Enjoyable Real-Time Strategy Games
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I love games, but RTS isn’t really my genre.
It was, however, one of the first games I ever played back in 2001, bought my first copy (first computer game ever actually) in 2003, and have so many memories of my dad and both my brothers playing the game.
Eventually I realized RTS weren’t for me and moved on, but my dad and brother kept playing for years.
By 2011 it was just my brother, though we all picked it up a couple times as the new expansions came out.
Then COVID hit, and our usual hangout sessions could no longer happen as we lived in 3 different houses, all with multiple other people.
My brother finally convinced all of us to play AoE2 together for the first time in over a decade, and we enjoyed so much we changed from once a week to twice a week (virtual) hangouts, and eventually moved to ranked online matches!
I enjoyed Rise of Nations, but loved Rise of Legends.
Enjoyed StarCraft 2.
But I’ll put Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 as some very enjoyable RTS games that don’t get enough love.
Super niche, but “Imperivm”, a game that I used to play all the time during my childhood and got an HD version last year.
Is an RTS ambiented in the ancient period (roughly from the punic wars to the roman empire’s conquest of Britain).
The most interesting things about it is that is less focused on resource management and more on troops movilization and map control.
Your eco is pretty much automatic, but requires to maintain your settlements and supply routes protected while you try to disrupt your opponent’s.
The combat system, like AoE, is pretty much based on counter-units, but with a bit of a twist; instead of bonus damage, each type of soldier from the different factions have unique abilities that you can work around with to make synergies between your troops and counter the enemy’s composition.
To put an example, there are units that deal damage based on the enemy units health %, so you can get extremely good values when fighting against expensive high stat units, but also the opposite against cheaper units with lower HP.
There are cavalry that have a charge attack that works very similarly to the costillier in AoE, so you can use them with hit-and-run tactics, but then there are other units that have immunity to the first attacks they receive (similar to shrivamshas but both for melee and range) so against them, the cavalry charges are useless, and so forth.
It’s very cheap on steam and only for the campaigns I would recommend it, tho regarding the online, there is still much polish to be done.
Devs are supposedly on it, but they have very little people with not much resources and is taking long.
They said that a major update is on the way, but is already 2 months due for what they said.
Company of heroes
Supreme Commander 2, Planetary Annihilation: TITANS, Company of Heroes 2, Ancestors: Legacy, Northgard, AOE3…
I prefer TBS to RTS though.
No nothing(k).
Even a real time demon in my house problem doesn’t change my mind to not play aoe2.
Battle for Middle-Earth 1 & 2
God, there are so many RTS games that I return to from time to time.
Right now, enjoying some good ol’ Dawn of War 1.
But hey that might be a big step from AoE2 so how about to start with some some historical stuff and deviate as I ramble on.
You got Rise of Nations, very close to the AoE’s initial concept of being Civilization RTS game.
I didn’t play it as much as the more scifi/fantasy spin-off Rise of Legends but it is a good series.
Can’t go wrong with Stronghold Crusader for singleplayer fun.
Bit harder to get it to run for multiplayer though because for some reason, despite being on steam!, you have to use 3rd party LAN programs.
Obviously Craft RTS games are good like Warcraft and Starcraft.
Starcraft 1 and 2 are good as RTS experience and I’m sure 2 has decent community content.
I think due to nostalgia I still prefer 1 a bit more but both are free so you have nothing to lose but time to try them both.
Warcraft 3 I find meh for regular matches but have spent a huuuuge chunk of life playing campaigns and on the custom content.
Because of Reforge I must say that I do not encourage buying Wc3.
There’s the C&C games, much faster paced than the ones I listed so far and are more modern.
There’s *a lot* of them and I personally think older ones are best for nostalgia trip and campaigns (Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2), while Generals, Tiberium Wars 3 and Red Alert 3 are probably better for online matches.
All these games put minimal attention to ressoyurce collecting and instead focus on units.
Honorable mention goes to Lotr Battle For Middle Earth 1 and 2 here, both very very great games, pirate only because EA doesn’t sell them anymore.
Fans are keeping all these games alive, pretty sure you can even play Command and Conquer 1 online if you really want.
And the one I’m playing right now is a Relic RTS, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War.
But they also offer Company of Heroes which is a very unique WW2 rts game.
Compared to the games I mentioned so far, Relic ones feel the most unique.
Oh and Total War series, I always return to Rome and Medieval 2.
Not strictly RTS because there’s also grand strategy elements of world map management.
But it’s good fun.
I personally don’t care about newer entries but maybe you’d fancy them, I dunno.
There are probably more RTS games out there but these are the ones I enjoy and are popular enough for you to find support and other players.
I don’t think you’d find much luck with something like Armies of Exigo, Mark of Chaos and Warlords Battlecry series.
Shit, I forgot Cossacks which is 17-18 century RTS game from Ukraine, same makers of the delightful Stalker game.
None.
Nothing in this world gives me any true sense of worth and togetherness like aoe2.
Life is a constant cycling between two phases: playing aoe2, and thinking about playing aoe2.
Entertaining the idea of playing any other RTS is the folly of fools, for all paths lead to aoe2.
By all means try them, but you will experience nothing but yearning, an itch which cannot be scratched by any other game.
We each have our own journey to aoe2 absolutism, and if this is yours, then so be it.
Any Stronghold fans in the house?
The ost, environment and just watching the workers go about in their routines was so much fun
I don’t even enjoy this one.
I just play to keep a steady level of anger.
Rise of Nations
I liked Empire Earth when I was young lol.
From paleo to nukes, it was Fun
Rise of Nations
Northgard
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