Off the Shelf Media

Starcraft, Age of Empires, Warcraft and Command and Conquer are the titans of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre of gaming. They have devout fans who have been playing these games for decades and for good reason. Everyone has heard of the biggest titles, but I wanted to focus on some hidden gems that I think are still worth your time in 2026. 

Halo Wars

Now hear me out, I know what you are thinking. This game is only worth your time in my opinion if you are playing on PC with a proper mouse and keyboard. The game was built to be played with a controller, but in no world should you actually do that. In terms of the game itself, it’s a surprisingly fun dive into the deep world of Halo as you command troops through an intense war. Switching from the perspective of other Halo games, where you are Master Chief or even an ODST soldier, this one allows you to take a 30,000-foot view and command the entire army fighting off the Covenant. It’s similar to many other RTS games, but there is something really special about being able to take a squad of Spartans deep behind enemy lines to disrupt the enemy, while simultaneously directing a main battle group of Scorpion Tanks and Warthogs around to flank the enemy. The unit design is great and gives a great new perspective to the deep world that Halo games provide, while also allowing you the strategy of a top-down RTS. The biggest issue to tackle here is that the game doesn’t allow you to zoom out very far, and it is a bit clumsy in the controls. If you can get past those drawbacks, there is a great game with a fun campaign here, especially for die-hard Halo fans. 

Anno Series 

I have written extensively about Anno as I think it’s one of the most underrated series out there. Check out my reviews for Anno 1800 and Anno 117 Pax Romana.

The most recent two are the ones I would strongly recommend for those interested in real-time strategy, as they are a bit different in their approach in a great way. While the game series does offer the typical skeleton of building up an army and conquering your enemies on the map, it’s just a small factor in a much larger game. These games put more of an emphasis on city building, resource management, and production chains that add a layer of complexity to the genre that will lock you in for hours at a time. In a typical RTS, you need to mine one resource to buy a unit to fight the enemy. In Anno, you need to manage dozens of resources to keep your populace happy and fed, so they can mine the iron ore, smelt it down to create weapons, while also raising sheep for wool to manufacture into sails, just to create one warship. Once you have these production chains established and can pump out battleships, you can expand to take down your regional enemies and look to dominate the map. The stress of worrying about your enemies while city building, and contemplating your next step in your city’s development while fighting the enemy, adds an intricate gameplay loop that will keep you on the edge of your seat for hours on end. 

Company of Heroes 

Company of Heroes is one of the better World War 2 video games I have played, and that is truly saying something. It does a great job of balancing so that no one side is ever insanely dominant, which makes taking each objective feel rewarding and makes the fight a slog to finish. The strategy of where to place your troops and what troops to reinforce your objectives with is complicated and engaging, and is satisfying when your tactics help you hold off a counterattack by the enemy. It does a great job of leading you to have robust and varied armies instead of just spamming one unit, as you look to deploy them tactically in each enemy encounter. 

The art and sound design is also fantastic and immerses you in the heat of these battles from a top-down commander’s perspective. The units are fun to use and varied enough to create replayability through focusing on different army compositions for each battle you fight in. It doesn’t get the attention of some of the larger RTS franchises, but Company of Heroes is certainly a great franchise that’s worth picking up. 

Real-time strategy is a tough genre to get into and is not for everyone. It requires a lot of focus, speed, and, of course, in-depth strategy. While the heavy-hitter games are always great, I’d highly recommend you give these off-the-beaten-path titles a try and enjoy what they bring to the table. 

Honorable Mentions

As I said earlier, there are nearly countless RTS titles out there, far too many to mention in a single article. Below, you can find even more titles that I have simply not had enough time to play in depth. Most I have played or were strongly suggested to add because of their dedicated following. 

• Tempest Rising, by Slipgate Ironworks – Reminiscent of the classic Command and Conquer franchise, but set in an alternate universe from 1997
• Planetary Anihilation: Titans, by Planetary Annihilation Inc. – This galactic war sim has you commanding endless drones of… well, drones in an all-out brawl using robots and even entire planets as weapons to decimate enemy bots. 
• 9 Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far, by Petroglyph Games – Another callback to the CoC franchise uses a voxel-based design to allow for massive unit counts and even more massive maps to play on.