Recommend me a RTS!

[v1rus]

Title

Couple of preferences - I'd like a "newer" game, and by that, i mean something like 2004+, since we all know there arent many RTS's these days. Also, no "realistic" games, I never enjoyed those that much. Sure, Rise of Nations was TEH BEST GAME when I was 10, but eh, not into that kind of stuff now.

On top of my mind, i really enjoyed Warcraft III, Starcraft, Battle Realms, Age of Mythology and Warlords Battlecry 3 (THAT HERO SYSTEM IS THE BEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER SEEN. NO SHIT. NEVER FOUND A GAME THAT DOES ANYTHING SIMILAR, BUT IF I DID, I'D PLAY THE SHIT OUT OF IT). Played a dozen more RTS's, but these are the ones that i keep coming back to.

While I'm looking for an RTS atm, be free to recommend some good old turn based stuff. I'm big on HoMM and Disciples, and I got Endless Legend recently, tho I have yet to play it. Played Age of Wonders II couple of times, and while I found it enjoyable, I never got back to it. I did install some fan revamp that used tons of WoW sprites so that might have affected the impression.

 

[Gregz]

Missing a big one, Total Annihilation.

 

[v1rus]

Missing a big one, Total Annihilation.

Oi, ya, that's something that I should def play, sooner or later. Most prolly later tho, since I'm really up for something "new".

 

[sser]

I think you'd like Armies of Exigo.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Act of War is pretty good.

 

[spectre]

If Total Annihilation is too new, try Supreme Commander (Forged Alliance is good, stay away from SC2).

Dawn of War 1 was also great even if you aren't really into warhammer. Dark Crusade was probably where it's peaked.

 

[v1rus]

First come, first served. Gonna try Armies of Exigo a bit later, and Act of War is next.

If Total Annihilation is too new, try Supreme Commander (Forged Alliance is good, stay away from SC2).
Dawn of War 1 was also great even if you aren't really into warhammer. Dark Crusade was probably where it's peaked.

Wait, we are talking about 1997 Total Annhilation, aren't we?

And I did play Dawn of War, most of the expansions. Awesome game, major incline. Played vs the AI for a while (which is how i play most of RTS's, unless i hear the story is good) and I think I beat Eldar campaign, if there is such thing, cant remember, well, anything. Ty for reminding me, gonna try it again, it is an awesome game after all.

 

[laclongquan]

Warzone 2100 rule! Nothing like it ever since! It's the exception that allow me to say I do enjoy some RTS.

 

[nomask7]

Wait, we are talking about 1997 Total Annhilation, aren't we?

Probably a typo.

Supreme Commander is a much newer game and a spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation. You should probably get Forged Alliance since it's stand-alone and apparently a slight improvement on the original Supreme Commander.

These games are very different from the simplistic classics. You're either going to have your mind blown, bit by bit, or yearn for a kinder experience.

Another game I'd recommend is Warzone: 2100. It has fun tech/science development as a feature that other RTS games either lack or do on a much smaller scale.

 

[grudgebringer]

If you liked WC3, Battle Realms, Rise of Nations and Battlecry then you should try Kohan 2.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/97130/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/97130/

 

[spectre]

If Total Annihilation is too new, try Supreme Commander (Forged Alliance is good, stay away from SC2).
Dawn of War 1 was also great even if you aren't really into warhammer. Dark Crusade was probably where it's peaked.

Wait, we are talking about 1997 Total Annhilation, aren't we?

Yeah, I mistyped, it should have read "too old."

For turn based stuff:
Invisible Inc., Silent Storm, Civilization 4 with mods, this should keep you busy for a while.
If you're into Homm, Kings Bounty should go down well, though myself I couldn't get too much into it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Knights & Merchants, although the pace of that game is much slower than usual for RTS games.

 

[laclongquan]

KnM is unwieldy as fuck~

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Didn't play many 2000+ RTS games (I was much more into the genre in the 90s, then I sort of switched to CRPGs) but (beside titles already mentioned here) I thought War of the Ring (came out in 2003 IIRC) was a solid romp, it's an RTS that is sort of a mix between Battle Realms and Warcraft 3, made by the same studio behind Battle Realms (Liquid Entertainment) and uses the same engine (though it was improved to include some neat effects). It's set in LOTR universe but has nothing to do with the movies but rather takes the inspiration from the books (with more than a few liberties taken obviously).

Other than that, the only RTS I keep coming back to are Myth 1 and 2 (fantastic games with unparalleled war atmosphere, really don't make them like that anymore), Commandos Behind Enemy Lines and Sacrifice (an action strategy hybrid with bizarre art style great voice acting and quite a lot of C&C), none of them being the traditional RTS type.

 

[Jagged Appliance]

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It still has a MP community here: http://www.faforever.com/

 

[Sranchammer]

RTSs are for old people. You are not a real gamer unless you play MOBA

 

[GrainWetski]

I was going to recommend Armies of Exigo since it seems like it is often overlooked, but I see it was already recommended.

First group is fantasy and closer to the ones you mentioned. No particular order. Varying quality, but I consder them all worth at least trying.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires
D&D Dragonshard
Spellforce games
Warrior Kings
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Battle for Middle-Earth 1 & 2

Impossible Creatures
Earth games
Perimeter
SunAge

 

[Suicidal]

Rise of Legends is Rise of Nations with steampunk, djinns and magical aztec aliens.

Most games from the Command and Conquer series and its spinoffs are good. C&C Generals is one of my favorite RTS games, especially for playing multiplayer with friends, and it has a ton of fan-made mods that add fun units and factions to fuck around with. Red Alert 2 and Tiberian Sun have very good single player campaigns. Red Alert 3 has one of the best skirmish AIs I've seen. Avoid C&C 4, it's some weird MOBA-like game rather than a proper RTS and it pretty much killed the series.

Since you liked Warcraft 3 and Starcraft, play Starcraft 2 if you haven't - it's basically SC1 but with a better interface. The campaign is very good with lots of varied and difficult missions (but be warned that the plot is INCREDIBLY stupid, so if you don't take it seriously you might get a few laughs out of it, but if you do you can get brain damage). Also tons of custom maps and mods like in WC3.

Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth is pretty good, especially the sequel. You can build some pretty large bases with castles and walls and shit and have massive army battles.

For something less well known:

Armies of Exigo (already was recommended in this thread) - it's a mix of Starcraft and Warcraft, with units being able to level up and maps having a surface and underground layer like in most fantasy TBS games.

Universe at War - Starcraft-like game with diverse and pretty interesting factions (for example there is a faction with mobile bases built on top of giant robots)

Primitive Wars - this one is pretty old but you might like it. It's a Starcraft clone set in fantasy Jurassic period and races include mutated dinosaur people, demons, etc. One of the mechanics is that you need to hunt dinosaurs and get food for your units and also your units can level up and gain new abilities.

No Man's Land - an Age of Mythology/Age of Empires like game set in colonization period America. Not very realistic since Indians can use magic and all faction have WC3-style heroes.

Warzone 2100 - pretty unique game that lets you design every unit yourself and you get a MASSIVE tech tree to play with. Pretty old. There's also Earth 2150, which is similar, but newer (and shittier).

 

[thesheeep]

Warlords Battlecry 3 (THAT HERO SYSTEM IS THE BEST FUCKING THING I'VE EVER SEEN. NO SHIT. NEVER FOUND A GAME THAT DOES ANYTHING SIMILAR, BUT IF I DID, I'D PLAY THE SHIT OUT OF IT)

YES!

 

[DeepOcean]

Cossacks series, blend of Age of Empires and total war with a single player with pretty detailed historical based missions. Do you want huge armies walking in formation on your screen? This is the way to go, Cossacks 3 was released recently, recommend.

American Conquest same devs that made the Cossacks series, pretty good if not as polished as the Cossacks series.

Supreme commander, large scale wars on huge maps, the campaign is kinda weak but the skirmish with the Ai is pretty great, quite decent AI.

Empire at War, pretty decent Star Wars based RTS, some really bad balance issues between the units but there are a ton of mods for this one that make it quite fun to play.

 

[Suicidal]

I remember buying a cracked copy of Warlords BC 2 on a flee market for a few $ (yeah, those were times before my friends and I discovered torrents and p2p sharing). It had an incredibly shitty Russian dub, like some of the worst voice acting you can ever hear in a video game and it was so bad it was amazing. We learned many of the unit quotes by heart.

To the OP, if you liked Warlords BC, you might wanna try Spellforce, I don't remember much about it but it is some sort of RPG/RTS hybrid with persistent heroes and equipment and whatnot.

 

[v1rus]

Tons of great suggestions, as usual, gonna go through most of 'em during the day. When it comes to the frequent suggestions -
War of the Rings - Boy, I loved this game. Still do, but BR -> WotR. I really minded that you only have 2 playable factions.
Rise of Legends - Played it for a bit, was pretty kool, no idea why I stopped.
Spellforce - ya, i actually heard it resembles Warlords a bit, tried starting the campaign 3+ times, i burnt out before the end of first mission every single god damn time. Not that the game is bad, quite the opposite, i like what i've seen, very much, but I can't finish the darn first mission
Kings Bounty - Played the hell out of one of those back when I was 8. Bit too old for that now, I think :D
Civ 4 - Tried out, with some fantasy mods, but tbh, I had no idea wth is going on. Prolly since I've never played another Civ game or Civ 4 clean.
Sacrifice - Why ofc, it's a Shiny game after all
Heroes of Annihilated Empires - Gave it a spin quite some time ago, found it kinda bland :/ Don't remember why
Red Alert 2 - Played it, loved it, haven't beat the whole campaign I think.

Also, tons of games I didnt try out earlier tho I liked what I've seen (perimeter, kohan, dragonshard). Anyone knows anything about that Dinosaurus rts? Remember reading about it in a local gaming magazine, looked so awesome while I was younger, cause, Dinos and all. There also was a third tier RTS i enjoyed very much, but cant remember its fucking name. Eternal Kingdoms? Google says not, but it was called something like that. Three factions - humans, some sort of demons and hairy forest creatures.

RTSs are for old people. You are not a real gamer unless you play MOBA

Been playing Dota on and off since 2004

YES!

BRAH, BEEN LOOKIN FOR YE MY ENTIRE LIFE.

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah, you and the other dozen or so people remembering WBC 3

 

[Suicidal]

There's actually 2 dinosaur games.

1 is primitive wars, the one I've played a long time ago, which is a SC clone with hunting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_Wars
2nd is Paraworld, it's much newer, but I've never played it. I discovered it very recently by stumbling upon a video on youtube talking about it. Looked like it could be an interesting game. You can check it out yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRSaZfLB_w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRSaZfLB_w
I also remember playing a game called Lords of Everquest a long time ago. It's an RTS based on Everquest, which is an MMORPG. Don't remember much about it, sadly.

 

[v1rus]

There's actually 2 dinosaur games.

1 is primitive wars, the one I've played a long time ago, which is a SC clone with hunting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_Wars
2nd is Paraworld, it's much newer, but I've never played it. I discovered it very recently by stumbling upon a video on youtube talking about it. Looked like it could be an interesting game. You can check it out yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRSaZfLB_w
I also remember playing a game called Lords of Everquest a long time ago. It's an RTS based on Everquest, which is an MMORPG. Don't remember much about it, sadly.

Its Paraworld. Also, played Everquest. Was fun, but I felt like I was missing a lot by not playing the mmo. Afair, you could promote your minions to lieutenants and bring them from one campaign mission to the other, which was major kind of awesome.

Yis, i luv "retinue" mechanic of Warlords very much :D