I'm going try before you :P

I hope it's fun, I was disappointed when my cousin tired to get me to play The Lord of the Rings: Battle of something on the Xbox 360.

I was like WTF!!!

And I laughed at him...He was like cuz this game is tight and easy to get into.

I did play Age of Empires and enjoyed that game, but then quickly fell off the genre.

So hopefully this is enough to hold me over and get me into both of these genres.

I play all genres, except these 2. 

Oh, just one more thing:

If you wish to learn how to play RTS'...

Buy Starcraft and the expansion called Broodwar... That is the best RTS game available to date! The game was released back in 1998... Good way to learn RTS'.

Well my first ever RTS , Age of Empires 2 had a pretty easy tutorial and i learnt how to play the game pretty fast.

RTS aren't (and shoudln't be) the type of game you can master in a couple of weeks , even after years of playing the AOE series I still feel like a noob compared to some players.

Company of Heroes for PC is a must buy for RTS gaming imo. What a gem.

Eh I'm not sure about how easy to get into because I pick up games very quickly. However I'd say there is a large gap between casual and competitive playing as in most genres. The jump from the campaign to online is like, wow, and you're best off using the forums for the according game for tips.

For a strategy rpg download battle for wesnoth for the PC free from the wesnoth website. It has lots of user campaigns for downloading aimed at all skill levels. The game also has a good online mode.

Ahh, the best part about those games are learning how to play them. RTS are amazing, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberum Wars was a decent game, I personally enjoyed Command and Conquer red alert 2 much more, or any of the Age of Empire games.

But yea, give it a try you will enjoy it.

If you want the most satisfying Strategy games that follow the 'easy to learn, hard to master' manta, I suggest:

Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts, possibly the best Strategy game of the last 2 years.

Warcraft 3 + Frozen Throne (WC3's expansion), Blizzard-patented and has one of the best stories of alltime.

Civilization IV + expansions, great 4X game.

Rome: Total War or any other game from the Total War series, which possess truly epic battles.

Age of Empire III + expansion, no need to explain.

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, incredibly fun and fast gameplay.

All of them are from PC though.

For RTS you just need to remember one thing.

Your resource gathers are always going to be way more important then you expect.  That's why i can't play them often.  I hate having to manage the little peasents so much.

FFT is an easy game as well... if your a begginer all you need to do is "Level grind" your characters by walking back and forth over green territories. You'll end up fighting random encounters that you can use to level up past your opposition till you get the strategy down.

You'll hit a brick wall once you hit the 1 on 1 battle if you don't know what to do though.

SRPGs have some pretty basic rules though. Basically, gang up on one guy at a time and make sure you can pull back low HP guys.

RTS games are pretty horrible if you aren't playing with a mouse.