Recommend an RTS to play at work?

[Baldrake]

I'm looking for an RTS to play with some buddies during social time at work. I need something where the games aren't crazy long, and that's inexpensive enough that my cheap bastard friends won't mind paying. I'm thinking older games, for lower price.

I'd thought of Warcraft III, but it costs $20. I also thought that the early Westwood games would be good, but they seem to be completely unavailable. I don't think genre matters, just a fun game that around 4 people can play. Bonus if it's available through Steam.

Any ideas?

[Malakili]

C&C Tiberian Sun is freeware now: http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic

[Baldrake]

That's too awesome. They even have Red Alert 1 there! Do you have any idea at all whether this can run under windows 7? The instructions are all XP-based (and look pretty nasty.)

[Sir T]

Supreme Commander 2 could be worth a look for you. Its steam based, there's lots of shooty and explosions and the skirmish games don't take too long to resolve. Plus it has nukes.

People didn't like it that it was meant for a smaller scale than Sup com, but taken on its own its a very good game and patches improved it even more. The hard AI is mean now.

[Zaljerem]

That's too awesome. They even have Red Alert 1 there! Do you have any idea at all whether this can run under windows 7? The instructions are all XP-based (and look pretty nasty.)

Command & Conquer Gold: Project 1.06
cnc-ddraw, for running it windowed

With those two fixes, you've got a better shot at making it work in Win7.