Which is the best RTS game?

Besides the usual, I kind of liked Black and White for the unique concept.

I am currently playing battle for middle earth and i must say that its a really good game

dude....whats with the upcoming ? LOTR BFME has been out for a while now. released in November. And there is a patch out too. By the way the game has serious issues with game.dat crashes. I cant play on it for any continuous period of time without the game.dat crashing on me. I would suggest waiting for patch 1.0.2

thats not much choice you've given
some of the best RTS's are the command & conquer series, age of empires, age of mythology and rise of nations, starcraft
but from the 4 games you've listed warcraft 3 is certainly the best

Checkout some amazing screenshots from the upcoming game, Black and White 2:

*bw2.lionhead.com/bw2/screenshots.html

HEY WHERS rome TOTAL WAR THE BEST RTS GAME EVER AND WARHAMMER 40000 AND KOHAN II

Amazing how everyone except Darthvader seemed to forget about R:TW. Easily the best I've played in a long, long time. Sure, they're good, but this one literally begs to be Number One. I award Evil Genius for their unique, kooky concept of an RTS.