Strategy in RTS?

Remove all ads!

I'm finding that the problem with RTS games is that there is no actual strategy involved. Things are happening too fast to go about ordering units into brilliant positions. It's easier to just charge in with one huge army than zoom around the entire map to set up individual battles.
So, is there such thing as real-time with pause strategy? And failing that, any turn based games out at the moment (or not out. I'm sure I can go hunting in the depths of the internet if need be)?

 

Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps

 

Kohan - Ahriman's Gift is definitely a tactical RTS, especially with the option to configure companies of soldiers to your liking. It's an extremely hard game if you don't use tactics. My friend didn't, and he couldn't complete the second level. That said, I did use strategy, and couldn't complete the fourth. I'm not great at strategy though, and the limit of my tactics is attacking from the rear to kill of the various magic-users and placing beefy but slow units in the path of retreat of the enemy so they get hacked to chunks, and slamming cheap scout cavalry into combat so that fleeing companies get (hopefully) run down. The morale system helps too, and throwing in magickers with fear-causing spells enhances the chance of fleeing. There are many other tactical features that can be used, such as terrain, entrenching companies and extending supply range.

 

Medieval: total war. the game itself is turn based, the battles are real time, but with a speed slider and a pause option and if you don't use strategies in this game, you will lose. It has cool moral system, where the units checks if there flanks are cowered and so on. and the terrain plays a huge part in the battles, cavalry and archers becomes useless if the enemy hides in forests, your units slow down if the walks up hills, while they get speed bonus running dawn and so on the game is great.

 

I'll second what Equester says.

M:TW is a bloody awesome game! Can't wait for R:TW!

 

Yep, Medieval was great, and so was Shogun. Lots of tactical stuff inthere. Another one which you can't win unless you make use of careful planning is Praetorians. If you don't make use of the dense forests, narrow mountainpasses and ridges, and scout the area before marching in, you're gonna have one hell of a time to beat that game.

In case you never heard of it, here's a site with some screenshots.

 

I rented 'MediEvil' for a while and found it quite amusing. Was it 10000 units? Anywayz, it guarantees a lot of fun tactical hours. Yey! Now with the Roman expansion coming up, can't wait to play it once.

 

Oh Rome: total war is not an Expansion, but the third game in the Total war series. And the new options and improvements makes it sound great and the graphic is even better instead of 2d units they will finally be 3d.By the way there is an expansion for Medieval called Viking invasion

 

I used to really enjoy "Age of Empires/Age of Kings"...until I actually tried playing against other 'live' people. Talk about a humiliating experience.

Unless you were fast, you were doomed...little if any strategy. Rush...Rush...Rush...and they all learn the hot recipe of the day, and practice it to perfection. They don't seem to really play, but just go through some well-practices motions.

Ruined the fun for me.

 

I know what you mean. I like to quietly build up my economy, see how things work, and much later i start thinking of going to war. My brother once played an online session of Age of Kings with a friend of his. My brother is kinda like me, so he started building and upgrading, but didn't start exploring yet. His opponent on the other hand, build immediately a dockyard, created a transportship, loaded all his villagers in it, and started looking for my brothers island. Once he got there, he started building, loads of sentry towers, a barracks, archery, and stables. out of my brother's sight of course. Then he sent a scout into his camp, had his soldiers chase him, and the waiting troops and sentry towers did the rest.

Tricky move, but not my idea of playing a fun game.

 

if your going to play age of empires i would recommend playing the custom scenario games. Some of them actually require strategy...in the upper ranks at least. hero fest, archers blood, etc.

 

No. They suck.

Practice Random Map as much as possible. Then play 1v1 arabia online. It's he only way to get good.

And btw, Hacken Slash. You obviously know nothing about AoC. The skill is in the rush. No one map is ever the same, so as well as practicing a lot to try and gain perfection (in all areas I might add), you need to know how to think on your feet and adapt to situations.

It requires ALOT of skill.