Recommend me a good RTS.

[Elijah Newton]

Happy to see other folks chiming in with Dawn of War recommendations. I'm with them and, yeah, go for the first one over DoW 2. Pretty much unmatched when it comes to balanced and varied gameplay. Even with the expansions (Winter Assault and Dark Crusade) they're going to be inexpensive.

Have fun!

 

[redisforever]

Company of Heroes
Medieval 2: Total War (these two have good tutorials)
The older Command & Conquer series.
Hegemony: Philip of Macedon (?)
These are all good games.

 

[Aeshi]

Multiwinia is a pretty simple RTS and pretty cheap to boot.

 

[bharath1097]

Total Annihilation arguably the greatest RTS of all time

 

[CrazyJew]

I'm going to back Sins of a Solar Empire here, along with the Democracy expansion for better democratic relationships. Also, it has mods for every major sci-fi franchise out there. I spent countless hours boldly going where no one has gone before.

 

[Halceon]

No, go back to the very roots! Dune 2 and nothing else.

 

[Cipher1]

If you want some old time RTS try WarZone2100 its free to download and still pretty fun to play. Also not sure if its an RTS but Hearts of Iron is pretty good to (with a somewhat step learning curve at the start)

 

[Okysho]

Starcraft is not easy on noobs. Especially online players, they'll rip you to shreds. It makes me hate starcraft with a passion just for that reason alone (though overall a decent game)

If you want to give a good RTS a try, maybe Dawn of War 1 or 2. Despite it's connection to Warhammer 40k (though I like warhammer so whatever) It's actually quite fun and isn't really so cluster fuck-y like total war-esque games. Plus no "wololooo"s (the sound the monks make in Age of Empires).

Though you could give Age of Empires 2 a shot, or maybe Star Wars Galactic battlegrounds, if you're into that sort of thing. They're fairly old, but if it suits you, give it a shot.

Just one thing, NEVER play the King Arthur series!

 

[Fearzone]

Starcraft 2 is a good noob RTS--the campaign goes pretty easy on you. I just think it is a little bland is all but its a great game. If you want something cheaper, the original Dawn of War still holds its own, and it is pretty noob friendly--the only thing I would say is most of that community has dispersed to DoW2 and others, so you'll probably be playing it by yourself. The original Homeworld is one of the RTS greats, and isn't that hard. Those are three that are good places to start. Starcraft 2 is the safe choice, you can't really go wrong with that.

While great, Company of Heroes would be hard on newcomers. Sins of a Solar Empire--well there is no campaign and it goes soooooo slooooowwwwwww that I'm not sure that is the best way to get your feet wet, but if you like RTSs it is one you indeed must try. Total War is more a turn-based game with RTS elements.

 

[cryogeist]

Act of War high treason is pretty fun :you need a windows XP to play it though

 

[DSK-]

C&C the First Decade, Starcraft, Total Annihilation, Homeworld, Homeworld 2, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, Dawn of War 1, Shogun: Total War, Medieval: Total War, Medieval 2: Total War.

 

[nononoiefiewpfoiejofijp]

Don't play SC2, you need a fucking monolith to play it.
I recommend the first one because it's more balanced, you can keep up with the story and very easy to run.

 

[meowchef]

Oops. Double.

 

[meowchef]

Your best bets for "standard" RTSs:
Company of Heroes
Rise of Nations
Supreme Commander 1 or 2
Homeworld 2

Your best bets for "non-standard" RTSs:
Every single Total War game
Sins of a Solar Empire
World in Conflict

 

[Schweetness101]

Men of War (like a more intelligent CoH). No magic bs, just challenging WWII combat (tanks don't have health bars ftw)

 

[spartandude]

Age of Mythology
StarCraft 2
Company Of Heroes
Dawn Of War The Dark Crusade
Dawn Of War 2
Star Wars Empire at War/ Forces Of Corruption
the Total War series (except for shogun 2)
Europa Universailis 3/ Victoria 2/ Hearts Of Iron Darkest Hour
World In Conflict (if you have super fast reaction times)
Warcraft 3

 

[minimacker]

Company of Heroes, baby!

There's even a large modding community for CoH, which can turn pretty big at times. Such as EasternFront.org, which is almost a community expansion pack that adds a Soviet faction complete with voice acting, model work and balanced gameplay.

Really professionally done.

Company of Heroes has been on sale a couple of times on Steam but is cheap anyhow.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

age of mythology...its old, but its brilliant, and you can play it for hours.....

 

[Alcamonic]

Stronghold 1 and Stronghold Crusader, castle building, economy handling with intensive battles!
You will thank me later.

GOG.com has them for 9 dollar I think.