I never played Warcraft 1 and 2. Are they RTS? What other games of that era would you compare them to? How many factions can you pick from and play with etc? Thanks.

They are RTS games with Two factions.

First game is comparable to Dune II

Second game went up against Command & Conquer

Real-time strategy, yes.
Two factions. Orcs and humans
Comparison? no idea, really.

I would compare Warcraft II to StarCraft, kind of the same era and they share the same engine. The races in Warcraft are more symmetrical though while the races in Starcraft are asymmetrical.

More similar games from that era are Age of Empires II, Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Out of all those games, I think that Warcraft II probably is the one that holds up best today in terms of graphics. The gorgeous and simplistic art style makes it more timeless than Starcraft, Red Alert and Command & Conquer imo. The music is catchy as well.

If you played the Dune RTS Dune 2000 or whatever it was called then you've pretty much played Warcraft 1 but it has fantasy creatures instead of scifi stuff.

Warcraft too streamlined and improved things, removed needing to build next to roads, I think building walls was removed too, added sea and air units. Let you build more units, I think it added unit upgrades. It was basically starcraft with fantasy creatures instead of scifi.

So, who were those Beatles guys? Did they play rock?

I don't mean this as anything against the OP, but it baffles me that any gamer could not know what Warcraft and Warcraft 2 are. i mean, they are among the most famous, defining games ever made. I guess I'm just old, and have reached the point where people ask "what" when you're talking about stuff that to you used to live and breathe.

They probably can't relate to the pain of playing something online while a family member picks up the phone. Or having to brew a cup of tea while you wait for that one naughty low resolution picture to download.

I mean, those who are in their late teens today grew up with StarCraft II, and that is if they played anything as archaic as RTS at all.

RTS.

Units are mostly the same (except appearance), differences between orcs and humans come mainly from the spells of spellcasting units like warlocks, monks, wizards etc.
First game has a charming atmosphere, but really totally outdated controls (wonder if they'll do anything about that for the release on Gog). Also crazily overpowered catapults which can wipe out groups of units with a single shot.
Second game has ships and air units.

Both were fun in their time, but tbh going back to them today will probably be difficult.

Warcraft 1 has not aged well at all. Warcraft 2 is still great though, i have it installed on an old arse PC i use for some stuff. Map editing is prime fun.

I don't know, for me Warcraft 2 feels a lot more archaic than Starcraft, and even doesn't fare that well against the early Command and conquer games (which had great campaigns with fun video sequences...Kane was really great in the first game; also more variety in units and mission design).
Graphics may be a matter of taste, but regarding gameplay Warcraft 2 is the weakest of those games imo.

I'm 42 and nope never played either of them. But then again i wasn't exactly into strategy games back then either. I was more of a dungeon crawler RPG and sports game kind of guy. It's shocking that some folks haven't played certain games I know.

I wonder though if it wouldn't be greatly improved if they did something about those horrible controls.
Personally I found the story and units of Warcraft 1 more charming than in the sequel (warg riders, warlocks, monks were pretty cool imo, I didn't like it how those units were replaced). But yes, it's of course extremely basic gameplay.

Real Time Strategy, very much your typical resource gathering, base building, enemy squashing affair.

I agree... the only thing I missed that was cut in 2 was the wall building... I love building fortifications

They wanted to expand Warcraft 2 into a more direct game, hence the changes from the first and more pushing/harassing units, which then went even further in Warcraft 3. The controls probably going to be the same, but with added key binding...i'd hope anyway lol