[Desertfox287]

There were only two Dune games made, If I understand this properly...

Unless you're stating that you don't care for Master of Orion. Which is fine, I suppose.

...I still need to install C&C sometime - I've just not done so yet. 

Master of Orion. Sorry, I forgot to take out the other part of the quote. but I think MOO1&2 were better than three

[SpardaSon21]

There was no MoO3, just like there was no Galactica 1980 or Matrix sequels.

[NGTM-1R]

I'm not a huge RTS player, but I did greatly enjoy Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology, so maybe I'll give it a shot at some point.  One thing I am unclear on, though, is the overall chronology of the series.  I know that the Red Alert games are some sort of spinoff/alternate universe from the main series, but is it necessary to slot them in somewhere?

Red Alert 1 can be considered a prequal to the original C&C, and actually was until RA2 came out, at which point RA was seperated out into a totally different timeline. Quite a few of the fans are still upset about the removal of RA1 rather than it acting as a fork, I gather, and will say it was. Generals never pretended to be anything but seperate.

Otherwise, they work out in release order for both series.

[SpardaSon21]

Frakking RA3 had to have the Soviets going back in time to kill Einstein off.  Einstein was a totally awesome part of the RA games.  The Allies wouldn't have the awesome Chronosphere, Prism Tanks, or any other of his excellent inventions.  Killing Einstein also introduced a paradox because if the Soviets went back in time to kill Einstein, how could Einstein go back in time to kill Hitler, causing the events of RA1?  And if RA1 didn't happen because Einstein wasn't around to kill Hitler, then how could the Soviets create time travel to go back in time and kill an Einstein who never existed?

EDIT: Okay, let me clarify the whole RA3 paradox.  Einstein went back in time and killed Hitler, so there was no Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and Allies went to war.  If the Soviets went back in time to kill Einstein, then Einstein never went back in time to kill Hitler, meaning Hitler was around to create Nazi Germany, meaning WWII should have happened as planned, so it is impossible for the events of the RA series to take place because Hitler was never killed by a time-traveling Einstein.

[CP5670]

I don't think RA1 ever fit into the C&C storyline, despite being designed as a prequel. The C&C universe was obviously based around the real world (in 1995), while RA1 had a more surreal, alternate history feel to it. The only connection between them is Kane, but he plays a pretty minor role in RA1. There is no reference to any of the RA1 events in C&C and it's a little odd how Nod has some Allied units and GDI has some Soviet ones. (Russia is actually shown as a GDI country in C&C)

Dune 2 was great too. That was where it all started for RTSs. Among the later games, Dune 2000 reportedly sucked while Emperor was supposed to be pretty good, but I haven't played either of them.

[headdie]

I had dune 2000 and it was the C&C engine re skinned, it worked OK but didn't live up to the hype and to be honest delivered nothing new so ranks as a mediocre RTS at best