What timeframe are you looking at? Dune II was more or less considered the game that established the modern RTS format. C&C is mostly a refinement on the same gameplay loop (down to the spice/tiberium/ore harvesters).
What I remember is a bigger scale for the fights, C&C let you control dozens of units at a time, Warcraft I and II let you control maybe 4 or 6 at a time. The unit cap was larger and you didn't have to spend half of it on resource gathering.
What I remember is a bigger scale for the fights, C&C let you control dozens of units at a time, Warcraft I and II let you control maybe 4 or 6 at a time. The unit cap was larger and you didn't have to spend half of it on resource gathering.