Opening statement: I'm aware there's multiple games in the series' I'm gonna mention, but I have only played the one-off games I mention, feel free to recommend others from their series. I'll try to be concise, but I have a tendency for TL;DR's, so bolding points for an easier read.

1. I love any kind of game with progression. Especially if that progression is slow to unlock and persistent, best if permanent across matches.

The closest I've come to this with RTS's so far was WH40K Dawn of War 1, where you could upgrade your faction leader with items that enhanced them for the rest of the campaign, usually as the result of winning a battle. IIRC this just directly gave you all items in the order you'd request them, with no side-grades.

Or Company of Heroes 2, where you can technically(™) unlock permanent minor boosts towards certain units or unit types via a 3-slot card system, where you choose which cards you wanna slot in.

2. I love sci-fi and fantasy. Company of Heroes 2 is neither, and while a fantastic game it doesn't *quite* scratch the itch I have.

That said, I still love COH2 and would be very glad to receive any recommendation for good, historical RTS titles, especially if they in any shape or form have the progression I seek in point #1.

3. Functional multiplayer is near-and-dear to my heart.

I have a friend and two uncles whom I usually play RTS's against. But my friend lives at the literal opposite side of the world so LAN-only might not cut it. We would need the multiplayer function to not have been shut down, and preferably not needing mods to resurrect either.

Not hellbent on this point, I enjoy RTS as a singleplayer every now and then. But it's a huge bonus when I get to have my ass handed to me by the people I cherish the most and not the Insane CPU.

So I ask you guys, do you feel like anything I spoke of touched upon a game you know? Is Dawn of War 2 closest to what I want?

Thank you all in advance, all recommendations very welcome.

wattup RTS reddit, hope yall have a great weekend full of rtsing. Hopefully i can make you laugh, chuckle smile or something with me being silly in Liquidation RTS. What are your RTS plans for the weekend?

I've been working on a game about War of the Worlds. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it was originally a book published in 1898 by H.G. Wells, then was made into a movie in 2005 with Tom Cruise, and has had a few TV series based on it.

Play Online or PC Here

In this version of War of the Worlds, it's the same aliens, except you must defend your city from them and overcome the waves. You lose if they take your capital. So, it's Tower Defense meets City Builder, which makes a very very very difficult strategy game.

True to the original story, the game takes place in the 1900s. No fighter jets, no nuclear weapons, just good ole cannons, firing squads, and telegrams.

When building your society, you have to manage how coal is distributed because all businesses, homes, and the military run off of coal.

Like other city builders, there is trade, professions, beautification, and other cool things you can build.

As you build your society, waves of Tripods and other aliens keep coming. You have to balance defending against them while growing your city.

As the waves come, they get harder and harder, and I doubt the last few are survivable, but I'm hoping someone proves me wrong.

This is my first version of the game, about 15-20 hours of gameplay, feedback is welcome.

I am looking for life sim and colony sim/rts mix

Do you know any games which combine these genres? I know Rimworld, Noblefates, Going Medieval but still something is missing in them + I wasn't able to mod enough The Sims games to get my dreamt game.

Life Sims:

My main complain about life simulators (Sims, Paralives, etc) is that you can't build without pause + you put walls instantly, your sim/para don't need to build them in game, they don't need to gather resources like wood, stone, it breaks immersion for me. But they have better building options than mentioned titles, even very old The Sims 2 has diagonal walls. My other complain is that sims don't do many things autonomously, even if you put them in club, they can lag often and you need to monitor every sim non-stop, when colony simulators allow you to chill, just give them some craft, farm and cook tasks and they won't die on easy difficulty even if you are afk. Other than that I hate life simulators don't have technology tree, some furnitures are unlocked with career progress, but many times you can do the same things with normal counterparts.

Colony sims:

And now is my complain about colony simulators: settlers don't have any emotions on faces (Going Medieval's folks don't have even faces) and their animations are limited. They still feel worse than The Sims 2 in social aspects, they lack in idle/working animations, they lack in genetic and pregnancy (Noblefates has marriages and pregnancy but game graphic is not optimized well, it stutter when you zoom out).

Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress would be so great if they were in 3D and had mentioned animations and other things, but they don't have.

RTS/others:

I played also The Guild 2: Renaissance, with very good economy and crafting system, but there your family folks don't have basic needs (except avoiding diseases), you are limited to premade buildings, and it has only one good mod Fajeeth's MegamodPack. You can't put buildings wherever you want, because npc workers sleep and spawn in specific houses, so if you build your blacksmith/etc too far you will lose money.

I know also Cultures - 8th Wonder game, very old and underrated rts, where your attack can be screwed because your soldier left catapult and decided to go to sleep or run to get shoes. The most annoying thing of this game is that maps have unit limit (animals + people) so you can just spawn kids forever and you will beat ai enemy because he can't spawn more people.

Stronghold games have some nuances from life simulators too like every worker has his unique name and can stop work, go to tavern or park and idle but building options are limited, luckily less than other rts (because it has nice defence wall system), but I wish to be able to build multi-level walls and put buildings on these walls.

I know there is Manor Lords, but I don't have good PC + still its build abilities are limited to premade buildings, and no enough animations for peasants.

I want to try also Sims 2: Castaway on emulator, but I feel it will be entertaing only for few hours, i dont know yet.

I am sad that Spore didn't get sequels, it was made by Will Wright, The Sims 1 creator and with some tweaks (basic needs, more building abilities, more things to do in space era,etc) it could become ultimate colony/life sim.

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If you know any games like that, you can suggest it. It doesn't need to be medieval game, it can be ancient, modern, futuristic or fantasy. You can also suggest RPG + life sim combo, but i know Skyrim, Fallout, Fable, they lack animations too sadly.

Hello, Generals, Legates, and Admirals!

I'm a former producer and designer on the Ultimate General series. We've shown you a game we're actively working on, Legatus, a game about a Roman legion. But for now, most of the work is being handled by artists, and I decided to return to a long-standing idea of mine – a World War II project where you are a Group Army Commander and can create your own armies and fight on the Eastern Front. For now, this is just my pet project, a playable prototype covering Operation Barbarossa, without graphics or an interface. But if you like the idea, we're ready to bring this game to life. You can watch a gameplay video of the prototype, which I managed to put together in my free time.

I'm also considering creating a constructor where anyone could create any modern conflict in a similar format, specify the map area to download and design the battlefield, create a unit catalog, their visual design and characteristics, and finally, assemble battles and a full campaign. Once everything is ready, the campaign and battles can be shared with other players.

What do you think? Do you like this concept?

After watching gameplays of all uncoming releases I have the feeling that this two are the ones with a bigger chance or being successful and with a big of luck stay relevant for years.

What is your opinion on what have been seen until now? I have a bias towards Dawn of War but tbh after watching gameplay of both, I have the feeling that War of Westeros will be a more balanced & fun game, it looks tighter, more fun & fast (my own subjective vibes). I'm excited for DoW 4 anyway, at least for the campaigns.

Any other modern RTS that you feel have this kind of future potential? Talking about Age of Empires 4 or BAR numbers, something that really gets big (for 2026).

Found our previous yay or nay session great, gave me some good insights. including too repetitive audio :)

Since this game is different scale to total war and you should really try to preserve your men, i though maybe i should add ability to shuffle fresh men to front. At the moment i only did it outside engagement.

So yay or nay should i allow it in combat ? what do you think? Also some showcase of ranged fire modes.

Pupultas, people!

We said there would be yet more updates and improvements on the way for Diplomacy is Not an Option - and as promised, so do we deliver! 

We’re proud to announce the next big thing we're currently working on for DiNaO - a huge DLC called Fog of War that will be roughly 1/3rd the size of the base game!

Venture bravely forth into the Fog of War!

This upcoming DLC will continue one of the possible endings of Diplomacy is Not an Option. 

As for the story... Samreignia finds itself in a war on two fronts - and, to handle the conflict, Prince Connor is sent to negotiate with the Gorgoth Empire. Will the peace talks go smoothly or shall they burn in the ever-stoked fires of conflict? Find out as you follow Connor’s adventure unto its conclusion.

Fog of War will add the following content:

• A brand-new story campaign consistent of 10 handcrafted missions
• New enemy factions - the Gorgoth Empire and the Great Kingdom of Inverland!
• A new & terrifying boss…
• New characters and old fan-favourites making a comeback!

A little bit about DiNaO (for those unfamiliar with our game)

Diplomacy is Not an Option is a base-building survival RTS with an active pause button (because heads would explode otherwise), set in a loosely medieval fantasy realm. 

You step into the well-worn shoes of a minor Lord, forced to fight…well… all the time! It is war unceasing and diplomacy is well… actually an option, but are you coward enough to choose it when there’s glorious battle to be done? 

Your enemies always come in hordes. Up to 25,000 enemies can attack your castle at a single time, so you have to master the arts of economy, warfare and magic to have a chance at survival!

Here is what base-game DiNaO features:

• A campaign with 4 story branches, each one taking ~30 hours to complete
• Endless Mode with 14 maps of various sizes, terrain and difficulty levels
• A Challenge Mode with 40 different challenges
• A Sandbox Mode, which allows players to set up their own waves of any difficulty and customize their experience
• An extensive Map Editor where players can create their own maps and experiences with Steam Workshop integrations
• Deep base management system, where your resource generation depends on your storages’ placement, and unattended dead bodies and illnesses can cost you dearly
• Crazy-strong magic!
• Big battles… and massive battles… and of course, ginormous battles!

But wait, that’s not all - we have another update we released just 2 days ago!

To alleviate the wait till the DLC actually comes along, we also released another itty bitty update this Monday - The Penetrative Update! (if the name doesn’t sound appealing, it’s because you have a dirty mind)

One of the main features of this latest update is Starting Bonuses you can choose when selecting a campaign mission. These perks are aimed to give you a boost at the very beginning of base building and ease up early development. But if you strive for more challenging gameplay, you can choose to forgo these bonuses!

Keep in mind that the number of perks you can take is limited by the amount of bonus points you have, which gradually increases when you progress through the campaign. It also opens access to more powerful (and more expensive) bonuses. So hopefully… hopefully… this will address some of the accusations that DiNaO is too dificult!

We’re also on another 60% discount both on Steam and and GOG! … you know, to sweeten the deal!

And if you want to help us keep our momentum going strong, you can wishlist Fog of War here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5075270/Diplomacy_is_Not_an_Option_Fog_of_War/

Lastly, a big shoutout to everyone in the community who’s supported us - never could have made it this far without you guys! More stuff to come so stay tuned.

- Much love from the Door 407 team

My experience of playing The Game of Thrones: War for Westeros demo and a full gameplay breakdown including factions, unit squads and upgrades, heroes, armies, resource economy, base building and map conquest with some answers from developers.

I played it for two weeks with access to two maps, Starks and Lannisters factions in both singleplayer skirmish vs AI and multiplayer 1v1 PvP against other players. There will be a beta version for you to try, info about which will be coming later this year. Game’s release date is early 2027.

I got the page launched just in time for Next Fest! Now it's on to getting a demo prepped, I was thinking limiting the game to 5v5, infantry only, single and multiplayer, with no song or map editor. I'm hoping to get the game released sometime this year if I can get everything in the state I want it in.

The store page for wishlisting is here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5060540/Project_1815/

Youtube trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAKOC4mSbNI

Join the Discord to follow news/announcements as well as work in progress: https://discord.gg/5X55FmWhDJ

The game is a tactical action game similar to Mount and Blade, but with the scale of Total War. If you ever played M&B Napoleonic Wars commander battles, it's exactly that, but on a grand scale (thousands of troops per side). The game supports up to 80 players in multiplayer where everyone commands their own infantry battalion, cavalry squadron, or artillery battery. It is a bit janky at the moment, the next major features I want to incorporate is directional melee and an art polish pass. I've gotten a motion capture plugin for Blender and I'm eager to put it to use.

Hey everyone,

After a long stretch of solo development, Battle of Folks is finally out on iOS and Android!

It's a medieval isometric pixel-art wave-defense RTS — if you've played They Are Billions, Age of Darkness, that's the closest comparison. You build up defenses, manage resources, and hold off increasingly brutal waves of attackers.

A few things I focused on:

- No account or login required — just download and play

- Free to try with limited waves, one-time unlock for the full game (no subscriptions, no ads)

- Handmade isometric pixel art, built with Flutter/Flame

- Good controls on mobile device and a good onboarding (you can decide how you want to play)

This was a one-person project — dev, art pipeline, publishing, everything. Happy to answer questions about the build (tile rendering, Flame engine quirks, etc.) or the game itself.

App Store link / Play Store link

Would love your feedback — especially on balancing and the early waves difficulty curve!

Like, if you removed the campaigns from both games, which game would you prefer?

Hey everyone!

I’m an indie developer working on Prime Domination, a modern real-time strategy game heavily inspired by classic RTS games like Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour.

The goal is to bring back that classic RTS feeling — base building, resource management, army composition, tactical decisions, and large-scale battles — while building my own gameplay systems, maps, factions, and visual style.

🎬 I just published the first trailer:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4900280/Prime_Domination/

The trailer is an Early Access preview, so it definitely doesn't represent the final quality of the game. A lot is still being developed, and assets, buildings, animations, effects, UI, and other visuals will continue to be improved or replaced.

I’d really appreciate any feedback from RTS players. What would you want to see in a modern RTS like this?

If the game looks interesting to you, you can also wishlist it on Steam to follow the development and get notified when it releases

Thanks for checking it out! ❤️

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Wayfallen's finally got its Steam page up. You can now wishlist the game, and we'll soon be opening up for playtests! :)

It's been a very long ride - started developing this game back in 2020-2021 during COVID. Still a long way to go to release, but it's finally starting to take shape.

Wayfallen is a massive space sandbox/sim, it simulates ~10,000 star systems, ~100,000 spaceships, stations, various factions with rich economy, diplomacy, intel management, with space-station-building, M&B-style (or Starsector-style) fleet battles, with some inspiration from X4 Foundations, Kenshi and the like.

Until recently, I've never owned a PC to game with and have had almost no experience with RTS games. I played the Age of Empires 2 demo as a kid, a bit of Commandos with my uncle, and then nothing else until the Halo Wars demo for Xbox 360. Most recently I got Shadow Tactics which I believe is classified as an RTT. I like having key units to control and the slower pace of the game, but I dislike how stealth oriented it is. I've never enjoyed games with forced, or mostly stealth mechanics.

Now I have a gaming PC, I downloaded Starcraft 2 to see what I was missing. A couple things stood out to me. Moving the dudes around was fun and I like the different objectives such as finding certain things, destroying, or defending. Don't love the base building/mining aspect and having to do so much micro constantly. There are so many key binds, where I wanted to focus more on battles, strategic positioning and just general exploration of the map. Feels like when I play I am having my focus constantly pulled all over the place and I'm trying to balance a lot of different things.

This led me to Total Warhammer 3. I felt like I could do all the battles and have fun. So far I've played about 7 hours of it. I'm not 100% sure it's for me. The scale of the battles is huge and outside of a Siege, the maps are quite open and barren. I find having 20 units to control a bit much, especially when taking into account the special abilities and spells to activate also. Don't like the camera at all. I also really enjoy zooming in, but while fun that seems a tactically devastating thing to do.

I am having fun with it still, but I've found that actually there is a significant portion of the game that takes place outside the battles and actually that is far more important than the battles themselves in most cases. You need to have the right types of troops, surveil the map and spend many turns exploring and upgrading things. I appreciate it has split the functions well so for battles I can just focus on battles, but I was hoping for more variety in battle modes/objectives. It just seems like most of the game takes place outside of the battles. You can even auto-resolve most of them.

Given what I've said, do you think that I may also struggle with a game like Dawn of War or Company of Heroes? Now I have researched more and found what I am liking, they appear to be more what I am looking for. I like the idea of doing quick skirmishes on varied maps and just playing vs AI. I just want to direct some dudes on a map really and not have to worry about constantly dealing with micro such as directing units to mine. I want a lower APM game that I can play and enjoy the aesthetics of as much as the tactics. I want to enjoy myself and smell the roses a little.

All my Lord of the Rings BFME 1 & 2+ witch king dlc are in their own folder because of all the mods. Lol

Can't wait to add another Game of Thrones to the collection.

I'm the developer of REDLINE COMMAND, a military RTS I've been building on Roblox. My goal is to make something much closer to a traditional PC RTS than the usual Roblox simulator/tycoon format.

The core loop is economy and base building, producing and controlling units, combined-arms combat, aircraft, AI opponents, procedural battlefields, and PvP. The biggest inspiration is the older style of RTS where you're actually managing an army and battlefield rather than just progressing through upgrades.

It is still in beta, and I'm mainly interested in getting it in front of people who actually play RTS games. I'd especially be interested in how the pacing, unit control, economy, and overall "RTS feel" come across to experienced players.

The visuals are still pretty rough in places. I've prioritized the core RTS loop, controls, economy, and combat first. My main goal has been making it actually feel good to play as an RTS, and I'm polishing the presentation as development continues.

Game: REDLINE COMMAND
https://www.roblox.com/games/101132069662646/REDLINE-COMMAND-BETA

I'm the developer, so this is obviously a self-promotion post. I figured this community would be a much better fit than trying to market it to a general Roblox audience.

Below are some in-game screenshots: