RTS games

RTS Game? The fuck is that?

If you know what Blizzard is, odds are you already know what an RTS is. RTS's are games where you need to plan some shit out before attacking, getting troops, defending your base, or even giving a fuck in general. They're really a blast to play, especially with bros over the interwebs. Or even consoles if you're desperate.

RTS's Around the world

A lot of countries play RTSs in the same way that some of us play fighting games, competitively against hundreds. Thats what E-Sports is all about, really.

But of all the most popular E-Sports countries, South Korea has to be the best. These fuckers can take out squads and shit like you don't even motherfucker. These manly fucks have true skills in terms of Starcraft, and probably every other RTS if they tried them. ZERG RUSH KEKEKEKE.

Shit like this http://www.gomtv.net/ is where you can see some good 'ol RTS action done by ol' SK.

We fly high, no lie.

 

RTS Games

Box Art	Name	Description_of_the_game	Year	Multiplayer	System
	Age of Empires	A well-known daddy of RTS games, Age of Empires offers very good RTS gameplay in a game that will have no problem running on any computer available today. Still goes strong even after 15 years.	1997	Very basic online from Gamespy (1st party online support removed)	PC
	Age of Mythology	Everyone always seems to forget just how great this spin-off title was. Instead of having 12+ similar but slightly different factions, it had 3 + 1 (expansion) VERY different factions with a lot of unique units and changes to how they played. 3D graphics were a huge step up from AoE II, tweaked a lot of things with resources, came with a great editor and hero/myth units were a neat addition.	2002 and 2003 (expansion)	Nope, but you can get Tunngle, LAN, Hamachi or any other similar program	PC
	Blitzkrieg Series	With no base building, Blitzkrieg would appear to be a pretty simple RTS. But with a huge number of units, and a solid difficulty curve spanning a crazy number of missions, it's defiently a complex game. Not only that, but it runs on a toaster and is pretty cheap, worth a shot at least. Has 3 expansion packs, just beware the sequel which isn't as good.	2003 and 2011	Yes	PC and Mac OS
	Command & Conquer Series	The classic series by Westwood studios, command and conquer wasn't the first RTS but it might be the most important one and it set the standard for which many other games would follow. Separated in the Tiberium and Red Alert series, both come highly recommended. Also available on consoles and not shit either.	1995	Yes	PC and various consoles.
	Company of Heroes Gold	A World War 2 RTS with two factions in the base game. Sounds a tad shit, right? Well you'd be wrong, a huge modding community, solid cover based gameplay, large amount of units with 3 different commander tree's all combine to form a rock solid RTS from Relic. It got two expansions (although only Opposing Fronts added factions, 2 of them to be precise). Mods to check out; Blitzkrieg Mod, Eastern Front, European Theatre and Modern Combat. Also a WW1 mod in the works
	Dawn of War 1: Anthology	Generally one of the more popular RTS games of the last decade. Takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and is much more combat focused than some other games. Poor AI but great voice-acting, a pretty fun game. If you're only interested in conquer mode and multiplayer, get Soulstorm instead.	2004 - 2006	Yes (Gamespy)	PC
	Dungeon Keeper	Dungeon Keeper is a strategy video game released for the PC in which the player attempts to build and manage a dungeon or lair while protecting it from (computer-controlled) 'hero' characters intent on stealing the user's accumulated treasures and killing various monsters.	1997	No	PC
	Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde	The best RTs you've never played. I honestly feel like this would have done better had it been on PC, but the fucktards at Jaleco kept it console exclusive. It was on PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Such a shame.	2003	Yes, Local	PS2, Xbox, or GC
	GrimGrimoire	A fucking weird, unconventional and yet familiar RTS on the PS2. Most of the genre's mechanics are here, then comes some outlandish stuff like map design and magic schools. Graphics are highly stylized, especially the unit design. Real time battles allow pauses, so a DualShock controller will do fine, though it could've used a Move controller update upon the PSN re-release.	2007	No	PS2, PSN
	Ground Control	This game leans towards Real Time Tactics (ala Men of War) and shares a lot of things in common with other similar games. Cover, Higher ground, suppression and different armour values for different areas all play a role. Considering it was made free after Ground Control II came out, why the hell not? It'll run on a toaster after all.	2000	No, but LAN should work (see: Tunngle etc)	PC
	Halo Wars	The perfect "babbys first RTS" game, Halo Wars is a pretty simple game with 2 factions and not a massive number of units for each size. What makes it interesting however, are that the 2 factions share 0 troops in common. It's still fun for those experience in the genre, and it was made by Ensemble before they got killed off.	2009	Yes	360
	Knights of Honor	If you've ever wished Medieval Total War is also in real time outside of battles, this game is for you. It plays almost like a 4X game in real time, but as a trade-off, the pace of the game is slow as a snail. Not as deep as something from Paradox Interactive, but maybe a streamlined 4X might be what you're into. Made by (out of all developers) Crytek	2005	No	PC
	Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns/Ahriman's Gift	In a nutshell: HOMM if it was adapted into a RTS. The game lifted the micromanaging headache by grouping units & heroes into companies, so you are always in tight control even during unbelievably huge-scale battles that you'l tackle more than once in the campaign. Game speed hotkeys also help either to trim down the dull moments or to keep chaotic battle under control.	2001	Yes	PC
	Kohan II:Kings of War	Mostly the same game, but improved in every way. Shiny, colorful 3D graphics, increased company size (from 6 to 8), visible town structures, individual skills for heroes, more distinctive races. Great campaign and music too (by Jeremy Soule).	2004	Yes	PC
	Men of War (series)	The sequel to Faces of War, Men of War can be described simply as Company of Heroes without the safety filters on. Any tank can be killed by any infantry with a grenade or an AT gun in 1 hit, for example. All units on both sides are fragile as fuck, so you better be careful. That said, it's very flexible, has great squad level AI, huge range of units and factions (Assualt Squad had: Jap, RUS, Germany, USA and britbongs). Also terrible voice acting and bad pathfinding The MoW series has 5 games, the vanilla game, the punishingly hard Red Tide Expansion, the heavily multiplayer/skirmish focused Assualt Squad expansion, a meh Vietnam spin-off and Condemned Heroes, a huge engine update and closest to the original's formula.	2009/2011/2012	Yes	PC
	Sins of a Solar Empire	While it is more of a 4X game, it does kind of fit into the RTS genre. The game has you controlling a solar empire in a vast region of space, it requires long term thinking and has solid space combat as well as a wide range of tech to research, units to build and pirates to bribe into attacking rivals. If you want to play a larger game be prepared to lose days of your life, but everything about it is well handled. Looks good, controls well and sounds good, as such it's a decent entry to 4X Trinity comes with the two expansion packs, so it's generally worth picking up. The game is also DRM as a side note. The 3rd expansion (Rebellion) isn't included	2008/2009/2010 (2012 for rebellion)	Yes	PC
	Starcraft / Brood War	Game is basically Warcraft, BUT IN SPACE AH! Choose one of 3 races of people, Terran, the humans, Protoss, the techie aliens, and the Zerg, the evil bad enough dudes. Just like most RTS's, construct your base and use strategy to defeat your enemy. Pretty nice cinematics for 1998, as well as some great 2D-ish graphics. Brood War is like a part 2 expansion, N64 version has both and a new expansion and a split-screen multiplayer, so thats pretty fucking great too. Best bought as the Anthology version on Blizzard Store, chances are it's cheaper than a used physical copy.	1998/1999	Yes	PC, MAC, N64
	StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty	The Terran chapter in a new Starcraft trilogy, but if you're in for multiplayer and competition, all 3 races are playable. No LAN this time though, so learn to live with Battle.net. If you're suddenly interested in the story and missed the party a decade ago, there're campaign remakes of the original game (and Brood War) around. On the new engine, they hold up pretty well after all that time.	2010	Yes	PC, MAC
	Stronghold Crusade Extreme	The most updated version of the original Stronghold - the ideal castle building game. Since the series has become a trainwreck after it's gone 3D, this is the version to go.	2001-2008	Yes	PC
	Supreme Commander: Gold	The spiritual sequel to Total Annhiliation, Supreme Commaner (SupCom) is an RTS on a HUGE scale. each player can have up to 1000 units at a time, and theirs plently of variety between the 3 + 1 factions. Online is a bit dead, but the FAF mod system has an active community, and if you want to 1v1 a bro something like tunngle is always available	2007 (2008 for 360)	Possibly?	PC and 360
	The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth	A pretty cool RTS game set in the Lotr universe, has a decent amount of factions to play as and all the units/heroes you'd expect. Gameplay is fairly standard X counters Y but still buzzword. Uses the same engine as C&C Generals  Had a sequel that many view as inferior to the original gameplay wise, but it's still worth a shot in this anon's opinion.	2004	Nope, LAN only.	PC
	Warcraft: Orcs and Humans	Ol' Blizzy's first RTS. Seeing how old this is, you could probably run this shit on a fucking toaster or sumtin'.	1994	Nope	PC
	Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos/The Frozen Throne	Probably THE (if not one of the) greatest RTS games of all time Far for being perfect, and its not an RTS in a complete form, more like an RPG-RTS since you can level up "Hero" units. The graphics are pretty good and are nice for an RTS from '02/'03. Shit like DoTA came about through modding this game. Best way to buy this is through Blizzard Store.	2002/2003	Yes	PC
	World in Conflict: Complete Edition	The closest thing you can get to a Red Dawn strategy game right now. Being a baseless RTS, the pace of the game is a lot faster than most of its peers. Long and well-designed campaign (well-narrated by Alec Baldwin too), great camera system, large maps and graphics that can drop some jaws in grand scale battles (especially if it involves artillery units). Has a lot of great mods too.	2007-2009	Yes	PC
	Z	You're a troop of red robots on a campaign to beat all the other colored robots in the universe. On your side you have a screaming robot-sergeant ready with a cigar in mouth and a cowboy-hat. This isn't Halo, it's hardcore robot RTS-massacre. Everyone's got good voice acting and it's another take on RTS where your unit-building is limited by a timer which decreases with the amount of territories you acquire.	1996	No	PC

Action RTS Games/MOBA (Multiplayer Online Based Arena)

Okay, before you wonder what this shit is, Action RTS's or "MOBAs" as some people like to call it, are like DoTA2 or League Of Legends in which they focus more on player team versus player team than two teams strategizing bases and shit to send forces to win. Action RTS games/MOBAs are pretty cool, and a good couple are free to play as well. Think of it as a subgenre of sorts.

FUN FACT: RIOT games came up with MOBA as a buzzword so their game wouldn't be called a DOTA clone. Look it up!  

Box Art	Name	Description	Year	Multiplayer	System
	DoTA2	A.K.A. "Defense Of The Ancients". Pretty good sequel to WCIII mod done by Valve of all people. Hopefully no hats will be made. Some people already have access to this game.	TBA2012	Yes	PC, MAC
	Heroes Of Newerth		2010	Yes	PC, MAC, Linux
	League Of Legends	Free to Play Action RTS which utilizes unique heroes to fight in battle with 2 teams of 5. Very fun and lengthy to play. Community is a hit and miss here. But there is a large /v/ community out there.	2008	Yes	PC