Quote Originally Posted by Sir Edward
The original poster specifically asked for RTS not turned based like Advance Wars or Total War. I personally enjoy the Age of Empire series.
The poster did ask for RTS games, but then went on to use Total War and the quintessential turn-based strategy series, Civilization, as examples. So either he doesn't understand what "RTS" actually is, or he's soliciting any ideas regardless of system.

Either way, I have not played the most recent incarnation of Age of Empires, only the original and Age of Kings (and Age of Mythology). Perhaps Ensemble made a huge AI improvement in the transition to AoE III, but in all the other ones the AI was abysmal, tending to just hurl units at you with virtually no regard for tactics, planning, or organization. Set up a moderate defense at a choke point and you basically have unlimited time to build up your own army, and when it comes time to swoop in and eliminate the enemy, it's basically just a matter of steamrolling the opponent--there is no coherent or organized defense, nothing.

If Age of Empires III made an improvement on this, then that's great. But if not, then, as enjoyable as the series is, I wouldn't recommend it on the strength of its AI.

Cheers.