Looking for a real-time strategy recommendation

Sep 1, 2005
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I was playing Age of Empires III recently and have been having a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll get sick of it sooner or later, so I want to look into some other real-time strategy games. I want to hear some recommendations!

Here are some requirements:
  • The game should be a "classic" real-time strategy game. That is, I want something that plays similar to Age of Empires. I'm not really interested in any of the hybrid action/real-time strategy games out there. I'm craving the traditional-style game.
  • The game should be relatively new (let's say the last 5-6 years). I'm putting in this restriction so that I don't get suggestions for games like Starcraft... I realize it's a great game, but I want something new!
  • Campaign mode? Online play? Those aren't a factor. The only thing I'm be using it for is just skirmish mode, so those two aforementioned modes are basically negligible to me.
  • Ideally, the game would have a good town-building aspect to it. I think I like building up my armies and towns more than I do the actual fighting. So hopefully the games I try out aren't snubbed in this department!
  • The era or setting of the game doesn't matter at all. I'm up for anything.

Thanks... interested in hearing what you guys recommend.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
91
Originally posted by: WinnieThePujols
I was playing Age of Empires III recently and have been having a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll get sick of it sooner or later, so I want to look into some other real-time strategy games. I want to hear some recommendations!

Here are some requirements:
  • The game should be a "classic" real-time strategy game. That is, I want something that plays similar to Age of Empires. I'm not really interested in any of the hybrid action/real-time strategy games out there. I'm craving the traditional-style game.
  • The game should be relatively new (let's say the last 5-6 years). I'm putting in this restriction so that I don't get suggestions for games like Starcraft... I realize it's a great game, but I want something new!
  • Campaign mode? Online play? Those aren't a factor. The only thing I'm be using it for is just skirmish mode, so those two aforementioned modes are basically negligible to me.
  • Ideally, the game would have a good town-building aspect to it. I think I like building up my armies and towns more than I do the actual fighting. So hopefully the games I try out aren't snubbed in this department!
  • The era or setting of the game doesn't matter at all. I'm up for anything.

Thanks... interested in hearing what you guys recommend.

Anno 1404.

The town building aspect is great, however you should be warned... you will be managing DOZENS of resources. I hadn't even gotten my culture fully advanced yet and I was handling 62 different resources. Some of them you need for building, other for keeping the citizenry happy and the rest are used simply to make other resources (you can't mine books, but you can make paper and harvest indigo ink, and from that, you can then make books). Once you have it up and running it basically takes care of itself, but that initial time spent to make sure that you are producing enough (maybe a little extra) and getting the stuff where it needs to go takes some time.

The ocen combat is pretty good since it is a very trade heavy game. Trade routes between your own island cities since you can't grow everything everywhere, trade routes to the AI so you can make money.

The land combat (what I have seen of it) is a little underwhelming, and barely feels like combat, but perhaps I am doing it wrong. But I am a much bigger fan of ocen combat in RTSs anyway, so this doesn't bother me as much.

Also, best as I can tell, there is no ground based trade. All of your warehouses/markets on a given island have full access to all resources on that island meaning you can create isolated resource areas that don't require roads interconnecting them to the others.
 

Auryg

Platinum Member
Dec 28, 2003
2,377
0
71
Sorry bud, I've been looking for the same thing and you won't find much in the style of Age of Empires. Developers have decided that people don't like resource management and base building for the most part. To me, they make an RTS as much as unit tactics.
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
3
76
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3.

Enjoyable medium length single player campaign with funny cut scenes and three difficulty levels. The entire thing can be played co op if you want. The game play is pretty much a slightly tweaked Red Alert 2.(Insanely fun if you haven't played Red Alert 2 to death, still somewhat fun if you have) The most common complaint about this game is that it does not redefine the RTS genre like many had hoped it would.

Graphics are cartoony but very well done. Has the best water effects of any RTS to date still. The game is extremely stable, balanced, and polished at this point. EA has surprisingly put an enormous amount of effort into patches to make this game great.

There's a large community for the game so you'll have no problem finding people to play with. The only problem is there is no shortage of really skilled players so you might have trouble competing with them at first which can be a turn off. The auto match system does a pretty good job of putting you against people your skill level but veterans often make new accounts to cheat the system.

And finally, the game does have a DRM in the form of an install limit. However you can click a de-authorize button that is in the in game options menu that will let you uninstall and reinstall the game without using up one of your installs. The game does not require the disc to be in the drive to play.

I loved Age of Empires 3.
 

gamerguy2

Member
Aug 9, 2008
167
4
81
Im playing Sins of a Solar Empire Entrenchment. Unbelievable.

It has one flaw that I can see. After playing the original for 20 hours, I lost interest in it. Then after a renewed interest and hearing it has a large community (and a cool Star Trek mod), I bought entrenchment. After 40 hours of games against the AI and learning how to win, Im not sure if I need to play it online now.
 

imported_hopeless

Senior member
Oct 29, 2004
777
0
0
Originally posted by: WinnieThePujols
I was playing Age of Empires III recently and have been having a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll get sick of it sooner or later, so I want to look into some other real-time strategy games. I want to hear some recommendations!
You might want to check out Age of Mythology, it's by the same company that made Age of Empires III. I haven't gotten around to playing it myself but it's been on my list to give a try.
 
Oct 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: gamerguy2
Im playing Sins of a Solar Empire Entrenchment. Unbelievable.

Sins of a Solar Empire is my #1 game right now. It totally rocks and is very challenging. It has me addicted like crack, I can't get enough of it. However, I only play it in online multiplayer against very tough human opponents. It's not a traditional RTS though; it's essentially a new genre, 4X-RTS, but very worthwhile.

It has one flaw that I can see. After playing the original for 20 hours, I lost interest in it. Then after a renewed interest and hearing it has a large community (and a cool Star Trek mod), I bought entrenchment. After 40 hours of games against the AI and learning how to win, Im not sure if I need to play it online now.

Definitely consider online multiplayer. (Note that most online team games (set to locked teams) last between 1 and 2 hours.) You'll discover a much greater challenge, more suspenseful and intense games, and camradery. You could start by playing humans v. AI games called comp stomps and then move up to playing other people. The biggest problem right now is that the player counts are rather low (the game deserves to have more people online; most only do single player) and that it's hard to find newer players to play against; the regulars are all very experienced. Alternatively, I know a group of guys that plays via direct connect to IP and I could hook you up if you PM me your email address.