Have any of you played an excellent online WAR tragedy game where you are a commander, have to train/recruit new troops, all the while having only a small budget given to you by some group you work for?

I've been wanting to play something like this.

EDIT: It doesn't have to be free or located online. Scratch that.

So, anything like this?

Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?

er.... do you mean RTS games that you can play online? There aren't really many good free ones

I would prefer online.. but I suppose it doesn't have to be. It can be one I have to buy from the store.

Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?

Company of Heroes is a great war RTS with good singleplayer and online parts to it I really like it and it looks like something you are looking for.

I've got to burn your eyes.

Full Spectrum Warrior is just what you're looking for...hard to describe the gameplay, play for yourself and you'll find out

there's also Brothers in Arms...it's FPS though. But you issue commands to your fellow soldiers

World in Conflict is also a very great game for strategy and not only requires skillful management of your limited number of troops but also teamwork from your team members.

then there's also Overlord where you command an army of goblins and watch them grow in number and ravage villages, kill innocents etc...all in all it's a game for some "evil" fun 😁

If you want a really long drawn out tactical strategy game where one game could last a week. Try Supreme Commander the successor to "Total Annihilation." And an even bigger strategy game called Sins of a Solar Empire

GrimGrimoire also fits your request perfectly and has a good story (though I felt it resembled Harry Potter a little bit) but it's not online and is in the PS2

Other than these, I second "Company of Heroes"