What makes RTW special is the combination of turn based economy with real-time fighting. I own AOE,ROR,AOK,AOKTC,Battle for middle Earth 1&2, and RON. I've more or less abondoned all them except the occaisional foray into Middle-Earth (Rome doesn't have Elves and Goblins riding on giant spiders) But what all these games have in common is that you have to juggle your attention between your builderrs/woodcutters/miners/farmers and your armies. I simply can't multi-task and click fast enough to do these things at a good quality level. You either end up concentrating on your worker bees and then realize your army is getting anniahlated a distance away, or you build up a stud army, fight, then can't keep up the fight because your land is running behind on rescources due to neglect.
With RTW you can build your econ in a calm, organized fashion, then move your armies around and fight in real time. That's what has made me a RTW junkie.

IceWolf