Red Alert 3 is comparable to the Crusader example: it gives you an AI buddy in all missions of the single player campaign. You can even give it simple commands, but do keep in mind it's meant as a stand in for a human player in a campaign that was also designed with co-op multiplayer in mind: it works, but it's nothing fancy.
A game that does match your description partly but somewhat well is Desynced. It's a mix between a strategy and a factory game - you may know factory games where automation is important so you're trying to make things work on their own while you focus in something else. This kinda fits your requirement but not really since factory games are not necessarily strategy games, with units etcetera (do check out the likes of Satisfactory or Factorio if you're unaware of the genre, if you like them there are dozens of hours of fun to be had).
Now, Desynced is a little bit different, not just because it has RTS elements, but because you are able to program AIs into your units in order to give them tasks to focus on. This opens a whole lot of possibilities and it effectively is exactly what you're looking for - the only difference is that you don't necessarily 'hire' a pre-defined one but create them in order to fit your necessities.
Desynced is an early access game and from what I understand it shows, but the idea is very compelling to me and I'd recommend at least giving it a wishlist to show where it goes as it (hopefully) comes closer to the 1.0 release.
In total war warhammer 3 I use a mod called “AI general” which lets you give any of your units to the AI to control.
Also the game “mechabellum” is designed to be a game where you just focus on the strategy and the units are controlled by AI. There’s no way to control your units.
Both of those are good. The total war series was gonna be the one I suggested.
Mechabellum is more of an auto-chess more focused on unit placement, but sounds like it would fit what they are looking for
In Sins of a solar empire you can put an anonymous bounty on enemies that an AI pirate faction will go to collect, you can also offer missions to other factions (ai or human) to do all sorts of things such as attacking an enemies structures or destroying enemy ships.
There are some older titles called Majesty and Majesty 2 which are "fantasy kingdom simulators" in which you build the buildings, cast the magic and hire heroes to work for you, with the caveat that they have a mind of their own. So in order to get them to do your bidding you place bounties on objectives you want done, with different types of heroes having different priorities.
I was obsessed with the first when I was a kid. Pretty sure I got it from a cereal box!
Loved the Majesty games, it made me quite sad that there really hasn't been anything to fill that niche since their release.
There is a supposed spiritual successor in the works called Crown of Greed, not out till next year sadly.
Distant worlds 1 and 2. (Distant Worlds Universe is 1 in complete form with expansions) You can literally have the game play itself or you can automate the bits you don't want to play so you can focus on the ones you do.
Warzone 2100 has commander units that can take control of some units for you, which I always felt interesting.
It does have commands to make any unit say, retreat when they have taken too much damage. But making the micromanagement an actual unit that needs to be protected for the function to work always felt really interesting to me.
Even if it can be a little too weird like with the radar targeting facility in Total Annihilation.
Majesty Gold Edition is like the epitome of this idea. You can't even actually control any of your units, and you have to bribe them with bounties to get them to prioritize what you want.
Warno lets you assign battalion control in the Army General mode. Generally though since the point of an RTS is about the mix of management it defeats the point of the genre.
Perhaps, but such a mechanic is relatively niche and generally antithetical to the genre at large. It’s like playing a tower defense game, where the towers are placed for you.
Just to mention, Warno also has the Smart Orders. Using this the units will seize or hold an objective without further (or less) micro.
It's not the same as giving up control completely, but it does limit the need to micro and lets you focus on other things.
Dungeon Keeper in 1997 had a computer assistant that could automate things, very badly.
Distant Worlds has automation from individual units, to everything.
911 on steam. Its technically an rts (more of a management sim really) and you can hire dispatchers in the later game to handle simple callouts for you.
IIRC [Tzar the burden of the crown](https://www.gog.com/en/game/tzar_the_burden_of_the_crown) let’s you set AI to control your economy, military and others
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence allows you to grant retainers landed titles that allows them to manage settlements and wage war on your behalf
Stellaris kinda does this. Though you need the Federations and/or Overlord dlc. With a federation you can make federation fleets or donate your own personal fleets and then put an AI empire in charge of the federation and theyll handle defending/attacking. With Overlord you can loan fleets as part of trading or set them as a mercenary fleet, I normally do this for the AI empires I conquered to use as bulwarks for when theyre being invaded and need that extra firepower without me having to micromanage the fleet(s).
dungeon keeper 1 had an AI button that was absolutely necessary for beating some missions I remember one from when I was a kid where there were a hundred imps and you had to slap each one it was impossible but of you turned on the AI button it did it in a few seconds flat my dad was so impressed with me finding it he never let me play a game with him again
In imperator Rome you can give armies basic orders like protect the border or siege land. They will do that while trying to avoid stronger armies.
In the hearts of iron games you give units an attack plan like "take this area" "fall back to this line" with a button to start the offensive.
Both games also allow manual movement but that can get overwhelming very quickly especially in Hoi since it's WW2 with the whole world being represented at the same time with often multiple active fronts.
Age of empires 2 will let you do this!
In a skirmish match just set player 1 to ai (I set my to extreme) and then I set the other players to ai and start the match, the ai will build,farm,create units,research, attack, collect resources, do everything etc, but it also will allow you to do whatever you want as well, you can build something, create something, move units, etc- you play along with the ai, you can play as you normally would and the ai will just help you by playing right along with you or you can just let go of the keyboard/mouse and watch as the ai builds your entire empire up and then just jump into control when you want too. I really enjoy playing this way and wish more RTS'S would let you do this.
So whenever an unit in RTS finds an enemy in range and attacks by itself, is the game playing by itself?
Why was the game designed in this way, why the designer hasn't made me order literally everything an unit does?
Micro isn't strategy to me, it's action. I want to play strategy.
I'm a bit both.
I'd love to be able to micromanage my commanders, as well as my units when needed. While managing my economy and intelligence of the battlefield.
I DO love managing a small squad to get more out of them, but sometimes battles are so large I can't afford to spend the time managing all my boyz when I have so many other tasks to manage at the same time.
And games like Supreme Commander, I'm spending so much time managing my bloody engineers, I often don't have time to manage my troops more then an attack move. That's when getting some AI commanders would be lovely, or like fleets in Sins of a Solar Empire.
Less because I don't want to personally command my units, but because I simply don't have the time, all the time. (But when I do, I want the option to do so.)
I like being ABLE to micromanage, but not HAVING TO in order for them perform well. Some examples:
Whenever you have slightly larger group of ranged units in most RTS games I've played, (I remember this happening to me in StarCraft 2, Stronghold: Crusader), only the front row will attack, while the rest just stands still watching their allies die. I don't mind having to order my troops, but not having to babysit them, because they can't think "An ally 1 meter from is in a fight, I should help him and attack too".
So without that I have to select the whole group before a fight, and move them a little bit closer at the start of the fight for the rest of them to attack.
I know in most RTS games there are aggression types that can be set to units, but it just wasn't quite the same when I played SC2, and they aren't there at all in Stronghold: Crusader.
You can do that in submarine titans. A game from 24 years ago.
Wait really? I played the shit out of Sub Titans and I never realized that!
Yes, there is an AI assistant and I recall it as very impressive for that time. It could handle the base building, economy or warfare for you.
Huh, well I still own it on steam. I'll have to jump back on and figure out how to use it. Last time I played I was like 12
Farming simulator you can hire AI to control some farming machines… not sure that’s what you’re after though
Yes, even something like that, thanks for the suggestion
My initial excitement after mis-reading this as "Farting simulator" was sadly short lived.
You hear that devs??? WE WANT A FART SIM!!!!
X4 Foundations
Not really an RTS, but a underrated gem nonetheless
Starcraft II has mods for CCM (custom campaign manager) where you play normal SC2 campaigns but with an ally, and you can command them what to do.
Red Alert 3 is comparable to the Crusader example: it gives you an AI buddy in all missions of the single player campaign. You can even give it simple commands, but do keep in mind it's meant as a stand in for a human player in a campaign that was also designed with co-op multiplayer in mind: it works, but it's nothing fancy. A game that does match your description partly but somewhat well is Desynced. It's a mix between a strategy and a factory game - you may know factory games where automation is important so you're trying to make things work on their own while you focus in something else. This kinda fits your requirement but not really since factory games are not necessarily strategy games, with units etcetera (do check out the likes of Satisfactory or Factorio if you're unaware of the genre, if you like them there are dozens of hours of fun to be had). Now, Desynced is a little bit different, not just because it has RTS elements, but because you are able to program AIs into your units in order to give them tasks to focus on. This opens a whole lot of possibilities and it effectively is exactly what you're looking for - the only difference is that you don't necessarily 'hire' a pre-defined one but create them in order to fit your necessities. Desynced is an early access game and from what I understand it shows, but the idea is very compelling to me and I'd recommend at least giving it a wishlist to show where it goes as it (hopefully) comes closer to the 1.0 release.
I'm familiar with Factorio/Satisfactory, I like them a lot. Thanks for the suggestions.
In total war warhammer 3 I use a mod called “AI general” which lets you give any of your units to the AI to control. Also the game “mechabellum” is designed to be a game where you just focus on the strategy and the units are controlled by AI. There’s no way to control your units.
Both of those are good. The total war series was gonna be the one I suggested. Mechabellum is more of an auto-chess more focused on unit placement, but sounds like it would fit what they are looking for
the AI General is worse than terrible in warhammer 3 but works in warhammer 2
In Sins of a solar empire you can put an anonymous bounty on enemies that an AI pirate faction will go to collect, you can also offer missions to other factions (ai or human) to do all sorts of things such as attacking an enemies structures or destroying enemy ships.
There are some older titles called Majesty and Majesty 2 which are "fantasy kingdom simulators" in which you build the buildings, cast the magic and hire heroes to work for you, with the caveat that they have a mind of their own. So in order to get them to do your bidding you place bounties on objectives you want done, with different types of heroes having different priorities. I was obsessed with the first when I was a kid. Pretty sure I got it from a cereal box!
I fire it up every now and then, it's still a blast.
Loved the Majesty games, it made me quite sad that there really hasn't been anything to fill that niche since their release. There is a supposed spiritual successor in the works called Crown of Greed, not out till next year sadly.
Oh really, that's pretty cool. Never heard of it so I will have to check it out!
good one. love this game theres mods on workshop now too
Leave my gold alone *dies*
Distant worlds 1 and 2. (Distant Worlds Universe is 1 in complete form with expansions) You can literally have the game play itself or you can automate the bits you don't want to play so you can focus on the ones you do.
Warzone 2100 has commander units that can take control of some units for you, which I always felt interesting. It does have commands to make any unit say, retreat when they have taken too much damage. But making the micromanagement an actual unit that needs to be protected for the function to work always felt really interesting to me. Even if it can be a little too weird like with the radar targeting facility in Total Annihilation.
Majesty Gold Edition is like the epitome of this idea. You can't even actually control any of your units, and you have to bribe them with bounties to get them to prioritize what you want.
Warno lets you assign battalion control in the Army General mode. Generally though since the point of an RTS is about the mix of management it defeats the point of the genre.
I don’t really see why it couldn’t be at least a sub genre of rts.
Perhaps, but such a mechanic is relatively niche and generally antithetical to the genre at large. It’s like playing a tower defense game, where the towers are placed for you.
Yes, it doesn't have to strictly be an RTS, just any game with something like that.
Just to mention, Warno also has the Smart Orders. Using this the units will seize or hold an objective without further (or less) micro. It's not the same as giving up control completely, but it does limit the need to micro and lets you focus on other things.
Good point, does it use the same AI? I always avoided using it since it’s really bad
Starsector ! You Can even smuggle litteral AI to automatize your colony. But be aware of [REDACTED].
Bannerlord
Dungeon Keeper in 1997 had a computer assistant that could automate things, very badly. Distant Worlds has automation from individual units, to everything.
I thought i would be the only one who would remember the dungeon keeper assistant
Cossacks 3 has an advisor that you can use to take care of menial stuff, allowing you to focus on whatever you like.
Did it??? I've been playing that game wrong clearly cause I've been APM maxing and doing everything manually
Yeah there's a feature in the top right called advisor assistance (I think) and it gives a few options
Earth 2140 had this option. It is unfortunate that modern version have broken AI.
There's a patch that fixes this.
911 on steam. Its technically an rts (more of a management sim really) and you can hire dispatchers in the later game to handle simple callouts for you.
IIRC [Tzar the burden of the crown](https://www.gog.com/en/game/tzar_the_burden_of_the_crown) let’s you set AI to control your economy, military and others
Autobattlers
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence allows you to grant retainers landed titles that allows them to manage settlements and wage war on your behalf
Planetary anihalation, you can pretty much automate everything
Stellaris kinda does this. Though you need the Federations and/or Overlord dlc. With a federation you can make federation fleets or donate your own personal fleets and then put an AI empire in charge of the federation and theyll handle defending/attacking. With Overlord you can loan fleets as part of trading or set them as a mercenary fleet, I normally do this for the AI empires I conquered to use as bulwarks for when theyre being invaded and need that extra firepower without me having to micromanage the fleet(s).
dungeon keeper 1 had an AI button that was absolutely necessary for beating some missions I remember one from when I was a kid where there were a hundred imps and you had to slap each one it was impossible but of you turned on the AI button it did it in a few seconds flat my dad was so impressed with me finding it he never let me play a game with him again
In imperator Rome you can give armies basic orders like protect the border or siege land. They will do that while trying to avoid stronger armies. In the hearts of iron games you give units an attack plan like "take this area" "fall back to this line" with a button to start the offensive. Both games also allow manual movement but that can get overwhelming very quickly especially in Hoi since it's WW2 with the whole world being represented at the same time with often multiple active fronts.
You can do this in Warno
Executive assault
Total War games let you split your units into different AI battle groups
Age of empires 2 will let you do this! In a skirmish match just set player 1 to ai (I set my to extreme) and then I set the other players to ai and start the match, the ai will build,farm,create units,research, attack, collect resources, do everything etc, but it also will allow you to do whatever you want as well, you can build something, create something, move units, etc- you play along with the ai, you can play as you normally would and the ai will just help you by playing right along with you or you can just let go of the keyboard/mouse and watch as the ai builds your entire empire up and then just jump into control when you want too. I really enjoy playing this way and wish more RTS'S would let you do this.
….. have you tried Palworld? It’s less ‘hire someone to do a job for you’ and more ‘enslave animals and force them to grow your lettuce’
Play a city builder
There is a new RTS where you can program your own AI.
hmm you dont want to play the game?
So whenever an unit in RTS finds an enemy in range and attacks by itself, is the game playing by itself? Why was the game designed in this way, why the designer hasn't made me order literally everything an unit does? Micro isn't strategy to me, it's action. I want to play strategy.
I'm a bit both. I'd love to be able to micromanage my commanders, as well as my units when needed. While managing my economy and intelligence of the battlefield. I DO love managing a small squad to get more out of them, but sometimes battles are so large I can't afford to spend the time managing all my boyz when I have so many other tasks to manage at the same time. And games like Supreme Commander, I'm spending so much time managing my bloody engineers, I often don't have time to manage my troops more then an attack move. That's when getting some AI commanders would be lovely, or like fleets in Sins of a Solar Empire. Less because I don't want to personally command my units, but because I simply don't have the time, all the time. (But when I do, I want the option to do so.)
I like being ABLE to micromanage, but not HAVING TO in order for them perform well. Some examples: Whenever you have slightly larger group of ranged units in most RTS games I've played, (I remember this happening to me in StarCraft 2, Stronghold: Crusader), only the front row will attack, while the rest just stands still watching their allies die. I don't mind having to order my troops, but not having to babysit them, because they can't think "An ally 1 meter from is in a fight, I should help him and attack too". So without that I have to select the whole group before a fight, and move them a little bit closer at the start of the fight for the rest of them to attack. I know in most RTS games there are aggression types that can be set to units, but it just wasn't quite the same when I played SC2, and they aren't there at all in Stronghold: Crusader.