Recommended RTS games for someone new to genre?

[IrshaadH]

Hey all,

 

I recently picked up Halo Wars 2 on sale on the MS store and am having tons of fun with it.  In particular, I'm really enjoying the multi-tasking, strategy-based nature of the gameplay, and I'm interested in getting more involved with the genre.  What RTS titles should I look at?  I guess the obvious choice would be StarCraft 2, but I'll take other suggestions as well.

 

Thanks!

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Crusader Kings II is my current obsession - On the border of RTS but it's excellent and only $20. Highly recommended.

[Energycore]

I think the classic Age of Empires II deserves a playthrough, especially now that there's a version that supports current gen resolutions as well as a couple unofficial expansions. It's easily my favorite RTS of all time.

 

If you want something slower that's still RTS, check out Rise of Nations, which was made in collaboration between Ensemble Studios - the guys behind AOE - and the team that makes the Civilization games.

 

These are both classic and old games. A recent released is They Are Billions which is a survival-ish RTS, with similar mechanics but that puts you against incoming waves of zombies (basically). It was praised a lot though I haven't gotten around to playing it.

[FreeDev]

Definitely a fan of Stellaris, because it's a slow paced game with a lot of elements that play around the story, diplomacy, and so forth. (It's technically a RTS with adjustable speed for fast forwarding.) On top of that, there's a Star Trek overhaul mod.

[Mira Yurizaki]

There's a pretty wide gamut of RTS games to choose from.

• Traditional RTS:
  • If you're more into basic resource management, base building, and army building, the Command and Conquer series (except for C&C 4) is great for that. You only need to manage one resource.
  • If you're into base building with more resource management, but without a huge tech tree or with "bite-sized" missions, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Company of Heroes come to mind. There's probably others that are similar to it but I can't think of them right now. The only caveat with Company of Heroes is the base building is in a fixed spot. The game focuses more on tactics.
• Real Time Tactics:
  • If you don't care for base building, there's Warhammer 40000 RTS games, World in Conflict, and Supreme Commander. Command and Conquer 4 also lies in this category. The core difference between RTS and RTT is that RTT focuses strictly on commanding units, and often times you're limited in how many you can deploy. If there's a resource system, resources gathering is either a "king of the hill" style or automatically generated over time.
• Real time 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate):
  • If you want a grand epic adventure, from base building to researching a vast technology tree, on top of building an army and conquering your enemies, there's the Age of Empire series, Rise of Nations, Empire Earth (the first one), Sins of a Solar Empire, among others.
• Turn-based Management, Real-time Combat:
  • This is a hybrid, where all building and planning is done in turns, but the actual combat takes place in real time. The Total War series is like this.

[ivan134]

Being a Nintendo fanboy, I also recommend the fire emblem and Pikmin series

[Guest]

Dawn of war 

dawn of war winter assault

dawn of war dark crusade

 

I haven’t tried 2 retribution so no comment on it

 

dont bother with 

soulstorm 

2

2 chaos rising

3

 

i also enjoyed command and conquer Generals. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

They Are Billions, one of the best RTS games I've seen.