So I am unsure if anything like what I am looking for exists, and it likely doesn't, but oh well. Does anyone know of an RTS that has the empire building elements of the Civilization games, without sacrificing the small unit function of the Command & Conquer games.

I love both Civ and C&C, but they both lack very important elements that their counterpart has in spades. For Civ you get the ability to play in a very detailed and somewhat complex political environment where your decisions affect how you interact with other world powers. C&C you can only fight one battle at a time and your resources start anew every time you play however you get a level of micro-management that allows you to adopt many different styles of combat depending on the situation.

I want something with both of those things. Anyone have titles for me?

Rome Total War series (Campaign map like Civ, battle map that isn't individual units but many grouped together)

Sins of a Solar Empire (Is a 4x game like Civ but the battle and campaign map are combined as one depending on level of zoom and is completely real time. Unit control is individual and has high level of macro)

Is this one good? I have heard of it and looked at it. The only thing I do not like about it is that it is space based.

What I like about Civ/C&C is that they have maps that incorporate different geographic obstacles. Meaning that no one unit is the best (and then they made FutureTanks in RA3 and ruined all of the wonderful balance they had going...). You have to build a ground, air, and naval force and employ them all in tandem with eachother to fully tap your potential.

So with all of that said, how do they get that kind of effect with a space game? Where, logically speaking, any unit could go anywhere and shoot anything.

One of my favorite aspects of Command & Conquer is building my control groups to be fully capable of engaging any units or structures that they run into without sustaining losses (except for Russia who has no mobile repair capabilities, I get fooked up hardcore when I use them). If that is not present in Sins of a Solar Empire then I do not know if I would enjoy it as an RTS.

So basically this: Are all of the units capable of engaging all other units/structures? Because that would be a no go as it allows for the gameplay to be reduced to pumping out a ton of cheap units and trying to win in an initial push before the other side is prepared.

sins is good. i cant say whether its what you're looking for or not, because i havent played command and conquer, but its got elements of warcraft3, age of empires and civ.

and its good. really good. i've spent several 100 hours playing it since i got it a couple years ago, and its still fun.

whether its what you're looking for or not, its definetly worth playing. the structure of the game gives you alot of freedom as to how you play, its more of a real time "war" simulator than it is a "battle" simulator.

I'm assuming you are looking for a 4x game, to which Civilization belongs. Sins of a Solar Empire is a 4x game too, just set in space, using spaceships.

I'll third... fourth Sins. It's an incredibly fun game and it sounds like it has most of what you want. That being said, for large scale battles with strategy - even though it's still on shaky ground - I think Total War: Rome 2 wins out and if you don't mind foregoing battles I don't think anything can compare to Europa Universalis IV.