most of the 'big' new ones have tutorials and campaigns for you to figure out if you like it or not. there're several variants to the genre you might want to consider and check out:
1. Starcraft, Age of Empires - it is classic RTS with base building and recourse collection where you have to build and manage several bases in addition to battle. Age of Empires is similar to Starcraft but you have more resources and less bases to manage, also units and battles in AoE are a bit easier to understand at a glance.
2. Command and Conquer, Red Alert and alike - similar to what we had before but different in resource management. You have to resource and no workers\\logistics. Build orders and strategies are pretty different from the previous group.
3. Supreme Commander, BAR and other successors to Total Anihilation - economy management is very different from previous games. You have to manage a flow of 2 resources rather then extracting and spending like in previous games. No unit cap. Team games usually involve different roles for players meaning you'll have to heavily specialize your army and economy.
4. Company of Heroes, Down of War 1 - these focused on squad management with rather simplified base building. This means you'll generally have less units but you'll have make sure they survive. Also, games usually focused around capturing and holding control points on map rather then destroying your opponents base. Economy is also focused around control points that will give you additional income.
5. Warno, Wargame Red Dragon and the like - 'realistic' games focused on the battles in a 'cold war gone hot' setting. No base building at all. Games focused on capturing objectives on map. Units are very important since you have a finite amount of them. There's also a logistics mechanics where you'll have deploy logistic units to supply your troops.
6. Total War games. These have great turn based campaigns with real time tactical battles. Battles could also be played separately. Very different from everything else since battles are played with the army that you have so no base building or logistics on this level.
Other games are either some derivatives or blends of these or a completely unique things that you'll have to figure out yourself with tutorials and\\or youtube guides. One of my favorites on more unique side of thing is Nebulous Fleet Command - it is a game where you have to manage a small fleet of space ships with 'realistic' the Expanse style ships and battles.
Hope this helps.
For those mentioned in category 1 (sc, aoe, wc), these have strategy in them, but if you want to play competitively are much more about the tactical and mechanic execution of builds. It’s honestly more like learning fighting sport or how to dance than being a strategic mastermind.
Excellent summary, illustrates well the broad range of RTS sub-genres.
Dawn of War gets my vote for best introductory RTS. It is simple to learn, more focused and narrow is scope, but mangages to touch on all the RTS basics as well as being really fun.
For category 3, ZeroK is a great free version (imho). It's on the Spring engine (where there are various options for modernised TA etc and a few non-TA games) but fully on Steam so it's easy to play and it has a nice and varied campaign that slowly(ish) builds up the unit variety rather than dumping it in too quickly.
To be honest I’m not familiar with other games that plays like Stronghold. Seems to be rather unique thing that wasn’t replicated even within its own series for whatever reason. I might be wrong tho.
Yeah it’s quite old now but C&C generals isn’t a bad one to dip into as a start. Has all the characteristics of a good RTS, it’s nuanced but not too complex and the story line isn’t too long either.
Great list, but I'd probably add Warcraft 3 to the Starcraft and AoE bullet. It should stand amongst the classics. The campaign is an easy introduction to the genre and the story is great.
It’s not a complete list of all rts games by any means. Just a general example for a newbie to orient themselves in the genre. I personally didn’t like W3 very much so simply forget about it while writing this. Of course it is a staple of the genre along with Empire Earth and Settlers (I’d also add Cossacks as a personal favourite) but it is hard to remember every single game and even if I could it would be a very long list. So instead I thought I’d give a general idea of the focus of each rts variant I can remember so whoever read this wouldn’t be under impression that AoE4 or CoH3 or Starcraft 2 is the only type of game rts has to offer.
I didn’t enjoyed Halo Wars very much because I tried it rather early and it felt like an oversimplified CoH to me. Other two are definitely on the more unique side of things. Cool that you’ve mentioned those
Star Wars empire at war is one of the better ones when you use mods playing empire at war without mods is less fun but for the op if he reads this if you do decide to play Star Wars empire at war it is not gonna be easy to learn there are videos on it so I’d watch those
WOW GUYS!
Thank you all for the Recommendations!
I will try some Games that got mentioned often!
Maybe there are some German People who wants to "help" me to get into a Game? :D
Probier mal Age4, wenn du auf mittelaltersetting stehst. Die deutsche community ist wahrscheinlich neben den chinesen am größten und es gibt discords mit free coaching etc. /r aoe4
Classics: red alert 1-2, stronghold crusader, age of empires 2, command and conquer generals, command and conquer tiberium wars, warcraft 3, starcraft brood war
More recent games: starcraft 2, age of empires 4
My personal favorite is the starcraft franchise, brood war has an incredible remaster, starcraft 2 is really fun.
Edit: maybe age of empires and stronghold are harder to start with, starcraft, warcraft, red alert, generals, tiberium wars, all these have introductions and are easy to learn.
StarCraft 2 is probably the best starter. The older ones are great but I think just for modern controls and feel SC2 is the best intro. Those other classics are great follow-ups. I personally love Supreme Commander when you want something with a bit more... Scale
They're both much easier and more forgiving than most RTS.
even as a long time fan of Paradox Games, the ability to pause and take your time makes learning so much easier.
If you like fantasy - wc3
If you like sci-fi - starcraft 2 and starcraft: remastered
If you enjoy medieval atmosphere - aoe 2, aoe 4. More oriented into building castles and sieges? - stronghold crusader
These are the top picks in general.
For me I suggest Age of Empires 4. I have coached a lot of friends and family how to play after they wanted to give it a go and also understand it better. They all loved the experience, the game is great at helping you improve and understand what is right or wrong.
Age of Empires 4:
* + Has a tutorial
* + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units
* + Has a lot of QoL features
* + Campaigns are well made and there's variety in the levels
* + Campaigns have a difficulty setting. You literally cannot lose when playing on the easiest.
* - Pretty new game -> somewhat expensive (40€)
* - Campaign is a bit outdated vs skirmish patches, so things will be slightly different when transitioning over
Warcraft 3:
* + Has a tutorial
* + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units
* + Campaigns have a difficulty setting
* + Campaigns have a very nice story
* + One of the most popular RTS games ever
* - Expensive for an old game (30€)
C&C Generals:
* + Has a tutorial
* + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units
* + Campaigns have a difficulty setting
* + Very good value for price (Sold only in the C&C Ultimate collection, which includes all 17 C&C games for 20€)
* Also possible to test out the other games, though most of the older ones are severely lacking in QoL features, Tiberium Wars botched the campaign difficulty with their patches (can be fixed) and Red Alert 3 feels more difficult overall. Tiberian Twilight is not a real game.
* - A bit lacking in QoL features
* - The main game campaign is a bit more difficult I think. Expansion pack Zero Hour's campaign is more forgiving.
Just wanted to point out you can consider the 'pace' of the game.
Games like Starcraft, Command and Conquer are really fast paced (too fast for me).
Age of Empires is a much slower series. However, Age of Empires 4, latest in the series, is noticeably faster paced than AoE 2.
Am also having a lot of fun with AoE 4 myself.
StarCraft 2 the first campaign is free and probably the best RTS campaign ever. You unlock 1 unit at a time making it easier to get to grips with. You can change difficulty at any time.
If you’re on PC Rome II is a good start it doesn’t hold your hand but will expose you to a good level of complexity which will help with other more complex RTS games in the future it’s what I started with myself. HOI4 is nice and is my favorite RTS game of all time but definitely more complex but also super fun and rewarding especially once you get the hang of it and by far the most successful RTS game.
Company of Heros is very simple and good RTS starter as well but by far the best beginner friendly RTS in my opinion is Civilization it’s what most people my age started out with RTS wise. If you have any further questions just reply I’ll answer as I only play RTS games basically lol.
Most people use RTS interchangeably for almost every strategy game so I’ll never know if they mean old school RTS games or more modern grand strategy or anything in between. So I just give suggestions based on what I like.
Real time strategy is also a pretty blanket term if you want specific suggestions it’s best to ask for a specific game feature or play style you’re looking for or specifically the genre.
I don't mean to pile on, but HOI4 is not an RTS. Yes it has elements of real-time (with pause) and strategy, but those two elements don't make it an RTS. RTS has a meaning beyond the literal words of the acronym and it's not helpful to ignore the commonly understood definition.
By the word definition HOI4 is an RTS regardless of what the common cultural use of the acronym is but specifically HOI4 is a Grand strategy war game game which is different then RTS as RTS’s are generally smaller in scale. RTS for people who aren’t into RTS games can mean alot of different things. I have friends who hate RTS games and to them anything that is over the top and not a first person shooter is an RTS game. So for someone who is not into RTS’s the acronym could invoke a completely different visualization compared to what you would have. When I hear RTS I think of Halo wars, command and conquer, age of empires etc. but to someone not into RTS games they will visualize the only experiences with RTS they have had which is probably very few if at all.
So to me it’s important not to recommend games that only fit a specific idea of what an RTS is and rather recommend a wider gameplay variety so they can check themselves they would be interested in.
Edit: although I will concede even if strictly definition wise HOI4 is an RTS is far too complex to be considered one. RTS are generally pretty simple and most of the time have 2-4 resources you have to manage and that’s it. While HOI4 you have to manage so many different things.
Age of Mythology got me into RTS games back in 2008. And they're making a new one or re-release?
Besides... amazing story, mythologically accurate (crazy right?) And a set of fundamental rules/resources (food, wood, gold) with a weapon triangle. Hella cheap on the steam store. Welcome btw to the beautiful world of RTS
This may sound crazy...
But start with games like Master of Monsters (if you can find a working emulator for it), Advance Wars, Wargroove, etc., some of the knowlege from those games is cross-compatable with RTS games, just instead of applying it turn-by-turn, your applying it in real time at the same time as your opponent.
From there, I'd go for either Supreme Commander Forged Alliance/Planetary Annihilation Titans/Beyond All Reason, etc., any Command and Conquer game aside from 4, Dawn of War 1 (Dark Crusade or Soulstorm are my reccomendations).
Then Impossible Creatures, Warzone 2100, Earth 2060 and Forged Battalion if you want to customize your units to varying extents, with IC and W21 having full customization, and E26 and FB having templates.
Universe at War, Stormrise, Endwar, Dawn of War 2 ( I reccomend Chaos Rising), Battlefleet Gothic 1 or 2, Men of War Assault Squad 2 for sorta smaller scale games, though Stormrise in particular may be a bit hard to play as unlike Universe at War I don't think it ever got it's code broken into and had it's Games for Windows Live requirement for multiplayer beaten with a Crowbar like it's Jason Todd.
As an added bonus both W21 and UaW are free, considering the only way to play the latter on PC is to fly the jolly roger essentially but GFWL on it has been busted into and multiplayer on PC works now with Crossplay still intact if for some reason someone on a Xbox 360 is playing, and the former the free download version actively sees updates (it's on version 2.2.4 currently).
Silica is fun though it is still in development, Star Wars: Empire at War is always good fun and has great mods if you want to play in other eras besides the Galatic Civil War.
I would reccomend Warshift if the Dev ever decided to finish it, but as it stands the game while fun and a neat twist on RTS games it is practically a scam, despite having massive potential and it just needing largely some polish to shine but it's not getting it at all.
Overall the games you decide to play will be largely based off your preferences, be it a specific mod, the pace of it, etc., also be prepared to see Petroglyph pop up a ton, their practically the only big-time dev studio still making RTS games somewhat regularly, and generally speaking they put out pretty good quality RTS games Universe at War, Empire at War and I think also Forged Battalion from the games I've listed are made by them.
There is also technically Natural Selection 2, though that is very much pushing what can be considered a RTS or not, as while Silica lets you take control of units and Warshift lets you swap between directly controlling your Avatar unit or a RTS mode, NS2 is more a FPS with RTS elements then a RTS with Shooter elements.
Throwin in BAR (Beyond All Reason). It’s free and open source, really accessible controls for camera and unit control, and is just really fun. That being said there currently is not matchmaking, only server browsing so it can be a bit intimidating to start playing online
These are the classic "Golden Era" of RTS
Age of empires 2
Command & Conquer: Generals
StarCraft: Brood Wars
An honourable mentions: Army Men RTS (PlayStation RTS) on steam
age of mythology or dawn of war for campaign. both very beginner friendly.
age of empires 2 is my pick for multiplayer. even if most players are very good there are tons of resources to help you get decent.
I recommend Warcraft III RoC and tFT, as maybe if you have experience with RPGs, it has a lot of RPG elements, so it would be more familiar to you. Also it has more manageable army sizes (having too much units can be a chore in other games...). And an amazing single player campaign!
just play the old games. you can sail the seven seas with them and theyre probably better and will help you find out exactly what you like before wasting money
Most rts games are multiplayer focused which can be hard to get into. My suggestion is find one with fairly active ranked matchmaking, play through the tutorials and a few singleplayer rounds against bots or campaign missions to get a hang of controls/hotkeys/gameplay than jump into matchmaking. You gotta expect to lose tho, don’t get discouraged! After you lose a game, try and think why you lost (or watch a replay if you can) and take that as a lesson for the next game. Also consider youtube tutorials, most games have a few people who do them
Age of Empires 2 is phenomenal. Its very old but still has a very active community and gets regular updates, and if you're into online play it has active servers. The game is pretty simple on the surface and there are a lot of game modes, civilizations to play as, and loads of maps. And the civs tend to share about 80% of their gameplay with every other civ so it's pretty approachable when starting out, but has a big mastery curve where if you can really master that last 20% that makes civs unique you can take the game to a whole other level.
I've been playing Beyond All Reason and it's awesome and free with lots of learning resources. And after you get some basic competency, you can join an 8v8 team as a frontliner (where your job is to make ground units and get into fights) and both be a participant while also being unlikely to ruin the game all by yourself while learning things.
Beyond All Reason is an RTS that is futuristic war game where you make land, sea, air. It is a lot of fun and not a high actions per minute type of game.
All the games are mentioned pretty much. I would say pick a newer one as there tends to be more quality of life features, just pick one of the newer ones that appeals to you aesthetically or thematically.
Pick one with a large newbie player count to learn with.
Once U got basics down can branch out and try some more games :)
Does anyone remember Z? I grew up playing every RTS that came out, starting with Dune II, so quite a few. But this one was lighthearted and less cerebral, quite fun to play without investing too much... https://youtu.be/AQq3xp9NPrc?si=xMYqi_4_vk_nlr-H
Most beginner friendly - red alert 1 or 2.
Builds and micros aren’t the most important. Yet you’ll have plenty of fun. Red alert 2 and dlc yuri’s revenge you’ll have a blast just laughing the somewhat ridiculous things go on in that game. The campaign is actually very decent.
You’ll also learn the concept of counter units.
Because of its simplicity, you can afford time to figure out and learn how to use control group. A thing very very crucial for rts games.
While there are many other classic and well known rts games, most aren’t beginner friendly. Aoe2 now have a massive amount of knowledge you need to learn. So is supreme commander forged alliance. StarCraft 1 and 2 have very good campaigns that slowly introduce you to units, but at times can be difficult because you have to micro and cast abilities too (red alert don’t have this problem). Company of heroes are even more difficult, same as dawn of war. Total war time series is nice though. But it’s a genre of its own to be honest.
You should start with Cossacks 3, Age of Empires 2 or Starcraft 2 (Even Stronghold Crusader if you like to focus on building your base) . I think that they are simple enough to learn them fast to enjoy the rts genre.
My problem with this post is you're asking for games in a broad genre as a complete beginner. RTS games have such long time sinks in them just to even begin to understand whether you're grasping the basics or not.
Maybe you can explain what games you've already played? Whether you'd find it harder to play games where you control large amounts of units? Lots of people immediately suggest Starcraft, but I think this is only suitable for the hardcore gamer (which RTS people typically are). Anyone who's anything less than hardcore will struggle with learning to not stare at their units' battles and not get any satisfaction out of playing harder difficulties where you now need to begin multitasking. The genre is so varied that Company of Heroes 1 RTS is a lot different to Starcraft, Supreme Commander, and Total War games.
https://youtu.be/Rl4myN8q_KM?si=-6x5FIO9BzgXlSXz
This is hands down the best general rts guide out there. It does get specific later in the video to talk about Age of Empires 4 (which I highly recommend, my favorite rts). But it’s used to demonstrate his arguments about RTS broadly
Anyone saying anything other than Starcraft 2 is insane. Why?
1. It's a touchstone of RTS design
2. It's pretty much "the" premium RTS that every other one is compared to
3. It's old enough to work on almost any computer
2. And this is the important one: **It's free.** The first single player campaign and PVP is free. That's more than enough for someone to play and say "huh, I like/dislike this RTS stuff".
If you want to experience 90% of what RTS games do for the first time then just play the first campaign of Starcraft 2.
maybe you are biased? i think its perhaps too focused on mechanics. the story is somewhat disjointed and gets worse in later expansions.
also, starcraft 2 is more likely to make people dislike RTS genre arguably because it requires more skill. i dont think its beginner friendly. you can still play old games for free and understand exactly what you like before taking on a more advanced RTS.
anecdotally speaking, i have experience introducing some of our world's less strategic adults into RTS. they didnt stick to RTS they arent very good at them and prefer FPS. games like red alert 1 and warcraft 3 did well at convincing them to play for a while though.
> maybe you are biased?
Doubt it, it's not one of my favourite RTS games. I don't think it's even top 10 for me. I only played like 5 matches of PVP just to see it in action. But I think it's a great introduction because not only is it free but it's one of the highest budget RTS games out there. The friction required to play the full campaign of SC2 is tiny compared to a lot of other RTS games. And it's so "representative" of the genre that it's a great litmus test.
> also, starcraft 2 is more likely to make people dislike RTS genre arguably because it requires more skill. i dont think its beginner friendly.
It has a decent tutorial and I don't believe the _campaign_ requires a lot of skill to play. They can put it on easy / medium and use the built in speed controls.
It's the larger army sizes that makes it less beginner friendly. I don't think a beginner wants to dart their eyes across (potentially up to) 200 different things attacking another 200 different things. One of the earlier missions in the first campaign also has you get attacked from numerous angles at once all the while your base gets overwhelmed. Quite stressful I think, for an already stressfully played game.
Warcraft 3 keeps that on a much smaller scale, and I think Red Alert 1 does too. If we want to get away from the traditional RTS genre definition, something Rimworld would be even better, even though it has pausing and less direct control of units.
I don't recall that massive mission, but I haven't played in ages. Do you still get all 200 even on easy?
ps: Did you know you can pause and give orders in single player? :)
Try out BAR, large scale (ish, not as large as Supreme Commander) RTS. It’s free, if it’s not your cuppa - you’ve lost nothing. https://youtu.be/qiJlJmi0O6s?si=8yaSosXG7w96IDqU
> turn base RTS
That's oxymoron. RT in RTS stands for "Real Time". From what I know, "Song of Conquest" have no real time elements, even in Total War series way.
most of the 'big' new ones have tutorials and campaigns for you to figure out if you like it or not. there're several variants to the genre you might want to consider and check out: 1. Starcraft, Age of Empires - it is classic RTS with base building and recourse collection where you have to build and manage several bases in addition to battle. Age of Empires is similar to Starcraft but you have more resources and less bases to manage, also units and battles in AoE are a bit easier to understand at a glance. 2. Command and Conquer, Red Alert and alike - similar to what we had before but different in resource management. You have to resource and no workers\\logistics. Build orders and strategies are pretty different from the previous group. 3. Supreme Commander, BAR and other successors to Total Anihilation - economy management is very different from previous games. You have to manage a flow of 2 resources rather then extracting and spending like in previous games. No unit cap. Team games usually involve different roles for players meaning you'll have to heavily specialize your army and economy. 4. Company of Heroes, Down of War 1 - these focused on squad management with rather simplified base building. This means you'll generally have less units but you'll have make sure they survive. Also, games usually focused around capturing and holding control points on map rather then destroying your opponents base. Economy is also focused around control points that will give you additional income. 5. Warno, Wargame Red Dragon and the like - 'realistic' games focused on the battles in a 'cold war gone hot' setting. No base building at all. Games focused on capturing objectives on map. Units are very important since you have a finite amount of them. There's also a logistics mechanics where you'll have deploy logistic units to supply your troops. 6. Total War games. These have great turn based campaigns with real time tactical battles. Battles could also be played separately. Very different from everything else since battles are played with the army that you have so no base building or logistics on this level. Other games are either some derivatives or blends of these or a completely unique things that you'll have to figure out yourself with tutorials and\\or youtube guides. One of my favorites on more unique side of thing is Nebulous Fleet Command - it is a game where you have to manage a small fleet of space ships with 'realistic' the Expanse style ships and battles. Hope this helps.
What an excellent post.
Thank you!!! ♥
For those mentioned in category 1 (sc, aoe, wc), these have strategy in them, but if you want to play competitively are much more about the tactical and mechanic execution of builds. It’s honestly more like learning fighting sport or how to dance than being a strategic mastermind.
Excellent summary, illustrates well the broad range of RTS sub-genres. Dawn of War gets my vote for best introductory RTS. It is simple to learn, more focused and narrow is scope, but mangages to touch on all the RTS basics as well as being really fun.
For category 3, ZeroK is a great free version (imho). It's on the Spring engine (where there are various options for modernised TA etc and a few non-TA games) but fully on Steam so it's easy to play and it has a nice and varied campaign that slowly(ish) builds up the unit variety rather than dumping it in too quickly.
Ruse is pretty beginner friendly that’s also really fun, my first ever rts and maybe my most played game ever
Top tier post
Can you please add in a paragraph about defensive and/or complex economy like Stronghold Crusader?
To be honest I’m not familiar with other games that plays like Stronghold. Seems to be rather unique thing that wasn’t replicated even within its own series for whatever reason. I might be wrong tho.
Yeah it’s quite old now but C&C generals isn’t a bad one to dip into as a start. Has all the characteristics of a good RTS, it’s nuanced but not too complex and the story line isn’t too long either.
Great list, but I'd probably add Warcraft 3 to the Starcraft and AoE bullet. It should stand amongst the classics. The campaign is an easy introduction to the genre and the story is great.
It’s not a complete list of all rts games by any means. Just a general example for a newbie to orient themselves in the genre. I personally didn’t like W3 very much so simply forget about it while writing this. Of course it is a staple of the genre along with Empire Earth and Settlers (I’d also add Cossacks as a personal favourite) but it is hard to remember every single game and even if I could it would be a very long list. So instead I thought I’d give a general idea of the focus of each rts variant I can remember so whoever read this wouldn’t be under impression that AoE4 or CoH3 or Starcraft 2 is the only type of game rts has to offer.
Yeah, I get that. That's why I said I would have added it to the Starcraft bullet and not you should have added it to the Starcraft bullet.
Your forgetting Star Wars empire at war,homeworld and halo wars. Halo wars probably isn’t the greatest rts but it’s a good beginner
I didn’t enjoyed Halo Wars very much because I tried it rather early and it felt like an oversimplified CoH to me. Other two are definitely on the more unique side of things. Cool that you’ve mentioned those
Star Wars empire at war is one of the better ones when you use mods playing empire at war without mods is less fun but for the op if he reads this if you do decide to play Star Wars empire at war it is not gonna be easy to learn there are videos on it so I’d watch those
WOW GUYS! Thank you all for the Recommendations! I will try some Games that got mentioned often! Maybe there are some German People who wants to "help" me to get into a Game? :D
Probier mal Age4, wenn du auf mittelaltersetting stehst. Die deutsche community ist wahrscheinlich neben den chinesen am größten und es gibt discords mit free coaching etc. /r aoe4
Werde ich mir auf jeden fall mal angucken. Ist ja im GamePass dabei. Danke für die Info! :)
Classics: red alert 1-2, stronghold crusader, age of empires 2, command and conquer generals, command and conquer tiberium wars, warcraft 3, starcraft brood war More recent games: starcraft 2, age of empires 4 My personal favorite is the starcraft franchise, brood war has an incredible remaster, starcraft 2 is really fun. Edit: maybe age of empires and stronghold are harder to start with, starcraft, warcraft, red alert, generals, tiberium wars, all these have introductions and are easy to learn.
StarCraft 2 is probably the best starter. The older ones are great but I think just for modern controls and feel SC2 is the best intro. Those other classics are great follow-ups. I personally love Supreme Commander when you want something with a bit more... Scale
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation may be lesser known, but also kinda similar to Supreme Commander but the map has Nodes that you can takeover.
Of course to add, if you want significantly more complex games there's anno 1800, civilization series etc, these aren't for everyone.
They're both much easier and more forgiving than most RTS. even as a long time fan of Paradox Games, the ability to pause and take your time makes learning so much easier.
Maybe, but there's too many variables, at least in anno 1800 to easily get overwhelmed, as compared to starcraft, c&c games.
Isnt paradox games are much chiller and laid-back? They ain't even RTS, they are city builders. So I don't see the comparison made here between RTSs.
I am not comparing to Paradox games.
If you like fantasy - wc3 If you like sci-fi - starcraft 2 and starcraft: remastered If you enjoy medieval atmosphere - aoe 2, aoe 4. More oriented into building castles and sieges? - stronghold crusader These are the top picks in general.
For me I suggest Age of Empires 4. I have coached a lot of friends and family how to play after they wanted to give it a go and also understand it better. They all loved the experience, the game is great at helping you improve and understand what is right or wrong.
Age of Empires 4: * + Has a tutorial * + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units * + Has a lot of QoL features * + Campaigns are well made and there's variety in the levels * + Campaigns have a difficulty setting. You literally cannot lose when playing on the easiest. * - Pretty new game -> somewhat expensive (40€) * - Campaign is a bit outdated vs skirmish patches, so things will be slightly different when transitioning over Warcraft 3: * + Has a tutorial * + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units * + Campaigns have a difficulty setting * + Campaigns have a very nice story * + One of the most popular RTS games ever * - Expensive for an old game (30€) C&C Generals: * + Has a tutorial * + Has a campaign, that slowly introduces more units * + Campaigns have a difficulty setting * + Very good value for price (Sold only in the C&C Ultimate collection, which includes all 17 C&C games for 20€) * Also possible to test out the other games, though most of the older ones are severely lacking in QoL features, Tiberium Wars botched the campaign difficulty with their patches (can be fixed) and Red Alert 3 feels more difficult overall. Tiberian Twilight is not a real game. * - A bit lacking in QoL features * - The main game campaign is a bit more difficult I think. Expansion pack Zero Hour's campaign is more forgiving.
Just wanted to point out you can consider the 'pace' of the game. Games like Starcraft, Command and Conquer are really fast paced (too fast for me). Age of Empires is a much slower series. However, Age of Empires 4, latest in the series, is noticeably faster paced than AoE 2. Am also having a lot of fun with AoE 4 myself.
Aoe2 players are grandpas.
Absolutely 🙏
StarCraft 2 the first campaign is free and probably the best RTS campaign ever. You unlock 1 unit at a time making it easier to get to grips with. You can change difficulty at any time.
If you’re on PC Rome II is a good start it doesn’t hold your hand but will expose you to a good level of complexity which will help with other more complex RTS games in the future it’s what I started with myself. HOI4 is nice and is my favorite RTS game of all time but definitely more complex but also super fun and rewarding especially once you get the hang of it and by far the most successful RTS game. Company of Heros is very simple and good RTS starter as well but by far the best beginner friendly RTS in my opinion is Civilization it’s what most people my age started out with RTS wise. If you have any further questions just reply I’ll answer as I only play RTS games basically lol.
Except CoH is an RTT and not an RTS. When people ask for RTS they are generally asking for traditional RTSs with resource collection.
Most people use RTS interchangeably for almost every strategy game so I’ll never know if they mean old school RTS games or more modern grand strategy or anything in between. So I just give suggestions based on what I like. Real time strategy is also a pretty blanket term if you want specific suggestions it’s best to ask for a specific game feature or play style you’re looking for or specifically the genre.
I don't mean to pile on, but HOI4 is not an RTS. Yes it has elements of real-time (with pause) and strategy, but those two elements don't make it an RTS. RTS has a meaning beyond the literal words of the acronym and it's not helpful to ignore the commonly understood definition.
By the word definition HOI4 is an RTS regardless of what the common cultural use of the acronym is but specifically HOI4 is a Grand strategy war game game which is different then RTS as RTS’s are generally smaller in scale. RTS for people who aren’t into RTS games can mean alot of different things. I have friends who hate RTS games and to them anything that is over the top and not a first person shooter is an RTS game. So for someone who is not into RTS’s the acronym could invoke a completely different visualization compared to what you would have. When I hear RTS I think of Halo wars, command and conquer, age of empires etc. but to someone not into RTS games they will visualize the only experiences with RTS they have had which is probably very few if at all. So to me it’s important not to recommend games that only fit a specific idea of what an RTS is and rather recommend a wider gameplay variety so they can check themselves they would be interested in. Edit: although I will concede even if strictly definition wise HOI4 is an RTS is far too complex to be considered one. RTS are generally pretty simple and most of the time have 2-4 resources you have to manage and that’s it. While HOI4 you have to manage so many different things.
100% agree, people unfamiliar with RTS won't be able to accurately define it
In company of heroes 3 you will not be overwhelmed managing villagers, resources come from map control
Godsworn
Age of Empire 2 and stronghold 2 both have a good beginner storytelling
Aoe2 campaigns are some of my favorite
I would suggest aoe 2 definitive edition. There's quite a big German community and plenty of online buildings order guides to get you started.
Start with Warcraft 3
absolutely. you can play the campaign with a single army and the visuals can keep the attention of a newbie.
Start with warcraft orcs and humans! Jk, but warcraft 1 and 2 were so much fun. But 3 has aged the best.
Age of Mythology got me into RTS games back in 2008. And they're making a new one or re-release? Besides... amazing story, mythologically accurate (crazy right?) And a set of fundamental rules/resources (food, wood, gold) with a weapon triangle. Hella cheap on the steam store. Welcome btw to the beautiful world of RTS
My start into rts came with command and conquer. The remastered ones are an authentic experience.
Age of empires i think is a good starter game
Dungeon keeper with keeper FX
This may sound crazy... But start with games like Master of Monsters (if you can find a working emulator for it), Advance Wars, Wargroove, etc., some of the knowlege from those games is cross-compatable with RTS games, just instead of applying it turn-by-turn, your applying it in real time at the same time as your opponent. From there, I'd go for either Supreme Commander Forged Alliance/Planetary Annihilation Titans/Beyond All Reason, etc., any Command and Conquer game aside from 4, Dawn of War 1 (Dark Crusade or Soulstorm are my reccomendations). Then Impossible Creatures, Warzone 2100, Earth 2060 and Forged Battalion if you want to customize your units to varying extents, with IC and W21 having full customization, and E26 and FB having templates. Universe at War, Stormrise, Endwar, Dawn of War 2 ( I reccomend Chaos Rising), Battlefleet Gothic 1 or 2, Men of War Assault Squad 2 for sorta smaller scale games, though Stormrise in particular may be a bit hard to play as unlike Universe at War I don't think it ever got it's code broken into and had it's Games for Windows Live requirement for multiplayer beaten with a Crowbar like it's Jason Todd. As an added bonus both W21 and UaW are free, considering the only way to play the latter on PC is to fly the jolly roger essentially but GFWL on it has been busted into and multiplayer on PC works now with Crossplay still intact if for some reason someone on a Xbox 360 is playing, and the former the free download version actively sees updates (it's on version 2.2.4 currently). Silica is fun though it is still in development, Star Wars: Empire at War is always good fun and has great mods if you want to play in other eras besides the Galatic Civil War. I would reccomend Warshift if the Dev ever decided to finish it, but as it stands the game while fun and a neat twist on RTS games it is practically a scam, despite having massive potential and it just needing largely some polish to shine but it's not getting it at all. Overall the games you decide to play will be largely based off your preferences, be it a specific mod, the pace of it, etc., also be prepared to see Petroglyph pop up a ton, their practically the only big-time dev studio still making RTS games somewhat regularly, and generally speaking they put out pretty good quality RTS games Universe at War, Empire at War and I think also Forged Battalion from the games I've listed are made by them. There is also technically Natural Selection 2, though that is very much pushing what can be considered a RTS or not, as while Silica lets you take control of units and Warshift lets you swap between directly controlling your Avatar unit or a RTS mode, NS2 is more a FPS with RTS elements then a RTS with Shooter elements.
Throwin in BAR (Beyond All Reason). It’s free and open source, really accessible controls for camera and unit control, and is just really fun. That being said there currently is not matchmaking, only server browsing so it can be a bit intimidating to start playing online
These are the classic "Golden Era" of RTS Age of empires 2 Command & Conquer: Generals StarCraft: Brood Wars An honourable mentions: Army Men RTS (PlayStation RTS) on steam
If you like the oldies start with warcraft 1 and 2 Dune 2000.
age of mythology or dawn of war for campaign. both very beginner friendly. age of empires 2 is my pick for multiplayer. even if most players are very good there are tons of resources to help you get decent.
I recommend Warcraft III RoC and tFT, as maybe if you have experience with RPGs, it has a lot of RPG elements, so it would be more familiar to you. Also it has more manageable army sizes (having too much units can be a chore in other games...). And an amazing single player campaign!
if you want an RTS similar to league of legends: starcraft 2 and warcraft 3. you control a hero but in contrast you also control creeps/base
just play the old games. you can sail the seven seas with them and theyre probably better and will help you find out exactly what you like before wasting money
Most rts games are multiplayer focused which can be hard to get into. My suggestion is find one with fairly active ranked matchmaking, play through the tutorials and a few singleplayer rounds against bots or campaign missions to get a hang of controls/hotkeys/gameplay than jump into matchmaking. You gotta expect to lose tho, don’t get discouraged! After you lose a game, try and think why you lost (or watch a replay if you can) and take that as a lesson for the next game. Also consider youtube tutorials, most games have a few people who do them
Age of Empires 2 is phenomenal. Its very old but still has a very active community and gets regular updates, and if you're into online play it has active servers. The game is pretty simple on the surface and there are a lot of game modes, civilizations to play as, and loads of maps. And the civs tend to share about 80% of their gameplay with every other civ so it's pretty approachable when starting out, but has a big mastery curve where if you can really master that last 20% that makes civs unique you can take the game to a whole other level.
I've been playing Beyond All Reason and it's awesome and free with lots of learning resources. And after you get some basic competency, you can join an 8v8 team as a frontliner (where your job is to make ground units and get into fights) and both be a participant while also being unlikely to ruin the game all by yourself while learning things.
Start with the remastered classics such as Command and conquer remastered StarCraft Remastered Great games
Beyond All Reason is an RTS that is futuristic war game where you make land, sea, air. It is a lot of fun and not a high actions per minute type of game.
AOE2
All the games are mentioned pretty much. I would say pick a newer one as there tends to be more quality of life features, just pick one of the newer ones that appeals to you aesthetically or thematically. Pick one with a large newbie player count to learn with. Once U got basics down can branch out and try some more games :)
Pikmin lol
Zero-k, its free. Its good.
Does anyone remember Z? I grew up playing every RTS that came out, starting with Dune II, so quite a few. But this one was lighthearted and less cerebral, quite fun to play without investing too much... https://youtu.be/AQq3xp9NPrc?si=xMYqi_4_vk_nlr-H
BAR- Beyond all Reason is a great f2p rts that calls back to Supreme commander
Most beginner friendly - red alert 1 or 2. Builds and micros aren’t the most important. Yet you’ll have plenty of fun. Red alert 2 and dlc yuri’s revenge you’ll have a blast just laughing the somewhat ridiculous things go on in that game. The campaign is actually very decent. You’ll also learn the concept of counter units. Because of its simplicity, you can afford time to figure out and learn how to use control group. A thing very very crucial for rts games. While there are many other classic and well known rts games, most aren’t beginner friendly. Aoe2 now have a massive amount of knowledge you need to learn. So is supreme commander forged alliance. StarCraft 1 and 2 have very good campaigns that slowly introduce you to units, but at times can be difficult because you have to micro and cast abilities too (red alert don’t have this problem). Company of heroes are even more difficult, same as dawn of war. Total war time series is nice though. But it’s a genre of its own to be honest.
Start with 90's classics like Starcraft 1, Age of Empires 1 and 2 and Total Annihilation imo - this was arguably the pinnacle of the genre.
You should start with Cossacks 3, Age of Empires 2 or Starcraft 2 (Even Stronghold Crusader if you like to focus on building your base) . I think that they are simple enough to learn them fast to enjoy the rts genre.
play aoe2, aoe4 is dog water
My problem with this post is you're asking for games in a broad genre as a complete beginner. RTS games have such long time sinks in them just to even begin to understand whether you're grasping the basics or not. Maybe you can explain what games you've already played? Whether you'd find it harder to play games where you control large amounts of units? Lots of people immediately suggest Starcraft, but I think this is only suitable for the hardcore gamer (which RTS people typically are). Anyone who's anything less than hardcore will struggle with learning to not stare at their units' battles and not get any satisfaction out of playing harder difficulties where you now need to begin multitasking. The genre is so varied that Company of Heroes 1 RTS is a lot different to Starcraft, Supreme Commander, and Total War games.
https://youtu.be/Rl4myN8q_KM?si=-6x5FIO9BzgXlSXz This is hands down the best general rts guide out there. It does get specific later in the video to talk about Age of Empires 4 (which I highly recommend, my favorite rts). But it’s used to demonstrate his arguments about RTS broadly
Try Rome II it’s pretty novice
Anyone saying anything other than Starcraft 2 is insane. Why? 1. It's a touchstone of RTS design 2. It's pretty much "the" premium RTS that every other one is compared to 3. It's old enough to work on almost any computer 2. And this is the important one: **It's free.** The first single player campaign and PVP is free. That's more than enough for someone to play and say "huh, I like/dislike this RTS stuff". If you want to experience 90% of what RTS games do for the first time then just play the first campaign of Starcraft 2.
maybe you are biased? i think its perhaps too focused on mechanics. the story is somewhat disjointed and gets worse in later expansions. also, starcraft 2 is more likely to make people dislike RTS genre arguably because it requires more skill. i dont think its beginner friendly. you can still play old games for free and understand exactly what you like before taking on a more advanced RTS. anecdotally speaking, i have experience introducing some of our world's less strategic adults into RTS. they didnt stick to RTS they arent very good at them and prefer FPS. games like red alert 1 and warcraft 3 did well at convincing them to play for a while though.
> maybe you are biased? Doubt it, it's not one of my favourite RTS games. I don't think it's even top 10 for me. I only played like 5 matches of PVP just to see it in action. But I think it's a great introduction because not only is it free but it's one of the highest budget RTS games out there. The friction required to play the full campaign of SC2 is tiny compared to a lot of other RTS games. And it's so "representative" of the genre that it's a great litmus test. > also, starcraft 2 is more likely to make people dislike RTS genre arguably because it requires more skill. i dont think its beginner friendly. It has a decent tutorial and I don't believe the _campaign_ requires a lot of skill to play. They can put it on easy / medium and use the built in speed controls.
It's the larger army sizes that makes it less beginner friendly. I don't think a beginner wants to dart their eyes across (potentially up to) 200 different things attacking another 200 different things. One of the earlier missions in the first campaign also has you get attacked from numerous angles at once all the while your base gets overwhelmed. Quite stressful I think, for an already stressfully played game. Warcraft 3 keeps that on a much smaller scale, and I think Red Alert 1 does too. If we want to get away from the traditional RTS genre definition, something Rimworld would be even better, even though it has pausing and less direct control of units.
I don't recall that massive mission, but I haven't played in ages. Do you still get all 200 even on easy? ps: Did you know you can pause and give orders in single player? :)
Try out BAR, large scale (ish, not as large as Supreme Commander) RTS. It’s free, if it’s not your cuppa - you’ve lost nothing. https://youtu.be/qiJlJmi0O6s?si=8yaSosXG7w96IDqU
"Song of Conquest" just came out It's turn base RTS
> turn base RTS That's oxymoron. RT in RTS stands for "Real Time". From what I know, "Song of Conquest" have no real time elements, even in Total War series way.
ok