Who doesn't love an RTS recommendation thread?

Dawn of War Dark Crusade Soul Strom and the Orgnial.

Star Craft 2

Dawn Of War 2

Command and Conquer series IE Generals

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of games like AoE, rise of nations, empire earth and such. In fact, I can't think of any recentish ones to recommend. Starcraft 2 is more like a quick skirmish game. 10-30 minute battles with handfuls of troops and basic economy management. Supcom: Forged Alliance is much bigger scale and lets you build a base and do some research, but it's definitely only militarily focused.

Sadly, there aren't really any other RTSs similar to AoE 3. It is a unique game. There are other good RTS games like Dawn of War series, Starcraft 2, and Supreme Commander series, but each one has a different style.

My personal favorite RTS games:

Command & Conquer: the First Decade - all of the best C&C games in one cheap bundle. I think it's like $11 on Amazon.

Company of Heroes - Superb game with more emphasis on strategy and tactics than base building.

Sins of a Solar Empire - Simply amazing. Different than any other RTS I have every played by a long shot. Once you start playing it is almost impossible to stop.

Sins of a Solar Empire - Simply amazing. Different than any other RTS I have every played by a long shot. Once you start playing it is almost impossible to stop.

SF_KiLLaMaN

As a warning Sins is really hard, even on the easy difficulty and it might just might not be what the TC is looking for.

[QUOTE="SF_KiLLaMaN"]

Sins of a Solar Empire - Simply amazing. Different than any other RTS I have every played by a long shot. Once you start playing it is almost impossible to stop.

Led_poison

As a warning Sins is really hard, even on the easy difficulty and it might just might not be what the TC is looking for.

Anno 1701 or Anno 2070

First off, hi, everyone. :) Alright, here's my story. I've been gaming on PC for a long time, but I've barely touched an RTS since, like, the original Red Alert. Recently, however, I've had the chance to absolutely fall in love with Age of Empires 3, and although I still have a lot of that game left to explore, I'm already on the hunt for my next RTS score.

Naturally, I'm looking for something that would provide a similar experience to AOE3. I think the thing I like best about AOE3 is how it puts emphasis on production and advancing your settlement. I like a good battle as much as the next gamer, but getting to build up my own little empire makes me actually care about defending it.

That said, I also appreciate the simplicity of the resource gathering and economic systems. I'm not really interested in managing fifty various imports/exports across ten different nations, and I'm already glad the game isn't any faster paced than it is. The other thing I really like is how it constantly gives you new abilities/bonuses to play with via the age mechanic. I like that I can upgrade/vet my existing units rather than having to just replace them with better ones. Oh, and the TCG-style system with shipments is just cooler than cool. As someone who is also new to TCGs, this element interests me a lot. I would definitely be interested in playing more strategy games with TCG/RPG elements like this.

So I'm not necessarily looking for games that are similar to AOE3, just games that somewhat fit the description above. The only other thing I want to mention is that, being someone who's really new to this genre, I'm definitely after something more on the "lighter" side of the RTS menu (read: easier), and ideally something that won't eat the weeks off my calendar. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks much!Speciman

You're description fits my own almost perfectly, i've ben searching for such games aswell overtime, these are the ones i recommend you give a try:

Age of Mythology, plus the expansion

Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Empire Earth II, plus the expansion

Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3, Rise of Nations.

Can't go wrong with any of these.

[QUOTE="Speciman"]First off, hi, everyone. :) Alright, here's my story. I've been gaming on PC for a long time, but I've barely touched an RTS since, like, the original Red Alert. Recently, however, I've had the chance to absolutely fall in love with Age of Empires 3, and although I still have a lot of that game left to explore, I'm already on the hunt for my next RTS score.

Naturally, I'm looking for something that would provide a similar experience to AOE3. I think the thing I like best about AOE3 is how it puts emphasis on production and advancing your settlement. I like a good battle as much as the next gamer, but getting to build up my own little empire makes me actually care about defending it.

That said, I also appreciate the simplicity of the resource gathering and economic systems. I'm not really interested in managing fifty various imports/exports across ten different nations, and I'm already glad the game isn't any faster paced than it is. The other thing I really like is how it constantly gives you new abilities/bonuses to play with via the age mechanic. I like that I can upgrade/vet my existing units rather than having to just replace them with better ones. Oh, and the TCG-style system with shipments is just cooler than cool. As someone who is also new to TCGs, this element interests me a lot. I would definitely be interested in playing more strategy games with TCG/RPG elements like this.

So I'm not necessarily looking for games that are similar to AOE3, just games that somewhat fit the description above. The only other thing I want to mention is that, being someone who's really new to this genre, I'm definitely after something more on the "lighter" side of the RTS menu (read: easier), and ideally something that won't eat the weeks off my calendar. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks much!Lucianu

You're description fits my own almost perfectly, i've ben searching for such games aswell overtime, these are the ones i recommend you give a try:

Age of Mythology, plus the expansion

Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Empire Earth II, plus the expansion

I've thought about picking up Empire Earth 2. Is the third one really as bad as everybody says it is?

My personal favorite RTS games:

Command & Conquer: the First Decade - all of the best C&C games in one cheap bundle. I think it's like $11 on Amazon.

Company of Heroes - Superb game with more emphasis on strategy and tactics than base building.

Sins of a Solar Empire - Simply amazing. Different than any other RTS I have every played by a long shot. Once you start playing it is almost impossible to stop.

SF_KiLLaMaN

I've thought about picking up Empire Earth 2. Is the third one really as bad as everybody says it is?

xLittlekillx

Yes it is, don't touch it. Empire Earth 2 is the best in that series, and a very good RTS game. Though the first one is also good but more bare bones than the second one. Rise of Nations is a mix between Civilization and Age of Empires, it's one of my favorite RTS games ever. Age of Mythology is even higher on my list, it's basically the perfection of real time strategy games, though not as packed with content as Empire Earth 2 and Rise of Nations, both of which can last you a long time.

[QUOTE="xLittlekillx"]

I've thought about picking up Empire Earth 2. Is the third one really as bad as everybody says it is?

Lucianu

Yes it is, don't touch it. Empire Earth 2 is the best in that series, and a very good RTS game. Though the first one is also good but more bare bones than the second one. Rise of Nations is a mix between Civilization and Age of Empires, it's one of my favorite RTS games ever. Age of Mythology is even higher on my list, it's basically the perfection of real time strategy games, though not as packed with content as Empire Earth 2 and Rise of Nations, both of which can last you a long time.

Cool, I just picked up EE2 on gog.com. Too bad there isn't anywhere to get rise of nations or homeworld 2 as digital downloads.

[QUOTE="Led_poison"]

[QUOTE="SF_KiLLaMaN"]

Sins of a Solar Empire - Simply amazing. Different than any other RTS I have every played by a long shot. Once you start playing it is almost impossible to stop.

SF_KiLLaMaN

As a warning Sins is really hard, even on the easy difficulty and it might just might not be what the TC is looking for.

[QUOTE="Speciman"]First off, hi, everyone. :) Alright, here's my story. I've been gaming on PC for a long time, but I've barely touched an RTS since, like, the original Red Alert. Recently, however, I've had the chance to absolutely fall in love with Age of Empires 3, and although I still have a lot of that game left to explore, I'm already on the hunt for my next RTS score.

Naturally, I'm looking for something that would provide a similar experience to AOE3. I think the thing I like best about AOE3 is how it puts emphasis on production and advancing your settlement. I like a good battle as much as the next gamer, but getting to build up my own little empire makes me actually care about defending it.

That said, I also appreciate the simplicity of the resource gathering and economic systems. I'm not really interested in managing fifty various imports/exports across ten different nations, and I'm already glad the game isn't any faster paced than it is. The other thing I really like is how it constantly gives you new abilities/bonuses to play with via the age mechanic. I like that I can upgrade/vet my existing units rather than having to just replace them with better ones. Oh, and the TCG-style system with shipments is just cooler than cool. As someone who is also new to TCGs, this element interests me a lot. I would definitely be interested in playing more strategy games with TCG/RPG elements like this.

So I'm not necessarily looking for games that are similar to AOE3, just games that somewhat fit the description above. The only other thing I want to mention is that, being someone who's really new to this genre, I'm definitely after something more on the "lighter" side of the RTS menu (read: easier), and ideally something that won't eat the weeks off my calendar. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks much!Lucianu

You're description fits my own almost perfectly, i've ben searching for such games aswell overtime, these are the ones i recommend you give a try:

Age of Mythology, plus the expansion

Rise of Nations: Gold Edition

Empire Earth II, plus the expansion

If you feel like expanding out of that particular type of RTS, I'd suggest Relic Entertainments entire log of PC games. Dawn of War + expansions & sequels, and especially Company of Heroes and Homeworld. Relic's games tend to focus more on the tactical side of combat but Dawn of War and Company of Heroes implement and interesting take on the traditional resource management that keeps the action moving.