Poll: What is your favorite RTS and what makes it good?

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DSK-

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Total Annihilation. I loved the amount of units you could have, the resource system (metal and energy), the graphics - first ever 3D RTS - and it came out in 1997!

I loved trying to create the most impenetrable bases and turtling in that game. Music was fantastic too.
 

Naeras

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Mar 1, 2011
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Company of Heroes, as the game shifted the focus from resource hogging and unit spamming to a more tactical game where positioning and thinking were more important than APM.
 

BabySinclair

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Sins of a Solar Empire; a bit complex and trying to use sheer numbers doesn't work when you can't make enough ships to cover everywhere on the largest galaxy size. Only advice, don't play the largest map size against max number of bots, it takes forever. Good variety of units too.
 

theashigaru

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Mar 20, 2009
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Company of Heroes for online playing, and Total War for single player.

CoH, like has been said, focused more on tactical positioning and cover. Plus it always looks good. It still has a few balance issues, but overall I've spent a lot more time on it than SC2 or anything else (Except maybe AOE2 or Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds).

Total War for me is unmatched for replayability. The world is large, the factions are diverse, the battles are huge and intense. Not much more needs to be said.
 

M4t3us

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I don't like the pure RTS genre, but I enjoyed Warcraft 3 and Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard.
 

Aurora Firestorm

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Homeworld! My first ever RTS, and the best RTS series ever. Yes, I said it, and I will say it to Starcraft, too. "Homeworld is better than you." (I will also confess that I am a rabid Cataclysm fan.)

Anyway, it's pretty kickass, and it has a great fan community surrounding it also. Had. Probably "had," at this point. The Relic boards have probably moved on to something else.
 

legend forge

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Atom Zombie Smasher. I am terrible at most RTS's and this one is no exception, but it rewards strategy more then just knowing everything about every unit and faction and has some interesting mechanics.
 

Ganthrinor

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ContinuumDude said:
Total Annihilation. Number of different unit types, gameplay mechanics & music(ah Jeremy Soule composed awesome score...like always).

This, for pretty much the same reasons. Unit balance could get a little wonky late-game, but that never stopped the games from being amazing and competitive.

There's lots of good RTS games out there, but nothing will ever really bring back the thrill of trading artillery volleys from fire-bases and shipping out massive waves of mechanized death robots against your opponents that TA had. Supreme Commander just never managed to capture the magic of Total Annihilation, though not for lack of trying.

Oh, and Airplane physics. Bombers that do bombing runs, fighters that dogfight, gunships that do strafing runs... it was all there. No other RTS I have played has ever done planes as well as TA.
 

Fappy

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I was never a big RTS guy but always loved AoE2. I can't get those sound clips out of my head. "Wololoooool"
 

skywolfblue

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Jul 17, 2011
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Where is the "All of the above" option?

Homeworld 1&2: Beautiful and sad story, some of the best ship designs ever (they hit that perfect sweet spot where ships look armored and like they could take a few hits, but still have the right amount of detail sticking out of them). Amazing music.

Starcraft 2: A wallop of a nice campaign, with the ability to chat with raynors buddies between missions was awesome, and the missions were all really varied and unique which is rare for an RTS. And then there is the virtually flawless multiplayer, with all 3 races being about as different in design as possible it's got a whole butload of variety of playstyles that I haven't even begun to discover.
 

Terminally Chill

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Jun 21, 2011
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Age of Mythology is my all time favourite. Great mixture of factions and units, and there was nothing more satisfying than unleashing Earthquake or Meteor on someone who's been bugging you the whole game. Also, Bellerophon was badass.

Since the series has already been mentioned, Rome: Total War (modded, of course) wins for single player.
 

RuralGamer

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Current favourite is Men of War: Assault Squad, which I don't actually have at the moment, but I'll receive it soon due to a certain, overcommercialised annual event...

All time is still Total Annihilation; if it had a graphics update and the AI were given a bit of a smack to make them a little less prone to building massive navies in tiny puddles of water, as well as actually building nuclear missile defences, it would easily best a lot of modern RTS games. For its day, its physics were brilliant and a lot of its maps were brilliant (shore to shore anyone?).
 

bloodymassacre

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Feb 11, 2011
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Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour was by far my favorite. The fast paced action of the computers always knowing what your doing, The three different factions each had their own gameplay techniques from Geurilla warfare to mass force, it may be like other RTS gameplay, but when it comes down to it the thought of all the different possibilities and the unique maps that one could play on really made a difference. The different faction bonuses like the two soldiers for the price of one for china, the Underground tunnels for instantly transporting units to the other side of the map used by the GLA, and the pure power of the united states but the prices of their units kept it all even.

C&C Generals Zero Hour kept the pace fast and the odds even for both the player and the computer is what made this my favorite RTs that i still play even today, the online multtiplayer was good too, the different skill levels of the different people from all over the world and the Rank system showing how good you were at the game going from private to General o fthe army kep the game fun for me and other people even after more recent RTS.

The Storyline is also a good one, it shows the struggle of the US and China fighting a war against the terrorist organization known as the GLA. Throughout the game, the GLA do many things and each have their own subfactions within the main one ranging from Stealth to Toxin generals while keeping the player the option of using their own special general, from the Tank, and Infantry General for china, and the Laser and Air general for the US.

In conclusion the Game in whole is well made and i would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of RTS gaming and are looking for a challenge
 

Ralen-Sharr

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DSK- said:
Total Annihilation. I loved the amount of units you could have, the resource system (metal and energy), the graphics - first ever 3D RTS - and it came out in 1997!

I loved trying to create the most impenetrable bases and turtling in that game. Music was fantastic too.
Supreme Commander (the first one) has a very similar feel.

That is also why Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander are my 2 favorites. Units that maneuver during combat and getting resources isn't a major pain in the butt. I was horribly disappointed with SupCom2. Feeling of the original was just ruined.
 

Unrealmaster287

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Dec 19, 2011
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bloodymassacre said:
In conclusion the Game in whole is well made and i would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of RTS gaming and are looking for a challenge
I think so too, Its a shame EA ditched cnc generals which is like ditching a bag of money in the middle of the road dont you think?

On a side note who were the 8 people who voted for pizza? ;P
 

MickyD47

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May 19, 2011
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I always like building nice little towns/bases/empires I usually try and make them look pretty rather than fatal. Not the best tactic but whatever.
 

omicron1

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Mar 26, 2008
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I'm going to put in a vote for AoE 1. Mostly nostalgia, as 2 was objectively better. Why did MS have to kill it off...? :(

Thankfully, indies are coming to the rescue with 0 AD - a much better successor than MS' abortion of a social game could hope to be.