And by 'expand' I mean 'start.' I don't really have that much experience in strategy games. I find the StarCraft series a lot of fun, as well as WarCraft III. Age of Mythology is one of my most beloved games of all time. I tried to play Alpha Centauri once but remember becoming horribly confused and made absolutely no progress whatsoever.
However, lately I've had an itch to get more in-depth into the genre. I've got my eye on X-COM: Enemy Unknown, but the problem is that apart from that, I have no idea where to start. It's the usual problem with reviews and forums: various people claiming this series or that game is best ever, decrying all other contenders, people arguing that certain installments are the best or worst examples of the series, often using the same examples. Everyone seems to agree the Civilization series is worth playing. Well, which one? There are five of the fuckers. And AoM is based off the Age of Empires mechanics, right? But which one of those should I pick up first? And those are just the ones I've heard of.
So I need some help. I've decided to ask you guys in the hope that you can recommend me good places to start and good strategy games in general. Hopefully, the bias will be fairly consistent and I can get enough info to try a few things out to figure it out for myself.
So, to bring my inability to state a simple request to a close: what strategy games should I start with?
(A few ground rules: I don't care about multiplayer. Campaign, custom campaign, vs. A.I., that sort of thing. Good story is appreciated but not necessary. And if there are any with mythological bents to them, please kick them my way.)
Thank you in advance for listening to my rambling. :)