Ok you called me out. Now I?m calling you out. Name me some RTS.

[timmytom1]

Warcraft III. It's just superb, and it's relatively low-spec so you shouldn't have trouble running it.

This ,and if the community`s still going strong then you should find some great maps too

 

[The Shade]

Here are my RTS for Dummies recommendations:

Age of Empires II
Age of Empires III <---------------- Optional
Warcraft III
Starcraft <----------------------------- Optional
Battle For Middle-Earth II <------- Optional

Expansion packs are optional as well.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Age of Mythology, if you dont find this game FUN you wont enjoy an RTS.

 

[KaZZaP]

Dawn of War 2, this game really was a great new change for RTS's. The cover system is the main thing that sets it apart from your usual RTS's but the RPG elements in the story mode really help it shine to. Besides Dawn of War 2 all RTS's are basically the same game. Not that I didn't love Age of Empires, Red Alert, StarCraft, they just are all basically the same game with a different skin.

 

[Inco]

Unlike Starcraft, which someone will yell is good, it isn't nearly as slow as Starcraft

I'm sorry to point out, but starcraft is not slow, Supreme commander is slow (40 mins to build 1 unit?!). Also i found that with DoW the basic units became useless at the end, whereas starcraft's ones are always useful.
OT- Don't get starcraft as your first RTS on PC, cause the steep difficulty curve will put you off the game and genre. Go something simple first as these people are nicely suggesting, Warcraft 3.

Starcraft is really slow. Start it up and see how long it takes to get into the action. The resource system and tech tree take ages to advance as well as jut building average troops.
And I've no idea how you were playing DoW, but all the troops always have a role to play, no matter how far into the battle you are, especially emphasised in the last 2 expansion packs.
Supreme Commander isn't a slow game, it's a long game, quite different.

Fast games mean that they are fast paced, your talking about whether its quick to start off with or not. Slow games are ones that if you missed 2 minutes in the main part of the game you would suffer dearly for it, which both games have occurring there. Whereas Supreme commander, you could walk away for five and nothing bad could happen and your forces can still be productive.

I was saying Dow original not the expansions, because yes they have given most beginning units better roles now, but originally they were useless when you upgraded tiers. For example, Chaos space marines became useless once you got possessed marines, as those possessed marines could tear up anything. Of course due to balance, they added a cap for that unit and gave the marines permanent stealth so now it has evened out in the expansions.

Just don't think for one second that i dislike any of these games, because ive lost at least a week of my life to each of them (of constant gameplay) and still love em dearly.
Though i do have to ask also as you are a DOW player, do you think that Soulstorm wasn't as good as Dark crusade? Cause It felt a bit lazy (campaign and air units for example)

 

[Bat Vader]

Rome Total War is quite good.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

Age of Empires 2
Empire Earth

AoE2 is simpler then Empire Earth and easier as well, while Empire Earth has more ages and much higher difficulty level.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

Everybody has already mentioned most of the best ones:
Dawn of War (the orginal lot if your comp can handle it)
Warcraft III
Starcraft
Red Alert 2

I want to suggest the orignal RTS though. Dune II. It was the first RTS ever made and was a hell of a lot of fun.

Note for anybody who is interested, Dune was the first game to ever include a real time component to a game.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

The Command & Conquer Series for starters.

Dawn of War series
Total War Series
World in Conflict
Warcraft Series
Starcraft
Company of Heroes w/ Expansions

Really dry for some people but for those into Grand Strategy I couldn't recommend Hearts of Iron 2 more. I absolutely adore the game.

 

[FightThePower]

Homeworld. It's a decade old game, bu the Sold Out version off Amazon works on Vista. At least it does on mine anyway.

Reason? Because it's the most beautiful RTS ever made; brilliant soundtrack, emotional storyline, strategic gameplay and manages to offer a relaxing atmosphere yet at the same time offer massive space battles. Plus it's cheap as chips. If you can't get it (to work) then get Homeworld 2, but that's not as good. But still brilliant.

Also: Red Alert 2, Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology.

 

[DalekJaas]

LOTR battle for middle Earth got me into gaming. I like RTS, but other than the LOTR BFME series I've found every other RTS to be insanely boring.

 

[arcanim]

Hmmmm, well a lot of the ones I would recommend have already been listed, Sins of a Solar Empire, Supreme Commander and Starcraft I love, and Rome: Total War is one game that I never ever get tired of and always have several campaigns running on.

One game I haven't seen mentioned however which is probably the one that first got me into the genre is Metal Fatigue. Intro movie is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSCOaowF2UI

Tis very fun, and building a legion of Mechs with shields and swords only to have them annihilated by a single Hedoth bot never gets old.

Definately worth checking out.
Arca

 

[KingPiccolOwned]

I say Rome: Total War, and the whole Total War franchise past that installment.

 

[KingPiccolOwned]

I say Rome: Total War, and the whole Total War franchise past that installment.

Rome Total War is quite good.

DAMN NINJAD! and I didn't even see it.

 

[KingPiccolOwned]

#self removed#

 

[Woe Is You]

Starcraft is really slow. Start it up and see how long it takes to get into the action. The resource system and tech tree take ages to advance as well as jut building average troops.

It isn't that slow. You can easily get into fights at around the 2-3 minute mark and there are things that occupy you before that. DoW is faster but it's a game where an average match lasts 15 minutes or so with a lot of randomness going on that isn't there in Starcraft. Supreme Commander, though, is much slower than either of those. It's kind of its thing.

 

[Inco]

-Snip-
I used to play tabletop 40k, and my team was Dark Eldar.
Soulstorm was a complete joke to be brutally honest. Dark Eldar utterly suck, as well as Sisters of Battle. I have yet to find any advantages with them. It was almost as if the devs didn't even give them a test run to see if they were balanced!
All Soulstorm really did was fix the hideous balance issue of Dark Crusade (Space Marines were the best troop in every way), but gave you two new broken teams
Such a damn shame as Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle could have been so good.

Yea, so it wasn't just me thinking that the game was lackluster compared to the others. Good, i was afraid that i was getting sick of DOW.... played DOW2? how goods that? My computers specs just cant run it.

 

[Nickzilla]

I'd say Age of Empires 2 or Command & Conquer Red Alert 2.

Both are accessible without being too dated to enjoy, which their predeccessors will probably appear now.

I don't understand why people are suggesting games like the Total War series and Civ IV. This is supposed to be more like babies' first RTS, and those are quite complex.