Recommend me a good RTS.

[Taddy]

Galactic Civilization 2, really fun game. Basically the game lets you pick one of so many races (Or a custom one), gives you a planet. Then it says, "See that rather large galaxy? Conquer that shit." It can last for a very long time. Also, watch out for those Dread Lords.

 

[Wieke]

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Battle_for_Middle-earth] is quite entertaining and not too complex. The game did some interesting things regarding base building (limited and streamlined but with interesting results). Avoid Battle for Middle Earth 2, all the interesting innovation from the first was left out and replaced with standard fps stuff.

Oh and I second the posters advocating Dawn of War, SoSE and Starcraft 1&2 (though for the last two I'm not so sure on the noob friendliness).

Really ner vod? I always thought BFME2 was more fun, the expansion in general.

Yeah it is a personal preference largely based on the BFME's base building system and campaign mode. I liked the high-level overmap strategy part and the fact that you kept the units in your army. And the base building system, while simplified, did force you to think about what you really needed to build, because of the limited slots available. It also allowed for a harvest-less resource system and made some of your bases look like cool castles. I bareley played it but IIRC BFME2 dropped some of these things.

One of the few examples of streamlining/simplification to yield good results imho.

 

[Sonicron]

I second the recommendations for the Dawn of War series. Warhammer 40k is not everybody's cup of tea, of course, but the games are excellent in and of themselves anyway.

If you're looking for classic RTS with base-building, upgrade research, amassing armies etc, you're best off with "Dawn of War" and the expansions "Winter Assault" and "Dark Crusade"; disregard "Soulstorm", it's a disgrace.
If you're willing to try something of the RTT (Real Time Tactics) variety, "Dawn of War 2" is your game, along with the expansions "Chaos Rising" and "Retribution". (It's worth noting that "Retribution" concludes the story arc begun in the very first "Dawn of War".)

Why does everyone hate soulstorm?
if I may ask
I really like playing the dark eldar in it, but never really got too deep into the balance in it, is that the problem?

The balance was shot to hell, but that's way down on the list of things I want to see it burn for.
- Writing and voice-over work among the worst I've ever seen in video games. Read up on 'metal bawkses' if you want to know more.
- Faction perks were all crap.
- Sisters of Battle were not only completely overpowered, but also mostly a collection of reskins of previously established units. Even building animations were recycled.
- Conquering those webway gates sucked.
- Having to conquer the gates on TWO sides sucked even worse.
- Worst of all: Defense missions were a load of bollocks, because after you'd conquer a province, your entire base would just vanish and you had to start from scratch, while the enemy immediately starts pounding you into the dust. Bull. Shit.
- And lest we forget: BUGS GALORE!
To summarize, I hate Soulstorm with a passion because it's an irredeemable piece of shit, developed by a bunch of lazy, bungling hacks.

 

[Enverex]

Act of War was admittedly the best RTS I've ever played (better than all the C&Cs, etc) in my opinion as it had more communication from the units, a little more realism added, but annoyingly it doesn't work in Vista or Windows 7 (or Wine). If you're on XP, definitely try it.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Yeah it is a personal preference largely based on the BFME's base building system and campaign mode. I liked the high-level overmap strategy part and the fact that you kept the units in your army. And the base building system, while simplified, did force you to think about what you really needed to build, because of the limited slots available. It also allowed for a harvest-less resource system and made some of your bases look like cool castles. I bareley played it but IIRC BFME2 dropped some of these things.

One of the few examples of streamlining/simplification to yield good results imho.

Yeah, it was nice n neat, but I preferred way the bfme2 games played, and you could have some epic battles. you could also build walls with some of the factions, and that made bases look nice, even if they were practically useless

 

[Nymi]

Starcraft 2 is definitely very fun.

Dawn of War, both 1 and 2. Personally I preferred DoW1, but both sets of games and expansions are good.

 

[WOPR]

The balance was shot to hell, but that's way down on the list of things I want to see it burn for.
- Writing and voice-over work among the worst I've ever seen in video games. Read up on 'metal bawkses' if you want to know more.
- Faction perks were all crap.
- Sisters of Battle were not only completely overpowered, but also mostly a collection of reskins of previously established units. Even building animations were recycled.
- Conquering those webway gates sucked.
- Having to conquer the gates on TWO sides sucked even worse.
- Worst of all: Defense missions were a load of bollocks, because after you'd conquer a province, your entire base would just vanish and you had to start from scratch, while the enemy immediately starts pounding you into the dust. Bull. Shit.
- And lest we forget: BUGS GALORE!
To summarize, I hate Soulstorm with a passion because it's an irredeemable piece of shit, developed by a bunch of lazy, bungling hacks.

Ahh... I want to note that I haven't found any bugs... but yeah the voice acting is horrid... I don't play the campaign for it (because I didn't much care for the risk-like campaign style, I better liked the DoW and DoW:WA campaigns)

and I could never manage to play SS online, ONLY gotten to play DoWC online, rather enjoyed it too, although considering I mostly played soulstorm, I could feel the balance differences right off the bat

but again, I mostly play DoW2 now, I enjoy not having that stupid "build base, mass units, attack-move" thing that starcraft had a major problem with

 

[WOPR]

Galactic Civilization 2, really fun game. Basically the game lets you pick one of so many races (Or a custom one), gives you a planet. Then it says, "See that rather large galaxy? Conquer that shit." It can last for a very long time. Also, watch out for those Dread Lords.

GalCiv2 isn't an RTS
it's a simulation/world building/God game that's turn-based
(just saying)

EDIT:

I see a lot of posts repeating one another, so I'll try to be original.

Everyone who hasn't yet should try Total Annihilation, old, but a classic.

Also fun is Warzone 2100. Best thing is: It's free. And I don't mean indie game or semi-demo kind of free. It used to be a paid game in the stores, but the developer released all codes several years later, and now it's a community-run game.
http://wz2100.net

Research also plays a part in this game, giving the strategy more debth and long-term planning.

Holy crap, I remember having Warzone 2100 on my PS1... in fact I still do... it's sitting right here right now!

 

[skim172]

My favorite RTS's of all time are the Homeworld and Ground Control series. However, that I generally dislike RTS's, so be warned that Homeworld and Ground Control are pretty different from your standard RTS fare.

Ground Control is a full 3D environment where you control a small number of units in combat. And there's no real "building" or "resourcing" of any kind. You lose a group, it's gone for the rest of the mission. Every unit is balanced and has a role, and you constantly need to worry about terrain and line of fire and fog of war, since the very next time you roll your tanks heedlessly through a forest, they just might get jumped by a massive ambush of anti-tank infantry.

Homeworld is more standard fare - you gather resources and build ships and research tech. Of course, it takes place in space, in full 3D, where an attack can come from literally any angle. Nothing more glorious than twenty bombers in claw formation diving straight down out of the heavens onto an enemy mothership. Takes a little getting used to, moving units in full three dimensions, but it's awesome.

 

[Brawndo]

I have hundreds of hours with Company of Heroes, it's a great game. The only issue is that the online community has waned in recent years.

 

[cthulhumythos]

warcraft 3 is a good one. i'd recommend that.

 

[Spitfire]

If you're into AoE type of base-building, ignore the Dawn of War suggestions. Also, while I haven't played a lot of Starcraft, I wouldn't exactly call it a noob-friendly game.
Personally, I'd recommend the Command & Conquer series, particularly Tiberian Sun (which is free, by the way) and Red Alert 2. They're campy, ridiculously fun, and on-top of that, they have great soundtracks as well.
Age of Mythology is another really fun game, if you haven't played it. It's basically Age of Empires, with better graphics, and you play as a freaking god.

 

[Taddy]

Galactic Civilization 2, really fun game. Basically the game lets you pick one of so many races (Or a custom one), gives you a planet. Then it says, "See that rather large galaxy? Conquer that shit." It can last for a very long time. Also, watch out for those Dread Lords.

GalCiv2 isn't an RTS
it's a simulation/world building/God game that's turn-based
(just saying)

Good point, completely forgot about that. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Axyun]

StarCraft 2
The definition of standard RTS, executed to near-perfection.

Shogun 2: Total War
Best in the Total War series and friendliest for those new to Total War.

Sins of a Solar Empire
Complex RTS bordering on TBS. Games on larger maps can take days to weeks.

 

[shrekfan246]

I have been itching to play an RTS for a while, and I recently found an old Age of Empires game, the Age of Kings. After going through hours of building up my civilization and making a huge hord of soldiers, I got screwed when my entire battle force were converted by monks and sent to attack my own keep.

Could someone recommend a fun, challenging RTS thats easy on noobs? Preferably without a standard unit for everyone that can turn 40 men against me?

I've seen a bunch of people recommend it already, but as someone who has never been a huge fan of RTS' (because I suck at them), Sins of a Solar Empire has sucked countless hours of my life away. It's very easy on noobs (turning down the AI to the easiest setting lets you basically build your empire any way you want for hours on end until you amass an army of 2000+ (depending on Xpacks and mods, etc.) ships to crush your opponents, and you can force AI to either be on your team or against your team during a match set-up regardless of how well you can do their mission-things) but becomes extremely brutal pretty quickly (seriously, I play it on the easiest settings and I still sometimes lose. I'm afraid of what might happen if I turn up the AI).

Granted, if you're not a huge fan of Sci-Fi you won't really like it, probably. It's not really a "typical" RTS like Age of Empires/Kings/Mythology though. You still have resource/building/army management, but the way it plays out and the scale are significantly different.[footnote]By the way, the scale is absolutely mind-boggling. You can practically create entire galaxies per game. I need to try modding it sometimes to add in more races though (or wait for the next expansion) because the default three do get a little old in three hour+ games with hundreds of systems to explore.[/footnote] I'm pretty sure that your entire fleet can't simultaneously get converted to the other side, but if memory serves there are ways to capture enemy ships depending on research you do. It's been a little while since I've played the game.

 

[WOPR]

Galactic Civilization 2, really fun game. Basically the game lets you pick one of so many races (Or a custom one), gives you a planet. Then it says, "See that rather large galaxy? Conquer that shit." It can last for a very long time. Also, watch out for those Dread Lords.

GalCiv2 isn't an RTS
it's a simulation/world building/God game that's turn-based
(just saying)

Good point, completely forgot about that. Thanks for clearing that up.

No problem, still an awesome and fun game (I got it for $10 at target, DRM-free)

 

[Crayven]

What everyone else said. DOWII retribution is the best DOW game, got a good multiplayer following and the single players good. After that Company of Heroes is really good.

Really? Good multi-player? chat is terrible to watch, unmodded and mostly over the line and people either don't talk in games, or the times they do, let you know that your playing all wrong and to quit and leave. I found one nice guy, who explained where i had gone wrong. I love the game, but its not for the noobies to RTS. Not for what you have to pay for it.

 

[Legendaryped0]

Dawn of War 2.

Spoiler

 

[Crayven]

What everyone else said. DOWII retribution is the best DOW game, got a good multiplayer following and the single players good. After that Company of Heroes is really good.

Really? Good multi-player? chat is terrible to watch, unmodded and mostly over the line and people either don't talk in games, or the times they do, let you know that your playing all wrong and to quit and leave. I found one nice guy, who explained where i had gone wrong. I love the game, but its not for the noobies to RTS. Not for what you have to pay for it.

I said good multiplayer following. As in a lot of people.

And why the hell would you want to talk with your enemy? It's an RTS game, you're supposed to be concentrating on what you're doing. If you have to talk, talk to your friends over skype or something.

And I wholeheartedly disagree. DOWII is the game that got me into RTS games. I'd tried the first DOW and it's expansions years before and completely sucked at them. But after I got DoWII and company in the THQ pack a few months ago. I've been sucked into the RTS genre.

If you play the singleplayer you get a grip of the controls and basic tactics. And you can always play MP against AI to get used to it. You shouldn't really be playing against people until you can beat the computer fairly easily.

I when I said no one talks, i was on about anyone, even team-mates. if your doing more then 1v1 then its quite a silent game unless you mess up or your losing. It might be nice to know peoples plans, and be able to work together. Most of the time, there isn't even a GG.

But I admit, I didn't notice you said following.

 

[omicron1]

I'm going to go a bit off the beaten track here and recommend that you look at 0 AD. [http://wildfiregames.com/0ad/]

It's not finished yet. It's barely in alpha. But it is a 3D RTS with the theme/setting of Age of Empires (but taking a more realist approach to arms, armaments, and style), the graphics of AoE3, and gameplay that represents a combination of Rise of Nations and AoK.

If you're a strategy fan at all, that last sentence should have set your heart pounding.