For beginners, Visual Basic is probably a good choice. Unlike QBASIC, VB is designed is capable of handling.

Also, Microsoft provides express editions of VB.NET for free on their website (as long as you sign up for a free MS Passport account) - So cost should not be a factor.

If you're not a VB guy though, C# or Java are also good alternatives.

As for the matter of "arrays and whatnot", it's going to be very difficult for you to implement any useful application, let alone a real-time strategy game, without grasping such material - These are really fundamental concepts to any program.