Looking for a good RTS that's not Starcraft 2.

Been out of the genre that I played mostly throughout the 90's. Kinda fell out of favor with it throughout the last 10 year. I think I am ready to go back to it but I really don't know which are the good ones anymore. Now I know Starcraft 2 is gonna be the number 1 answer but I am really looking for something besides that game. I keep hearing that the Civ games are good. Is that true or are the Civ games something you really got to get into in order to enjoy them.

Thanks.

Civ V is a pretty great game for sure. I have recently gotten myself addicted to the free to play Age of Empires Online.

What about Company of Heroes? It's on sale on Amazon right now.

The Civ games are turn-based, not real-time. Still really good though; Civ V really cleaned up the UI and made stuff flow better so if you're just starting it'd be a good pickup point.

Sins of the solar empire is kinda cool.

Age of Empires online is pretty decent especially for being free

@MB said:

What about Company of Heroes? It's on sale on Amazon right now.

Second this. The singleplayer campaign is good fun too. The Opposing Fronts expansion pack is great too. CoH is probably one of the best RTS in a long while. Dawn of War II (also developed by Relic) is also worth playing and as per usual, Civ is still good fun.

Dawn of War II is pretty great.

@MB said:

What about Company of Heroes? It's on sale on Amazon right now.

This makes me sad because of the recent layoffs at Relic and the tragedy behind the lead designer for Company of Heroes Online death.

You could try Rome: Total War  and Total War : Shogun.
Civilization 5 is REALLY easy to get into if you're interested in the Civ series.

Oh I forgot about Dawn of War II, that game is also great.

Brood War.

@mordukai: As an off-the-wall suggestion, you might try hunting down GrimGrimoire. It's an RTS for the PS2 made by Vanillaware, the Odin Sphere/Muramasa developer.

The original Dawn of War games are still great, too. More traditional style RTS than DoW2, but the squad reinforcement stuff still sets it apart from most of its peers. The sheer number of factions means there's a lot of variety as well. And dat army painter. Mmm.

Warcraft.

Second the broodwar.

Just wondering why no SCII though

Warlocked gets zero love and is a forgotten gem of the Gameboy Color. It's proof that an RTS COULD work on a console if designed right.

Majesty 2 can be pretty fun.

Company of Heroes is great as others have mentioned.

Hearts of Iron 3 (or 2) is also a pretty good grand strategy game.

Putting in some love for World in Conflict, it's an amazing strategy game that redefines what it means to blow shit up. The Civ series compared to SC2 are about as polar opposite as you can go without branching into another genre, but if you invest yourself in it, it's easy to wind up forgetting what happened daylight.

I'd recommend Anno or Settlers series if you like building and Dawn of War 2 if you like action. Civ isn't exactly real-time, but it's still excellent.

Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade. Just patch the shit out of it, though, because Necrons are OP.

Supreme Commander 2 has let me kill so many hours. Supreme Commander (1) is meant to be even better.

@mordukai said:

Been out of the genre that I played mostly throughout the 90's. Kinda fell out of favor with it throughout the last 10 year. I think I am ready to go back to it but I really don't know which are the good ones anymore. Now I know Starcraft 2 is gonna be the number 1 answer but I am really looking for something besides that game. I keep hearing that the Civ games are good. Is that true or are the Civ games something you really got to get into in order to enjoy them.

Thanks.

Sins Of The Solar Empire: Rebellion is very good. It's only in the beta stage (you can play SP and MP two months before release) at the moment but it is very very polished with huge scale and complexity. After Shogun 2, it is probably the second best strategy game released recently.

Also, epic battles.

This is safe investment (unlike Paradox games). You can easily spend all year player it or more with the sheer scale and flexibility.

It also runs really well, it sits near constant 60fps on this computer with instant loading. It doesn't even take 3 seconds to boot up, it's like the click of a finger.

Heh, this is an obvious choice, and you've most likely played it to death if you're into your RTS games, but it's always worth revisiting Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. No other RTS, to me, had such a palpable mood and atmosphere.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II A MILLION TIMES THIS GAME IS AMAZING.

Starcraft II.

Oh wait.

@Synthballs said:

Supreme Commander 2 has let me kill so many hours. Supreme Commander (1) is meant to be even better.

I second Supreme Commander (1&2) - amazing, in depth RTS games. Give it a shot...you won't be disappointed.

@Stepside said:

@Synthballs said:

Supreme Commander 2 has let me kill so many hours. Supreme Commander (1) is meant to be even better.

I second Supreme Commander (1&2) - amazing, in depth RTS games. Give it a shot...you won't be disappointed.

Wasn't supreme commander 2 hated by alot of people who liked the first game?

Company of heroes is the Bestest rts in the world IMHO. Dawn of war 2 is just a dumbed down slightly rpgified version.

Any of the Total War series is great, Company of Heroes as well is fantastic.

@Stepside said:

@MrBoBo Yep, but it was loved by a lot of us who really dug the first game as well. It's definitely more linear, but still fun and addicting as hell.

I'd like to try it but I don't really like base building unless it's turn based or a slow paced games (e.g. Sins Of The Solar Empire).

When you build stuff up in faster paced games like Starcraft or CnC I don't get a sense of progression I would like. It's too bite-sized.

@konig_kei said:

Company of heroes is the Bestest rts in the world IMHO. Dawn of war 2 is just a dumbed down slightly rpgified version.

I would call it an action RPG rather than a strategy game tbh. I'm not saying it's bad mind. I think COH would benifit more from no base building and playing more like Commandos or Men Of War.

OP, another good game is "World In Conflict". It's very accessible, has cool graphics and doesn't have any base building. It a great starting point for getting back into strategy games. It also has Alec fucking Baldwin.

Dawn of War series, i actually prefer the first game and expansions. It's more traditional RTS. But DoW2 is alright too.
C&C3 and Red Allert 3 are great plus their expansions if you are looking for solid singleplayer campaign (just stay away from C&C4 like the plague)
Shogun 2 Total War is also quite fun, but it's turnbased on the main map, with realtime battles on the field

Majesty 2 .... eh 50/50 it's not as good as the first majesty imo but still decent if short
Age of Empires Online, eh, i tried it for a bit but it did not stick with me, the singlplayer scenarious were kind of bland and boring, i prefered AoE:2

Civ5 is great but it's turn based strategy not RTS
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 in the same vein is turn based and not an RTS but still a good entry of the franchise (the more recent 6 not so much)
 
Just going by the more recent stuff since if we go any further in time  that's when the RTS geanre starts to really open up

Company of Heroes and Dawn of War series. So good.

@Commisar123 said:

Age of Empires online is pretty decent especially for being free

This. I'm enjoying AoEO a lot. I even bought the premium civs... on Steam's sale for the game. You can still get them for €15 (and I assume, $15). It's a lot less than what you'd pay for a retail game, and each civ has enough content to justify the purchase. But you can totally enjoy the free portion of the game if you just want some casual RTSing, online or by yourself.

@Jaytow said:

I loved Battle for Middle Earth 2, played that online for years.

Oh god this, such a great game.

@Captain_Insano said:

Any of the Total War series is great, Company of Heroes as well is fantastic.

I don't really get the Total War games after the first Medieval Total War. When Rome came out they really rejigged the way the campaign map was & I just never got into that change. All the battles seemed to occur around city sieges, & the same applied to Medieval 2. I found it very frustrating compared to the way Mediveal 1 worked, which I lost many hours on. Probably still my favourite RTS (if you don't include the Paradox style grand-strategies as RTS)

@forkboy: The first Medieval was the first Total War game I played and I think it is the best of the series. Rome got me though because of my personal interest in Roman history. The change in campaign map took a bit of adjusting to but I really like it now, allows the strategic positioning of armies and fighting smaller skirmishes rather than just stacking armies and invading countries. Empire and Napoleon were also a big shift with the focus on ranged weapons but I've come around to them as well. As I mentioned, all the Total War games strike a chord with me, but I get your point regarding city sieges and the change to the campaign map.

Myth 2, Dark Reign, and Battle Realms.

Seriously, Battle Realms holds up great still, fantastic art and unique gameplay.

Oh, and Homeworld

@Landon: OH MY GOD. I got a Game Boy Color before a family vacation in 2001 (after all, why would a 14 year old boy want to see cool shit like Pisa, Rome, and Florence when there's 150 Pokemon to catch?) and I had Warlocked and Pokemon Blue. I think I started Pokemon on the plane back to the US, since Warlocked kept me occupied for two whole weeks in Italy. I had to go back in 2008 to relive what I missed because of that awesome game.

I've also gotta show some love for the Supreme Commander series. Sometimes you just gotta build a couple hundred robot bicycles and send them to their beautiful, fiery deaths.

All of these have mostly been mentioned, but:

Dawn of War and its Sequel

Red Alert 3 is pretty great.

Also, surprisingly, Age of Empires Online is a lot of fun, and they just added it to steam.

Edit: Because I'm a moron, and said Red Faction instead of Red Alert

Red Alert 3 is great for some classic C&C base building skimishes online and offline, but with the crazy edge that is the Red Alert universe ;)

Dawn of War II was a game I really got into after having not previously played many RTS since the orignal C&C: Red Alert.

I found Dawn of War II to be a good starting point for RTS games as it cut out things like base building.

@Eujin said:

All of these have mostly been mentioned, but:

Dawn of War and its Sequel

Red Faction 3 is pretty great.

Also, surprisingly, Age of Empires Online is a lot of fun, and they just added it to steam.

Do you mean Red Alert? As in, Command and Conquer? Red Faction isn't a strategy game...

Dawn of War games. I like the more traditional style of the first games, but DoW2 is also really fun.