[forgotmypw]

Though I've never served in armed forces, nor participated in armed conflict, I think C&C does a pretty good approximation of being an (overwhelmed) officer in command of a small area conflict, where you do have to give exact orders to everyone for every little thing.

I think a huge improvement to RTS in general would be allowing multiple players to command the same army, so that each can be responsible for a small portion of all the different tasks you describe.

[b0rsuk]

Perhaps, but many RTS games don't even bother with stuff that would also work on small scale. High ground, effect of various terrain types. Slower movement, terrain which only infantry can cross. Garrisoned structures. C&C has this stuff, Starcraft or Warcraft never did (specific single structures but not neutral buildings). Small scale you say? What about directional armor and flanking, crossfire.

CS:GO is a very accessible first person shooter game suitable for all skill levels. It changes little over years and visuals are far from state of art. But they've figured out the formula for FUN. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but if you can do this for FPS you can probably find a FUN real time strategy formula as well. A formula that's not overly complicated and doesn't feel like juggling balls for 25 minutes. I think Starcraft is not that formula.