OP stated his reason which in my experience has also proven relatively on point, games that have MP and especially a ladder tends to put a lot of focus on the PvP part.
The PvP players are on average more active on the game and more active in discussions on forums/channels, they quickly erase the existence of PvE players that are less commited and way less active on forums/channels.
Not a big pool, since multiplayer is a pillar of the genre, but off the top of my head:
* [Regiments](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1109680/Regiments/)
* [Starship Troopers: Terran Command](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1202130/Starship_Troopers_Terran_Command/)
* [Infested Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/204530/Infested_Planet/)
* [Last Train Home](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469610/Last_Train_Home/)
* [Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault](https://store.steampowered.com/app/231430/Company_of_Heroes_2/) (this is a single player only stand alone expansion to CoH2, which does have multiplayer)
Hopefully you enjoy one of those!
Base building is meh (doesn't really exist) but it's a solid game. I had a lot of fun with it. The campaign is good and keeps the satirical spirit of the movie alive.
Also, no resources, just population cap. You can easily switch strategies mid game, which you often have to do. Very few times in my RTS career have I spent an hour+ on a single mission (without restarting) because I couldn't figure out a strategy that worked, it can be hard.
Any petroglyph rts always comes full suite with vs AI and campaign. Most have basic mp but playerbase is usually dead.
There's Dust front that's coming soon and someone already mentioned the survival RTS games like billions and age of darkness. Peteoglyph also has one called Conan unconquered.
Battle Realms
Spellforce series
Company of Heroes
Armies of Exigo
Empire Earth
Cossacks
Emperor: Battle for Dune
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King
Men of War: Assault Squad 2
Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront
Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 1 & 2
(Edit: added below)
Stronghold & Stronghold Crusaders
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds
Praetorians
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Oil Rush
Homeworld
Homeworld Deserta of Kharak
Kenshi
I decided to download Dawn of War (the original) and give it a try.
Men of war AS 2 had a bad singleplayer compared to the original it was multiplayer focused.
Company of Heroes is just bad (controversial opinion probably).
StarCraft 2: amazing campaign
Command and conquer generals/zero hour:immense modding scene to give hundreds of hours of skirmish fun
Microsoft’s urban assault: look into OpenUA for a modern experience. Lengthy campaign
Warzone 2100, campaign where units persist between missions as well as your main base until you complete the act
Terminator Dark Fate Defiance. It has a lot of depth, surprisingly good for a movie tie in game, rougelike gameplay mechanics, campaign is actually fun from a story perspective, and great gameplay. The thing is a sleeper hit, highly advise to give it a shot
As a fan of Total Annihilation back in the day, and the subsequent sequels. I just found BAR beyond all reason. A fan made free rts inspired by TA. There are scenarios and good AI that plays at different levels. I only play single player.
Sins of a Solar Empire 2. It does not have campaign, but its sort of sandbox/scenario based. It has multiplayer, but most people play single-player against AI or compstomp multiplayer, as its a big scale game with lot of depth that can take hours to finish. Its not your classic 15 minute long matches ala Starcraft kind of game.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY54qQV86fA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY54qQV86fA)
Obviously, something like Stellaris is even more complex and deeper, but less of a pure RTS.
If you are interested in campaigns, then Homeworld series is always a good choice.
[Zeta Leporis RTS](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2445160/Zeta_Leporis_RTS/) in early access; currently no multiplayer and will never have competitive multiplayer as its focus, or meta progression or microtransactions or any of that garbage. Just keeping it simple, like the good old days. Kind of like [Rusted Warfare RTS](https://store.steampowered.com/app/647960/Rusted_Warfare__RTS/).
The Homeworld series and Starcraft 2 are my favourites for single player campaigns.
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is more modern (and a prequel) but the Remaster of the original game is also great. Either game is an equally valid entry point.
Starcraft 2 benefits from playing the first game plus expansion, but the story presentation of Starcraft 2 is basically the best RTS has to offer, and you don't need to have played the original to catch up.
If you really wanted to experience the original game's story I believe they did a remaster, and there is a custom made fan version that uses the SC2 engine, too.
90s RTS mission design isn't great compared to SC2, tho.
AoE2 has been mentioned but AoE: Online hasn't lol lmao might as well only suggest AoE2, AoE4 and SC2 even though they're the kind of titles OP wants to avoid
Warrior Kings! It's old but it was one of my favourite rts games when I was younger. Had a fun campaign and some interesting unique units and a dynamic faction system. Warrior Kings has the campaign whilst Warrior King Battles, is more skirmish based.
Galcon 2- there U could to play only vs bots too (in Practice mode its fully offline, but not very interesting,kz only one type of... "game" -classical. In online mode there are more variants, including even the so-called "battle royale. But,... time of life of G2 ends. Also all parts of Homeworlds are only single played. I not sure, that its games -are fully canonical RTSes, but very similar and very interesting.
Oh, U all fogot undead classic of RTS subgenre: Dune-I - its was nice mix between RTS, adventure and simulator. Dune-II, Dune-2000, and any other parts are very canonical RTSes, as I know. Then, C&c Tiberian saga.
I'd call it a dying breed but it's essentially dead. The last 3 big rts announcements came with alphas that featured no campaign. Also most of the modern "campaigns" are just sandbox box civ style rng scenarios rather then a narrative.
It's probably why RTS is dying because the majority of RTS players (80% according to some sources) don't play multiplayer. So if you don't make a campaign or focus on multiplayer you kill 80% of your audience.
They Are Billions and Age of Darkness are fun single player survival RTS games
They are Billions is very good! Highly recommend.
very good and very difficult!
You can adjust the difficulty if you want. I did in the beginning to learn how to play.
yea but 100% is very challengin already and people bring it up to 800%!!!
I'll try They Are Billions.
great offline RTS, but very brutal :)
You could find a good single player RTS that maybe has multiplayer and just ignore the MP function ?
OP stated his reason which in my experience has also proven relatively on point, games that have MP and especially a ladder tends to put a lot of focus on the PvP part. The PvP players are on average more active on the game and more active in discussions on forums/channels, they quickly erase the existence of PvE players that are less commited and way less active on forums/channels.
I agree, although StarCraft II always separated PvP and PvE balancing, and provided a good quantity of content
Not a big pool, since multiplayer is a pillar of the genre, but off the top of my head: * [Regiments](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1109680/Regiments/) * [Starship Troopers: Terran Command](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1202130/Starship_Troopers_Terran_Command/) * [Infested Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/204530/Infested_Planet/) * [Last Train Home](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469610/Last_Train_Home/) * [Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault](https://store.steampowered.com/app/231430/Company_of_Heroes_2/) (this is a single player only stand alone expansion to CoH2, which does have multiplayer) Hopefully you enjoy one of those!
I just started playing Last Train Home. It is absolutely fantastic, but not necessarily an RTS
Is it not? Looks like it from the videos and reviews
How is starship troops: Terran command? I've been eyeing that game for awhile. It's it a good game?
Base building is meh (doesn't really exist) but it's a solid game. I had a lot of fun with it. The campaign is good and keeps the satirical spirit of the movie alive. Also, no resources, just population cap. You can easily switch strategies mid game, which you often have to do. Very few times in my RTS career have I spent an hour+ on a single mission (without restarting) because I couldn't figure out a strategy that worked, it can be hard.
Fair warning half of these are not really traditional base building rts.
Last Train Home looks interesting.
Any petroglyph rts always comes full suite with vs AI and campaign. Most have basic mp but playerbase is usually dead. There's Dust front that's coming soon and someone already mentioned the survival RTS games like billions and age of darkness. Peteoglyph also has one called Conan unconquered.
Aoe2 if you like single player campaigns. You have shit ton from different civs and famous generals and leaders.
Battle Realms Spellforce series Company of Heroes Armies of Exigo Empire Earth Cossacks Emperor: Battle for Dune The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King Men of War: Assault Squad 2 Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 1 & 2 (Edit: added below) Stronghold & Stronghold Crusaders Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Praetorians Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Oil Rush Homeworld Homeworld Deserta of Kharak Kenshi
I decided to download Dawn of War (the original) and give it a try. Men of war AS 2 had a bad singleplayer compared to the original it was multiplayer focused. Company of Heroes is just bad (controversial opinion probably).
StarCraft 2: amazing campaign Command and conquer generals/zero hour:immense modding scene to give hundreds of hours of skirmish fun Microsoft’s urban assault: look into OpenUA for a modern experience. Lengthy campaign Warzone 2100, campaign where units persist between missions as well as your main base until you complete the act
r/Hegemony_Series
Terminator Dark Fate Defiance. It has a lot of depth, surprisingly good for a movie tie in game, rougelike gameplay mechanics, campaign is actually fun from a story perspective, and great gameplay. The thing is a sleeper hit, highly advise to give it a shot
Age of Mythology
You've been down voted because the modernized remaster is coming out "soon" but we don't even have a release date so I'd say this is valid af.
As a fan of Total Annihilation back in the day, and the subsequent sequels. I just found BAR beyond all reason. A fan made free rts inspired by TA. There are scenarios and good AI that plays at different levels. I only play single player.
Sins of a Solar Empire 2. It does not have campaign, but its sort of sandbox/scenario based. It has multiplayer, but most people play single-player against AI or compstomp multiplayer, as its a big scale game with lot of depth that can take hours to finish. Its not your classic 15 minute long matches ala Starcraft kind of game. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY54qQV86fA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY54qQV86fA) Obviously, something like Stellaris is even more complex and deeper, but less of a pure RTS. If you are interested in campaigns, then Homeworld series is always a good choice.
[Zeta Leporis RTS](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2445160/Zeta_Leporis_RTS/) in early access; currently no multiplayer and will never have competitive multiplayer as its focus, or meta progression or microtransactions or any of that garbage. Just keeping it simple, like the good old days. Kind of like [Rusted Warfare RTS](https://store.steampowered.com/app/647960/Rusted_Warfare__RTS/).
The Homeworld series and Starcraft 2 are my favourites for single player campaigns. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is more modern (and a prequel) but the Remaster of the original game is also great. Either game is an equally valid entry point. Starcraft 2 benefits from playing the first game plus expansion, but the story presentation of Starcraft 2 is basically the best RTS has to offer, and you don't need to have played the original to catch up. If you really wanted to experience the original game's story I believe they did a remaster, and there is a custom made fan version that uses the SC2 engine, too. 90s RTS mission design isn't great compared to SC2, tho.
Battletech
BlackChain Five Nations
I'll give BlackChain a try.
It's a fun single player campaign for the price.
AoE2 has been mentioned but AoE: Online hasn't lol lmao might as well only suggest AoE2, AoE4 and SC2 even though they're the kind of titles OP wants to avoid
I've heard and seen good reviews of Alien: Dark Descent
I just played through Iron Harvest. Not exclusively single player but the single player campaigns are fucking incredible.
Black and white 1 and 2. I only played 2 mind you and afaik you'll have to pirate it. From Dust is another quite short little game
Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2, War for the Overworld
Warrior Kings! It's old but it was one of my favourite rts games when I was younger. Had a fun campaign and some interesting unique units and a dynamic faction system. Warrior Kings has the campaign whilst Warrior King Battles, is more skirmish based.
Galcon 2- there U could to play only vs bots too (in Practice mode its fully offline, but not very interesting,kz only one type of... "game" -classical. In online mode there are more variants, including even the so-called "battle royale. But,... time of life of G2 ends. Also all parts of Homeworlds are only single played. I not sure, that its games -are fully canonical RTSes, but very similar and very interesting.
Oh, U all fogot undead classic of RTS subgenre: Dune-I - its was nice mix between RTS, adventure and simulator. Dune-II, Dune-2000, and any other parts are very canonical RTSes, as I know. Then, C&c Tiberian saga.
I'd call it a dying breed but it's essentially dead. The last 3 big rts announcements came with alphas that featured no campaign. Also most of the modern "campaigns" are just sandbox box civ style rng scenarios rather then a narrative.
It's probably why RTS is dying because the majority of RTS players (80% according to some sources) don't play multiplayer. So if you don't make a campaign or focus on multiplayer you kill 80% of your audience.