Windows Looking for good RTS and strategy games

Hey,

im looking for a good RTS or strategy game to play with a friend over the tinterwebs.

anyone recommend one or several ?

things id like from it are old school mechanics if possible like red alert with base building and unit production.

strategy wise im open

 

The original Dawn of War series still holds a soft spot for me. Also Company of Heroes has a brilliant co-op multiplayer expansion.

 

Shogun 2: Total War is out mid-March (hopefully). I always had a blast playing those games over LAN. Nothing like sieging your friend's castle with a few beers.

 

Company of Heroes and R.U.S.E are pretty good for that. Also, you might want to try Anno 1404:Venice which has multiplayer support (although you need the base game too).

 

yeah got DoW was pretty good.

i thought company of heroes was just units ? with no base building and large armies etc

 

That may be the case in multiplayer Adam.

Most of the SP campaigns require a lot of base building, although some, the first two missions in the US campaign, for example, do not.

Provided people are interested in RTS games and are not turned off by WWII games in general, I really think you can't go wrong with COH and its expansions.

 

I have both and dawn of war. not as keen on dawn of war its just a race to get tanks basicly. With RUSE every unit has strengths and weaknesses need to plan and think just like end war. Company of heroes is good but kind of follows suit with dawn of war i feel.

But all good games!

 

World in Conflict, one of the best imo. The nukes are just outstanding.

 

for school computers?

Total Annihilation
Red Alert 2

UT99 (for FPS)

at least that was what the school computers can handle around 2005, when i was in school.

 

Starcraft makes for a lot versus action.
C&C Red Alert 3 has 3 dedicated multiplayer campaigns which is good (it's good for a laugh but don't expect the world, also massively camp and has some pretty girls in it)

Dawn of war tho. Awesome game.

 

SupCom 1. Or if you're less patient, SupCom 2. It's probably the most 'old school' RTS out there in terms of game mechanics, but has a much more epic scale than any other RTS like C&C.

 

Age of empires series

ALL command and conquer games apart from the new one twilight (omg what a disappointing end to the story)

Starcraft 1/2 also very good

 

Starcraft 2.

 

As SMC said, Supreme Commander (and Forged Alliance) is just epic on a scale that isn't really matched elsewhere.

For alternatives, try perhaps Sins of a Solar Empire for some big ass space battles.

 

hmmm might give supcom 2 a look although is 1 better with the expansion and has anyone got the battlefield upgrade for supcom 2 ?


ive got C&C red alert 3 and was a blast playing that although its not very epic not like generals was

 

red alert is like the baby of the command and conquer line.

Tiberium is the parent

Generals is the hyper ott teenager

 

SupCom: Forged Alliance is a standalone expansion

I also have SupCom 2 with the infinite war pack.

Having played both games excessively I now prefer SupCom 2...At first I didn't. It didn't have that epic feel that the first game had...However it also doesn't suffer from the slowdown issues that an epic unit count brings. Because of the slowdown SupCom1 games meandered along at a pedestrian pace. SupCom2, however, it is a faster, tighter, more streamlined, more engaging experience

 

Homeworld 1 and 2 for epic space battles.

Sins of Solar Empire for more resource management and macro management rather than the classic RTS experience.

 

+1 for Sins of a Solar Empire, three quite different races to play as well for a bit of variety. I'm not generally an RTS fan (too much of a ditherer lol) but this one had me hooked for ages. It actually looks quite cool too.

 

+1 to this.

I played them in reverse order (SupCom2 first then 1), and I'd recommend you do the same as the second is a little more accessible than the first. When you do buy the first, make sure you get the gold pack though as Forged Alliance - the expansion pack - brings a great many improvements.

World in Conflict is amazing, but no base building. Dawn of War 1 is great as well, but pretty old now.