I've tried, and tried, to get into almost any RTS I can get a demo of, and I really just suck at them. A lot. So much that I either have to use codes to get by, or I am so bad I can't even complete the tutorial missions (Advance Wars 2).
I do, though, love action strategy title, the few that are in that genre anyways.
Been playing through Battlezone again, and it's a brilliant game. Basework and resources are entirely streamlined, entirely done in first person, and emphasis on gathering a fleet and reeking hell.
I like Sacrifice (especially the story), but the clunky controls I simply can't master.
I bought and tried Antaeus Rising but I am pretty confused by the layout, although I am getting used to it, slowly.
On the console, the Kingdom Under Fire series has been great, although very difficult.
Is there anything else I'm missing? Anything like Battlezone I skipped over?

Dawn of War 2, singleplayer co-op campaign. You'll love it. And get original Dawn of War and expansions as well - you probly won't love it so much, but I have pretty much the same problem as you have :D

Well, you've got Battlezone 2 for starters. There's also the first Parkan, and there is apparently a game called Uprising which is supposed to be similar.
EDIT:
I preferred the original DOW, with expansions, over DOW 2. But then again, I'm used to base building and such. One of the games I used constantly played with my brother and sister was Warcraft 2, where base building was very important.

Have you tried Giants: Citizen Kabuto? It's more of an FPS, but it has strategic elements, such as base building, in certain phases of the game. Plus, it'll have you laughing out loud at regular intervals.

What counts as an action strategy game?
EDIT: Maybe I should say, what's the difference between a real-time strategy and an action strategy?

Played the first DOW and wasn't all that into it. I will check out DOW 2 though.
"Have you tried Giants: Citizen Kabuto? It's more of an FPS, but it has strategic elements, such as base building, in certain phases of the game. Plus, it'll have you laughing out loud at regular intervals."
I have it and I do like it :)
"What counts as an action strategy game? "
Battlezone 1 and 2 (I have played 2 and it wasn't as good as 1, but it was okay), Sacrifice, Antaeus Rising
and responding to your edit: I defined action strategy as taking place on the actual battlefield in either first person or third. Controlling one of the vehicles/people yourself and commanding the rest from there as well. Battlezone I believe still represents this best.
"Well, you've got Battlezone 2 for starters. There's also the first Parkan, and there is apparently a game called Uprising which is supposed to be similar."
Haven't heard of Parkan or Uprising, I'll check them out.

The only game out of those that I'm familiar with is Sacrifice. Maybe you would like the Mechwarrior games? They're sort of lightweight first-person giant-combat-machine sims with a few squadmates you can order around (though not to the degree of something like Sacrifice).
Mechwarrior is more action than strategy, though. It sounds like you want more strategy than action.

I have played the Mechwarrior games (2, Mercenaries, Ghost Bear, 4, and MechAssault) and they are great. I would put the earlier ones in the simiulation category, and the later ones in pure action. Here's what I'd like to see in an action strategy game:
1. First or third person perspective from a single unit or any unit of your choosing.
2. Total control from said vehicle/unit
3. resource management
4. base building
5. action based combat (aka not turn based or overhead view)
:)

As an aside - for getting your teeth stuck into RTS games, can I strongly recommend WarCraft 2 (or maybe 3) and Age of Empires 2, possibly in that order? WarCraft is very forgiving for people who aren't good at base management, and it wasn't until Age of Empires that I ever figured out how to effectively manage my own base.
As far as your actual request goes, you might want to consider the following. Regretfully, they are only really effective as multiplayer games (most don't even offer SP), but here goes:
* C&C Renegade. I know that this is a polarising game (a lot of people seem to hate it), but I really enjoyed C&C Renegade. The base-building and resource management elements were very simplistic - much simpler than promised - but I found it fun and very manageable.
* TribesNext - the free version of Tribes 2. While "base building" doesn't feature prominently, there's plenty of opportunities to hop into vehicles or take a more strategic involvement in the game.
* Savage - the Battle for Newarth - a combo FPS/RTS, with the option of being either a unit (FPS), or commander (RTS). This is a little different as the FPS units don't get much say in the overall strategy, but there is still plenty of leeway to change your own unit's configuration and develop some tactics with your teammates. I've had great fun playing this on a LAN or online. The original is now freeware since Savage 2 was released.
* Natural Selection - a sci-fi Half-Life mod with some similarities to Savage. Here, the players have a bit more leeway to build their own stuff, but there's still a division between commander and grunt.

If you have an Xbox 360 the outfit is a pretty good action stratergy game. Its set in world war 2, you get to play in 3rd person as a soldier with a squad that follows you about. As you kill you gain points to spend on reinforments, buildings and defensive structures.

Anteus rising rocks, but you already have that. You can play it almost totally in action mode, but pause to issue orders.
Though if you can't complete the tutorials in Advance Wars you might have problems, given that advance wars is really user friendly and the tutorials are designed to be very simple and handholding.
Full Spectrum warrior rocks. Its kinda 3rd person team based action, with a cover mechanic and lots of flanking manuvers. I think there is a free ad-supported pc version around.
On the older side, how about Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels?
Its like a team based Doom, moving your marines through an alien infested ship. At the begining you are just controlling yourself and following orders, but later you get to issue the orders. It has a few interface "quirks" but it has a really nice "command time" system for issuing the orders, and a good tense atmosphere.
Comand and Conquer Renegade? It got bad reviews, but it might be worth a try.
Hired Guns? Or the remake?
Cannon Fodder? (here on gog)
Or go with something FPS but where you can order your team around. Raibow 6, Ghost Recon, etc..

I will have to agree with Fenixp on the original DoW series. I am not an RTS person by far but I found those games to be quite challenging and rewarding if you figure out the way they are meant to be played. The original DoW campaign I steamrolled through it like a hot knife through butter on Normal mode. The expansions, however, were an entirely different beast. I actually had sacrifice my not-yet-born first born child in order to summon Fenixp into the #gog IRC channel and have him explain to me in small monosyllabic words how to play the expansions. Once I figured them out I could play the games better although I still suck at them. Basically I went from sucking a lot to sucking slightly less at RTS games.
Can't agree with Fenixp on the DoW2 campaign as I have yet to play it because that game apparently requires a computer from the future if I go by the system requirements.

Well I can agree with him on it, its a damned good game.
What are your system specs? My laptop can run it and its rather underpowered, 1.66GHz core2 duo & shitty mobile gpu. it can't run it at anything other than minimum specs but it still looks better than DoW1 and the slowdowns aren't unmanageable. Also there's a demo on steam so have a download of it, the worst that'll happen is that you waste some bandwidth

There's also Urban Assault by Microsoft. Looks a lot like Battlezone and Uprising. Might be worth checking into.