Back then I played Warcraft 3 ladder games and I hit my skill ceiling quite fast because my micro was simply too bad/slow. I still very much enjoy real time strategy games. Is there any real time strategy game that is played competitively with an active community where micro is not that essential? (Ruling out Star Craft 2.) Besides real time strategy games, what other games are out there being played competitive with an active community and where clicks-per-second are not too important?
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You might like Total Annihilation and its modern descendants, like BAR or Zero K. There’s still some micro depending on the variant, but the focus is much more heavily on macro, along with making the units smarter.
Apart from that, the Civ games are turn-based, but scratch a similar itch as RTS games
Zero K has a great interface that really minimizes the need to fiddle with individual units. “Line move” should be part of every RTS.
The obvious answer is CCGs like Yugioh Master Duel, Magic Arena, Pokemon TCG Online, or Hearthstone. But of course those all use predatory monetization mechanics. A fun sorta-competitive strategy game that doesn’t have booster packs you buy with cash is Super Auto Pets.
Thanks, makes total sense and I loved Slay the Spire. The monetization mechanics are really what prevent me from starting Magic etc.
Legends of Runeterra is a good alternative. If you want zero monetization then I would recommend Netrunner. Fantasy Flight Games pulled the plug on the physical card game some years ago and it became a community run enterprise. You can also play online via https://www.jinteki.net/.
Nice, I hear a lot about Netrunner, but wasn’t aware about the website. Thanks a lot! :-)
Probably not entirely your wheelhouse but have you considered coop turned based strategy games (or just turn based in general)? Something like Divinity 2 requires strategy and planning, especially on higher difficulties, but they are entirely turn based and can be played in real time in co-op. Alternatively, games like Disciples Liberation which centers around tactocul turn based combat can be absolutely brutal on high difficulty.
Thanks for your suggestion, as I said: I am mostly looking for competitive games. Turn based games are great, though, especially games like Dominions 4 with simultaneous turns.
It sounds like you might really like auto-battlers, also called “auto-chess” style games. Auto Chess started as a Dota 2 mod, and now Dota has their own called Underlords. League of Legends also has an auto-battler spinoff; it’s called Teamfight Tactics. And don’t sleep on the indie Super Auto Pets. It’s pure fun.
Rocket League, f2p, one of its kind, high skill ceiling, reflex is not that important but does require practice and time commitment to play at higher level. I am 45yo and usually play around champ 1~2 in both 2s and 3s queue and only solo queue.
It’s fun even at lower level unless you run into smurfs, but that will happen to every game.
There are no active cheat that gives cheater significant advantage. After last time dev ban bot users(first and only time since 2015) I have not run into any bot users online.(which means auto ban works really well). There are macro users but since it’s macro they can’t change what it did, and mostly only useful for kick offs.(which you can adapt and intentionally guide the ball where you want.) So it’s easy to beat once a you play more. (Oh, and they ban those as well, so don’t do it.)
Strategy games such as Pokemon or Yugioh might be well in your alley
Action game, but World of Warships, maybe? Game is VERY slow and you don’t need reflexes or clicks per second to win, but rather planning and game sense
Thanks, looks very interesting and like a chance to enhance my horizon and test the waters. :-)
Fair warning that wg.net are massive dickbags about wine. Don’t even bother unless you enjoy ban evading.
World of Tanks is similar too. A little faster paced perhaps but doing the right thing in the right place is a 1000% more important than reflexes imo. Never played in clans and it might be different at that level.
If you only play artillery it’s certainly slow paced :p
it’s definitely outside of your scope, but since when I discovered boardgaming (specifically german boardgames - which are actually not made in germany, it’s just the name of the genre) I got severely hooked into that. these are mainly no-luck deterministic games where you compete with your opponents through strategy and tactics. my favourites are Imperial Steam and Caylus, but you can also start from Terraforming Mars for a more easier rules overhead :)
Is there a competitive scene for this games? For me only games with an electronic version (like Terraforming…) make sense, because it is hard to meet with friends physically regularly.
Check out Tabletop Simulator - I wouldn’t be surprised if something has added these games to the Steam workshop.
Might be outside of what you’re looking for, but have you considered online chess? It’s fun to learn, doesn’t need quick reflexes, and the playerbase is never going to die.
I have an Lichess account, so your suggestion is spot on. What I miss in Chess is the ‘fog of war’, you have at all time 100% of the information clearly on the board. I especially like the scouting/deception/gambling part in RTS games like WC3/SC2.
Competitive Pokémon is something I’d definitely recommend. It’s similar to speed chess in that there’s a game timer but you have like 30 seconds per move to lock in. VGC is an incredibly deep and constantly evolving meta game. The NAIC tournament finished yesterday and is on YouTube if you want to see it being played at a top level with great commentary.
You can practice singles and doubles for free on pokemonshowdown.com. IRL contests held by The Pokémon Company are always doubles, played on Switch and will be played with Scarlet and Violet for the foreseeable future.
As a new player to the online TCG, it’s actually pretty deep, and super fun to play with friends
I recently noticed that 100% Orange Juice is actually getting a competitive scene, it seems.
It’s a 4-player virtual board game where there’s strategy involved in deck construction (one funny thing is that anyone can draw your cards so you have to choose carefully based on your choice of character and their special abilities), movement choices, understanding probabilities and other tactical decisions, and balancing risk/reward under uncertainty.
I used to be huge into the game but I haven’t been following it for the past couple years or so.
The competitive 100OJ scene is a strange thing given how random this game is and how much your results are dependent on dice rolls, warp panel destinations and other random effects. You get many hilarious situations like rolling four zeroes or getting seagull’d in your face, but if you play it for wins, this can be pretty frustrating.
On the other side, this game is pretty chill and fun, has large userbase and doesn’t require much clicks or reaction! So it’s perfect for relaxing with friends in a voice chat on a hard day’s night. Also, there is a co-op mode, where the overall randomness of the game is mitigated by strategy and teamwork.
Yeah, 100% OJ is…interesting.
Though I’d say if you’re beating 25% wins or so you’re already doing above par. (Par may be slightly above that since CPU players tend to be stupid, though they may have improved the AI since I last played.)
