What are the best Real Time Strategy games ever made?

Technically the paradox games are real time (grand) strategy games, so I’d say those. Ignoring the communities which can be shitty the games are great. I love the absolutely bonkers shit you can do in the crusader kings series because it’s hilarious managing an enormous empire while your inbred god emperors worship Satan. Hoi4 is fun but kind of for different reasons, it’s definitely more fun in the “strategy” way because there’s less freedom (no sister marriages unfortunately) but a much deeper combat system. Plus you can conquer the whole world as Mao. Haven’t got to eu4 but I will eventually. Overall highly reccomend.

I keep coming back to Kenshi. It's not pretty, the world is miserable, you'll probably be enslaved or get your leg ripped off by dinosaurs at some point, and the land is mostly desert. But holy shit is it rewarding to train a group of peasants from nothing and start torching mansions and slave markets.

Starcraft is a better made game, but Red Alert 2 was always my personal favorite.

the Warhammer 40k RTS series was pretty fun

Vic 2 is mad underrated. It's the most strategic and immersive game I've played, especially with mods. It works pretty much entirely on dia mat - for example, Germany will rise to become an industrial superpower because they have a good literacy rate, lots of iron and coal, and a high population of factory workers. In Hoi4, they become an industrial superpower because they have a national spirit that says "Germany is the best and they have bonuses to industry".

Here's an obscure one that you've probably never heard of:

Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim (2000)

It's RTS, but it plays a bit like a city-builder. Each level has objectives, like killing certain monsters or destroying certain buildings. These objectives are accomplished by "heroes" of various different classes that you hire through guilds. What sets the game apart from others is that you have no direct control over the heroes. They have minds of their own, and different hero classes have different personalities. You can set bounties on targets or set explore flags in the fog of war, but your role as the player is limited to setting these rewards, building guilds and support buildings, using spells provided by guilds, and hiring heroes. Heroes level up through combat or other class-specific activities, and can purchase upgrades at support buildings like blacksmiths and marketplaces, but you as the player are powerless to save them if they decide to rush out into combat with much more powerful enemies.

It's fun and different, and it's one of my all-time favorite games. If you play it, I recommend reading the lore blurbs for all of the heroes, enemies, and buildings. They do some pretty good world-building without a whole lot of text.

Warcraft 3, Starcraft 1 & 2, Age of Empires 2, Company of Heroes 1 &2, Dawn of War 1 & 2 and the total war series are what immediately comes to mind.

I assume Starcraft is the answer but I was a Command&Conquer kid

Red Alert 2

Supreme Commander Forged Alliance

Would FTL count? I don't like traditional RTS games with maps and such, but FTL is strategy and in real time. If that counts then I pick it.

Dune II

Not one mention of Total Annihilation in the thread...

Starcraft 2 is the pinnacle of the genre. In all ways it was better than Brood War except for the shit around it like ladder, netcode, etc.

If you don't say Red Alert, you're a lib.

I see the Starcraft liberals are already here.

The best is hard to say, but it is certainly within the Command and Conquer series original collection. Likely Tiberian Sun or Red Alert 2. In the name of Kane! (Seriously, NOD had a neat anti-imperialist angle going, yeah it was watered down by lib writing but whatever)

I'm always sad that base building has gone away for the most part.

Also although it wasn't that noteworthy I am compelled by various bylaws to mention the Battle for Middle Earth 1 & 2 which although by no means groundbreaking were kind of neat just for being LOTR based.

Starcraft 2 is a lot better than it used to be.

It was always pretty good, but the gameplay in the first two expansions eventually stagnated into boring, stressful bullshit strategies. Especially in the original base game.

Fun fact. If Blizzard hadn't waited a couple years to nerf the Fungal Growth spell, the world would not have to deal with the existence of Destiny.

Now it feels a little closer to Brood War, with the option to make sporadic fights happen across the map without instantly winning or losing. And they made all three races competitive in the late game, which was not true of the original version of SC2.

That took the pressure off of a lo of players to all-in or lose the game. And every race is a little better at defending than they used to be. It's more fun to watch and play than ever. You'll notice professional games being decided by actual strategy instead of by one misclick 20 minutes in.

Rome Total War

To me, Stronghold Crusader was an even better RTS than AoE, making it my favorite of all time. The gameplay was super smooth and fun, the characters/VA were hilarious and personable, and the big battles felt soooo intense! I still play it from time to time.

C&C: Red Alert 2

With RTS you really had a three giants in the industry. Blizzard, Westwood and Ensemble. Playing any of their games and you can't really go wrong. My favourites out of their output are Warcraft 3 and Aoe 2. Sadly both Westwood and Ensemble were closed because lol rts and Blizzard also don't look like they are going to make one any time soon.

Rise of Nations.

Age of Mythology you liberals

Red Alert 2 has definitely got to be up there

Z was great. KKnD was deeply underrated, as were both Dark Reigns.

Also Ground Control 1 was amazing.

That said, hard to beat Supreme Commander as the greatest of all time.

My favorites are Dawn of War 2 and Stronghold / Crusader

But honestly the undisputed king is Age of Empires II, which pretty much set the standard for the genre, made its predecessor immediately obsolete, and is so good and beloved that it's still being worked on 20 years after coming out

PLAY AGE OF WONDERS 3. ITS MAGIC CIVILIZATION

:michael-laugh:

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