Best multiplayer Strategy games?

[BobTD]

In your experiance what have been the most fun strategy games to play with others?

I have enjoyed playing Age of Empires 2 with its re-release on steam. I have always thought it was a remarkably fun multiplayer game without needing to be hardcore at it like some games.

Speaking of hardcore starcraft2 is a lot of fun but everyone is either new to it or 100 times better at it than me. I love the starcraft games but the learning curve is brutal.

No doubt most members are familiar with LOL, that is a fun game but I dont enjoy the random teams element. I like to say I won on my own or lost most times, maybe if I just played with pre set teams more I would have stuck with it. Generally i just didnt have the patience for loosing so often, regardless of personal performance. Statistically speaking on a team of five more often you loose because of someone else, making it very hard to climb any rank system. But if you tell people that it sounds like you are blaming your team for losses and not taking any responsibility. Just a frustrating overall experience for some.

Also if anyone wants to jump on AOE2 or starcraft 2 ever hit me up. Always like playing with people from the forum.

[Trunks]

I use to play AoE all the time. Mostly the original, use to play all the time with some of my online friends. It's definitely been a few years. I have AoE 2 and the expansion, but not through steam. I'm assuming you can still play together. Not sure if the multiplayer is set up differently. Normally I'd use a tungle or something. I'd definitely play with you some time; would be really cool if we could get 4+ though.

[BobTD]

eveyone uses the steam version now because the multiplayer is easy to set up, you just invite over steam. Also they raised the food cap from 200 to 500. I have 2 cd copies but honest I had to suck it it and buy it steam and it was worth it, but you might try to get in on sale, I paid $6.25 for it.

I can easily get a group of 3 so if you join that would be 4.

[LorenceKing]

To this day, I still can't find a RTS I enjoy as much as Age of Empires 2. The Lord of the Rings ones were quite good too.

[Trunks]

eveyone uses the steam version now because the multiplayer is easy to set up, you just invite over steam. Also they raised the food cap from 200 to 500. I have 2 cd copies but honest I had to suck it it and buy it steam and it was worth it, but you might try to get in on sale, I paid $6.25 for it.

I can easily get a group of 3 so if you join that would be 4.

I missed this somehow, but if you guys still play on occasion I'll definitely pick it up next sale, can never get enough of AoE2.

[Lois]

Dune II - one of the founders of the genre of real-time strategy.

[SanctionAngel]

I enjoy the Dawn of War series it's got a Company of Hero esq feel to it (actually Company of Heroes is built with the same resource mechanic) but is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe so you have Space Marines, Tyranids (DoWII), Imperial Guard (DoW: Winter Assualt X-pac), Chaos Space Marines, etc. Note: DoW I Multiplayer is dead I think.. DoWII is very active, but not a base building like most RTS's it's more of a Domination esq game mode?

Also Sins of a Solar Empire is a great RTS imo. It's strictly space fare, though you get to "Explore" the planet to look for artifacts. It lacks in campaign but makes up for it in sheer size and replay ability. With it's custom maps Easy - Unfair A.I. and the multiplayer is amazing.

And you can't forget good Ol' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne. Great additions to your RTS library if you're looking to expand. And if I'm not mistaken the multiplayer community is still active. On a side not this is the game that brought us the majority of the MOBAs we see today with it's addon DotA.