Here's a game I'm surprised no-one's mentioned: Fantasy General. It was in SSI's Panzer General series, and the only one in that series I ever really got into (but I admit that I'm not generally big on historical wargames).
Top 5
1. MoM
2. Fantasy General
3.
Laser Squad Nemesis (anyone who likes Dom 3 and liked X-Com should check this one out)
4. The Perfect General (the QQP game, no connection to the Panzer General series)
5. Warlords II
I didn't list X-Com because LSN kind-of includes it, and I didn't list MOO 2 because it was always second in my heart to MoM. I also really liked the feel of the Disciples games, but I have my gripes with them as well (which I'll hold my tongue on). Ditto for Final Fantasy Tactics, the only console game I ever truly loved.
I'm pretty disenchanted with the productions of the big players in the games industry: EA, Maxis, Sony, Microsoft, and even Nintendo and Blizzard, but part of that is because almost anything describable with the acronym FPS, RTS or MMORPG gives me hives.
If you ask me, a lot of good games are being made, but they're indie or even freeware/open source.
Battle for Wesnoth doesn't get me quite the way Fantasy General did, but it provides my hexmap TBS fix, and
Endgame: Singularity is like X-Com without the squad combat - and yes, it works. But I suppose I should take these thoughts over to the favorite indie games thread.
