Fantasy real-time-strategy games

[Jeivar]

I've been enjoying the original Rome: Total War a lot for the last year or so, but I'm in the mood for something more fantastical. What are the stand-out RTS games of recent years? I've barely touched the genre since Command and Conquer and Warcraft 2.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot about the Battle for Middle Earth games. I played those too.

I'll take a fun setting over a super-detailed battle system, but of course it's best to have both.

EDIT: Age of Mythology is currently on the Steam summer sale. How's that one?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

EDIT: Age of Mythology is currently on the Steam summer sale. How's that one?
Is that the Age of Empires II variant? I've heard it's pretty fun, what with being able to bring in giant mythic beasties and divine powers.

And, not quite an RTS, but Majesty is a good game too. You manage a fantasy town, but instead of micromanaging units, they have their own simple AI that you manipulate by building buildings and putting up reward flags. You also choose when to produce units and how many, so. The units then go out and do stuff (because they're all fantasy heroes), gaining experience and such.

Come to think of it, Majesty is pretty old, so maybe it doesn't fit the bill here.

EDIT: IIRC Rome: Total War also has some fantasy mods, most predominantly an LOTR-themed one. Something about the Third Age?

[GloatingSwine]

I think the last unambiguously good fantasy RTS was Warcraft 3.

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II and Warhammer: Mark of Chaos are both okay (BFME more so), but not super awesome, and they're both from 2006 so not exactly shiny new hotness (on the other hand you can probably get both for the price of a pint).

Creative Assembly are making a Warhammer Fantasy Total War game, but that's probably not out until next year.

Really though, RTS isn't doing so hot as a genre at all. There's only really one or two released a year at most. League of Legends ate a lot of the audience for them.

[Brother Oni]

Age of Mythology is well worth getting, if you didn't catch it the first time round.

King Arthur: The RPG is a Total War inspired fantasy RTS set in olden England. I've got the sequel and it's decent enough, although you have to get into the Arthurian mindset to get the most of out of it.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North, LotR: Battle for Middle Earth and sequels are RTSs for the LotR setting.

Spellforce and Spellforce 2 are more RPGs with RTS elements tagged on, but worth a look.

Total War: Warhammer is also in development.

There are a number of mods for various games (Third Age brings a LotR setting for Rome:TW).

[GolemsVoice]

Seconding what the others said. Am I correct in assuming that you did not play Warcraft III yet? That would be the first candidate, really, even though it's not exactly new. There's of couise Spellforce 1 and 2, which are both pretty good, mixing RPG elements with RTS elements even more than Warcraft. Age of Mythology is really good, I recommend it.

There is also Divinity: Dragon Commande (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity:_Dragon_Commander) which has more of a magitech feel, but is pretty good, actually. If you're willing to relax your requirements a bit, there's of course Starcraft 2.

[Cespenar]

I'll second W3, AoM, and definitely Majesty.

Also, the Dawn of War II series is pretty good IMHO, even if it's pretty much real time tactics instead. Instead of spawning new units, you get on with what you have. And since it's WH40K, it's not really that far to fantasy either.

[Gnoman]

They're a bit older, but you might like Rise Of Legends and the Dungeons and Dragons RTS from around the same time period (the name escapes me ATM).