Strategy games for a n00b in strategy games.

Would you prefer round-based or realt time strategy games?

Round-based -> King's Bounty (more RPGish though), Heroes of Might and Magic V
RTS -> Warcraft III

Turn Based - Civ 5
RTS - Any Blizzard RTS is easy to get into

Company of Heroes 1 or 2 (steam)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (steam)
Warcraft 2 or 3 (you'll need DOS Box to get 2 working on a modern OS)
Dungeon Keeper (gog.com)
StarCraft 1 or 2
X-Com Enemy Unknown (steam)
Total War series (steam)
Age of Empires 2 (steam)
Age of Mythology (steam)
Rise of Nations (steam)
Total Annihilation (gog.com)

Disciples and Disciples 2 are good.

StarCraft II is also great, Normal isn't that hard at all (but definitely get used to the game before you up the difficulty).

Age of Empires 2 or 3

Starcraft 2 for real time

Civ 5 for round based

Heroes of Might and Magic - 3 is most popular but 1 or 2 might be easier to learn as they're simpler.
They're turn based which means you make all of your moves, hit DONE, then the computer makes all of its moves.
real time means the computer is moving while you're moving and your ability to click fast is important.

I am a starcraft player (and a really bad one) but if you are interested in more complex strategy games in some time i can suggest you planetary annihilation. Even if it doesn't have a story, i am having fun trying to learn how to blow up a f***ing planet.

I'd suggest Age of Empires II HD.
It's really great fun, both offline and offline.
The game is really an micromanagement game, so you will be doing stuff constantly, no breaks!

If you find out that you like AoE II HD, i would also recommend Theme Hospital, a management game about running a hospital.
It's really one of the best games ever made, and certainly Bullfrog's best!

Age of Empires 2 is the king. But, for me, the funniest RTS ever made is and will be Warcraft 3 (Unless they release Warcraft 4, of course). These two are played by a lot of people, even if they are old. If you have some money, well, you could buy Starcraft II, or any Total War. My favorite is Shogun 2: Total War, but Rome 2: Total War is pretty good too.

sins of a solar empire rebellion is best for noobs bcs you dont need a high apm (actions per minute). it takes so long to travel between planets, that it's kind of like a turn based game, and you have plenty of time to do whatever you have to. also, you can automate everything to make it even easier.

also dawn of war 2 retribution is good, because it's more of an rts-lite. you dont have to worry about base building, it's more of an rtt game, real time tactics. you just have to worry about combat, so it's easier for noobs. then once you learn it, you can try more of a full rts with the dawn of war 1 games...

they both have 1000-2000 players, which you need if you want to find noobs to play multiplayer with in older games. if there's only like under 50 ppl still playing it, it's most likely that they are all pros who have played for thousands of hours and will just effortlessly decimate you.

If you can get any command and conquer games they are a great start when i was a starter in strategy or get empire earth if you can cope up with very late graphichs

Imo all are easy to get into, only grand strategy games the like Paradox (Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalsis etc) and few others are makingshould be avoided. But these games are usually more rewarding after u spend 50+h into them

Fire Emblem! It was the 1st strategy game I ever played, and I recently started playing again. It's a turn based strategy with a good storyline(is not perfect, but it's good), and each troop you have is a character. In other words, if he/ she dies, you will never see him again. Even tho it becomes extremely more hard, it's a way to care more for your troops, instead of the old "meat for the cannons" tactic(It's an old saying in my language, I hope it makes sense in English :P). And most characters have some back story, making each troop unique.
But whatever you do, don't accept the side quest for the chapter 26! It's painfully hard! I mistakenly did that last week, and I totally regret it.

For RTS you might try Airmech. It's a free RTS-MOBA hybrid, and it's fun. You might understand better of what RTS is in that game(is not a perfect e.g. but it's free, and it's fun. Far from being P2W).

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 maybe the best for turn-based strategy.
For RTS almost anything it doable, if it has skirmishes ( you set the difficulty, handicaps for enemy, and you play against AI enemies who starts from 0 as well as you do): Cossacks games are good, relatively easy and enjoyable. Age of Mythology is really good, also you can play at first against a mostly passive enemy - you can get to know your powers, soldiers and special units.
Warlords Battlecry is an intresting mix of RPG and RTS (you have a hero who levels up, gives massive bonus to your kingdom and such things) and it has a really newbie-friendly skirmish system - you can give loots of resources to yourself, almost nothing to enemy, to try out certain races, spells, etc. + it's campaign if really good, and if you get some experience in the game it's really rewarding, there are quite a few unique campaign map with good story and/or setting :)
As a non-orthodox RTS I'd drop in Majesty. It's half RTS, half simulator. Not the modern meaning of simulator, when it means complicated, but in the meaning when things try to act as they should in real life. You have your kingdom, your fighters, mages and rogues, but they all act as they want. You can lure the against the enemies if you put a bounty on their head, or if your shops can provide good enough gear to boost their bravery. Because of it's randomity if can be sometimes little hard to finish certain missions on first try, but the game itself is really easy to learn and fun to play.

Alpha Centauri

Warcraft 3
With a lot custom map, you can actually play Adventure, RPG, Puzzle, etc, beside the strategy one..

Okay RTS games I can recommend that are easy enough to get into.

Age of Empires
Command and Conquer
Company of Heroes
Dawn of War
Empire Earth
Homeworld
Lambda Wars
OpenRA
Rise of Nations
Sins of a Solar Empire
Supreme Commander
Starcraft
Star Wars Empire at War
Total Annihilation
Warzone 2100
World in Conflict

Turn Based

Alpha Centauri
Civilization
Galactic Civilizations
Panzer Generals
Star Trek Birth of the Federation
XCOM

There's a few others out there I could highly recommend but they are not the easiest of things to get into.

Starcraft 1 and 2 are probably the only really good RTS games ever made.

Superpower 2 for sure.

I'm also a total noob in strategy games, but the one I had the most fun with was Divinity: Dragon Commander. It's actually the only one i completed.

C&C Red Alert 2 + Yuri's Revenge (btw any C&C) ||
Tom Clancy's End War ||
Total Annihilation ||
World in Conflict ||
etc.. :D

Civilization V - I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm having fun! :D