Thanks for all the responses so far. I'll have to look into a few of those. I have played warcraft 3 with the expansions already. And that's actually one of the few I know of that did it- where you would select a guy to use and he would level up and you could upgrade his skills. That's what I had in mind when I wrote this thread. I just like modern era games more than medieval.

Imagine Command and Conquer where when you start a game, one of the units you start with is actually you. Maybe there are customization options where you can choose a specific specialization- whether it be infantry, armor, air... ect. And if this unit dies (since it's you) you fail the mission.

I'm looking for any games that might be like that. I get tired of a lot of strategy games where you're just god sitting above the battlefield and have no real worry. If you actually had a unit representing you in the game you would actually leave some units behind to protect you- kind of like you would for more powerful units so they don't get taken out. If anyone could drop me some suggestions of games that are like this that would be great. Thanks.