RTS games scare me...

[AmishSamurai]

the genre interests me with army building and stuff, but at the same time, I'm imagining it to be something where if I zone out for half a second, or don't pay attention to eight hundred different areas of the map at once I'll be eaten alive by a mob of angry Koreans. Are there any good RTS games that are a bit more newbie-friendly, or at least not as competitive as Starcraft? Actually, what about ones that are just primarily single-player, or have really good single-player campaigns?

[MrPopo]

The earlier Command & Conquer games had a fun single player (especially Red Alert and Red Alert 2). Starcraft, Starcraft 2, and Warcraft 3 also all have a very good single player in my opinion.

[Croooow!]

I feel the same way as you do. If you're interested in history at all I recommend the Total War franchise. I've played a few of them and Rome Total War with the Europa Barbarorum mod is by far my favorite, it is historically accurate and expands the scope of the game. Battles are more slow paced and and the overworld turn based strategy makes things less stressful in the long run.

[Gnashvar]

I feel the same way as you do. If you're interested in history at all I recommend the Total War franchise. I've played a few of them and Rome Total War with the Europa Barbarorum mod is by far my favorite, it is historically accurate and expands the scope of the game. Battles are more slow paced and and the overworld turn based strategy makes things less stressful in the long run.

I agree with this. Most RTS out there do not focus on the strategy of the actual battle. The Total War games like Rome, allow you to come up a winner even when you are against overwhelming odds. If you move your units the right way and use the terrain to your advantage you can take anyone on.

[AntonBD]

I'd recommend Company Of Heroes. I recently played through the campaign; it was actaually almost too easy [can't remember if there was a difficulty setting at the start] -- I only lost one battle the whole time. The maps are relatively small and the objectives vary. I just pressed 'pause' if I needed to catch my breath. The visuals are spectacular, environments are destructible, you can zoom all the way down to an over-the-shoulder view of each individual soldier. Eye candy, mmmm.

[Pulsar_t]

AntonBD, micromanagement-laden games like CoH, Blitzkrieg and Men of War are precisely what the OP wishes to avoid.

I personally recommend getting the Command & Conquer First Decade DVD. Avoid C&C4 at all costs. Also recommendable:

Age of Empires 3
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943
World in Conflict + Soviet Assault
Universe at War: Earth Assault
Defcon
Star Wars: Empire at War
Act of War
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Earth 2160
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
Homeworld 2
Empire Earth
MechCommander 2
Black & White

[Hatta]

This is what Turn Base Strategy games are for. Go play some Civilization, Master of Orion, or Supremacy and forget about RTS.

[Bradtemple87]

I would just start with the single player campaigns in the Starcraft series. A lot of people really enjoyed them.

[Xeogred]

Don't go in for the campaigns, but definitely give Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander a shot.

[Frizz.Meister]

Warcraft 3. Best RTS ever. in my opinion

Bought it and the expansion for £10 5 years ago. I play at least 2 hours a week and its awesome. Single player campaign is interesting not to hard, not to easy and very long with the exansion aswell. Skirmish vs AI is great for practising your multiplayer skills, sure you'll loose 20 games before you develop a good stratagey and win. Then the mupltiplayer is insane. 2v2s will never get old and the custom games ahve developed to the point where some are so good that people build ENTIRE gaming pcs around them (see DOTA, Enfos, Island Defense)

Great value for money. Games are intense, action packed, but short at only 10-15 minutes long. Units work in a hard counter, soft counter method so whatever they build you can beat with brain over micro. Also it can be easily (60 second) be modded into 1080p and look great.