Can anyone recomend a good RTS for easing into the genre?

[Locut0s]

A bit of background. I went through a very short faze where I really enjoyed playing RTSs, StarCraft, WarCraft II, Age of empires. But I always sucked ass at them. Usually I made it through about 3/4 of the single player campaign before being completely wasted by the computer. I made it to that last level of the single player StarCraft campaign. Whenever I tried my hands at online I was usually almost dead before I got out of the gate. In other words I really suck at RTSs. Still I remember enjoying them a fair bit when I did succeed. I'd like to get back to playing them. Can anyone recommend a good RTS for a noob who SUCKS for cutting ones teeth on? Something easy by most peoples standards but with enough challenge that I could improve my skills at?

 

[Kromis]

Noob friendly...eh?

Hmm...

I don't know but I'd go with Star Wars: Empire at War. I really really liked that game. And I *think* it could be noob friendly.

 

[shortylickens]

Total Anihilation: Kingdoms.
It has 48 missions in the campaign and the first ten are really easy, just designed to get you introduced and learning the game. It has several missions throughout where you dont even build a town and army, you just move your pre-built army around and accomplish something specific.

Once you get used to the gameplay the missions build up in difficulty as you progress. The last 10 are pretty challenging. Also, if one particular mission is kicking you in the nuts you can lose it, and then skip past it on the mission selection screen. You can also easily go back and replay any previous mission from that same screen. So if and when you get better you can go back and kick some ass on the old challenges.


Dungeon Keeper 2 is similar.
You have a whole bunch of Pet Dungeons to play around with, (no real challenge, just have fun) and the first half of the missions are designed to introduce you to new units, rooms, and game concepts.


I thought Age of Mythology wa ridiculously simple on the Easy setting.

AoM is still found on the bargain racks at Walmart and Target. TA:K and DK2 might be more difficult to find these days.

 

[Piuc2020]

Warcraft III is pretty easy to get the hang on, start playing the campaign (it's not too hard) then progress to playing 2v2 versus normal computers then progress to 1v1 versus normal computers and then progress to battle.net, it's great fun and easy to pick up, no complicated multi-squad or complicated 5083094359483 units games, just a simple, well balanced RTS.

 

[RandomFool]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Total Anihilation: Kingdoms.

I loved TA: Kingdoms, I didn't realize there was anyone else out there who bought it.

I liked Kohan alot too which may not be exactly easy to get into.

I personally started with Warcraft 2 and then moved on to Starcraft, Red Alert and various others from there.

 

[BladeVenom]

I've always liked the Total War series of games, because the building is done in turn based mode, while the combat is done in real time. You don't have to juggle both at the same time. The game isn't any easier. iIt's probably more complex, but I like not having to do both at the same time.

 

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Warcraft III is pretty easy to get the hang on

:thumbsup:

To the OP:
WC3 would be a great choice, Total War may be a little harder to get into. You could also go old school and try some original Empire Earth!

 

[Modelworks]

Age of empires III is pretty easy to get into and there are lots of players online.

 

[Capitalizt]

Here ya go buddy! Go get it now!

 

[Maximilian]

The two suggested already that i think would be the best is Dungeon keeper II, and World In Conflict, theyre both very easy, WiC is easy online becatse your always part of a team and its no biggie if you win or lose either, i hate losing i cant stand it but losing in WiC just didnt bother me for some reason.

I would say company of heros as its extremely fun, but its not really noob friendly... well it is if you play against friends or other noobs, but you can get mauled pretty quickly online against the wrong people. Its interface is good, the concepts in it are pretty easy to understand too.

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: Capitalizt
Here ya go buddy! Go get it now!

I was gonna mention that but I felt it kinda strayed away from a "real" RTS (base managing).

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Oakenfold

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Warcraft III is pretty easy to get the hang on

:thumbsup:

To the OP:
WC3 would be a great choice, Total War may be a little harder to get into. You could also go old school and try some original Empire Earth!

I've been playing EE recently and I have to say its not as easy as I remember.
Been running simple skirmishes against the Easy AI on Tiny maps, and totally getting spanked.
Even on the lowest difficulty the AI is ruthlessly efficient. He just doesnt make complicated attack plans. Those come with the harder AI.
I think the game might even cheat a little as far as resources go. Many times I beat up his base and screwed his resourcing and he was still able to send out waves of units for a long time.

 

[apoppin]

Try a Hybrid that IS easy on the RTS elements ... B&W2
-it turned out pretty good after it was fully patched

 

[Superrock]

Go back to Starcraft. That is the best of all RTS. WC3 is a close second. Use hotkeys and build lots of scvs..

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Locut0s
A bit of background. I went through a very short faze where I really enjoyed playing RTSs, StarCraft, WarCraft II, Age of empires. But I always sucked ass at them. Usually I made it through about 3/4 of the single player campaign before being completely wasted by the computer. I made it to that last level of the single player StarCraft campaign. Whenever I tried my hands at online I was usually almost dead before I got out of the gate. In other words I really suck at RTSs. Still I remember enjoying them a fair bit when I did succeed. I'd like to get back to playing them. Can anyone recommend a good RTS for a noob who SUCKS for cutting ones teeth on? Something easy by most peoples standards but with enough challenge that I could improve my skills at?

For SC, it took me a while to get the timing down. If possible, play with buddies and have rules that you can relax as you get better like "No rushing before 7/5/3 minutes etc". Or "No tier 2/3 until 20/15/10 minutes" etc. As you relax the "rules" you will find yourself getting more efficient with the tech tree, getting to know your "style" of play which units you like etc., and getting used to using hotkeys.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Age of Empires II was my favorite RTS, and Company of Heroes is great as long as you learn the early builds (which are simple as heck). You can get beat down quite severely in both games though... but that's true for any RTS once you venture online. The great thing about Company of Heroes is how simple the economy is to understand, and yet how hard it is to master. Just take over more territory to build your eco and at the same time hurt your opponents eco. Great, and simple concept. Easier said than done, of course.