Which is why the idea of the "multi-role" rts was invented. One guy plays sim-city to build the base. Another plays tower defense to defend the base. One guy plays Defense of the Ancients-Heroe gameplay, and one guy plays the large scale meta-rts.

Then it became a balancing nightmare and we gave up, making instead seperate games for each gamer. The end.

There was even once the approach of the arena rts.. you dont micro, instead small battles are taken to a separate app (on a cellphone, were cell-phone user duke it out)..

But players hate to lose control over outcome.

Turns out seemless match-making and game joining and replacing ai is hard.