Suggestions for a good, beginner RTS

With all the talk of C&C lately I have decided to finally give them another shot.   RTS games have always caught my eye, but the learning curve has been WAY to steep for most of the ones I have tried.  Believe it or not the very first time I EVER played Starcraft was last year!  I had some fun with the multi-player but couldn't get into the single player.  Now I'm looking to get into a great single player RTS experience but I want to be able to finish the game.
 
Since there are a LOT of PC games that come and go without much fanfare I decided to call upon the Giant Bomb community.  Please help me out.
 
I'm looking for a beginner RTS, preferably sci-fi with a great single player campaign.  I know I'll get my arse handed to me on multi-player so I don't even want to waste my time there.  Hopefully something less chaotic than Supreme Commander.
 
I really enjoyed the premise, music and "feel" of Homeworld but got stuck halfway through.
 
Graphics are "somewhat" important but they won't make or break the sale.  More important to me is the story, accessibility and how well it envelopes you.
 
Any suggestions?

Hmmm.... you should check out Warhammer Dawn of War, the singleplayer of the original game was very engaging and epic while the expansions are less story based and more free forming. The sequal is a mix of both campaign wise, but the game plays more like a squad based tactical RPG then a straight forward RTS.

I was going to suggest Supreme Commander, until you mentioned it; as it's my favourite RTS.
If you want something a little simpler perhaps try the Dawn of War series, less focus on base building and resource management and more focus on the combat.
If you enjoyed Homeworld, try Sins of a Solar Empire; just be ready for an extremely slow paced game [albeit an excellent one]

I was going to mention Sins of a Solar Empire as well, but you didn't really mentioned what you liked in a single player game and since Sins has no direct 'campaign' I 
disregarded it. That said, Sins does have a demo if you're interested.

starcraft

Rise of Nations is a great and easy to learn RTS, although not SciFi

Savage moon.
Command and Conquer the first decade though if you have a vista machine or XP for that matter it pretty much is guaranteed not to work since all EA did was repackage the games they did next to no updating to make them work with XP.

I'd suggest Age of Empires 2. It's a really easy game to get in to.

" Savage moon. Command and Conquer the first decade though if you have a vista machine or XP for that matter it pretty much is guaranteed not to work since all EA did was repackage the games they did next to no updating to make them work with XP. "

CnC 10 year package is all win. Start with CnC 95/Red Alert and work your way up. That was where i started with RTS back when i was a kid and haven't stopped since. Not to mention i have bought half the games in that package 4-5 times over the years as i kept losing the disks lol.

" @WilliamRLBaker said:

" Savage moon. Command and Conquer the first decade though if you have a vista machine or XP for that matter it pretty much is guaranteed not to work since all EA did was repackage the games they did next to no updating to make them work with XP. "

I own first decade and all of the games work perfectly fine (outside of the no-longer-supported multiplayer service for just about all of them) on my XP machine. "

Ehhh.... Beginner and RTS are not words that work well together.

Hmmm, great suggestions.  I picked up Advanced Wars Dual Strike and find it enjoyable enough but it didn't give me that sci-fi feel.  (Or any story whatsoever.)  I know I have Company of Heroes floating around here somewhere.
 
I've heard a LOT of good things about Sins of a Solar Empire.   I just watched a video of it and it looks great but like absolute madness!  I guess it's just not the genre for me.  I can't seem to wrap my mind around everything that's going on on screen.  I will give the demo a shot but it looks like one of those I will get a few missions into then give up because of the complexity, not necessarily the difficulty level. 
 
Warhammer looks interesting.  For some reason I always expected Warhammer to be Warcraft style.  I never "dawned" on me that 40K was a future reference.  I never looked into it.  Command & Conquer looks good.  I can't find that 10 year package on Steam but I see it for $20 at Best Buy.
 
OK, cool.  Than you all for your help.  I have some demos to try. :)

APM is everything.  If your APM is low, it shows you'll never be able to play the game well.  So memorize the build orders, hotkeys, and only use your mouse for clicking.  Your keyboard should be the main way to play.  Memorize hotkeys!  This cannot be stressed enough.
 
If your APM is less than 120, you should try another genre because you will have little to no chance to play the game online.

" Hmmm, great suggestions.  I picked up Advanced Wars Dual Strike and find it enjoyable enough but it didn't give me that sci-fi feel.  (Or any story whatsoever.)  I know I have Company of Heroes floating around here somewhere.  I've heard a LOT of good things about Sins of a Solar Empire.   I just watched a video of it and it looks great but like absolute madness!  I guess it's just not the genre for me.  I can't seem to wrap my mind around everything that's going on on screen.  I will give the demo a shot but it looks like one of those I will get a few missions into then give up because of the complexity, not necessarily the difficulty level.   Warhammer looks interesting.  For some reason I always expected Warhammer to be Warcraft style.  I never "dawned" on me that 40K was a future reference.  I never looked into it.  Command & Conquer looks good.  I can't find that 10 year package on Steam but I see it for $20 at Best Buy. OK, cool.  Than you all for your help.  I have some demos to try. :) "

" Rise of Nations is a great and easy to learn RTS, although not SciFi "

COMPANY OF HEROS. Get it and play it now.

my very first was Age of Empires if thats considered RTS

Pick up Command & Conquer: The First Decade. It's about $20 new, and includes like 10+ games.
 
Edit: There's also an Age of Empires collection I saw at Wal-Mart for $10, which includes the first two Age of Empires and their expansions.

" COMPANY OF HEROS. Get it and play it now. "

Age of Empires II, Age of Empires III (better graphics, slightly inferior gameplay) . Sins of a Solar Empire as well. 
 
 
I too would love to see a Homeworld III. If it's in development, it will be made by THQ.

I might not call it an RTS exactly, but Dawn of War 2 would be a great way of breaking yourself into the genre gently.  In recent years, traditional RTSs have perhaps relied a little too much on the player having acquired knowledge from years of RTS playing - DoW2 is a clean break from that.
 
If you don't mind playing older games, the early C&C games are still probably the best examples of simple, fun RTS gaming.
 
Age of Mythology has a brilliant campaign which never becomes particularly challenging or overwhelming, but obviously isn't sci fi.

" @SirPsychoSexy said:

" Rise of Nations is a great and easy to learn RTS, although not SciFi "

I was going to say this as well.  If you want it to mix up sci-fi a little, go with Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends.  It's a good pick-up-and-play type of RTS, and it's got a bit of steampunk sci-fi going on with it. "

Warcraft 3 is one I started playing again recently and really enjoying. I have never been really good at RTS or play them too much, but I have been find Warcraft pretty easy to pick up.

My favourite is Company of Heroes. But if you want something easy and simple, I'd suggest Age of Empires

i would probably agree and say age of empires II specifically, but then u should probably branch out and try different styles like 1) Dawn of War/Company of Heroes styled RTSs, 2) more C&C styld RTSs, 3) Total War styled RTSs, 5) World in Conflict styled ones....there r soo many styles now u'll probably find 1 u like. 

Play StarCraft again until you like it.

I liked Halo Wars a lot its pretty beginner RTS