hey Empire at War Fans! Working in conjunction with Disney and Lucasfilm Games, we are happy to release our latest update to the Empire at War Gold Pack. This update contains a number of gameplay fixes and improvements reported by the community over the last year. It should be noted that these...
The tradeoff for updating EaW's executables to 64-bit is that previous save games from the 32-bit version will no longer be compatible, but Petroglyph has also allowed players to access to the 32-bit version to play their older saves by going into Properties -> Betas -> 32-bit_version.
It's a great game and only $6.99 for the Steam Autumn Sale. Also, I think it's just cool that Petroglyph is still around and is still working on Empire at War. You love to see it.
Hudo
Gold Member
Ah thanks for the tip. I haven't checked out Riftbreaker yet, even though it came up a couple of times in Steam recommendations, I believe. Will check it out!
ThatStupidLion
Member
Not real time but give Heroes of might and magic 3 a try.
Its turnbased with base building, exploring, resource collection, leveling, skills, combat tactics, items, spells… has it all really, except real time gameplay….
Is warcraft 3 still a thing? Could look into that as well
Its turnbased with base building, exploring, resource collection, leveling, skills, combat tactics, items, spells… has it all really, except real time gameplay….
Is warcraft 3 still a thing? Could look into that as well
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Jigsaah
Gold Member
It's grand strategy. But I mean...it's still plays like an RTS...cept there can be like 30 players at once if you want. But you can make it 1 v 1 v 1 if you want. You can do it co-op as well.
I guess I look at it like this. If you're grand strategy is always militaristic...then you basically have an RTS...just with multiple potential opponents or allies. It's left a bit up to RNG and your ability to adapt whether the conditions meet your goals.
I suppose in RTS games the militaristic thing is a given. There really is no option to be pacifist and win. Plus the units you use for fighting probably vary a bit more. Like tanks, anti air, infantry, flying units, base killers, etc.
In Stellaris, you kinda have that. You got smaller ships, scouts, science and construction, light fighters and destroyer, medium size frigates, up to capital sized ships. You can even get special units like alien fauna to fight for you including a space dragon. These kinda all roll into a rock paper scissors kinda balance where you outfit your ships based on what information you can gather about your opponents armies. You can do this through subterfuge, essentially sending spies masked as diplomats into their society, or by building radar arrays that eventually can cover the whole galaxy.
I'm nerding out heavy here, I know. I just think if you like RTS games, then for 12 bucks you can put Stellaris in your back pocket and just give it a try once in a while.
Lots of good suggestions on this thread that meet the RTS requirement regardless...why not go a lil nuts?
Jamesb0ndjr
Member
Disappointed I’ve seen no one mention Gates of Hell: Ostfront.
Gates of Hell
Also has DLC of the western front coming this week.
Gates of Hell
Also has DLC of the western front coming this week.
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Wildebeest
Member
FTL is a very popular one.
SirKicksalot
Member
Star Wars: Empire at War should be highlighted here, since it very recently got a Major Update on November 20th that brings fixes, game changes, and the biggest update being that both the original game and the Forces of Corruption expansion have been brought to 64-Bit. This is big news for both game stability and and mods (of which Empire at War has a LOT of).
Official Patch Update Thread (Updated 10/22/24) :: STAR WARS™ Empire at War: Gold Pack General Discussions
Hey Empire at War Fans! Working in conjunction with Disney and Lucasfilm Games, we are happy to release our latest update to the Empire at War Gold Pack. This update contains a number of gameplay fixes and improvements reported by the community over the last year. It should be noted that these...
The tradeoff for updating EaW's executables to 64-bit is that previous save games from the 32-bit version will no longer be compatible, but Petroglyph has also allowed players to access to the 32-bit version to play their older saves by going into Properties -> Betas -> 32-bit_version.
It's a great game and only $6.99 for the Steam Autumn Sale. Also, I think it's just cool that Petroglyph is still around and is still working on Empire at War. You love to see it.
I wish Universe at War got this kind of support. It's abandonware now lol
Had so much fun with the giant walkers and downloading my army through power lines...
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Stellaris is a great game, but OP is asking for RTS not turn based strategy. He should still try it out if he can.Stel
Go buy it now and play your first 5 games...then watch videos on it. It is the most involved grand strategy game I've ever played.
you got space, you got planets, an entire galaxy to fight wars over, and end game crisis that tests your proficiency in one of the most unforgiving ways I've seen. Multiple and I mean like hundreds of different builds, you got origins, alien races. You manage your population, the populations of other civilizations, you can enthrall, enslave, form galactic corporations, theres a got damn galactic senate and you vote on bills that affect the whole galaxy. You can win the game by being a pacifist, a megacorporation, an undead civilization, you can become the fuckin end game crisIs. Stellaris is absolutely insane. Get it, NAOWWWWWW.
pasterpl
Member
Hudo
Gold Member
Except for Settlers 5, Settlers has much much bigger focus on the economy part (even if everything is just a means to build up an army) and the combat is too shallow. Which is why I haven't listed it. Settlers 2 and Settlers 4 are good games, though!
nkarafo
Member
Is Dungeons better than War for the Overworld? By better i mean closer to the og Dungeon Keeper?
Kiya's Guard
Member
Sorry but I didn't know the game you mentioned existed, so no clue. The modern dungeons is a comical saga, with both managing your dungeon and conquering the land outside. Watch a review if you fancy
GnomeChimpsky
Member
I just bought it, game is amazing! Great attention to detail, audio etc. Feels super authentic without being overwhelming. Reminds me a lot of the old school Blitzkrieg games actually...
MidGenRefresh
*Refreshes biennially
Can't really recommend it yet as it's coming out on the 7th of December but as a fan of the franchise it's been on my radar for so long:
BoxFresh123
Member
Recently played through the StarCraft II campaign. I suck ass at it but it's fun as hell.
Also LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth if you have a way of playing that.
Also LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth if you have a way of playing that.
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