Quote Originally Posted by D1lD0 View Post
R: TW actually started as software used by the National Geographic/History Channel in their digital recreations of famous battles. The developers decided to make it into a game after they realized the obvious marketability of it. I believe it even got a few "Best RTS" awards the year it originally came out
You're right about the History Channel using it for the digital recreations, but the game was already in development before it was used for that. The medieval total war games are pretty fun too, if you're really into this kind of rts.

As for awards/recognition:

PC Gamer (UK): All time 5th best PC game "95%"
IGN: Editor's Choice Award, 4th Best PC Game of all Time.
PC Gamer (US): Editor's Choice, Best Strategy Game of 2004
GameSpot: Editor's Choice, Strategy Game of 2004
Adrenaline Vault: Seal of Excellence
GameSpy: Editor's Choice
E3 2003 Game Critics Awards: Best Strategy Game
X-Play: 5 out of 5
PC Powerplay: 95%

taken from Wikipedia.