Top 10 Best Strategy Games for PC (Part 2)

Rise of Nations
This game features the idea of expanding territory similarly to Civilization IV, but employes a real-time mode of gameplay. Territory is expanding by building more cities and forts within the borders, which opens more options on a technology tree, through which options are selected to customize the territory. Cities support citizen units, which can be assigned to specific tasks, but will always look for tasks to do when idle if not assigned to anything specific. Rise of Nations specifies six different resources, food, timber, metal, oil, wealth and knowledge, which are used to create buildings, units, and to research technologies.
Any nation within the game is playable at any point in history, regardless of the actual historical timeline of that nation, but resources only become available in the age in which they were originally utilized. Keeping a balance between offensive and defensive forces is crucial to successful gameplay, as is the state of the economy. Rise of Nations is both rewarding and frustrating in turns, but always highly addictive.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
This long awaited sequel to the original Starcraft has earned a spot on this list in its own right. Finally released in July of 2010, the story picks up four years after the events of the original Starcraft, and follows an insurgent group attempting to make its way across the Terran Dominion. Non-linear gameplay with regard to the campaigns keeps the game interesting, and is a minor departure from the original. However, the order in which the campaigns are done will not interrupt the narrative.
Units remain largely the same, with some additional specialized units available only for campaign play and not in regular multi-player, such as the Terran Wraith, Vulture, and Diamondback. There is also a map editor, similar to the original StarEdit, which allows for customization of terrain and campaigns.
A word of warning for players hoping to have a nostalgic evening of strategy gaming with local friends, though: Blizzard has killed LAN play with this release, so players can only play together online, and on the same server. Any players wishing to play together must ensure that they've signed up for the same server at the time of original registration, because the game is region-locked.

Warcraft III
Before it was an extremely popular (and often parodied) MMORPG, the "world" of Warcraft existed in a series of real-time strategy games. Standard resource-gathering and unit-building rules apply, with "black mask" covering unopened areas of the map. Once explored, the black mask is removed, but these areas must remain within sight of at least one unit, or they will be covered in the "fog of war".
With AI-controlled, universally hostile units called "creeps" guarding areas heavy in resources, there is a slight element of RPGs, especially since players win experience points, gold and items after defeating them. Also introduced in this game was the shifting from day to night, which provides more cover, but reduces the ability to see incoming attackers.
There are five total campaigns, which are broken up according the various character race factions, though some specific "hero" characters are retained across each race's campaigns. Warcraft III still has a devoted following, and in spite of the massive popularity of the MMORPG, remains a favorite among fans of Warcraft and strategy games alike.

Supreme Commander
Considered by many to be a spiritual successor to 1997's Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander begins with a single unit, which much be expanded and multiplied to aid in a war which has erupted in the future after humans developed portal technology, referred to as a "quantum gateway".
The three warring factions are the Cybran nation, comprised of cyborgs who wish to separate from the other two factions, and get out from under the thumb of the United Earth Federation, which represents a united government for all three factions, which of course would be based off of the planet Earth. Finally, there is the Aeon Illuminate, which wishes to emulate the so-called "Golden Age" of Earth, in which alien life was first discovered but soon went south due to xenophobia. Naturally, the thing to do when fighting xenophobia is to go out and wage war on anyone who doesn't share the same beliefs.
The critical moment comes when the UEF decides to use "Black Sun", a weapon which, if deployed, will wipe out both planets of the other factions. However, the Crybrans and the Aeon Illuminate have their own secret weapons as well, and one of these does involve use of the phrase "Monkeylord", which is reason enough to put any game on a top 10 list.

Company of Heroes
This release and subsequent expansions from Relic Entertainment takes place during WWII. Players are put in charge of two U.S. units during the Allied takeover of France from occupying Nazi forces.
Micromanagement skills are key in this game, and perhaps provide the tiniest degree of realism (minus the horrific violence, of course, as this is not typically depicted in strategy games) as to what it must have been like to actually "storm the beach at Normandy", considering that there were over 150,000 troops in reality, and each one had to know exactly what when and where in order for the mission to be successful.
Players take control of points on the campaign map, collect munitions, fuel and manpower, and can takeover civilian buildings to convert them to barracks, which will aid in the creation of new units.
Company of Heroes has been praised as one of the best real-time strategy games of all time, with several successful expansions and both LAN and online options available for multi-player.