What are your favorite RTS?

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Tops are fun, and this sounds juicy, what are your favorite RTS games?

Mines are:
1 - OpenRA: Combined Arms
2 - Company of Heroes 2
3 - C&C Generals - Zero hour
4 - Battle Realms
5 - Supreme Commander
6 - Dawn of War: Warhammer (could not say which expansion)
7 - Starcraft 1&2

As for RTT, I never really got into that, but that's probably a (huge) mistake.
If anything I'd like some dope Science Fiction game, for some reason most RTT are contemporary or based on WWI and WWII.

[kazerniel]

I very rarely play typical RTS games, so my list is this:

1, Zoo Tycoon 2
2, Tropico 3 (haven't played the later episodes yet)
3, Eufloria

I also like Spore, but that one doesn't have that many RTS stages, and I enjoyed those stages the least, lol.

The Guild 2 is also interesting, but that's more of a RPG/RTS hybrid.

[Imnuktam]

1. Warhammer Dawn of War with unification mod. Game is insanely good and still being modded and worked on to this day.

2. Company of Heroes 1 & 2.

3. Total war Series. Medieval, Shogun, Three kingdoms and Warhammer being the best.

4. Many of the AOE games prior to 4 before they dumped Tactical Pause

[Letterit]

Not a RTS player, and for strategy and tactic I prefer turn based, but lists are fun so:
1. Majesty
2. Age of Empire 2 (with active pause)
3. Aliens Dark Descent
4. Majesty 2
5. Syndicate

3&5 are perhaps not RTS but Tactical games is a genre hidden by Strategy tag, and most tactical games have many strategy aspects.

[Sloul Des Tucs]

Just bought AoM:Retold and Age of Empires II - DE recently, and I've got to say AoM is impressive.
That would probably be my favorite of the genre atm, need to spend more time on it though.

AoE II is extremelly good at what it does, but very formulatic, each faction is specialised into one kind (or two) kind of units, with generally, a faction being top rated in that area comparred to others.
But its core mechanics are very good, and its graphics are probably the best availabe of any RTS atm.
They are extremelly gorgeous, and I hope other games will be developped on that engine.

Despite everything flashy that Batlte Realms, Starcraft II, Paraworld, or C&C Generals did, I still believe that OpenRA completely beat them when it comes to graphics alone.
And AoE II - DE is even more gorgeous.
It proves that 2D was the superior style imo.

Ill probably post more stuff about AoM: Retold, because it's absolutely worth a shot.

[Lotor13]

I am "classic",

1. Age of Empires 4 - I like all AoE , but I would choose AoE4, I agree, that it did not use its potential, but I how it combines elements from all previous AoE games + own things.

2. "Second generation" of C&C - Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2, these game have really cool athmosphere, Tiberian Sun has 80' Sci-Fi and Red Alert 2 kind of B-movie wibe, and the old-school gameplay is great, in some ways better than later C&C, I hope for remasters.

3. Starcraft - I was never interested in hardcore multiplayer, which is Starcraft famous for, but it has awesome story and gameplay in Singleplayer campaign. I would say, even best plot in RTS (aside of Warcraft3). It is great, how every unit has its meaning, most importatnt terran unit is Your basic marine, how 3 factions are asymetrical..

4. Starcraft 2 - It improves formula, for me the best SP campaign within RTS genre. The story itself is bad, Zerg received human personalitie - compared Zerg's demonic entity in SC1 (Overmind) and repeating themes from first Starcraft (planet evacuation, Kerrigan transformation...), but the mission design, atmosphere (in Terran part) and unit upgrades mechanics are great

5. Warcraft 3 - another blizzard RTS classic - aside with original Starcraft, it has best story within genre. Gameplay is -perfect- mix of traditional RTS and hero RPG. Lot of cool units and spells and active abilities.

6. Company of Heroes - I like all CoH titles, but original CoH is special for me, as my first CoH game and I played it a most. A revolutionary game within RTS genre with focus on tactical gameplay, not just "rock-papper-scissors" counter system. Very complex, but available for casual players, not just "hardcore players". Again I must highlight its great SP campaign.

7. C&C 3 Tiberian Wars & Kane's Wrath - solid successor and modernisation to Tiberian Sun, partially lost "the charm" of its predecessor, and I do not like how the infantry is unefective, but still great RTS.

From less known

8. Majesty - completely original and perfect concept - RTS with undirect control

9. Starship Troopers: Terran Command - simple tactical RTS game without "hardcore" micromanagmetn, also captures the athmosphere of old Sci-Fi


On the other side, what was dissapoitment for me:

Act of Aggression - RTS using C&C formula, certainly Generals template, weird design, badly designated tech tree and economy, kind of mix C&C and "Wargame", and it does not work in practice

Spellforce 3 - kind of mix of "classic RTS" and RPG in Baldurs Gate style, and is neither good in. Warcarft 3 has similar concept, but it works perfectly, in Spellforce 3, this combination does not really wotk, I would say it is overcombinated with unnesasry mechanics and skills, like the economy system is taken from city builder games..

Okay, I think, I wrote too much here...

[Lotor13]

@Sloul Des Tucs

Yes, the AoM: Retold is great, including new chinese expansion.

AoE2 DE has one great expansion - "Chronicles: Battle for Greece" - it adds aditional mod with ancient units, and SP campign about ancient Greco-Persian Wars. It is best SP campaign for AoE2 IMO

Battle Realms is on my "list to play"

[Sloul Des Tucs]

There are two editions for Battle Realms, the one you can find on steam is the Zen Edition, it's supposely more advanced than the other one, because the team is ''reviving'' it.
But in practice, imo, it's a mixed bag.
They notably edited AI behaviour between attack move and normal move, I think the vanilla edition did it cleverly, but here I feel like it's a change in the wrong edition.
Additionnaly, the AI in Zen is more clever, but that's actually detrimental to the game imo, for instance, the AI will instantly target your healers, and de facto making them kinda obsolete (they litterraly rush healers and one-shot them) the best counter I found is to get the healers on horses (best use for horse).

The other version is the Gold Edition that you can buy on Gog.com
It's kinda perfect on its own honestly.

I cannot recommend Battle Realms enough though, it's a little gem.
I made a tutorial to add Bullet Time while playing it on another thread.
But not sure you're into that.


1. I didn't try AoE 4, honestly, I come at a time where the lack of TP simply makes me avoid RTS (was not always the case, despite me liking the feature, it's becoming more of a thing these past years).

3. Completely agree on Starcraft campaign, Starcraft 2 is also pretty sweet in that area.

5. I merely touched Warcraft III, probably came out at a time where I was a bit less into gaming.

If you're old school C&C fan, please make yourself a favor and try OpenRa: Combined Arms, it's competely bonker.


Thanks for sharing, it was a good read.

[Imnuktam]

Originally posted by Sloul Des Tucs:

1. I didn't try AoE 4, honestly, I come at a time where the lack of TP simply makes me avoid RTS (was not always the case, despite me liking the feature, it's becoming more of a thing these past years).

That sums it up for me exactly. Didnt use to really care back in the day, didnt even realize til I revisited it that C&C didnt have tac pause. But you get older, buy your own house, get busier have a few kids and realize that you want pause, often times, need pause.

I dont even buy games that dont offer it anymore, it just feels too busy like all I am doing is sitting in birds eye view spamming commands until match is over.