This one by Westwood Studios...

Red Alert 1

Rome: Total War
Age of Empires 2

Lord of the Realms 2,

Awesome game

I loved Lords of the Realm 2!

1. Starcraft.
2. Warcraft 2 / 3.
3. Everything else.

To be fair, I haven't played that much of "Everything else." Just Red Alert's, AoE's, Total Annihilation, and... probably 2-3 more.

Red alert 2 was awesome and i loved Age of empires 2

starcraft. By a long long way. Then Age of Empires 2 followed by Dawn of War

Age of Empires : The Rise of Rome I still play it  2 or 3 times a week with my family over the network.

Can anyone recommend another game with it's  perfect balance and set in the same era...I prefer swords to guns in an RTS.

1. Starcraft
2. Warcraft 2
3. Warcraft 3

Heehee! :D