Introduction

Age of Empires II is the seminal RTS game that defined a generation of players. Released in 1999, it went on to become the most popular and influential title the RTS genre had ever seen, and its influence is still felt to this very day, with Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition still ranking amongst the top 10 most played strategy games in 2026, with its community being more alive than ever. Tight controls, perfected RTS fundamentals of resource gathering, and city-building are hallmarks of AoE II, so it’s only natural that we look forward to finding other similar games. For that, I have compiled a list of the best real-time strategy games to play if you love Age of Empires II. I also want to preface that no AI was used to write this article.

If you’re interested in more lists like this one, go and check out my list about the best turn-based strategy games if you love XCOM and XCOM 2, or my lists page where there are thousands of strategy game recommendations!

15 – Empires: Dawn of the Modern World

Created by Rick Goodman, one of the co-founders of Ensemble Studios and original designers for Age of Empires and Empire Earth, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is what would happen if you took those two games and meshed them up together. Released in 2003, Empires is an RTS where the player is tasked with guiding one of the 9 civilizations from the Middle Ages to World War 2. It follows the traditional formula of resource gathering, building, and combat, with the main difference here being that it went 3D and added a lot more era-specific mechanics when compared to Empire Earth. The game went on to be fairly well-received across the board, but has mostly disappeared from public view. Reasons for that being that it was released at a time when it was directly competing with Medieval: Total War (2002), Age of Mythology (2002), and Rise of Nations (2003), vastly superior games.

14 – Age of Mythology: Retold

Technically speaking, Age of Mythology might still be an “Ages” game, but it isn’t Age of Empires, so it still counts! Age of Mythology: Retold is, for all intents and purposes, Age of Empires but set in a fantastical, mythological setting, and has the best campaign of all the Ages games ever made, with the tale of Arkantos seeing the Atlantean Admiral going from war hero to Godhood across an immense campaign that mixes Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology together in the best way possible.

While the original Age of Mythology is still an amazing game in its own right, I wouldn’t be doing you a favor if I didn’t mention that the Retold version, released in 2024, is by far the superior version around, even if its art style is a bit more cartoony than it should be. It has all the content the original adds, plus expansions and new extra campaigns; it runs amazingly on modern systems, and it goes on sale pretty often on Steam, so there’s really no reason to go back to the original. You know, aside from the fact that the original’s art style was better, in my opinion.

13 – Praetorians – HD Remaster

Let’s give a nod to good ol’Praetorians here, a forgotten gem. While this one is a bit of a stretch, it came out during a time when Age of Empires II was well established as the strategy-game market leader, and some derivatives started to appear. Released in 2003, Praetorians was developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive, and it focused solely on the combat aspect of RTS. The player controls the Roman Republic, the Ptolemaic Kingdoms, and the Barbarians. Each of these civilizations had unique units. The highlight of Praetorians, and what set it apart from the other RTS of way back when, is the inclusion of active abilities, which changed the way units would be used in combat in a major way, from cavalry charges to spear walls; it added a layer of complexity traditional resource-focused RTS didn’t have. In 2020, Prateorians got an HD Remaster that didn’t touch the game’s basics, and just brought the graphics up to more modern standards, but that’s about it.

12 – Tempest Rising

Tempest Rising is, quite possibly, the best new RTS franchise to have come out during the last five or so years. While it’s more closely related to other franchises like Red Alert and Command & Conquer, its traditional RTS design also makes it a prime choice for players who love Age of Empires II. There’s resource gathering, base building and combat, with the later one being the standout feature, especially its unit design, which goes to great lenght to create unique units like the drone operators (you can control the drones independently from their operators), the Demolitionists with their arc projectors and wrecking hammers, as well as the Pillager tank, with its dual-flametrower cannons, because why not? Tempest Rising has a huge campaign that’s also a massive draw, especially if you’re the kind of player that really doesn’t want to dive into PvP.

11 – Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition

A classic in and of itself, it could have a list of its own about the best games to play if you love Dawn of War. Created by Relic before they went on to do Company of Heroes, it’s still the best RTS game set in the 40K universe. The Definitive Edition brought a host of new updates that made it one of the standout titles of 2025 for myself, and I even called it “one of the best RTS games ever is back, and better than ever” in my review. I had never played the original Dawn of War until the release of this Definitive Edition, only Dawn of War II, but once I did, and once I was done with its first campaign, I instantly understood why it’s the clear favorite amongst the Dawn of War community.

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