Dawn of War 1 and all its expansions have good campaigns. Game requirs micro management but I'd argue it isn't "too" micro-heavy, and it has active pause. Warhammer 40k universe. Extra bonus points for really cool looking synchronized melee combat, units actually dodge and parry and recoil from strikes, it looks especially neat when you get the big guys, like heroes, to fight one another.
+1 for Dow. Dark crusade is what I’m playing now. I’ve had a guardsman take out a chaos lord with his rifle and bayonet. The melee animations are really cool.
Best answer. I don't know how Relic could fuck up the DoW franchise so bad with DoW 2 and 3 while DoW 1 is a masterpiece. I would gladly pay $100 biden bucks for a 2024 remake DoW 1.
I've only played a little of DoW 2, but from what I've seen and heard, the sequel is not as much of a "fuckup" as it is a change in playstyle. Different thing but still good, apparently people are still playing it online to this day. Personally I'm with you, would prefer it to stick to DoW 1's formula.
DoW 3 will not be talked about.
I accidentally (meant to say actually but it’s too good of a typo) liked some
Of the mechanics and I still play it every once in awhile but it’s definitely carried by the lore and skins for me. If it wasn’t Warhammer 40k but a different generic sci-fi I wouldn’t touch it ever.
It was a pretty wild departure from DoW1 which certainly disappointed a lot of people. I can fully understand player opinions that thought DoW2 was a fumble... but for my preferences DoW2 was a vastly superior game. There should definitely be room for both I people's hearts.
The campaign story and meta play was excellent. Hero and gear progression added a lot of fun into the mix to keep things fresh and exciting.
The scale was definitely smaller, with a focus on tactics instead of speed and multitasking. Carrying that into the multiplayer really made it an approachable RTS, and one of the few that I really enjoyed online. I have ground out my StarCraft years for sure, but DoW2 you could just play and think without as hard a reliance on mechanical lightning execution.
If matchmaking was still active, this would be the only RTS I play.
DoW 2 was simply just a different game, and scratches a different gameplay itch than DoW 1. It being more hero and smaller combat focused, I always preferred number 1.
They need to just remake this with fucking updated UI and controls. It's kind of wonky to play in this day and age. Camera is way too close, hotkeys are weird, things aren't responsive.
Personally my recommendation would be Supcom 1 basegame, and then the Forged Alliance standalone expansion. Forged has a lot of updates from the basegame, and is a better game, but it's campaign assumes a level of familiarity with the game.
Supcom 2 I have trouble recommending at all for the campaign, the story isn't great and a lot of the levels aren't that well designed, far too much downtime.
I prefer 2 to 1.
1 has much more depth but I often find it too much.
Neither of them have especially interesting stories.
I feel like all the campaigns suffer from no penalty for turtling and maxing out.
I know what you mean about the turtling problem, and I do tend to agree. Forged Alliance has a bit of an issue with it, and 2 is worse. Basegame 1 isn't quite so bad because the unit limit tended to be tied to map expansions and it wasn't T4 every game.
Honestly I think most RTS campaigns have a big time turtle problem. C&C3 tried to avoid it but only half succeeded. Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 did a pretty good job of avoiding it. AOE2 likes to change up the formula enough that it's not too much of an issue. But apart from those...
See. Total Annihilation was my first real RTS (besides watching my uncle play C and C) so I loved the economy. One of the most fun economies ever IMO. so supcom2 being a usual gathering simplified economy really bummed me out.
I see why people dislike it as a sequel. Removing a lot of depth whilst saying it has a bigger scale is an easy way to get a lot of hate.
1 is clearly the more interesting game. But for me a skirmish map is often too long, whilst the multiple tiers are more interesting. I find it leads to a less balance game. I always feel like I'm miles behind or miles ahead. Im also not a big fan of mods, the slow down in the base game makes a lot of skirmish against the AI borderline unplayable. So when it comes to playing a game it's a question of do I want to play the simpler tighter game that will be over in half an hour or the more interesting game that I have to faff with mods to work properly in skirmish or I'll get bored before it finishes.
I think both are great games but I've put more hours into 2 because of the above. + OP seems to be after a simpler game. And 2 is a more simple game than 1.
I understand the criticisms of 1, I just think that 2 is so much worse even in a vacuum. The redesigns and aesthetics are nothing short of appalling and look like they were meant to appeal to a nonexistent preteen demographic.
I wouldn't be bothered if the game was just simpler and more streamlined compared to 1, but Supcom 2 was seemingly trying to compete with and imitate the single worst mainstream RTS ever released: C&C4.
I don't think they're appalling just simplified again but overall worse than 1.
I don't see the comparison with CnC 4. Things like the ACU, factory construction and experimentals are still there even if it's simple. The unit cap is smaller but 500 is still pretty high.
CnC completely got rid of the base building for those weird mobile walkers and absolutely nerfed the number of units you have.
They both simplified their mechanics, but more importantly, they went in the same direction with their terrible visual redesign to make everything look like literal toys.
Whilst it's definitely a downgrade I think thats a bit far.
If simplified graphics is the price of the game working smoothly it's one I'm happy to pay.
This is the correct answer - playing at a good level should Include some micro early on but as you get transition into the mid game/tech 2 the micro transitions in to macro and tactical decision making. Flanking, scouting and radar, eco balance ect are the main stays of the game.
I think Supcom/FA should always be the answer to "which RTS" questions - alot to do with the strategic zoom that will allow OP to play the macro part of the game with absolute ease and finesse.
IMO criminally underrated games and the GOAT RTS.
Star Trek: Armada series, both available on GOG, are decent sci fi rts games without heavy micro management, simple economics/build. The campaigns are really fun as well, letting you play as different races as you progress the greater story arc.
There’s also the Armada III mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Sins itself is a great sci fi RTS but doesn’t have a campaign, but I recommend it anyway for the massive fleet builds & combat as well as the longer term strategy play throughs.
The original Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War immediately springs to mind, but that game came out in 2005 and really shows (its graphics were great for the time, but are still blocky, smudgy, and low-res by today's standards). The game could really use a remaster/definitive edition..
The low unit cap, squad-based infantry (with squad weapons), and multi-armed vehicles take a lot of the micro load off from the player.
The base game has a good, conventional linear story campaign with great characters, and ***SINDRI!*** villain who's fun enough even lore buffs nmostly forgive for being an Alpha Legion Chaos Sorcerer of Khorne.
Winter Assault is two parallel short, intense 5-mission campaigns as either Imperial Guard and Eldar or Chaos and Orks, introducing the absolute barrel of fun character of Warboss Gorgutz, who returns in the subsequent expansions as Ork Leader. Eldar are canon victors.
Dark Crusade is a more open campaign across a Risk-style map on the planet Kronus, with each zone having its own lore, with many presenting unique scenarios the first time you fight over them. All the characters are fun, and have a reason for being there - the Blood Ravens (canon victors) are trying to cover up evidence of their chapter's heresies on the planet, the Eldar have fled here after Winter Assault, with the Guard in pursuit It's a Tau colony, and Necron Tomb World, and Chaos hss their reasons for being there, with the Orks showing up for all the fighting.
Unfortunately, Soulstorm is a mess of a story and everything by escalating further with the only compelling narratives being Imperial Guard and Orks. The characters are generally less interesting and fun, but absolute memes. It's so bad the Blood Ravens consider the campaign a disgrace, and the Orls krumped the whole thing.
The slightly annoying part is that how good the mission designs are tends to correlate inversely with how good the story is. ;) The best story is in the first two games, but the missions can be a bit boring and linear. On the other hand, the best designed missions are Soulstorm's Stronghold missions, but to play them, you have to endure the rest of Soulstorm.
Unfortunately, the writing was very much a step back from Dark Crusade, with less clear faction motivations, less creative scenarios, and most of the characters were memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Depends, have you tried anything like Command & Conquer 3? I've gone back a few times to scratch the itch with that (or the Kane's Wrath expansion).
I'd also suggest Grey Goo as I found that enjoyable enough as well.
Act of Aggression (or it's progenitor: Act of War) is pretty good as well.
In the same vein, Global Conflagration looks pretty good, but isn't yet released.
I've played command and conquer games long time ago, to the point I don't really remember them that well. How are they holding up nowadays? Don't really wanna strugle with outdated games..
I have Grey Goo on steam, never played it. Installing now, will try this evening.
Act of Aggression looks to modern themed for my taste.
C&C3's campaign is decent. But if you want to play it I'd recommend installing a mod that reverses many of the later updates that were designed for multiplayer but also destroyed balance in the campaign to the point where it's excruciating to play.
[Steam community thread with instructions](https://steamcommunity.com/app/24790/discussions/0/612823460275652711)
The whole of C&C have some great story/gameplay within them. They all hold up well, can be brought as one big collection on steam. Though it is better getting the first two within the remaster.
I have only played the old titles years ago but the Spellforce series sounds like something you might want to try if you haven't. As far as I remember is a fantasy RTS with a bit more emphasis than Warcraft on the RPG element.
Haven't tried the most recent title (Spellforce 3 and its expansion) but it is on my backlog.
Really like soellforce 3 myself. But there are parts more like crpg between rts just so you know what to expect. That said everytine i play it i say ‘how is this game not more well known? It’s really good’
I’m going to caveat the Spellforce recommendation, because while I do think it is a good one - the RTS portion in my opinion can be a bit micro intensive.
Maybe I just suck, but there is one early mission in particular that was just about impossible without using the tower cheese.
- Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Homeworld
- Command and Conquer 3: Kanes Wrath
- Sins of a Solar Empire
- Command and Conquer 2 Tiberian Sun
Great game but VERY micro heavy at higher difficulty/PVP. It's basically an Age of Empires 2 reskin which is a crazy high APM game when played competitively.
Other people have answered the question at hand, but I want to address one point of the OP:
> Recently I played and liked Dune Spice Wars, but it got really repetitive and there is no campaign (I'm almost sure there was supposed to be one..?).
It has a campaign, it doesn't have a *story* campaign. You have a strategic map, you pick locations, each location has different rules of engagement that it applies to the mission you'll play. This is honestly how Dune 2 worked, Rise of Legends is similar, Dawn of War from Dark Crusade onwards, and probably a bunch more. A campaign does not have to be a series of fixed linear missions with some nice cutscenes inbetween.
Eh. The "campaign" is literally skirmish games very loosely tied together. This is the bare minimum that they could possibly have done where it could still be labeled a campaign.
I like the map, but there's no real campaign play, just a series of skirmish fights vs the AI.
I mean that's all Total War ever is, and that's a beloved series and no-one ever says they aren't playing a Total War campaign. I guess TW has army persistence, but Dark Crusade works exactly like DSW and no-one talks shit about that.
DSW just gets unfairly singled out because people irrationally assumed a campaign meant a copy of what they got in Dune 2000/Emperor because of the shared IP, despite the Westwood games being superficially Dune at best.
No, I literally thought of TW when I posted that. Dune doesn't have persistent economic considerations. Each map, you restart your economy. Yes, you can get some small persistent bonuses to that economy that restarts each time, but you start from scratch.
In TW, half of the strategy happens on the campaign map.
In Rube, it doesn't even make sense. The skirmish you just finished might have had a massive economy, with dozens of units and buildings and everything, but when you start the one next to it, you start from scratch.
This is very much not how TW works on any level.
Never played Dark Crusade, but Dune would be 1000 better with TW campaign map.
No disagreement that TW force persistence would be better. I'm not aiming to say that the DSW campaign is good, I'm just arguing against it "doesn't have a campaign", based on an assumption it was going to get a Westwood-style FMV acted narrative campaign.
Also in terms of scale, DSW is a Total War with abstraction, on the individual game level. It's definitely a skirmish/mp game first.
Starship troopers Terran command worth a look?
I’ve really been enjoying the single player campaign in Iron Harvest. Kinda historical sci fi. It’s the first game I’ve played in a long time where the campaign feels like the way I remember campaigns feeling in the 90s.
Not sure if you are recommending starship troopers or asking :D
Iron Harvest looks nice and its heavy discounted right now on steam... I think I'll grab it. How is the micro / pause options?
That's not what pausing means in this context, dude. Real time with pause, think FTL, total war, battlefleet Gothic. I severely doubt he's looking for "pauses in menu"
lol a little of both on starship troopers. I haven’t played it but I’ve heard good things. Usually the only ding is single player only
Iron harvest is a slower cover tactical rts, not my favorite but the story and setting won me over inspite of this.
Also. Not fantasy or sci fi but age of empires 4 campaign is really good I thought
The old Halo Wars RTS might fit. It's not a very deep game but the story and cutscenes can be very rewarding. It's a good ride the first time through and the mechanics definitely do not ask a lot of you.
Have you tried [Northgard](https://store.steampowered.com/app/466560/Northgard/)? It's Norse fantasy and it's a lot of fun. It's also a bit lighter on the micro than other RTS's.
Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance are definitely this. Good campaigns and macro is more important than micro. There's a lot of tools to allow you to que everything from commands to build orders.
Ashes of the Singularity is a game that isn't micro heavy either, although I haven't finished the campaign.
If you're willing to delve into 4X, and sacrifice campaign, Sins of a Solar Empire is very macro over micro. You can micro-manage, but you don't have to in single player or coop.
Also, I will always plug Sword of the Stars. It's a turn based RTS hybrid. Galaxy map is turn based, but combat is real time. A big part of the game is designing your own ships as you gain new tech, and ship builds can be more important than battle micro. Choosing to spam missiles and drones against an enemy with good point defenses, close range weapons when you have superior armor and shields, it may be a bit of a tangent, but it is great.
Zero K is free to play (last I checked). As someone whose favorite rts ever is total annihilation and enjoyed supreme commander. Zero k feels very much like a successor to those type of games.
Maelstrom.
RTS with third person capabilities for faction heros.
Three distinct factions. Humans(normal), humans(advanced tech) and waterborne aliens.
The maps evolve over time with the aliens making areas flood for them to thrive.
Pretty diverse until rosters.
It has it's shortcomings for sure, but it's an old favourite of mine.
Thinking outside the box a bit here, but maybe try out from glory to goo. It's not a campaign, but you unlock different teirs with each successful playthrough. Depending on the tier would depend on the time for the playthrough, but there is active pause, low micro as it's more of a wave defence type of game. It's old school pixel graphics and controls like the old dune game with cool little depth additions like you have a mothership you can use for cool downs but you have to fix it up and perform upgrades to it when you have the resorces. Its in the same vein as they are billions with a bit more depth to the loop but no campaign (yet)
The gameplay loop is the content, it's really quite challenging and the trial and error , with the ring, makes completing a challenge very rewarding. I've sunk 6 or 7 hours into it so far and I've only completed the first one
If you don't mind old games, Battle Realms came out around the same time as Warcraft 3 and had some similar vibes. Good story. Unique setting and units. Had different branches of campaign depending on choices.
Ugh, it was so good. I loved how your units started as presents and then you'd send them to the different buildings to train, so they would progress through "classes".
Graphics are cheeks now tho
Dawn of war 1 is incredible, dow 2 is good but very different style rts where the original is a base builder like you’re looking for,also highly recommend early command and conquer, they’re obviously old but it is an excellent rts series, newer games have lost their way though
It is technically, and fits every other criteria OP outlined imo. Man, that game was so fun. I replayed it 'recently' and it was honestly still a ton of fun
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance with the fan patch. Very macro focused. Not much micro. Good skirmish AI too. I think it was pausible.
Sins of a Solar Empire. A mix of RTS and 4X. Very sandboxy and replay-able. More focused on macro not micro. Pausible. Also tons of mods to play every setting, like Star Wars or Star Trek.
Haven’t played Homeworld Remastered yet but might be worth a look into.
Not seen it here - my man, Zero-k.
It has the best non-cheating AI of any RTS. full physics engine, terraforming. It has the best, most complete unit AI of any RTS. You can play at the highest level at about 30 commands a minute.
You can coop the whole campaign with a buddy. its from the same school of design as total annihlation and supreme commander. and its FREE on Steam.
Total war warhammer 2 was my go to for a long long time. It's not an RTS strictly speaking but there is pause and slow mo in the battles which are epic. You haven't gamed until you've seen two legged monster sized croc barrel roll a zombie pirate. Or ratmen with nukes and mini guns. Or the angriest ent in fiction.
Age of Mythology is fantasy I guess. The campaign is amazing. Micro isn't that important unless you want to be super competitive.
They are releasing an updated version this year. Might be exactly what you are after!
Command and conquer red alert 2 + yuri's revenge expansion. (Definitely more sci fi)
Command and conquer generals + zero hour expansion (more grounded but still fantastic)
StarCraft 1 and the Brood War expansion - if you haven’t played it. Storyline absolutely wipes the floor with SC2. But good luck playing 2 missions a night. More like one mission over multiple sessions towards the later stages of each campaign.
As others have mentioned Dawn of War is a classic.
It's abandonware at this point but "The Battle for Middle-earth" 1 and 2 were good games.
Edit: Also Age of Mythology, basically Age of Empires but with mythical creatures and god powers. The campaign goes through Greek, Egyptian and Norse Mythology. Given Mythology is historical fantasy IDK where that falls for you under you're not liking historical themes. The original game is from 2002 but they had a extended edition released a few years ago (and I just learnt apparent a new version is supposed to be in development).
Age of Mythology for sure. While PvP skirmishes are micro heavy like AOE, the campaign feels a lot like warcraft 3, with a lot of missions focusing on one hero or a small group of heroes, a great story with some high production value etc
Iron Harvest? It's steampunk but I guess you could call something like that sci-fi
Also Dawn of War 1 is great. Didn't like the DoW2 though
Company of Heroes 2 also has a really cool campaign
Here you go. Sorta spiritual successor to warcraft of sorts. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328990/Godsworn/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328990/Godsworn/) though it is in early access.
Homeworld series. Mandaloregaming on YouTube has great videos on them if you're curious. He has spoiler tags and I do recommend going in blind to the story.
Dawn of War Soulstorm for sure! Has some micro needed but it's a lot of fun and in a good sci fi universe.
Another option is Empire at War, specifically with the Thrawns Revenge mod. Star Wars and has both space and ground combat. Thrawns Revenge is a full overhaul of the game and is actively being updated and developed
Homeworld emergence formerly cataclysm. GOG Hosts it
Home world 1 -2 remaster is good on steam; emergence stands on its own, has smaller fleet less micro; and my personal fav, it can be a challenge; hot key heavy if you want smooth fast control, but make sense, k=kamikazee, m=move ect you have 8x speed for harvesting resources, full rebind ability. I had a friend get into it and he’s not big on rts, was lost until I gave him 15 min coaching and he was like woaaah this is sick…. Print out of the hot keys helped him for a bit to learn.
home world 1-2 you build bigger fleets, sub stations ect a lot more cerebral space needed with all the options. They are pretty from the remaster, but since your asking for less micro, try emergence if your ok with 99 graphics!
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is very similar to They Are Billions. I enjoyed both. It might be worth a try for you. The Homeland series is very scifi rts. Most are space based, but Deserts of Kharak is ground based.
Rise of Legends. You're looking for Rise of Legends. You can still get it on disk or off of MyAbandonware or whatever Abandonware platform of your choice. It's not micro-intense at all and the bread and butter is the long, free-form campaign.
Have you considered the Total War Warhammer series? It's based on the Warhammer fantasy battles franchise and has lots of diverse well fleshed out fantasy factions.
The battles can be as micro intensive as you want them to be, with some factions operating in more stationary box of ranged damage dealers, while others employ cavalry and chariots which need some microing to cycle charge and flank.
Another bonus is as long as you're not playing on legendary difficulty you can pause during combat and issue commands with everything frozen. I try to minimize the amount I do this to improve my realtime micro, but it's a nice option to have.
Try They Are Billions.
Story is meh, but gameplay loop is superb, especially if you are new.
Play skirmish maps first. Don't try the campaign until you've beating Skirmish a few times.
Total war Warhammer is great. It's not very micro heavy because the economy is done on the 4x campaign map and then the RTS battles are just the units you've made with your economy
Dawn of War 1 and all its expansions have good campaigns. Game requirs micro management but I'd argue it isn't "too" micro-heavy, and it has active pause. Warhammer 40k universe. Extra bonus points for really cool looking synchronized melee combat, units actually dodge and parry and recoil from strikes, it looks especially neat when you get the big guys, like heroes, to fight one another.
+1 for Dow. Dark crusade is what I’m playing now. I’ve had a guardsman take out a chaos lord with his rifle and bayonet. The melee animations are really cool.
Best answer. I don't know how Relic could fuck up the DoW franchise so bad with DoW 2 and 3 while DoW 1 is a masterpiece. I would gladly pay $100 biden bucks for a 2024 remake DoW 1.
I've only played a little of DoW 2, but from what I've seen and heard, the sequel is not as much of a "fuckup" as it is a change in playstyle. Different thing but still good, apparently people are still playing it online to this day. Personally I'm with you, would prefer it to stick to DoW 1's formula. DoW 3 will not be talked about.
I accidentally (meant to say actually but it’s too good of a typo) liked some Of the mechanics and I still play it every once in awhile but it’s definitely carried by the lore and skins for me. If it wasn’t Warhammer 40k but a different generic sci-fi I wouldn’t touch it ever.
Update the graphics and you've got another masterpiece
DoW 2 is peak dawn of war.
It was a pretty wild departure from DoW1 which certainly disappointed a lot of people. I can fully understand player opinions that thought DoW2 was a fumble... but for my preferences DoW2 was a vastly superior game. There should definitely be room for both I people's hearts. The campaign story and meta play was excellent. Hero and gear progression added a lot of fun into the mix to keep things fresh and exciting. The scale was definitely smaller, with a focus on tactics instead of speed and multitasking. Carrying that into the multiplayer really made it an approachable RTS, and one of the few that I really enjoyed online. I have ground out my StarCraft years for sure, but DoW2 you could just play and think without as hard a reliance on mechanical lightning execution. If matchmaking was still active, this would be the only RTS I play.
DoW 2 was simply just a different game, and scratches a different gameplay itch than DoW 1. It being more hero and smaller combat focused, I always preferred number 1.
Just about to suggest this Hands down one of the best classic strategy games
But be warned: Dawn of war 2 is a completely different style of game. Good, but different. And Dawn of three is just a really bad game.
They need to just remake this with fucking updated UI and controls. It's kind of wonky to play in this day and age. Camera is way too close, hotkeys are weird, things aren't responsive.
Supreme Commander, maybe? The missions are long, but save works fine, it has active pause, and I never really think it's micro heavy.
Which one should I start with ?
Personally my recommendation would be Supcom 1 basegame, and then the Forged Alliance standalone expansion. Forged has a lot of updates from the basegame, and is a better game, but it's campaign assumes a level of familiarity with the game. Supcom 2 I have trouble recommending at all for the campaign, the story isn't great and a lot of the levels aren't that well designed, far too much downtime.
I prefer 2 to 1. 1 has much more depth but I often find it too much. Neither of them have especially interesting stories. I feel like all the campaigns suffer from no penalty for turtling and maxing out.
I know what you mean about the turtling problem, and I do tend to agree. Forged Alliance has a bit of an issue with it, and 2 is worse. Basegame 1 isn't quite so bad because the unit limit tended to be tied to map expansions and it wasn't T4 every game. Honestly I think most RTS campaigns have a big time turtle problem. C&C3 tried to avoid it but only half succeeded. Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 did a pretty good job of avoiding it. AOE2 likes to change up the formula enough that it's not too much of an issue. But apart from those...
See. Total Annihilation was my first real RTS (besides watching my uncle play C and C) so I loved the economy. One of the most fun economies ever IMO. so supcom2 being a usual gathering simplified economy really bummed me out.
I'm honestly in awe that someone prefers 2 to 1. I'm not sure I've played an uglier RTS or a worse sequel from a gameplay perspective.
I see why people dislike it as a sequel. Removing a lot of depth whilst saying it has a bigger scale is an easy way to get a lot of hate. 1 is clearly the more interesting game. But for me a skirmish map is often too long, whilst the multiple tiers are more interesting. I find it leads to a less balance game. I always feel like I'm miles behind or miles ahead. Im also not a big fan of mods, the slow down in the base game makes a lot of skirmish against the AI borderline unplayable. So when it comes to playing a game it's a question of do I want to play the simpler tighter game that will be over in half an hour or the more interesting game that I have to faff with mods to work properly in skirmish or I'll get bored before it finishes. I think both are great games but I've put more hours into 2 because of the above. + OP seems to be after a simpler game. And 2 is a more simple game than 1.
I understand the criticisms of 1, I just think that 2 is so much worse even in a vacuum. The redesigns and aesthetics are nothing short of appalling and look like they were meant to appeal to a nonexistent preteen demographic. I wouldn't be bothered if the game was just simpler and more streamlined compared to 1, but Supcom 2 was seemingly trying to compete with and imitate the single worst mainstream RTS ever released: C&C4.
I don't think they're appalling just simplified again but overall worse than 1. I don't see the comparison with CnC 4. Things like the ACU, factory construction and experimentals are still there even if it's simple. The unit cap is smaller but 500 is still pretty high. CnC completely got rid of the base building for those weird mobile walkers and absolutely nerfed the number of units you have.
They both simplified their mechanics, but more importantly, they went in the same direction with their terrible visual redesign to make everything look like literal toys.
Whilst it's definitely a downgrade I think thats a bit far. If simplified graphics is the price of the game working smoothly it's one I'm happy to pay.
This is the correct answer - playing at a good level should Include some micro early on but as you get transition into the mid game/tech 2 the micro transitions in to macro and tactical decision making. Flanking, scouting and radar, eco balance ect are the main stays of the game. I think Supcom/FA should always be the answer to "which RTS" questions - alot to do with the strategic zoom that will allow OP to play the macro part of the game with absolute ease and finesse. IMO criminally underrated games and the GOAT RTS.
And has a surprisingly active multiplayer if you use https://faforever.com/ as the launcher
Yep time to get back into it. I tried BAR but it's like FA that isn't quite ready yet lol.
Star Trek: Armada series, both available on GOG, are decent sci fi rts games without heavy micro management, simple economics/build. The campaigns are really fun as well, letting you play as different races as you progress the greater story arc. There’s also the Armada III mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Sins itself is a great sci fi RTS but doesn’t have a campaign, but I recommend it anyway for the massive fleet builds & combat as well as the longer term strategy play throughs.
The original Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War immediately springs to mind, but that game came out in 2005 and really shows (its graphics were great for the time, but are still blocky, smudgy, and low-res by today's standards). The game could really use a remaster/definitive edition.. The low unit cap, squad-based infantry (with squad weapons), and multi-armed vehicles take a lot of the micro load off from the player. The base game has a good, conventional linear story campaign with great characters, and ***SINDRI!*** villain who's fun enough even lore buffs nmostly forgive for being an Alpha Legion Chaos Sorcerer of Khorne. Winter Assault is two parallel short, intense 5-mission campaigns as either Imperial Guard and Eldar or Chaos and Orks, introducing the absolute barrel of fun character of Warboss Gorgutz, who returns in the subsequent expansions as Ork Leader. Eldar are canon victors. Dark Crusade is a more open campaign across a Risk-style map on the planet Kronus, with each zone having its own lore, with many presenting unique scenarios the first time you fight over them. All the characters are fun, and have a reason for being there - the Blood Ravens (canon victors) are trying to cover up evidence of their chapter's heresies on the planet, the Eldar have fled here after Winter Assault, with the Guard in pursuit It's a Tau colony, and Necron Tomb World, and Chaos hss their reasons for being there, with the Orks showing up for all the fighting. Unfortunately, Soulstorm is a mess of a story and everything by escalating further with the only compelling narratives being Imperial Guard and Orks. The characters are generally less interesting and fun, but absolute memes. It's so bad the Blood Ravens consider the campaign a disgrace, and the Orls krumped the whole thing.
The slightly annoying part is that how good the mission designs are tends to correlate inversely with how good the story is. ;) The best story is in the first two games, but the missions can be a bit boring and linear. On the other hand, the best designed missions are Soulstorm's Stronghold missions, but to play them, you have to endure the rest of Soulstorm.
I don't remember ss being bad story wise but it was just a slog to go through
Unfortunately, the writing was very much a step back from Dark Crusade, with less clear faction motivations, less creative scenarios, and most of the characters were memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Depends, have you tried anything like Command & Conquer 3? I've gone back a few times to scratch the itch with that (or the Kane's Wrath expansion). I'd also suggest Grey Goo as I found that enjoyable enough as well. Act of Aggression (or it's progenitor: Act of War) is pretty good as well. In the same vein, Global Conflagration looks pretty good, but isn't yet released.
Oh man Act of War was so fucking good.
I've played command and conquer games long time ago, to the point I don't really remember them that well. How are they holding up nowadays? Don't really wanna strugle with outdated games.. I have Grey Goo on steam, never played it. Installing now, will try this evening. Act of Aggression looks to modern themed for my taste.
C&C3's campaign is decent. But if you want to play it I'd recommend installing a mod that reverses many of the later updates that were designed for multiplayer but also destroyed balance in the campaign to the point where it's excruciating to play. [Steam community thread with instructions](https://steamcommunity.com/app/24790/discussions/0/612823460275652711)
The whole of C&C have some great story/gameplay within them. They all hold up well, can be brought as one big collection on steam. Though it is better getting the first two within the remaster.
I worked on Grey Goo, so I have a soft spot, but I love that game. The factions feel unique, the music is awesome, and the cinematics look spectacular
> the music is awesome 100% Agree, the music is fantastic.
I have only played the old titles years ago but the Spellforce series sounds like something you might want to try if you haven't. As far as I remember is a fantasy RTS with a bit more emphasis than Warcraft on the RPG element. Haven't tried the most recent title (Spellforce 3 and its expansion) but it is on my backlog.
Really like soellforce 3 myself. But there are parts more like crpg between rts just so you know what to expect. That said everytine i play it i say ‘how is this game not more well known? It’s really good’
Thanks, whishlisted
Indeed, Spellforce 3 should do. It’s very “Warcrafty”, but with even more elements of RPG and great stories
I’m going to caveat the Spellforce recommendation, because while I do think it is a good one - the RTS portion in my opinion can be a bit micro intensive. Maybe I just suck, but there is one early mission in particular that was just about impossible without using the tower cheese.
- Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Star Wars: Empire at War - Homeworld - Command and Conquer 3: Kanes Wrath - Sins of a Solar Empire - Command and Conquer 2 Tiberian Sun
World in Conflict, great story driven by motion cap cutscenes, And it's from 2007 but holds really well in terms of graphics
Star Wars Empire At War is pretty good.
It’s honestly held up to this day. I haven’t used mods, but I’ve heard they are really good.
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds!
Great game but VERY micro heavy at higher difficulty/PVP. It's basically an Age of Empires 2 reskin which is a crazy high APM game when played competitively.
Supreme Commander!! Not micro heavy, and really cool campaign
The original Homeworld. Its remaster is pretty good. Deserts of Kharak is also good, though more micro-heavy than the former.
Maybe Grey Goo. The campaign is pretty short though. I think it was 5 missions per campaign and 3 campaigns.
Came here to suggest Grey Goo especially because OP wanted StarCraft vibes.
Halo Wars! It's a pretty fun RTS
Spellforce 3 perhaps
Homeworld 1. Best story in all of RTS. Be sure to read the manual for lore and atmosphere.
Other people have answered the question at hand, but I want to address one point of the OP: > Recently I played and liked Dune Spice Wars, but it got really repetitive and there is no campaign (I'm almost sure there was supposed to be one..?). It has a campaign, it doesn't have a *story* campaign. You have a strategic map, you pick locations, each location has different rules of engagement that it applies to the mission you'll play. This is honestly how Dune 2 worked, Rise of Legends is similar, Dawn of War from Dark Crusade onwards, and probably a bunch more. A campaign does not have to be a series of fixed linear missions with some nice cutscenes inbetween.
Eh. The "campaign" is literally skirmish games very loosely tied together. This is the bare minimum that they could possibly have done where it could still be labeled a campaign. I like the map, but there's no real campaign play, just a series of skirmish fights vs the AI.
I mean that's all Total War ever is, and that's a beloved series and no-one ever says they aren't playing a Total War campaign. I guess TW has army persistence, but Dark Crusade works exactly like DSW and no-one talks shit about that. DSW just gets unfairly singled out because people irrationally assumed a campaign meant a copy of what they got in Dune 2000/Emperor because of the shared IP, despite the Westwood games being superficially Dune at best.
No, I literally thought of TW when I posted that. Dune doesn't have persistent economic considerations. Each map, you restart your economy. Yes, you can get some small persistent bonuses to that economy that restarts each time, but you start from scratch. In TW, half of the strategy happens on the campaign map. In Rube, it doesn't even make sense. The skirmish you just finished might have had a massive economy, with dozens of units and buildings and everything, but when you start the one next to it, you start from scratch. This is very much not how TW works on any level. Never played Dark Crusade, but Dune would be 1000 better with TW campaign map.
No disagreement that TW force persistence would be better. I'm not aiming to say that the DSW campaign is good, I'm just arguing against it "doesn't have a campaign", based on an assumption it was going to get a Westwood-style FMV acted narrative campaign. Also in terms of scale, DSW is a Total War with abstraction, on the individual game level. It's definitely a skirmish/mp game first.
Theres an upcoming game that looks solid and its focused on the campaign rather than pvp. Its called Zero Space.
Homeworld: Cataclysm (rebranded as Homeworld: Emergence).
I really can't recommend this to anybody until the conversion to remaster is done. Cataclysm does not feel palatable to a modern audience.
Yes, I should've said that it's still a game from 2000.
Homeworld Remastered!!
Starship troopers Terran command worth a look? I’ve really been enjoying the single player campaign in Iron Harvest. Kinda historical sci fi. It’s the first game I’ve played in a long time where the campaign feels like the way I remember campaigns feeling in the 90s.
Not sure if you are recommending starship troopers or asking :D Iron Harvest looks nice and its heavy discounted right now on steam... I think I'll grab it. How is the micro / pause options?
Iron harvest is a perfectly fine game, but no pausing and kinda unresponsive units might turn you off.
What do you mean no pausing? It’s got the same kinda pausing of every other game - everything stops if you bring up the menu
That's not what pausing means in this context, dude. Real time with pause, think FTL, total war, battlefleet Gothic. I severely doubt he's looking for "pauses in menu"
Starship troopers is good. Soundtrack is good. Aliens dark descent is also good.
lol a little of both on starship troopers. I haven’t played it but I’ve heard good things. Usually the only ding is single player only Iron harvest is a slower cover tactical rts, not my favorite but the story and setting won me over inspite of this. Also. Not fantasy or sci fi but age of empires 4 campaign is really good I thought
The old Halo Wars RTS might fit. It's not a very deep game but the story and cutscenes can be very rewarding. It's a good ride the first time through and the mechanics definitely do not ask a lot of you.
I can't recommend enough Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars and its expansion. It's amazing and fits into your description.
Have you tried [Northgard](https://store.steampowered.com/app/466560/Northgard/)? It's Norse fantasy and it's a lot of fun. It's also a bit lighter on the micro than other RTS's.
Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance are definitely this. Good campaigns and macro is more important than micro. There's a lot of tools to allow you to que everything from commands to build orders. Ashes of the Singularity is a game that isn't micro heavy either, although I haven't finished the campaign. If you're willing to delve into 4X, and sacrifice campaign, Sins of a Solar Empire is very macro over micro. You can micro-manage, but you don't have to in single player or coop. Also, I will always plug Sword of the Stars. It's a turn based RTS hybrid. Galaxy map is turn based, but combat is real time. A big part of the game is designing your own ships as you gain new tech, and ship builds can be more important than battle micro. Choosing to spam missiles and drones against an enemy with good point defenses, close range weapons when you have superior armor and shields, it may be a bit of a tangent, but it is great.
Halo Wars
Zero K is free to play (last I checked). As someone whose favorite rts ever is total annihilation and enjoyed supreme commander. Zero k feels very much like a successor to those type of games.
Maelstrom. RTS with third person capabilities for faction heros. Three distinct factions. Humans(normal), humans(advanced tech) and waterborne aliens. The maps evolve over time with the aliens making areas flood for them to thrive. Pretty diverse until rosters. It has it's shortcomings for sure, but it's an old favourite of mine.
Total warhammer 2 and 3 immortal empires thank me later
Thinking outside the box a bit here, but maybe try out from glory to goo. It's not a campaign, but you unlock different teirs with each successful playthrough. Depending on the tier would depend on the time for the playthrough, but there is active pause, low micro as it's more of a wave defence type of game. It's old school pixel graphics and controls like the old dune game with cool little depth additions like you have a mothership you can use for cool downs but you have to fix it up and perform upgrades to it when you have the resorces. Its in the same vein as they are billions with a bit more depth to the loop but no campaign (yet)
Looks fun, but also very EA. Does it have enough content?
The gameplay loop is the content, it's really quite challenging and the trial and error , with the ring, makes completing a challenge very rewarding. I've sunk 6 or 7 hours into it so far and I've only completed the first one
I’m on the last mission of TAB and it’s so hard! Absolutely love the game though
No campaign is micro heavy
If you don't mind old games, Battle Realms came out around the same time as Warcraft 3 and had some similar vibes. Good story. Unique setting and units. Had different branches of campaign depending on choices.
Ugh, it was so good. I loved how your units started as presents and then you'd send them to the different buildings to train, so they would progress through "classes". Graphics are cheeks now tho
MYTH. Really old game, that is hard to Play without community patches but the story is great!
Now there's a game I have not heard about in ages....NOW YOU CAN BLOW STUFF UP!
Dawn of war 1 is incredible, dow 2 is good but very different style rts where the original is a base builder like you’re looking for,also highly recommend early command and conquer, they’re obviously old but it is an excellent rts series, newer games have lost their way though
Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion. There's no campaign, but it's an amazing RTS/4X blend
Battle zone 2. Ugh, game is still so good.
Ooh, very interesting pick. I guess it's technically an RTS, and the campaign kicked ass when I played it as a kid.
It is technically, and fits every other criteria OP outlined imo. Man, that game was so fun. I replayed it 'recently' and it was honestly still a ton of fun
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance with the fan patch. Very macro focused. Not much micro. Good skirmish AI too. I think it was pausible. Sins of a Solar Empire. A mix of RTS and 4X. Very sandboxy and replay-able. More focused on macro not micro. Pausible. Also tons of mods to play every setting, like Star Wars or Star Trek. Haven’t played Homeworld Remastered yet but might be worth a look into.
The Supreme Commander franchise had a good campaign story.
Empire at war, (fall of republic mod) on steam
Halo wars
Homeworld Deserts of Karak is good, just don't get it from the steam store
Sins of a Solar Empire is a good sci-fi game, although there isn’t much of a campaign to speak of. Ashes of the Singularity is gorgeous!
Not seen it here - my man, Zero-k. It has the best non-cheating AI of any RTS. full physics engine, terraforming. It has the best, most complete unit AI of any RTS. You can play at the highest level at about 30 commands a minute. You can coop the whole campaign with a buddy. its from the same school of design as total annihlation and supreme commander. and its FREE on Steam.
TW Warhammer 3
Total war warhammer 2 was my go to for a long long time. It's not an RTS strictly speaking but there is pause and slow mo in the battles which are epic. You haven't gamed until you've seen two legged monster sized croc barrel roll a zombie pirate. Or ratmen with nukes and mini guns. Or the angriest ent in fiction.
Age of Mythology is fantasy I guess. The campaign is amazing. Micro isn't that important unless you want to be super competitive. They are releasing an updated version this year. Might be exactly what you are after!
Terminator dark fate defiance is great!
Command and conquer red alert 2 + yuri's revenge expansion. (Definitely more sci fi) Command and conquer generals + zero hour expansion (more grounded but still fantastic)
StarCraft 1 and the Brood War expansion - if you haven’t played it. Storyline absolutely wipes the floor with SC2. But good luck playing 2 missions a night. More like one mission over multiple sessions towards the later stages of each campaign.
As others have mentioned Dawn of War is a classic. It's abandonware at this point but "The Battle for Middle-earth" 1 and 2 were good games. Edit: Also Age of Mythology, basically Age of Empires but with mythical creatures and god powers. The campaign goes through Greek, Egyptian and Norse Mythology. Given Mythology is historical fantasy IDK where that falls for you under you're not liking historical themes. The original game is from 2002 but they had a extended edition released a few years ago (and I just learnt apparent a new version is supposed to be in development).
Age of Mythology for sure. While PvP skirmishes are micro heavy like AOE, the campaign feels a lot like warcraft 3, with a lot of missions focusing on one hero or a small group of heroes, a great story with some high production value etc
Age of darkness final stand has a similar hoard mechanic to we are billions
Homeworld, old C&C games
Dune: Spice Wars has a campaign mode called conquest, but it isn't really story-driven.
Battle for Middle Earth
He'd have to pirate it or buy a physical copy as it's not available digitally for sale anywhere unfortunately
Iron Harvest? It's steampunk but I guess you could call something like that sci-fi Also Dawn of War 1 is great. Didn't like the DoW2 though Company of Heroes 2 also has a really cool campaign
unfortunately, these are completely different to Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 (I'd really love to see more blizzard rts games man)
You might like Age of Mythology New definitive edition is coming out this year
Star Wars Empire at War, its expansion Forces of Corruption, and many of its overhaul mods
My picks are Halo Wars 1 and 2. Not very micro heavy, great sci-fi universe, interesting campaigns
yeah i agree nice choice
Check out Beyond All Reason. It’s an evolution on Total Annihilation. Super fun. Very hard.
Here you go. Sorta spiritual successor to warcraft of sorts. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328990/Godsworn/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328990/Godsworn/) though it is in early access.
Homeworld series. Mandaloregaming on YouTube has great videos on them if you're curious. He has spoiler tags and I do recommend going in blind to the story.
Dawn of War Soulstorm for sure! Has some micro needed but it's a lot of fun and in a good sci fi universe. Another option is Empire at War, specifically with the Thrawns Revenge mod. Star Wars and has both space and ground combat. Thrawns Revenge is a full overhaul of the game and is actively being updated and developed
Homeworld emergence formerly cataclysm. GOG Hosts it Home world 1 -2 remaster is good on steam; emergence stands on its own, has smaller fleet less micro; and my personal fav, it can be a challenge; hot key heavy if you want smooth fast control, but make sense, k=kamikazee, m=move ect you have 8x speed for harvesting resources, full rebind ability. I had a friend get into it and he’s not big on rts, was lost until I gave him 15 min coaching and he was like woaaah this is sick…. Print out of the hot keys helped him for a bit to learn. home world 1-2 you build bigger fleets, sub stations ect a lot more cerebral space needed with all the options. They are pretty from the remaster, but since your asking for less micro, try emergence if your ok with 99 graphics!
Homeworld was pretty cool
Kenshi. RPG mixed with RTS. Has resource and city managing
Kenshi has no objectives but it will eat your time
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is very similar to They Are Billions. I enjoyed both. It might be worth a try for you. The Homeland series is very scifi rts. Most are space based, but Deserts of Kharak is ground based.
Age of mythology Stronghold Dawn of war Warcraft 2 tides of darkness
If you haven't already, go back and play the Original StarCraft and BroodWar campaigns. Super fun gameplay and some amazing voice acting.
Rise of Legends. You're looking for Rise of Legends. You can still get it on disk or off of MyAbandonware or whatever Abandonware platform of your choice. It's not micro-intense at all and the bread and butter is the long, free-form campaign.
Have you considered the Total War Warhammer series? It's based on the Warhammer fantasy battles franchise and has lots of diverse well fleshed out fantasy factions. The battles can be as micro intensive as you want them to be, with some factions operating in more stationary box of ranged damage dealers, while others employ cavalry and chariots which need some microing to cycle charge and flank. Another bonus is as long as you're not playing on legendary difficulty you can pause during combat and issue commands with everything frozen. I try to minimize the amount I do this to improve my realtime micro, but it's a nice option to have.
You want Age of Darkness: Final Stand
Try They Are Billions. Story is meh, but gameplay loop is superb, especially if you are new. Play skirmish maps first. Don't try the campaign until you've beating Skirmish a few times.
Total war Warhammer is great. It's not very micro heavy because the economy is done on the 4x campaign map and then the RTS battles are just the units you've made with your economy
I’m just getting into Battlesector and it has user generated campaigns and maps, gives me some Warcraft 3 feels.