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RTS recommendations?

deama

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It's been a while since I played a decent strategy game, can anyone recommend me any good ones? I was thinking of something like warcraft 3 or stronghold.

Here are some I didn't like:
  • Apart from stronghold crusaders and the original, I didn't like any of the other ones.
  • Didn't like warcraft 2 much, felt clunky in controls.
  • I played dawn of war 40k dark crusade or whatever it was called, the one with the green robots; I didn't like it much, it felt clunky in it's controls and it didn't have any story whatsoever; and the base building was unsatisfactory
  • Majesty 2 -- I played this several years ago and didn't enjoy it, base building was weak, and I can't even remember the story.
Some I liked:
  • As mentioned, I like stronghold (the original and crusaders) a lot, but I can't seem to find anything close to it. The stuff I liked the most in stronghold was the 2D sprite based artwork, great base building and large-ish armies, as well as the touch of npcs just working or strolling around your base.
  • I liked warcraft because the story was good and the base building was decent, not as good as stronghold's, but I liked it nonetherless.
  • Another game I liked was heroes of annihilated empires, but the base building was a bit unsatisfactory and there wasn't much of base building; great army size though, and I liked the graphics.
  • I liked age of mythology, good-ish base building, story wasn't too bad, and the graphics I kinda liked.
Some I either don't remember, or my opnion is just neutral:
  • I played one of the command and conquer games(some 2D one), but didn't like it much(don't remember why), although I'm more open to trying them if it's good enough.
  • I kinda liked spellforce, but the story, and base building was not that good.
  • Battle Realms -- I played through the white wolf campaign a long time ago, but recently I can't finish it anymore, I think it's because the base building is so bare bones and some of the mechanics it had I didn't like (gathering up chi or the ying/yang symbols to spawn mythic characters or something).
  • I remember enjoying dungeon keeper, but I never finished it or even played it that much, I don't remember why; I played dungeon keeper 2 more, but I didn't like it as much.
  • Age of empires 1/2 -- I didn't play much of it, I don't remember why in particular, I recently tried revisiting it with the HD remake, but only played it for a couple of hours, I can't really explain why I don't like it, weak story maybe?

I'm looking for base building type RTSs, so no crusader kings or civilization type games please.

The ideal RTS for me would probably be stronghold, but with just 1 map in the size of europe (or bigger), with diplomacy, marriages, 2D graphics, etc... so, like crusader kings but with base building.
 

deama

Prophet
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Knights of Honor
You could also try Medieval Total War though no base building there
I remember playing knights of honor a very long time ago, I might give it a go, how's the base building?
Yeah, I tried total war series at some point, but the lack of base building I did not like at all.
 

hellbent

Augur
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Heroes of Annihilated Empires and Spellforce 2 are nice hybrids of RTS and RPG.

If you haven't played the original Majesty yet, that's an interesting twist on conventional RPGs. Also, War for the Overworld, the successor to the old Dungeon Keeper games, is fun and different from most RPGs.

Empire Earth series is on sale at GOG all weekend. The first one is the best, IMO.

*Edited cos nearly forgot. I'm a big fan of the old Settlers games, but you need to like slow paced RTS's to enjoy those.
 

deama

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Heroes of Annihilated Empires and Spellforce 2 are nice hybrids of RTS and RPG.

If you haven't played the original Majesty yet, that's an interesting twist on conventional RPGs. Also, War for the Overworld, the successor to the old Dungeon Keeper games, is fun and different from most RPGs.

Empire Earth series is on sale at GOG all weekend. The first one is the best, IMO.

*Edited cos nearly forgot. I'm a big fan of the old Settlers games, but you need to like slow paced RTS's to enjoy those.
Hmm, I am interested in settlers, but I donno which one to start with, I heard from somewhere that the new ones are dog shit and that the 3rd one is the best? Or which one?

I remember playing it a very long time ago, and it didn't stick like warcraft 3 did to me; anyway, is the base building any good? Can you make lots of walls and towers? What about the campaign?
 

hellbent

Augur
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Hmm, I am interested in settlers, but I donno which one to start with, I heard from somewhere that the new ones are dog shit and that the 3rd one is the best? Or which one?

Settlers 2 10th Anniversary edition would be a good entry point. Modern graphics and interface, along with classic Settlers gameplay. You're right about the more recent ones being lacking aside from the Settlers 2 remake I mentioned.
 

catfood

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Heroes of Annihilated Empires and Spellforce 2 are nice hybrids of RTS and RPG.

If you haven't played the original Majesty yet, that's an interesting twist on conventional RPGs. Also, War for the Overworld, the successor to the old Dungeon Keeper games, is fun and different from most RPGs.

Empire Earth series is on sale at GOG all weekend. The first one is the best, IMO.

*Edited cos nearly forgot. I'm a big fan of the old Settlers games, but you need to like slow paced RTS's to enjoy those.
Hmm, I am interested in settlers, but I donno which one to start with, I heard from somewhere that the new ones are dog shit and that the 3rd one is the best? Or which one?

I remember playing it a very long time ago, and it didn't stick like warcraft 3 did to me; anyway, is the base building any good? Can you make lots of walls and towers? What about the campaign?
Settlers is boring. Play Knights and Merchants instead. You might like it if you also liked Stronghold. Make sure to get the KaM Remake mod though, for higher resolutions, better pathfinding, bug fixes and all sorts of quality of life features.
 

Catacombs

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I remember playing it a very long time ago, and it didn't stick like warcraft 3 did to me; anyway, is the base building any good? Can you make lots of walls and towers? What about the campaign?

You can make walls and towers. I didn't play the campaign. Mostly skirmishes against the computer and had a blast.
I know you said you Warcraft 3 didn't stick but have you considered Starcraft?
Another option is Total Annihilation. That's a classic.
 

Deflowerer

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Rise of Nations is not really a good base builder. Given the natural borders, it's more about expansion, not turtling.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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I love Age of Empires 2, you should give it another chance, the campaigns are excellent and it has great basebuilding.

If you liked Heroes of Annihilated Empires, give the Cossacks games a try. They're made by the same company and also feature huge army sizes and have very good basebuilding. Campaigns are hard as fuck though and the storytelling is worse than in AoE2.

Empire Earth 1 has some good campaigns and solid basebuilding, I enjoyed it back in the day.

Knights and Merchants is a great Settlers-like strategy game with better combat than any of the actual Settlers games, highly recommended.

If you like Stronghold, there's an old German RTS from the mid-00s called Castle Strike that is rather similar and very fun.

You might also enjoy the Bulgarian-made Tzar: Burden of the Crown, which has an excellent story, light RPG mechanics (units get stronger with experience), and good basebuilding, but the controls are terribly clunky.

Armies of Exigo is a good Warcraft 3 clone that you might enjoy.
 

deama

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I love Age of Empires 2, you should give it another chance, the campaigns are excellent and it has great basebuilding.

If you liked Heroes of Annihilated Empires, give the Cossacks games a try. They're made by the same company and also feature huge army sizes and have very good basebuilding. Campaigns are hard as fuck though and the storytelling is worse than in AoE2.
Yeah, I think I'll give age of empires 2 another go.
There's a new cossacks, should I go with that one or the older ones?
 

JarlFrank

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The new one is essentially a remake of the first one, so you can play that. It's good.

Cossacks 2 has less emphasis on AoE-like base building, but I like its combat system the best out of them all.

American Conquest is another game in that same series and has really cool basebuilding, but the balance is utterly fucked (native American civs stand no chance in the lategame against Euro civs), mostly due to the very cool mechanic of being able to garrison units in ANY building, where they can shoot out of the windows to defend the base - and native Americans don't get any cannons, so they'll have to try storming forts with infantry, running into gunfire from all sides. Played that one a lot in my teens, it was a fun game.
 

Sensuki

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Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
The campaign in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 3 are alright as well, aside from what has already been mentioned.
 

deama

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Maybe you will like Sacrifice. It's an oldie but very fun.
I've played through it, I kinda liked it, but base building is nonexistent, it's more about army building.
 

deama

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The new one is essentially a remake of the first one, so you can play that. It's good.

Cossacks 2 has less emphasis on AoE-like base building, but I like its combat system the best out of them all.

American Conquest is another game in that same series and has really cool basebuilding, but the balance is utterly fucked (native American civs stand no chance in the lategame against Euro civs), mostly due to the very cool mechanic of being able to garrison units in ANY building, where they can shoot out of the windows to defend the base - and native Americans don't get any cannons, so they'll have to try storming forts with infantry, running into gunfire from all sides. Played that one a lot in my teens, it was a fun game.
I just started Cossacks 3, seems alright so far, but damn it's annoying with how I can't create peasants. Apparentely the town hall says it can build peasants, but there is not option for that, am I missing something?
 

JarlFrank

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I dunno, haven't played Cossacks 3 yet. There SHOULD be a peasant creating icon in the town hall.

Are you playing the campaign? Maybe the current mission you're playing disables peasants.
 

Dayyālu

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Hmpfh, difficult tastes. Your base-buiding focus does not allow for stuff like Battlezone or Myth.

Sci-fi.

Total Annihilation (plus its Fantasy cousin, TA: Kingdoms and its modern heir, Supreme Commander). Weird in scale. Base-building is essential (in SP TA base-pushing is a legit strategy). Kingdoms has issues, but the campaign tries to be more varied and the factions distinctive. Fuck the Iron Plague though.

Z: Steel Soldiers. Old-style, C&C style. I don't think it's up your alley though.

Perimeter. YOU LIKE BASE BUILDING WE HAVE TERRAFORMING BASE BUILDING AND BAD PERFORMANCE ALL IN A RUSSIAN RTS PACKAGE

Fantasy

Warrior Kings (and its weird exp pack, Warrior Kings Battles). Should be good. Good base-building options. Interesting economy. Different factions. Baseline campaign is nice and varied.

Dragon Throne: The Battle of the Red Cliffs. It's not fantasy, but it's Chinese so it's as good as fantasy for me. Weird mixture of different map set-ups and play styles. Try the demo, methinks you'll like it.


Hmmm. Paraworld was a valiant attempt, but again not what you are searching for.
 

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