Which RTS is best to start off with?

So with the steam sales going on I figured it was time for me to really start checking out some rts games. Haven't played too much in the past but I'm willing to give it a go since with the sale it'll only be $5-$10. The ones I was looking at and narrowed it down to was Total War Shogun 2, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War 2. From what I've looked up they're each different in their own way so I'm stuck at which I should start with.

I actually have played a bit of stronghold which is pretty fun, how would that compare to most rts games?

I really enjoyed AOE Online, and it is free to play for the first while.

It was good enough for my wife (a non-gamer) to take notice, start playing on her old crappy Dell laptop, get frustrated with the frame rate and then build herself a gaming PC of her own. So that might be saying something.

@dwigtk: Free is always a good thing, I'll definitely look more into AOE.

Supreme Commander 1/Forged Alliance is the only RTS for me. I don't really like the genre all that much, but SupCom is great.

It really comes down to what style you think you will enjoy more.

• Shogun 2 is also turn based outside of combat, and unless you manually fight every battle it's likely you will actually spend much more time in the turn based portion of it
• Company of Heroes is probably the closest to a "standard" RTS.
• Dawn of War 2 is just a tactical squad type of deal in single player rather then a strategy game and more of an RTS in multiplayer.

For my 2 cents I liked all of those games in their own ways.

Dawn of War 2 is my favorite of the games you've listed.

If you go with Total War, make sure you have a lot of time to put into learning the game, it's a good game, but there is a lot going on in that series, I've tried to get into it a few times but it takes time to get going.

If you want the best RTS, I think you need to get StarCraft II though.

I'm going to second Starcraft 2 even though its not one you listed. If you want to play rts you might as well go all in and go for the big one.

my first RTS was Command And Conquer generals.... it was quickly replaced with starcraft II though.

Unless they changed the monetizing model for AoE online severely, it was extremely pay to win when it first came out and grindy to all hell.

Also isn't GFWL marketplace shutdown now anyway?

@tennmuerti: That's what I pretty much gathered from looking into them. I was planning on downloading the demos for them but figured I'd ask before going through all of the since my downloads are pretty slow.

@esrever: Supreme Commander does look pretty good, which just makes my choice that much harder.

But yea like others have said, if you want a good RTS to start off again outside of those you listed, nothing beats Starcraft 2 to ease you back into it. It's pricier tho.

Then as another option there is a C&C anthology type of bundle on Origin which will give you all of the C&C rts titles (except the Dune games sadly)

I'd recommend DoW2. I really like that game and it's easy to pickup and play. Shogun not so much.

And like mentioned above, the best is StarCraft 2. Freaking brilliant game and king of the genre. The SC2 sp is not too bad to come to terms with. Mp though is scary. :P

@tennmuerti: I'm not sure, didn't even realize it used GFWL.

And the only reasons I didn't list starcraft is because I've heard that it is a bit more intense to get into, plus it is more expensive than the rest and I didn't want to put too much into it.

@pweidman: DoW2 did seem like the easiest to get started with, the thing with Shogun that impressed me were the large scale battles although not sure how long that would really last.

And the mp for starcraft is extremely overwhelming for me but I don't plan on playing too much multiplayer for any of them.

AoE Online is on Steam, I didn't find it grindy, and I think I only ended up paying $10 for one faction.

@tennmuerti But you are right, when it came out it had the $150 pay to win package.

It's intense to get into only if you are going straight into multiplayer of SC2

The SP portion of it is extremely approachable. It's the smoothest singleplayer rts campaign pretty much ever.

@dwigtk: That's good to hear. I'd rather the last entry in the series went into a positive direction even if I'm not playing it myself anymore.

@tennmuerti: Alright, so I guess my current plan is to wait a bit for it to get slow and I'll jump in Starcraft, I think it's only $20 now but I can hold off for a little.

Thanks everyone for the input!

It's currently on sale for 20 bucks for each part. Pricier than some of the Steam sale stuff, but still worth it.

And I've never played AoE Online, but AoE2 HD is on sale for 5 bucks on Steam right now, I'm a fan of that game.

AoE2 is a very good choice for $5

Company of Heroes is arguably the best take on the basic RTS combat set. You can liken it to a lot of other games and it'll get your basics straight. On top of that the campaig is really good and it still looks and plays really nice.

Dawn of War 2 is mostly cool for how different it is in scope and focus. I think you'd appreciate it more by knowing of other games first.

Shogun and other Total War games are less focused on the combat and very front loaded with complicated mechanics and buttons and windows. I wouldn't really recommend it as a starting anything.

Yep, if you dont mind the graphics its great. A classic even!

The only RTS I've ever enjoyed is Age of Empires 2.

I'm also fully aware this is entirely my fault because I can't play RTS game because I hate when the village/town/civilization I create looks weird or has houses out of place.

Age of Empires 2 and the original Company of Heroes are my favorites RTS games on Steam. I purchased CoH 2, but haven't really had much time to play it, but from what I've heard it's more or less CoH 1, with a neat weather mechanic.

Only other one that I would consider is Rise of Nations, though I'm not sure if you can find a copy of that legally....

AOE2 is awesome.

And Starcraft if you want "the best".

I think the art style looks pretty decent even now.

@robothamster: Company of heroes is really good. Starcraft is your baseline, still the best. If you're only interested in singleplayer Starcraft 2 and the expansion are superb, only declines on the multiplayer side. Supreme Commander Forged Alliance is awesome but has basically nothing to do with any other RTS other than Sup Com or Total Annihilation. AoE 2 is okay, average-ish; there's a ton of RTS's like it that came out around the same time. Dawn of War 2 is fun if you like the DoTA control style; has more or less nothing to do with most RTS', World in Conflict is better at doing the same thing. Warcraft 3 is pretty challenging and fun on hard.

Age of Empires 2 HD. Even the original is fantastic! My favourite RTS ever and the one that got me into RTS's. Can't go wrong!

- company of heroes, one of my favourite RTS games of all time.

- world in conflict another fantastic RTS but you don't build bases in it, you just call out units, also really fantastic, great campaign too.

If you're wanting something with a learning curve then I would suggest wargame: air land battle or men of war: assault squad.

Wargame's single player is a piece of poop so stay away from it if you want that but the multiplayer is the greatest.

Men of war isn't really about the single player but it's still super fun and you can it coop.

Anyway, for someone new I would suggest CoH and WiC, if you're fine with some older games I would suggest C&C generals with the expansion zero hour and age of mythology, the greatest "age of" game.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2!

The only RTS I ever enjoyed was Rise of Nations.

Homeworld get Homeworld

@robothamster: StarCraft also has a free trial mode, and if you know anyone that owns the expansion, if you party up with them you can play that too (even Ranked 2v2 online).

Dawn of War is pretty awesome though, from what I played of the older one.

Yeah i think so too. Also, Rise of Nations is a great one to try!

Red Alert 2 !

Rise of Nation is fantastic! Easily one of my favorite old RTS games.