I have a very distinct memory of 'renting' Dune II from Blockbuster Video, and then not returning it for like a month lol. The Super Nintendo had just come out, I was still playing Street Fighter 2 in the arcade, but I recall that install/uninstall for sure hehe. The first Warcraft game and the original Civilization were also big deals for me. I was introduced by a random in-law, my step mom's younger brother, who was living at my dad's at the time. I think he'd come out for the summer or something to grind it out in the cater-game, but he had a PC set up with those games on it, and they kinda blew my mind. Few years later when Age of Empires first came out, I was well primed. I really enjoyed grand strategy and 4X map games, also stuff like Panzer General, A&A or the first Master of Orion for sci fi flare. I think the first game of that sort that I played was called Anacreon. It was a riff on Asimov's Foundation series, DOS style, where the ships were all abstract triangles and planchettes. Ship to ship battles being the main thing. I still get my wires crossed thinking about it, sorta like command and conquer, but with no graphics to speak of really hehe. Had to use the imaginative instincts. It was still turn based, not real time, but sorta inching towards that vibe, like somebody better be johnny five on the spot with the Ion cannons heheh.
AoE as I recall was like Sophomore Year of high school and I just loved it. Something about building walls and defensive towers, while sending villagers to forage or mine. Starcraft was freshman year of college, Total War my first apartment. That was an era for sure. My all time favorite game, Baldur's Gate, I still consider very much in the RTS lineage of games, and I loved how they stitched those concepts together for a D&D present. I had been playing a lot of Diablo right beforehand, but BG1 got a hook in that was just much much deeper, and never really dislodged. Go figure lol.
I think the last RTS I actually got down with was Age of Empires III. It was a strange era. Basically Europa Universalis III, AoE III, and Empire Total War all dropped right around the same time, and none of them really gave me what I was looking for at launch lol. I remember AoE III being just buggy as all hell and I couldn't get it to run on my rig without crashing constantly. Empire TW was similarly rough out the gate, with wonky AI and opaque systems. EU III I really enjoyed, but it felt more like a simulations showcase than a game somehow, like too open ended, choose your own objectives. They all had cool things to recommend though, and eventually I did get AoE III working. I still play it every now and again, like the same way I'd watch Last of the Mohicans and then suddenly want to play one of those games again. I really enjoyed the card system introduced in that one for sure! Age of Mythology Retold sounds like it would probably be right up my alley