I used to think I hated RTS games, but then Company of Heroes came along and reinvigorated my interest in the genre. I must have still been high on CoH when i went to go buy SupCom. Now SupCom is reminding me why I hated RTS's. I want to try CnC3, but I am scared that I will regret it.
CoH isn't really a 'strategy' game so much as it's a 'tactical' game. Small battles, tons of micromanagement required. Top notch micro with a few key units will win the game for you, it's won hundreds of multiplayer games for me.
Supreme Commander is the polar opposite style of game in the genre, the epitome of real time strategic games. Spending even a little too much time on the micromanagement will lose the game for you against an opponent that knows what they're doing. Losing a battle in SupCom is nothing, if it buys you enough time so that your Tier 3 reactors and massfabs come online and your experimental units get a 20x production boost.
In SupCom, you know you're playing the game right when you spend more time at the zoomed out views where your units are represented by 2D icons rather than 3D models. Even more right when you're zoomed out to that point on both your monitors, haha. Hopefully more games from the genre start to take advantage of dual monitors. Even in Company of Heroes it would be a nice advantage, I never even use the tactical map, but having it up all the time on a second monitor would make it indispensable.
I go between the two, CoH when I want the fast and frantic action of micromanagement and the extreme graphics, and SupCom when it's armchair general time or I feel like having my socks blown off while watching a replay of a gigantic battle from ground level, which is where I'm never usually at during an actual game. I'm far better at CoH than SupCom unfortunately, but that's because it's easier to write off a 30 minute multiplayer match than it is to write off a 2 hour one. Although there have been a few 90 minute CoH games...those were some big replays.
So Gabbo, you probably do still hate RTS games in general. CoH is one of the games in the genre that break the mold, like Myth did 10 years ago. SupCom is one that refined the mold that Total Annihilation created at about the same time as Myth came out. The game names have changed, but it's still a micro vs macro management argument.
Also, never try C&C3 if you expect multiplayer to make the purchase worth it. The single player is entertaining, but both Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes are far superior in the multiplayer department. Far, far, FAR superior. And they tend to match it in the single player, aside from having a badass character like Kane. C&C has that element locked down hard. Save your money for CoH:Opposing Forces or even the SupCom expansion (which you might actually like, believe it or not).