No. 9 Age of Empires & Rise of Rome Expansion (PC)
Original? No. Brilliant? Hell Yes! The original Age of Empires is easily my favourite Age of game. Everything just seems to click for me. This and Starcraft were my two RTS games of the 90s, but with AoE, everything just clicked. Brilliantly balanced gameplay, loads of factions/civilisations to choose from, a good variety of maps, hilarious sound effects (erectus! Nineveh!), fun multiplayer, and the most interesting time period (for me). In fact, when I get a new PC/format a HDD, this is one of the few games that has to be installed on my PC.
Of course, it has flaws that were fixed in later sequels, but the charm and attention to detail of the original still makes this the best RTS game on my list. Oh, and the cheats were bloody hilarious; catapults firing cows?!
