My favorite RTS of all time is Warcraft II and HW is a close second.
But guess what, that is what makes this game great. I for one don't think every game has to be complicated to be fun. Sometimes a nice simple game is the best fun. This is not to say that HW has no strategy, becuase it offers plenty very much like Warcraft II - and it's balanced.
Most of the RTS fan universe seems to hail Starcraft as the 'best thing since slice bread' at least until SCII arrives, but I never could get into SC always returning to WCII. Even WCIII was a disappointment - but it had four 'classes' to play - so who cares. it was not balanced - build up your hero and who cares about your other forces - but I digress.
Anyway my point is as a big fan of WCII and not a big fan of the modern PC RTS's, Halo wars just brings that nostalgic RTS feeling back to me.