Real Time Strategy. Recommendations?

[APPCRASH]

Also a cannon that can nuke planets from other planets.

Mmm...massive destruction.

At one point I conquered two and a half star clusters with two of my friends. Well, they fought the bad guys, I just expanded my empire to about 20-30 planets. With that income I built Nova cannons at every planet. When I eventually betrayed my allies, within minutes half of their planets were destroyed.

Second on the Sins. Nothing says RTS like a good twelve hour 50 planet free for all.

Holy shit... 12 hours?!?!?!? Why?!?

but keep em coming, I'm downloading Warcraft III demo as we speak!

That was an average estimation for games. The longest Ive done was a 4v4, all humans, 52 planet on 5 systems. End time was 30 hours of play, though we had to pause game play at one point so people could go to work/sleep.

 

[Orekoya]

Well, not a rts but a fun action rpg: Titan Quest. Between it and its expansion is basically a better Greece-themed version of Diablo 2. Its got that fun old-school top-down feel and most people I've known to like rts's like the action rpg genre as well. Plus you can get the demo version or the Gold edition on steam for 20 bucks which was very nice.

Spoiler: Screw you TMAN10112 I can link trailers of under-appreciated gems too. :P

 

[TMAN10112]

Rise of Nations: Rise of legends.

I cannot stress how much of an overlooked gem this game is. You'll probably find it in the bargin bin of your local games store, or on Ebay for around $10.

Spoiler: Here's the trailer

 

[Emphraim]

Company of Heroes. That's the only RTS you will ever need.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I can also get behind the original Dawn of War including all of the expansions but Soulstorm; which had two interesting new armies but was pretty crappy. They should've just let us add those armies to the existing campaign. Dawn of War 2 is okay but I would wait until they expand it a couple of times. If you're just going to get one DoW, get Dark Crusade; it's engrossing, fun, and replayable.

Also, if you happen to have a PS3, I highly recommend Valkyria Chronicles. Parts of it are a little underworked but it's a very fun and original mixup of SRPG, RTS, and TPS. Also very re-playable.

 

[Wilfy]

Battle for Middle-Earth, Supreme Commander, Medieval II: Total War.
Any of those will keep you busy for a while.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Well, since i don't play that many RTSes, I can only recommend Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War and it's expansions, since they're pretty fun games, and fairly easy to pick up and run with.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Well, since i don't play that many RTSes, I can only recommend Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War and it's expansions, since they're pretty fun games, and fairly easy to pick up and run with.

This is exactly what I would say.

 

[geon106]

C&C Red Alert 3 is good

World in Conflict, excellent graphics and physics and immense battles, sadly not many game modes and no base building. It's kind of like Ground Control if you've played that.

AoE 1 and 2

Warcraft 3

Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2

 

[AnAnemicTurtle]

Empire: Total War is EPIC. Also an RTS you have probably never heard of - Empire Earth. You can play from the Prehistoric Age to the near future. Extremely under-rated in my opinion.

 

[Lord Thodin]

Command and Conquer, or some Starcraft in there.

Personally i love Starcraft for the PC and love Battle for Middle earth on my 360. The control was a bit clunky cause of the controller but it was really fun.

 

[mattiboi24]

Star Wars Empire at War is pretty fun. And there's always modding once you get bored of the original content.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I think its either 10$ or 20$ with its two expansions on steam.

 

[feather240]

Command & Conquer Generals (and the expansion Zero hour) is seriously the most fun RTS game I've ever played (graphics aren't too shabby for 2003 either). After that comes Warcraft 3 (and its expansion Frozen Throne) which has such a unique and intriguing story, and the campaign missions are so fun!

I agree

If you're willing to give them a try you could also play some city-builders. Try Ceaser three.

Edit: In fact I'm gonna go play it right now.

 

[Philosopher of Chaos]

If you want to just jump into action (not saying anything bad about it) I'd go with Starcraft,Warcraft,or Command and Conquer (never got into the campaign for this)

but if you want a very....very...very lengthy game campaign go with the Total War series (just my personal fav)Just really depends on the Era and your gaming preferences.

 

[Woodsey]

Rome: Total War is the only one I've ever been able to get into; a shame I'm bloody terrible at it!

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Warcraft 3 is the best I've played so far. The campaign is great and full of story. The ranked multiplayer is fantastic, they have free tournament ladders on B.net, and a million bazillion different custom games, everything from Capture the Flag to DotA to Tower Defense, and everything in between.

I've heard good things about Sins of a Solar Empire, but never played it myself.

 

[Del-Toro]

You can't go wrong with the Age of Empires or Command and Conquer franchises, Empire at War is a solid bet, as well as World In Conflict or the Dawn of War series (get Soulstorm only if you are going to be playing online, otherwise it isn't worth it). Of course the 'craft battlechests are a good choice too.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Get Company of Heroes that is a great RTS and very challenging at times also one of the expansions is a stand alone campaign.