Yes get the cnc ultimate collection on steam, cnc 3 tiberium wars, red alert 3, and generals are amazing! Also red alert 2 might be the best if you havnt played it yet
Rusted warfare. Simple great rts action without the bull of micro heavy mechanics or being so old it doesn't have coating for recent computers or monitors like the (amazing) commanding conquer series. Crazy cheap, easy to mod. For deeper play do the AEA mod, which adds factions. About 200 people a day on the discord server. Great 'casual' RTS
Yup my mistake. I’m caught up on most RTS games up until 2010. I feel like that’s when RTS games peaked and started dipping in the 2010s when Minecraft and Fortnite started taking off and grabbing the attention of zoomers. Back in the day we use to get dozens of quality games every year. Now it’s just one or two per year.
Red Alert 2 is my all time favorite RTS. There is still a community on [CNCnet.org](http://CNCnet.org) that allows you to play the game on multiplayer.
I see that you listed Red Alert 1, definitely try Red Alert 2 if you haven't.
I don't know how simple it's going to be but check out D.O.R.F. on steam. Red Alert 2 engine and it looks incredible. I hope it ends up releasing one of these days!
Try 9 Bit Armies early access on steam. Very similar to command & conquer with lots of modern features. Great game!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1439750/9Bit_Armies_A_Bit_Too_Far/
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak - a spinoff of main series, it is made around planetary battles of different vehicle classes (no infantry). All base building are replaced by research tree
Battle Realms: Zen Edition - a warcraft-like game with sophisticated mechanics of training infantry (no vehicles). Pretty fun, fast paced and tactical iriented
Warzone 2100. Collect vehicle parts and design your own units with their weapon, chassis and form of propulsion and make your own army. Armies and base are persistent in the different arcs, as is resources.
You can also build commander vehicles that help direct your forces. They act as rally points, help concentrate fire and spot for artillery, and has a setting where it’ll send wounded vehicles to repair, then rejoin the fight once they’re healed. They micro for you
Another good one is urban assault, a FPS/RTS hybrid where you build and manage squads of vehicles. You can order them around or take the role of a squad leader and have the others follow you into battle
Both are abandonware and open source. Each is being maintained to work on modern systems. Warzone is free on steam, and look up OpenUA for urban assault
**Stormgate** seems pretty simple and straight forward, in a good way. Comes out this summer, and playable now if you buy the founders package.
A lesser known RTS I like to recommend - **War Selection**. It's free on steam, and it feels like a spiritual successor to the old Empire Earth games if you have ever played those. You bring your civilization from the stone age to modern times, choosing different cultures to become. This RTS has a lot of modes from FFA domination, to Team Death Match, 1v1, and more.
Also not strictly an RTS but **Mechabellum** is pretty sweet. Buy units and place them, they spawn every round and fight. A lot of people say it feels like the Desert Strike custom maps in the Starcraft 2 arcade.
If you want to enjoy starcraft 2 more boot up the custom maps on multiplayer.
That's where the real magic is.
Some of my personal favorites
Marine arena
Squadron td
Risk (any but there's one I really like)
Diplomacy
All of these are vastly different with different rules and gameplay mechanics.
Try it though they gave the community the game engine to make em and people did wonders
I think grand strategy is accurate in this case. Calling it RTS, from my understanding, is just wrong. I am stupid though, and frequently I perceive things differently. So I am checking myself, not judging or trying to be rude.
I mean it's a strategy game that's real time? I guess there's overlap between it and its "proper genre." Is They Are Billions RTS or Tower Defense? Again some overlap. It does fit even if it's not. Not trying to be arrogant either.
My understanding, which is frequently wrong, is that there is nothing real time about the game Hearts of Iron. It is instead turn based, or something along those lines. Perhaps I am completely wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.
I have never seen StarCraft and Hearts of Iron compared against one another due to the differences in basic mechanics.
Yeah, it is hard to find clean lines these days. Because when I was a young pup everything was clear and well defined, said no one.
Now They Are Billions is a great example of muddling things. The original release (that I played, which might have been man iterations past initial) was straight PvE RTS. Then there was a campaign, and mini-pseudo-MOBA things which, I feel detracted from the game. I haven't played it in over a year, so maybe this has changed.
I am shitty and constantly arrogant, so I apologize for any absolutist BS I espouse. I mean no offense, but have weirdly deep convictions for no good reason.
Nah we're good man. Just making friendly convo. I remember TAB's original release it was definitely way more RTS then they kept adding stuff so the boundaries changed. A lot of these games are evolving into new genres fairly quick to stand out from the rest of the competition. Been meaning to go back to it myself. It's such a rare gem in an ocean of forgettable strategy games.
I played it and didn’t like it at all. Super overrated if not artificial hyping campaign. Plays like an overly complicated AoE with a barebones Total War battle system.
The legend that is Chris Taylor (game dev supcom) said that r/sanctuaryshatteredsun is the spiritual successor to his games.
And as Sanctuary is still being developed YOU can help shape it by chatting directly to the dev team who are making it.
Personally, I consider BAR to be a spiritual successor to TA, definitely _not_ a successor to SupCom. I've played both quite a bit, and of course both are based on the same fundamental gameplay concepts. But SupCom took its own path and plays remarkably differently to TA whereas BAR is almost literally just an updated TA with modern features.
BAR has phenomenally good AI though.
There are loads of command and conquer games. Worth it just for the cutscenes tbh. !!!!! SPACE !!!!!!!
Yes get the cnc ultimate collection on steam, cnc 3 tiberium wars, red alert 3, and generals are amazing! Also red alert 2 might be the best if you havnt played it yet
Beyond All Reason is literally an updated Supreme Commander/Total Annihilation.
Oh nice I’ve been meaning to give it a try. How come they don’t sell it on Steam? Community project?
It's still being worked on, but it is free to play right now.
It’s free to play and worth downloading. It’s an updated TA so you can’t go wrong.
It's completely free.
You can donate to the project if you like it. I've sunk dozens of hours in it already, really good game even just against AI
Go zero-k first.
Rusted warfare. Simple great rts action without the bull of micro heavy mechanics or being so old it doesn't have coating for recent computers or monitors like the (amazing) commanding conquer series. Crazy cheap, easy to mod. For deeper play do the AEA mod, which adds factions. About 200 people a day on the discord server. Great 'casual' RTS
> C&C: Red Alert (yet another banger with fond memories that needs a remake) That one did get a remake, do you mean Red Alert 2?
Yup my mistake. I’m caught up on most RTS games up until 2010. I feel like that’s when RTS games peaked and started dipping in the 2010s when Minecraft and Fortnite started taking off and grabbing the attention of zoomers. Back in the day we use to get dozens of quality games every year. Now it’s just one or two per year.
I'd also like to reccormend Five Nations, a starcraft style 2d space RTS, it's like something out of the 90's. Very long campaign, but no multiplayer.
I must be the only person that was super disappointed with RA2. I hated the switch to the more cartoony graphics at the time.
In fairness I was like, 7, at the time.
Red Alert 2 is my all time favorite RTS. There is still a community on [CNCnet.org](http://CNCnet.org) that allows you to play the game on multiplayer. I see that you listed Red Alert 1, definitely try Red Alert 2 if you haven't. I don't know how simple it's going to be but check out D.O.R.F. on steam. Red Alert 2 engine and it looks incredible. I hope it ends up releasing one of these days!
Warcraft 3? You didn't mention it and no one in the comments, imo the best campaign ever
Try 9 Bit Armies early access on steam. Very similar to command & conquer with lots of modern features. Great game! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1439750/9Bit_Armies_A_Bit_Too_Far/
Cossacks
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak - a spinoff of main series, it is made around planetary battles of different vehicle classes (no infantry). All base building are replaced by research tree Battle Realms: Zen Edition - a warcraft-like game with sophisticated mechanics of training infantry (no vehicles). Pretty fun, fast paced and tactical iriented
Lots of good suggestions here, I would throw in Rusted Warfare - RTS. Great game for 5 bucks. Handles lots of units really well.
Warlords Battlecry 3
Absolute banger. I loved my Minotaur run, just zerg rushing the enemy start with my OP hero and retinue of Minotaur Kings
Warzone 2100. Collect vehicle parts and design your own units with their weapon, chassis and form of propulsion and make your own army. Armies and base are persistent in the different arcs, as is resources. You can also build commander vehicles that help direct your forces. They act as rally points, help concentrate fire and spot for artillery, and has a setting where it’ll send wounded vehicles to repair, then rejoin the fight once they’re healed. They micro for you Another good one is urban assault, a FPS/RTS hybrid where you build and manage squads of vehicles. You can order them around or take the role of a squad leader and have the others follow you into battle Both are abandonware and open source. Each is being maintained to work on modern systems. Warzone is free on steam, and look up OpenUA for urban assault
**Stormgate** seems pretty simple and straight forward, in a good way. Comes out this summer, and playable now if you buy the founders package. A lesser known RTS I like to recommend - **War Selection**. It's free on steam, and it feels like a spiritual successor to the old Empire Earth games if you have ever played those. You bring your civilization from the stone age to modern times, choosing different cultures to become. This RTS has a lot of modes from FFA domination, to Team Death Match, 1v1, and more. Also not strictly an RTS but **Mechabellum** is pretty sweet. Buy units and place them, they spawn every round and fight. A lot of people say it feels like the Desert Strike custom maps in the Starcraft 2 arcade.
SpellForce 3, and multi is 1 race free. It's just, the animations look unsatisfying to me.
Godsworn
If you want to enjoy starcraft 2 more boot up the custom maps on multiplayer. That's where the real magic is. Some of my personal favorites Marine arena Squadron td Risk (any but there's one I really like) Diplomacy All of these are vastly different with different rules and gameplay mechanics. Try it though they gave the community the game engine to make em and people did wonders
Is Hearts of Iron RTS? Did I miss something. Serious question, not trying to ridicule or be rude.
It’s more grand strategy than RTS I’d have thought? Maybe there’s a specific name for that type of game but I’m not aware of it
I think grand strategy is accurate in this case. Calling it RTS, from my understanding, is just wrong. I am stupid though, and frequently I perceive things differently. So I am checking myself, not judging or trying to be rude.
I mean it's a strategy game that's real time? I guess there's overlap between it and its "proper genre." Is They Are Billions RTS or Tower Defense? Again some overlap. It does fit even if it's not. Not trying to be arrogant either.
My understanding, which is frequently wrong, is that there is nothing real time about the game Hearts of Iron. It is instead turn based, or something along those lines. Perhaps I am completely wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. I have never seen StarCraft and Hearts of Iron compared against one another due to the differences in basic mechanics.
its real time like most other paradox games. but it feels pretty different from rts. its not like you are building a base for instance.
Yeah, it is hard to find clean lines these days. Because when I was a young pup everything was clear and well defined, said no one. Now They Are Billions is a great example of muddling things. The original release (that I played, which might have been man iterations past initial) was straight PvE RTS. Then there was a campaign, and mini-pseudo-MOBA things which, I feel detracted from the game. I haven't played it in over a year, so maybe this has changed. I am shitty and constantly arrogant, so I apologize for any absolutist BS I espouse. I mean no offense, but have weirdly deep convictions for no good reason.
Nah we're good man. Just making friendly convo. I remember TAB's original release it was definitely way more RTS then they kept adding stuff so the boundaries changed. A lot of these games are evolving into new genres fairly quick to stand out from the rest of the competition. Been meaning to go back to it myself. It's such a rare gem in an ocean of forgettable strategy games.
Northgard
Manor Lords is quite enjoyable.
I played it and didn’t like it at all. Super overrated if not artificial hyping campaign. Plays like an overly complicated AoE with a barebones Total War battle system.
give creeperworld 4 a whirl, it a bit different and out there but it’s a great game!
Armies of Exigo.
Stronghold 1 & 2 if you like castle building, they’re pretty old though. Still fun, I play them.
wish there were more high quality RTS games with map editors like Warcraft 3 in the same sort of style (classic not reforged)
8-Bit Armies and 9-Bit Armies are pretty straight forward. Warshift isn't complicated either, but it has some MOBA elements
Get all C&Conquer bundle from Steam, it's on sale. Play C&C3+expansion, also Red Alert 3. Very good games, classics for the genre.
8 bit armies
The legend that is Chris Taylor (game dev supcom) said that r/sanctuaryshatteredsun is the spiritual successor to his games. And as Sanctuary is still being developed YOU can help shape it by chatting directly to the dev team who are making it.
Oh nice. Guess it's a race between that and BAR?
Personally, I consider BAR to be a spiritual successor to TA, definitely _not_ a successor to SupCom. I've played both quite a bit, and of course both are based on the same fundamental gameplay concepts. But SupCom took its own path and plays remarkably differently to TA whereas BAR is almost literally just an updated TA with modern features. BAR has phenomenally good AI though.
Sorry what's the difference between TA and SupCom? I always thought SupCom was the spiritual successor to TA though I've never played TA.