Thread: RTS for a beginner?

I'm looking to getting into RTS games, but I don't where to start or what to buy. Do you guys have any suggestions? Maybe one that's somewhat slow paced and another that's a bit faster?

well starcraft is a RTS and kicks ass and pretty easy to get into. only one i can think of right now, there are plently more just don't know them off the top of my head. Personally i think WIC (World in Combat) and CoH (Company of Heroes) are awesome awesome games that aren't overly complicated, focusing mostly on tactics.

I can tell you a few not to try off the bat, #1 being any of the Hearts of Iron Series, those games are a BITCH.

Command & Conquer Generals (series) is an in depth game, has a very good AI for single player and not a bad online community as well. Or, you could try Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts, a WWII genre, not a bad game overall and another good AI for single player. Lastly, World in Conflict, good game, lots of tactical and strategic components, I like the camera angles you can get. All of these I have played to some degree, I was hooked on C&C-G for a long time, any of these would challenge your RTS skills and not bore you to death in the process.

RTS games have come a long way, what all kind of style playing are you looking for?

Games such as Starcraft, although getting on in years, I'll reccomend Starcraft to anyone who wants to play a fantastic game. The Command and Conquer series is a good RTS as well, both C&C and Starcraft combine base building, resource management, and a mixture of micro and macro control. The maps on games like these are typically large enough for 8-12 players at max, but not overwhelmingly big.

Micro being how well you use your units individually or in groups supporting each other. Macro how well you produce units, your resources, and base building.

Games such as Company of Heroes focus entirely on a small amount of units, with micro management being the most important aspect of the game. On the other hand, games such as Sins of a Solar Empire are exactly the opposite, withs Sins being all about macro management of your intersteller empire, resource management, and very little in the way of micro helping in your fleet battles, though that's not to say micro is absent in Sins either.

Another RTS type of game that comes to mind is the Total War series, which is a turn based map of an area, typically historical based, in which you build up preset cities, and move army icons around the map. The fighting in the Total War series takes you away from your map and onto a battlefield where the two armies are fighting, and you control the units in that army, who are fighting in real time.

As for the speed of the typical game. The more balanced RTS between micro/macro such as Starcraft or C&C can be devastatingly fast, or they can be long and drawn out, it depends entirely on the players and the setting in which they're fighting.

For micro intensive games such as CoH, while I'm not very experienced with these kinds of games, I'd imagine them to be more fast paced, with long games being few and far between, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong in that.

Macro intensive games such as Sins are always slow unless on the smallest/fastest map you can find, even the massive fleet battles can last for half an hour if both sides reinforce or they're just that big.

And the Total War styled games take absolutely forever to finish, they crawl in the turn based part of the game, but when you fight on the battlefield, it's a faster paced fight that can sometimes be very unforgiving of mistakes.

I realize i didn't answer your question much at all, but i thought i would try to help you figure out what you're looking for in an RTS and try to offer advice from there, mind you the above are just my opinions on the games.

Pretty much any RTS is going to be easy to pick up. Once you know one, you got a good idea how to play any of them.

My favorites off the top of my head:

Sins of a Solar Empire
Total Annihilation
Supreme Commander
Red Alert
Command and Conquer
Dawn of War
Total War series

Any good RTS will help you get started. Free ones online are an easy way to get the hang of the style.

Originally Posted by WinterSays

RTS games have come a long way, what all kind of style playing are you looking for?

Games such as Starcraft, although getting on in years, I'll reccomend Starcraft to anyone who wants to play a fantastic game. The Command and Conquer series is a good RTS as well, both C&C and Starcraft combine base building, resource management, and a mixture of micro and macro control. The maps on games like these are typically large enough for 8-12 players at max, but not overwhelmingly big.

Micro being how well you use your units individually or in groups supporting each other. Macro how well you produce units, your resources, and base building.

Games such as Company of Heroes focus entirely on a small amount of units, with micro management being the most important aspect of the game. On the other hand, games such as Sins of a Solar Empire are exactly the opposite, withs Sins being all about macro management of your intersteller empire, resource management, and very little in the way of micro helping in your fleet battles, though that's not to say micro is absent in Sins either.

Another RTS type of game that comes to mind is the Total War series, which is a turn based map of an area, typically historical based, in which you build up preset cities, and move army icons around the map. The fighting in the Total War series takes you away from your map and onto a battlefield where the two armies are fighting, and you control the units in that army, who are fighting in real time.

As for the speed of the typical game. The more balanced RTS between micro/macro such as Starcraft or C&C can be devastatingly fast, or they can be long and drawn out, it depends entirely on the players and the setting in which they're fighting.

For micro intensive games such as CoH, while I'm not very experienced with these kinds of games, I'd imagine them to be more fast paced, with long games being few and far between, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong in that.

Macro intensive games such as Sins are always slow unless on the smallest/fastest map you can find, even the massive fleet battles can last for half an hour if both sides reinforce or they're just that big.

And the Total War styled games take absolutely forever to finish, they crawl in the turn based part of the game, but when you fight on the battlefield, it's a faster paced fight that can sometimes be very unforgiving of mistakes.

I realize i didn't answer your question much at all, but i thought i would try to help you figure out what you're looking for in an RTS and try to offer advice from there, mind you the above are just my opinions on the games.

Looks like an article there.

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

Supreme Commander

+1

Originally Posted by WinterSays

For micro intensive games such as CoH, while I'm not very experienced with these kinds of games, I'd imagine them to be more fast paced, with long games being few and far between, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong in that.

While I agree that many Micro based games would be more speedy (1hr max is what I am taking as "speedy") I think that the CoH games while they focus alot on your units and their positioning and their upgrades. I've taken some CoH battles the long haul with a friend of mine. We teamed up on campus to do a lan Comp Stomp (Comp Stomp: Means human v AI) and it took us well over 8 hours to complete (and we could not save at any point :5) so the battle raged on until 4:30 am, which we started after coming back from the Cafe at dinner time.

I am a BIG fan of the CoH series. It gives you the Macro (Fuel, Ammunition and Control Points) which increase your stores and your land. More land = more space to cover, however, the more land generally the better supplied your army will be.

I can go on and on about CoH, but I just wanted to add a little rebuttal to the comments made. Aside from that I agree whole heartedly with what you said.

I'd suggest the early C&C:RA games. That is where I started. They are dirt cheap now, you can get the "First Decade" set for something like $20-30 and get like 10 games from it.

Pick up Command and Conquer - The First Decade. It has the original C&C games from '95 back when Westwood knew what they were doing.

Amazing games. Really easy to understand too.