Favorite Real Time Strategy Games

[DATA EXPUNGED 324]

My earliest gaming memories, unlike most kids of the late 90s to early 2000s, weren't all about Pokemon or TLoZ. I spent most of my days playing games like Dune 2000, Command and Conquer, Masters of Orion, StarWars Empire at War and a myriad of other RTS / 4X titles (most of them being made by the glorious Westwood Studios). I've played a-lot of more modern titles too such as Starcraft II, Supreme Commander, Sins of a Solar Empire, all the Age of Empires games, and all the Total War games.

 

Anyway, what are YOUR favourite RTS / 4X games? My favourites are C&C RA II, Sins of a Galactic Empire (a Star-wars mod of Sins of a Solar Empire) and Empire: Total War. 

 

Edit: Did I just mention Supreme Commander 2? Better fix that before I remember go into conniptions again *shudders*

Edited January 31, 2015 by DATA EXPUNGED

[AnonBrony 1,468]

The age of empire games. Play them since I was a kid and I have always enjoyed them. I haven't played them in a long time though. Maybe I should for the nostalgia. 

[VulpineTaco 525]

Starcraft series, Warcraft series, Supreme Commander, Command and Conquer, Age of Empires, Sins of a Solar Empire, the Annihilation series...

I could go on and on...

Edit: And I totally forgot to add the RTS games in the XCOM series.

Edited January 31, 2015 by VulpineTaco

[King Sejong 859]

   Age of Empire one and Age of Empires two: Age of the Kings as well as the expansion :Conquistadores, I first played them in 2000, I had just turned fourteen, so I still play them, these games are still fun and challenging, the Turks and The Byzantines were my favourite factions. Medieval Total War was another game I loved, I started playing in 2003, I was now 16, then came Rome Total War, and I would play for hours, by that time I graduated high school, so I could stay up most of the night, the House of Scpii and the Selucid Empire were my favourite factions. Now I am an avid player of Empire Total War, Sweden was the first nation I played, and it was the first nation I won with in a short campaign, Russia is the largest empire I played, I conquered 102 regions, all of the middle east and all of India was incorporated into my expansion, France was another nation I played a lot, and I conquered all of America, overall, Age of Empires and the Total War games, were the games I will play for years to come. 

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

My top 3:

 

Command and Conquer Generals & Zero Hour -- this is the game that got me into RTS games, and PC gaming in general. It's easily one of my all-time favorites. The things the units say are some of the best, and I still listen to the game's soundtrack, even to this day. No nukes? Who could think of such a thing! Look, general, I have a nuke all ready for you!

 

Star Wars: Empire at War & Forces of Corruption -- being the huge Star Wars nerd that I am, I loved this game. In space battles, I was probably in the top 2% of players. I was a member of a good clan, and I learned so many tricks during my time playing. Before I stopped playing, the game became so easy to me that I was winning 95% of matches against other players.

 

Supreme Commander & Forged Alliance -- I was never very good at this game, but it's one of my favorites. The level of complexity, the size of the maps, and the size of the battles makes it like no other. I hate it when games don't let me build gigantic bases, amass armies of a hundred or more units, or build stealth outposts in the obscure corners of the map. Supreme Commander has everything I could ever want in an RTS... aside from space/orbital combat.  SupCom is the real man's strategy game.

 

As a future game, Act of Aggression looks like it's going to be pretty good. That might be my next one.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Admiral Regulus

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

C&C Generals/Zero Hour/Red Alert 2, Star Wars: Force Commander, Star wars Empire at War, Company of Heroes series, Men of War series, World in Conflict, Total War Series, Age of Empires series, Wargame series, etc.

 

Too hard to pick just one that I liked the most, but if I had to say I would probably go with World in Conflict, it was just amazing, I would give all my money for a sequel.

 

 

Act of Aggression looks like it's going to be pretty good. That might be my next one.

I certainly hope that one turns out good, I loved its predecessor because it was essentially a cleaner and newer version of C&C Generals, hopefully the new one will be just that.

Edited January 31, 2015 by A. Dazven

[Lordav 3,427]

All the Total Wars... except Rome 2... and Men of War AS =)

 

Also the mods make them <3\

 

RTW: Roma Surrectum,

M2TW: Stainless Steel, Third Age, BA, Falcon... and many others

ETW: Darthmod & ACW

NTW: Darthmod & GWM

S2TW: Darthmod and...(the one that adds korea =p)

 

Also Men of War assault squad... lots of em =p

 

And idk if Sins of a solar empire counts =p

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Empire Total War, I've logged about 250 hours on it since I got the game last July or August. Favorite country to campaign as is Prussia and I've conquered the entire world once and came close a few other times before I quit out of boredome. Surprisingly, I might enjoy playing the Vanilla version more than the DarthMod (ducks for cover)

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

My favorite have to be "Age of Mytology: The Titans" because it was one of the first the games I played. 

[VulpineTaco 525]

And idk if Sins of a solar empire counts =p

SoaSE probably counts. Many people argue that it's a 4X, but I'd argue that it's really more a a blend of 4X lite/RTS.

[ReverseFaller 2,484]

I haven't really played a whole lot of rts games before. There's Starcraft, and Halo Wars but that's about it. I did however buy an rts game off of steam the other week called "Grey Goo". It looks pretty cool, and I'd suggest any fans of rts games check it out. 

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

I certainly hope that one turns out good, I loved its predecessor because it was essentially a cleaner and newer version of C&C Generals, hopefully the new one will be just that.

 

What was its predecessor? I really liked RUSE, but none of my friends played it so it kinda got boring. I wouldn't consider the Wargame series a newer version of Generals, just because those didn't have base building.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,997]

I think my absolute favourite is Europa Univesalis IV. I don't know if it actually counts as RTS though; possibly more like a turn-based game with about 137 605 turns.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,303]

I'm generally more into turn-based strategy.  But, so far as RTS is concerned, I'm perhaps fondest of the Pikmin series.  One of the only series in this genre that I feel competent at. xD  I also used to really enjoy Warcraft II; I played the PS1 version.  I believe SimAnt qualifies as sort-of RTS; that was another one I enjoyed way back when.  Ogre Battle was a great one.

[Mesme Rize 15,686]

Nobody can beat Age of Empires 2, together with the conquerers expansion. I play this game on steam and it aged very well.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Hypnosparkle

[DATA EXPUNGED 324]

How could I forget Battle for Middle Earth! 

I think my absolute favourite is Europa Univesalis IV. I don't know if it actually counts as RTS though; possibly more like a turn-based game with about 137 605 turns.

Europa Universalis III was my favourite from that series. All of the Paradox Strategy games are amazing. However, its not really RTS, Its a TBS. Another thread for another day. 

SoaSE probably counts. Many people argue that it's a 4X, but I'd argue that it's really more a a blend of 4X lite/RTS.Sins 

Sins of a Solar Empire has a very good Star-Wars mod called "Sins of a Galactic Empire" which is reminicent of Star-Wars: Empire at War. Both are very good games.

 

Edit. 4X and RTS are very similar. actually id better edit the main post to include 4x now. 

Edited January 31, 2015 by DATA EXPUNGED

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

What was its predecessor? I really liked RUSE, but none of my friends played it so it kinda got boring. I wouldn't consider the Wargame series a newer version of Generals, just because those didn't have base building.

I was meaning Act of War: High Treason(Predecessor to Act of Aggression) is very similar to C&C Generals and I was hoping the new one would just be a further improved upon version. And yea, I don't consider Wargame anything like Generals lol, if anything it is the spiritual successor to World in Conflict(Albeit more in depth)

[VulpineTaco 525]

How could I forget Battle for Middle Earth! 

Europa Universalis III was my favourite from that series. All of the Paradox Strategy games are amazing. However, its not really RTS, Its a TBS. Another thread for another day. 

Sins of a Solar Empire has a very good Star-Wars mod called "Sins of a Galactic Empire" which is reminicent of Star-Wars: Empire at War. Both are very good games.

 

Edit. 4X and RTS are very similar. actually id better edit the main post to include 4x now. 

I played that!

Also, 4X usually has a bit more of a single-unit focus and concentrates a lot on exploration, while 4X lites are more RTS-styled. It's a subtle difference, but it's still a difference.

[DATA EXPUNGED 324]

I was meaning Act of War: High Treason(Predecessor to Act of Aggression) is very similar to C&C Generals and I was hoping the new one would just be a further improved upon version. And yea, I don't consider Wargame anything like Generals lol, if anything it is the spiritual successor to World in Conflict(Albeit more in depth)

I never could get into Act of War mainly because I didn't like the scale of the game. I love mass producing hundreds of units to crush my enemies. However, I must admit, I've never played the expansion "High Treason" yet. 

[Kapitan zur See Hans (Daz) 883]

I never could get into Act of War mainly because I didn't like the scale of the game. I love mass producing hundreds of units to crush my enemies. However, I must admit, I've never played the expansion "High Treason" yet. 

It is good, but I haven't played it in forever due to the compatibility nightmares on anything Vista and up, I think I got it working once on Win 8.

 

 

 

I love mass producing hundreds of units to crush my enemies.

You played Planetary Annihilation? That is pretty much what that game is, it is fun, but I am terrible and gave up on it as it is way too time consuming to get good at.

[DATA EXPUNGED 324]

All the Total Wars... except Rome 2... and Men of War AS =)

 

Also the mods make them <3\

 

RTW: Roma Surrectum,

M2TW: Stainless Steel, Third Age, BA, Falcon... and many others

ETW: Darthmod & ACW

NTW: Darthmod & GWM

S2TW: Darthmod and...(the one that adds korea =p)

 

Also Men of War assault squad... lots of em =p

 

And idk if Sins of a solar empire counts =p

All the Total Ware games are great. My favourites being a tie between TWS2, M2TW, RTW: Barbarian Invasion, and ETW

 

You played Planetary Annihilation?

I saw it on Kickstarter a while ago, but I never got to buying it. Ill have to check it out now. 

[Daisy Lovesong 10]

Quite hard, 50/50 between Supreme Commander 2 and Command and Conquer Kane's Wrath.  Kane's wrath just had awful maps..

[NightOwl 912]

My favourite RTS games would be:

 

1) Starcraft 2

 

2) Star Wars Force commander

 

I have great memories with both games

[Throwaway19573639385 764]

I love C&C Zero Hour, it's one of my most played RTS games at all times. The three distinct factions with each their three generals (or four, if you play with the Contra mod enabled) and a simple resource system. Besides that I play Starcraft 2 (At the moment against very hard bots) and BFME II Edain mod (Which makes the game a TON better, really if you play this mod once, you will never go back to vanilla)

 

As for 4X, I play Civ V with a lot of gameplay changing mods. Adding bigger differences between civilizations and replacing some of the civilization's leaders I think are better (Hitler for Germany, Lenin for Russia etc.) and lastly putting a bigger emphasis on religion, because it really had little impact in the real game. Endless Legends for the fantasy feel and great lore aspect, and Endless Space as my Sci-fi 4X, both very great games and a lot of fun to play if I'm in the mood.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Winterbass

[Drystan 36]

Battle for middle earth.