History Main / FactionCalculus

* ''[[Videogame/EveOnline Eve Online]]'': The four dominant human races of the EVE Cluster: The Amarr Empire (Powerhouse), The Gallente Federation (Balanced), The Caldari State (Subversive), and The Minmatar Republic (Cannon)
* ''[[VideoGame/WarCraft Warcraft III]]'':
** Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, Undead Scourge, Night Elf Sentinels are Balanced, Powerhouse, Subversive, and Cannon respectively for the most part. Human infantry units are decently strong and decently cheap. Their spellcasters have versatile skillsets, with Sorceresses debuffing enemies and Priests to heal and buff allies. Orc units are powerful but more expensive. What support abilities they have is mainly focused on buffing their already great damage output. Undead relies on sheer numbers, primarily through their Necromancer's ability to create skeletal minions from corpses. Night Elves lack the brute strength of other factions, but they excel in ranged combat and their units can become invisible at night.
** However, things are a bit different when air units are involved, Orcs and Undeads being basically swapped: Undeads are air Powerhouse with frost wyrms being a huge, costly, and powerful late-game unit, Orcs are air Subversive with wyverns being a cheaper middle game unit that you want to mass and use for hit-and-run tactics, and bat riders being a subversive unit. Humans are still Balanced (Griffins are a powerhouse-like unit, flying machines and Dragonhawk riders are subversive-like units), Night Elves are still the Cannons (chimeras are very powerful and destructive, but can't attack air units and are easy to kill relative to their cost, and hippogryphs are extremely powerful air superiority units, but cannot attack ground units unless you mount an archer on them, leaving them helpless against ground units who can attack air units).
* ''VideoGame/BattleRealms'': The 4 Clans; Dragon (Balanced), Serpent (Subversive), Wolf (Powerhouse), Lotus (Cannon).

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' has five with the Tale of the Dragon expansion: Greeks (Balanced), Egyptians (Subversive), Norse (Powerhouse), Atlanteans (Cannon), and Chinese (Horde).

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'': United Federation Of Planets (Balanced), Klingon Empire (Cannons), Romulan Star Empire (Subversive), Borg (Powerhouse). The Romulans do not appear in the sequel.
** The Romulans just don't get a campaign in Armada 2. They're still there as enemies/multiplayer factions, along with the Cardassian Union and Species 8472.

** The ''Forged Alliance'' expansion adds the Seraphim as Cannon.

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'''s ''Forged Alliance'' expansion adds the Seraphim as Cannon.

In Strategy Games -- whether [[TurnBasedStrategy turn-based]], [[RealTimeStrategy real-time]], or FourX -- or [[WarGaming tabletop wargames]], when there are different factions, these will ([[CosmeticallyDifferentSides usually]]) have different advantages, disadvantages, and play styles to entertain the player. With a low amount of factions, there are clear, fundamental differences, but as the factions grow, the differences subside, until eventually the sides are not polar opposites as much as points on a gradient line between two extremes.

** Goblins: Subversive, UpToEleven. Goblins are weak fighters individually; they employ poison, netting, ambush tactics and the like to bring stronger enemies down to their level. In melee, they can be surprisingly crafty and hard to hit.

** [[spoiler:Ancient Dead: Powerhouse, UpToEleven. You have a row of armoured undead spearmen standing together with undead pikemen, impervious to pain and unbreakable while their tight formation holds.]]

** The Age of the Ring mod breaks things up heavily, to the point that few are in the same category--mainly Gondor, the Lothlorien elves, the Erebor dwarves, and the Misty Mountain goblins. Mordor and Isengard shift more into Balanced, with highly varied layouts mixing all kinds of different troops (though they retain cannon fodder and a strong economy, respectively). Rohan is, again, a blend of Horde and Powerhouse, and Rivendell is similarly broken up between Horde hobbit and human troops and Powerhouse elven troops. The Woodland Realm blends Subversive and Cannon, with a focus on high-damage skirmishes, and their rivals in Dol Guldur are almost purely Subversive, being designed to literally corrupt the land.

* ''VideoGame/OriginalWar'' significantly downplays this trope. Nominally, the Americans are Balanced, the Russians are the Powerhouse, and the Arabs are Subversive. That said, number of human troops in each scenarios is limited and once they die, they are lost for the rest of the campaign. In the, all three factions tend toward a subversive playstyle.

* In ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes II'', it's the Red Army (Subversive/Horde), the US Army (Balanced) and the British Army (Powerhouse with a focus on defence) vs. the Wehrmacht Ostheer (Powerhouse) and the Oberkommando West (Cannons).

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' has over 20 different nations to choose from, but most of the differences are small.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' series have large numbers of playable factions, with more added in each expansion pack. Since the tech trees are shared, most variation comes in the form of each civilisation having exclusive bonuses or missing out on a few research items or unit upgrades. The second game adds one (in some cases two) unique technology and unit for each civilisation. Additionally, both games feature set statistical bonuses (military and economic) and minor gimmicks for each civ.
** The third game in the series takes earlier concepts further, increasing complexity by giving all European civilisations two or more (up to five) unique units, removing or replacing basic units for specific civs, providing each civ with a more powerful mainline upgrade for some basic units, and adding a variety of bonuses, gimmicks, etc. to each civ. Further, the game introduces the Home City feature, allowing for even more unique bonuses and technologies to be applied on the fly. The two expansions add three civilisations each, and all of these are entirely unique, sharing no units with any other civ (although there are some similarities). There are also variety of gameplay gimmicks implemented according to civ-grouping (for instance, the Fire Pit for all Native Americans, Wonders and Rice Paddies for all Asians) and individual civilisation (as the system in the base game ratcheted up).
*** If there is a triangle for the European civs in the base game, it goes like this: Spain and Britain are the Balanced - Spain has a large and diverse unit roster and a card deck that can let them play rushdown, boom, or turtle strategies equally well, while Britain is primarily an economic and naval faction with the potential for a competent land force as well (though it's not a true powerhouse). Holland, Portugal, and Russia are the Subversives - Holland is an economic machine with a card deck suited for fielding lots of mercenaries, Portugal is a kind of fiddly faction with a focus on light and highly specialised units, and Russia's whole playstyle, from their card deck to their ability to raise troops in batches, is geared towards ZergRush. The French, Ottomans, and Germans are the Powerhouses - France is dominant in nearly all areas militarily and they have the best heavy cavalry in the game, the Ottomans are the game's artillery and siege specialists, and the Germans can field massive armies of cavalry festooned with upgrades from the card deck plus mercenary backup.
*** In a way, with the third expansion, the game plays into the three-way version of this trope, with the Europeans being Balanced, the Natives being Subversive, and Asians being Powerhouses. Also, in same expansion, the Asian factions form the same triangle: Japan (Balanced), India (Powerhouse), and China (Subversive).

* ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'', the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Alpha Centauri'', has the three Affinities - three potential paths of development for human colonists of an alien world to overcome NoBiochemicalBarriers. Note that the different Sponsor bonuses and playstyles can all be worked differently so there is a lot of variation, but broadly:
** Purity (Powerhouse) is the philosophy of altering the planet to fit humans while celebrating human history and physiology. Transhumanism is largely rejected but with their vast array of vehicles and battlesuits, you won't be needing them. Purity is all about big guns and overwhelming power. Purity units can gain a lot of powerful offensive or defensive perks (but only one or the other), things like extra attacks, splash damage, and bonus damage per unused movement point (i.e, if you are right up close to an enemy unit when you attack, you will wallop it), or becoming rock-solid on the defence and cities become borderline impregnable.
** Supremacy (Balanced) is the philosophy of altering humans to become independent of the planetary biosphere, making use of cybernetics and nanotechnology to gradually leave behind biological forms. Supremacy makes heavy use of unmanned drones and combat robots, but at higher levels [[{{Cyborg}} the distinction between them and the human units becomes elementary]]. Many Supremacy units get bonuses from flanking or being adjacent to a friendly unit, and they also gain ultra-fast roads between cities and a satellite connection to every Firaxite site in the world, including ones in enemy territory.
** Harmony (Subversive) is the philosophy of altering humans to fit into the alien environment using gene-splicing and genetic modification. Harmony units gradually even begin to resemble alien lifeforms, and it reflects in their tactics, using the native terrain and domesticating alien life, eventually moving up to homebrew bioweapons. Harmony is generally weaker than the other two but they can heal and fight better in Miasma and ignore rough terrain for rapid travel or become extremely strong when striking in isolation. Note that Harmony does not necessarily have to play nice with the local fauna, but you will have a much easier time fighting in their turf.

* GameMod ''VideoGame/RedAlert3Paradox'' has 8 factions which are fairly diverse. Out of those, 4 play in typical ''Command & Conquer'' fashion while the other 4 do NOT (they play like an RPG, VideoGame/SimCity, and both sides of a TowerDefense game, respectively). The orientations are equally diverse, the Allies possess air power and "working together", the Soviets got tanks ad absurdum, bringing raw unmatched firepower in, the Empire is versatile and very fast in addition to a powerful navy, the Confederates have great infantry and all sorts of stealthy mean tricks, the Talons are even more about working together, creating impenetrable shields with their strong defense values, the Chinese are the towers of a TowerDefense game, short-ranged but powerful, the Electrical Protectorate are the creeps of tower defense games with ZergRush tactics that would make the actual Zerg proud and the Syndicate are all about range and speed while bringing entire cities on the battlefield.

* The ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' GameMod Eastern Front adds the Soviet Union and German Ostheer to the mix; the Soviets are clearly Horde in the early to mid-game, using upgrades to transition into a powerhouse by the finale. The Ostheer are primarily technical with specialized units perfect for their roles but also trapped when put against enemies outside their specialty.

In Strategy Games -- whether [[TurnBasedStrategy turn-based]], [[RealTimeStrategy real-time]], or FourX -- or [[WarGaming tabletop wargames]], when there are different factions, these will ([[CosmeticallyDifferentSides usually]]) have different advantages, disadvantages, and play styles to entertain the player. With a low amount of factions, there are clear, fundamental differences, but as the factions grow, the differences subside, until [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters eventually]] the sides are not polar opposites as much as points on a gradient line between two extremes.

** The third game in the series takes earlier concepts further, increasing complexity by giving all European civilisations two or more (up to five) unique units, removing or replacing basic units for specific civs, providing each civ with a more powerful mainline upgrade for some basic units, and adding a variety of bonuses, gimmicks, etc. to each civ. Further, the game introduces the Home City feature, allowing for even more unique bonuses and technologies to be applied on the fly. The two expansions add three civilisations each, and all of these are entirely unique, sharing no units with any other civ (although there are some similarities). There are also variety of gameplay gimmicks implemented according to civ-grouping (for instance, the Fire Pit for all Native Americans, Wonders and Rice Paddies for all Asians) and individual civilisation (as the system in the base game TurnedUpToEleven).

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft2'': In the campaigns:

* ''VideoGame/Starcraft 2'': In the campaigns:

* '''[[UnskilledButStrong Powerhouse]]''' - Power and Efficiency. Powerhouse armies typically consist of powerful units with great durability and attack power. Pound for pound, Dollar for Dollar, their forces are flat out stronger than their opponents and in a head-on meatgrinder, they'll come out on top. What abilities they do have tend to be things like {{Herd Hitting Attack}}s, temporary power-ups, healing, [[WeHaveReserves economic advantages]], and other things that make them even harder to beat head on, or a few tools oriented towards forcing their opponents to fight them head on. However, since their units and upgrades cost a lot, it takes them a lot of time to build a proper army, making them more vulnerable to strategies involving early-game rushes, or constant harassment, since it prevents them from developing properly.
* '''[[WeakButSkilled Subversive]]''' - Speed and Number. Subversive armies consist of a large number of weaker units. While they are weaker with equal numbers, they compensate this with bigger numbers, lower cost and fast production. They can thus quickly create a massive army to overwhelm their opponents. When their units have abilities, it's generally some kind of summoning ability or taking control of enemy units, so that they can further enhance their number advantage. Their fast production and low costs also allow them to quickly adapt in case things aren't going in their favor. A Subversive faction is usually the other faction, along with the Powerhouse, to be present in a two-factions scenario.
* '''Balanced''' - The Balanced, as suggested by its name, is a balanced middle ground between the Subversive and Powerhouse, and probably the immediate third faction to be added in a three-factions scenario. The JackOfAllStats, MasterOfNone faction, typically relying on their versatility to match and counter other factions as needed. In games with more factions, they're liable to lean towards the MagicKnight side, relying on their special abilities to get an edge up on enemies. A Balanced faction tends to be good at every part of the game.

The contrast between the different playstyles allows for a more varied game than strictly CosmeticallyDifferentSides and mirror matches. However, simply making one faction slightly stronger but slower than the next rarely adds enough asymetry once enough factions are involved, so developers often turn to giving each faction a gimmick of some sort, such as long range or large numbers as is shown in ACommanderIsYou.

** The "Mobile Warfare" doctrine is a Cannons, focusing on superpowering armored and mechanized units, while giving infantry units more organization and breakthrough so they can attack for longer. You can choose whether you want to spec for tanks or motorized/mechanized infantry. The second branch allows the you either to continue developing blitzkrieg doctrine, or increase your manpower pool in case you're losing a late-game war like the real life Volkssturm militia. Germany always starts with this doctrine.

** The "Mass Assault" doctrine sides with either Subversive or the Horde, with the first branch decreasing the combat width of your infantry (allowing more men to participate in a single battle) and giving auxiliary bonuses to your mechanized troops like real life deep battle doctrine and end-of-war Red Army, while the second branch increases your recruitable population, allowing you to field many more divisions like the initial desperate attacks against the Nazis until the front stabilized or Chinese fighting against the Japanese invasion with inferior equipment but greater manpower. The Soviet Union, Communist and Nationalist China, and all the Chinese warlords start with this doctrine.

* ''VideoGame/MightyParty'' subverts this trope in a similar was as Trading Card Games. Although there are three clearly defines factions of units: Order (Powerhouse), Nature (Subversive), and Chaos (Balanced), majority of player prefer to use in [=PvP=] a unit pack that combines units from two or three factions. Although a warband army consisting of units frome a sole faction can be easily buffed, it has almost always a specific vulnurabilities that can be exploited by the opponent.

* ''VideoGame/OriginalWar'' significantly downplays this trope. Nominally, the Americans are Balanced, the Russians are Powerhous, and the Arabs are Subversive. That said, number of human troops in each scenarios is limited and once they die, they are lost for the rest of the campaign. In the, all three factions tend toward a subversive playstyle.

** Invoked in ''Stronghold'' (2001), where all the factions were using the same types of building and units. However, AI enemies in the mainline campaign were coded different playing strategies. Although they had theoretically tha same selection of building and troops available, they focused on producting only units that would suit their strategy.

* ''Ultimate General: Civil War'' Union (Subversive/Horde to Balanced) and Confederates (Powerhouse). The Union initially relies on large numbers and a large treasury, but initially has less well-trained troops and not as good weapons. They thus rely initially on numbers to hold and attack objectives. As time goes on, they become Balanced due to gaining better weaponry and acquiring more experience. The Confederate forces are better trained and have access to better weaponry and higher-level officers, and as a result, are more powerful than the Union. However, they cannot afford to lose men as they have limited manpower. Oddly enough, this requires them to use tactics more common to Subversive factions (hitting weakpoints, outflanking, dividing and conquering).

* ''Tomorrow's War'': In "asymetric warfare" scenarios the professional army is the powerhouse while the insurgents have to be subversive.

* ''Main/RealLife'': there are plenty of examples of the concept of Assymetric werfare, usually in the form of conflict between the standing professional army (Powerhouse) and the resistance movement militia with a better knowledge of local terrain (Subversive). Furtheremore, it usually occured in wars between two empires originating in different geographical conditions. Firstly, the empire that was sending troops further away was often in number of troops they can send, leading to preference of quality over quantity. Secondly, different climates and different social structures favoured different composition of armies and their equipment. For example:

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Rites of War'' has three factions: the Eldar, who, with a small number of elite units, are the Powerhouse; the Tyranids, who, with a large number of units, including many that are human genestealer hybrids, are the Subversives; and the Imperium, who are the Balanced.

** Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, Undead Scourge, Night Elf Sentinels are Balanced, Powerhouse, Subversive, and Cannon respectively for the most part. Human infantry units are decently strong and decently cheap. Their spellcasters have versatile skillsets, with Sorceresses debuffing enemies and Priests to heal and buff allies. Orc units are powerful, but more expensive. What support abilities they have is mainly focused on buffing their already great damage output. Undead relies on sheer numbers, primarily through their Necromancer's ability to create skeletal minions from corpses. Night Elves lack the brute strength of other factions, but they excel in ranged combat and their units can become invisible at night.
** However, things are a bit different when air units are involved, Orcs and Undeads being basically swapped: Undeads are air Powerhouse with frost wyrms being a huge, costly and powerful late game unit, Orcs are air Subversive with wyverns being a cheaper middle game unit that you want to mass and use for hit-and-run tactics, and bat riders being a subversive unit. Humans are still Balanced (Griffins are a powerhouse-like unit, flying machines and dragonhawks riders are subversive-like units), Night elves are still the Cannons (chimeras are very powerful and destructive, but can't attack air units and are easy to kill relative to their cost, and hippogryphs are extremely powerful air superiority units, but cannot attack ground units unless you mount an archer on them, leaving them helpless against ground units who can attack air units).

* Though not a strategy game, the four major players in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' fit this dynamic. The [[MugglePower Commonwealth]] [[WeHelpTheHelpless Minutemen]] would be Balanced: Minutemen fighters usually feature a mishmash of different weapons and armour and are moderately powerful. The [[PoweredArmor Brotherhood]] [[CoolPlane of Steel]] are definitely Powerhouse, as their heavily-armoured Knights are few in number but also some of the strongest enemies you'll encounter, even being able to consistently beat Deathclaws one-on-one, and they're the only faction to have air power. The [[TheConspiracy Institute]] are a shoe-in for Subversive, as while they don't produce Power Armour or other advanced weapons of war, they do produce large quantities of expendable Synths to do their fighting for them, and they also send the Synths to infiltrate the Commonwealth, working covertly to maintain their grip on the people. Finally, the [[UndergroundRailroad Railroad]] would be the Cannons; Railroad Heavies are often equipped with Gauss Rifles and Railway Rifles which can punch through a Brotherhood Knight's armour with ease, but aren't very well-armoured themselves, and they're few in number and don't really have the staying power to openly contend with the other factions.

** The Fleets of Chaos field a number of older ships which the Imperial Navy have long since decommissioned. They tend to prefer mid to long range engagements with large numbers of lance weapons and plenty of carrier ships - every class has a carrier ship and outfitting them is very cheap too. On the other hand, their macro batteries are nothing to write home about, their ramming potential is limited, their torpedoes are nonexistent, and high speed is what protects them instead of thick armour.
** The Ork Freebooterz field a number of ships with extremely heavy frontal prows, giving them excellent protection from frontal attack and letting them bull apart enemy ships with ease, and they are the best at boarding actions too. Ork ships are also rather versatile as instead of choosing from specific ships with a class, each class provides a basic "krooza" which comes with a number of options which the player can freely choose. However, this raw power comes at significant cost: their accuracy at any range other than "very close" is abysmal, their ships are highly vulnerable in the rear due to loads of engines and thin armour, and due to their anarchic natures the Ork "kaptins" are more likely to disobey the admiral and abandon battle than those of other races.
** The Eldar Corsairs specialise in lightning fast hit-n-run tactics with the most manoeuvrable ships of any faction, but this comes at considerable cost to their durability: Eldar ships have very thin armour, and their holofields (shields) only work when the ship is moving at speed. While even Chaos can perform somewhat decent ramming manoeuvres in a pinch, ramming with Eldar ships is simple suicide. Eldar ships have solar sails and hence need to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_(sailing) "tack"]], and most of their weapons are front-facing meaning that an Eldar admiral has to pay close attention to positioning and micromanagement. However, Eldar ships have a lot of lance-based firepower and their captains have better morale, making them less like to flee battles.
* ''VideoGame/MentalOmega'' ([[GameMod mod]] for ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2: Yuri's Revenge''): The Allied Nations are Cannons (formerly Balanced before the introduction of Foehn), with fast units, advanced weaponry and air and naval superiority. The Soviet Union is the Powerhouse, being the most straightforward and direct faction with a preference towards heavy armour, weapons and assault tactics. The Epsilon Army is Subversive, with cheap but statistically weak units and preferring to spam infantry and rely on unconventional weapons. The Foehn Revolt is Balanced, with strong units that also come with many special abilities but pay for it in very high individual cost. Furthermore, each faction is divided into three sub-factions that also play this trope straight:
** Allies: The USA is Subversive, with fast but frail units and preference towards rapid deployment and surgical strikes with a strong air force. The Euro Alliance, emphasising in heavy firepower and defence, is the Powerhouse. The Pacific Front is Balanced, with versatile, multifunctional units and a focus on long-range bombardment.

** Epsilon: [=PsiCorps=] is Balanced, whose main strength lies in mind control technology and amphibious assaults. HQ is slightly more of a Powerhouse, focusing on territorial control, defence and strong infantry. Scorpion Cell is the most Subversive, favouring cheap, spammable and WeakButSkilled units, and {{troll}}ing the enemy with its arsenal of chemical weapons and ambush capability.

* Also theoretically, ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'' has five factions if one plays with one god straight - Persephone (Balanced), James (Powerhouse), Stratos (Subversive), Pyro (Cannon) and Charnel (Horde). Technically speaking, a player can mix and match with the various powers, meaning his unit combinations can come anywhere inbetween.

** Made more complex in 2.0, as each faction has 3 Generals that further diversify the game by either being Powerhouse, Subversive or exaggerating their faction's strengths ("Exaggerator"), respectively. This results in combinations such as Balanced-Powerhouse (USA General Bradley), Powerhouse-Powerhouse (Russian General Zhukov), similar but different Powerhouse-Exaggerator (Russian General Aleksandr), Subversive-Powerhouse (GLA General Sulaymaan), Horde-Subversive (Chinese General Jin) and so on for a total of '''15''' combinations.

* The real World War II actually did play out a lot like this when it comes to the six most significant participant countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Republic of China, Nazi Germany and Empire of Japan. United States was Balanced, United Kingdom was Cannon, Soviet Union was Horde, Nazi Germany was Powerhouse. Empire of Japan was Subversive when facing the Western Allies, but was Powerhouse when fighting China, who was Subversive.

*** If there is a triangle for the European civs in the base game, it goes like this: Spain and Britain are the Balanced - Spain has a large and diverse unit roster and a card deck that can let them play rushdown, boom or turtle strategies equally well, while Britain is primarily an economic and naval faction with the potential for a competent land force as well (though it's not a true powerhouse). Holland, Portugal and Russia are the Subversives - Holland is an economic machine with a card deck suited for fielding lots of mercenaries, Portugal is a kind of fiddly faction with a focus on light and highly specialised units, and Russia's whole playstyle, from their card deck to their ability to raise troops in batches, is geared towards ZergRush. The French, Ottomans and Germans are the Powerhouses - France is dominant in nearly all areas militarily and they have the best heavy cavalry in the game, the Ottomans are the game's artillery and siege specialists, and the Germans can field massive armies of cavalry festooned with upgrades from the card deck plus mercenary backup.

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' has ten races who actually play fairly differently. Each has a special racial bonus (and a few have handicaps to go along with that if their bonus is too powerful - most races can only colonize half the planets in the galaxy until they've researched the proper tech, but Silicoids can colonize them all right away. But their population grows HALF as fast as everyone else's!). They also have certain tech fields that they are better or worse at, and tendencies toward good or bad relations with certain other races. This results in quite a bit of difference in how each race plays, plus a rather extreme case of unbalance. The Psilons are excellent at all research AND are liked by most other races, making them one of the clearly best races, while the Klackons have an equally overpowered ability (bonuses to industrial production) but are widely disliked (they're still one of the top races though). Mrrshans and Alkaris have awful abilities (small combat bonuses) and are generally disliked, making them the hardest to play, while the Darloks (bonuses to all spying activities) are hated by all, but can often become the leaders in technology by stealing everyone else's tech, and can keep themselves alive by inciting wars between other empires.
* ''VideoGame/WarlordsBattlecry'' 2 has 12 races that play differently, and Warlord's Battlecry 3 has SIXTEEN! Though for the most part it is a sliding gradient scale, there are several races that have unique combat gimmicks which make them difficult to categorize - the undead, for example, can upgrade their units on the field, simultaneously fully healing them. The Swarm in WBC3 can resource starve their opponents while hammering them with weak - but very cheap - troops. Daemons can use their units to summon whole new units onto the field for free, effectively replacing lost troops mid-battle or freely building up the ranks beforehand, but the base units are hideously expensive. And then there's the Plaguelords in WBC3, who are just totally overpowered; with access to cheap hordes of units with powerful upgrades "and" powerful area of effect monsters, their only real weakness is a lack of effective ranged units.

** Purity (Powerhouse) is the philosophy of altering the planet to fit humans, while celebrating human history and physiology. Transhumanism is largely rejected but with their vast array of vehicles and battlesuits, you won't be needing them. Purity is all about big guns and overwhelming power. Purity units can gain a lot of powerful offensive or defensive perks (but only one or the other), things like extra attacks, splash damage and bonus damage per unused movement point (i.e, if you are right up close to an enemy unit when you attack, you will wallop it), or becoming rock-solid on the defence and cities become borderline impregnable.

** Harmony (Subversive) is the philosophy of altering humans to fit into the alien environment using gene-splicing and genetic modification. Harmony units gradually even begin to resemble alien lifeforms, and it reflects in their tactics, using the native terrain and domesticated alien life, eventually moving up to homebrew bioweapons. Harmony is generally weaker than the other two but they can heal and fight better in Miasma and ignore rough terrain for rapid travel or become extremely strong when striking in isolation. Note that Harmony does not necessarily have to play nice with the local fauna, but you will have a much easier time fighting in their turf.
* ''[[TabletopGame/IronKingdoms Warmachine]]'' and ''[[TabletopGame/IronKingdoms Hordes]]'' are two halves of a game: ''Warmachine'' has six factions while ''Hordes'' has four (with another planned in 2017). Has even more if you count the sub groups in the mercenaries (5) and Minions (2) factions.

* GameMod ''VideoGame/RedAlert3Paradox'' has 8 factions which are fairly deverse. Out of those, 4 play in typical ''Command & Conquer'' fashion while the other 4 do NOT (they play like an RPG, VideoGame/SimCity and both sides of a TowerDefense game, respectively). The orientations are equally deverse, the Allies posses air power and "working together", the Soviets have tanks ad absurdum, bringing raw unmatched firepower in, the Empire are versatile and very fast in addition to a powerful navy, the Confederates have great infantry and all sorts of stealthy mean tricks, the Talons are even more about working together, creating impenetrable shields with their strong defense values, the Chinese are the towers of a TowerDefense game, short-ranged but powerful, the Electrical Protectorate are the creeps of tower defense games with ZergRush tactics that would make the actual Zerg proud and the Syndicate are all about range and speed while bringing entire cities on the battlefield.

* The ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' GameMod Eastern Front adds the Soviet Union and German Ostheer to the mix; the Soviets are clearly Horde in the early to mid-game, using upgrades to transition into powerhouse by the finale. The Ostheer are primarily technical with specialized units perfect for their roles, but also trapped when put against enemies outside their specialty.

** Clan units are traditional Powerhouses. Their units are tough, fast, and well armed, but ''absurdly'' expensive. If you field just a ''single'' Clan ''Timber Wolf,'' be prepared to have an Inner Sphere opponent field two ''Awesomes'' in response if you play using PointBuy, or as many as ''four Awesomes'' if you use a C-Bill based purchase system. The Clan player invests heavily in overwhelming power, but at the price of fielding few units and often being locked into HonorBeforeReason tactical decisions, such as mandatory single combat rather than focused fire. Even within the Clans, there are breakdowns based on preferred tactics.

*** Clan Jade Falcon is a textbook Cannon-type faction. Favoring fast, weapon-laden units, they buy this speed and firepower at the cost of armor, and as a result Jade Falcon unit tends to favor designs such as the ''Hellbringer'' or ''Summoner''. Jade Falcons hit hard and fast, but are unable to absorb much in the way of counter-fire and often lose more units in battle as a result.
*** Subversive Clan factions are fewer, due to the focus on honorable single combat, but Clan Ice Hellion is certainly this. Favoring small, fast units such as the ''Viper'' and ''Fire Moth'', they move quickly and are more numerous for the same price than their other Clan peers. Unfortunately for them, while they can field the units, they usually fail to field a necessary amount of power, and must rely on achieving a win condition that isn't a straight duel to the death.

*** House Liao is the textbook Subversive Inner Sphere faction. Favoring lighter, faster units as well as use of sneaky stealth armor and electronic warfare equipment, House Liao will often lose a straight-up fight against most foes but can sneak objectives or critical kills out from under the noses of their enemies. House Liao has managed to streamline the production of iconic flexible lightweight designs such as the ''Raven'' and ''Vindicator'' to the point that they can afford to lose a few if victory can be achieved.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Rites of War'' has three factions: the Eldar, who, with a small number of elite units, are the Powerhouse; the Tyranids, who, with a large number of units, including many that are human genestealer hybrids, are the Subversives; and the Imperium, who are the Balanced. Interestingly, you play as the Eldar in campaign mode.

* The real World War II actually did play out a lot like this when it comes to the five most significant participant countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Empire of Japan. United States was Balanced, United Kingdom was Cannon, Soviet Union was Horde, Nazi Germany was Powerhouse and Empire of Japan was Subversive.

Compare PlayerCharacterCalculus.

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has seven factions: Gaia's Stepdaughters, Human Hive, University Of Planet, Morgan Industries, Spartan Federation, The Lord's Believers, and Peacekeeping Forces. The expansion, ''Alien Crossfire'', adds seven more: Cybernetic Consciousness, Nautilus Pirates, Free Drones, Data Angels, Cult Of Planet, Manifold Caretakers, and Manifold Usurpers. There may still only be seven factions in the game. Also, if one alien faction (i.e. Caretakers/Usurpers) is in the game, the other must be as well. The printed manual for Alien Crossfire went into detail describing the process of autoplaying games with all 1,584 combinations of factions just to make sure everything is balanced juuuuust right.
** And then there's the unlockable faction in Alien Crossfire - the Firaxians (named after Firaxis Games, the developer). They're intentionally a LethalJokeCharacter, for people who just want to kick inordinate amounts of butt inordinately early, so they don't factor into the balancing.

* (Original) ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Space Marines (Balanced), Orks (The Horde), Eldar (Subversive) and Chaos (Powerhouse). By Dark Crusade we also have three new factions with more nuanced roles. The Imperial Guard are Cannons with elements of Horde at first and Powerhouse later, the Necrons are slow-moving Powerhouses that will win any battle of attrition, and the Tau are Cannons who specialize in ranged combat. Chaos gets pushed closer to Balanced status due to the Necrons becoming the definitive Powerhouse faction.

* (Original) ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Space Marines (Balanced), Orks (The Horde), Eldar (Subversive) and Chaos (Powerhouse). By Dark Crusade we also have three new factions with more nuanced roles. The Imperial Guard sstarts as a Horde of infantry but later get Powerhouse vehicles, the Necrons are slow-moving Powerhouses that will win any battle of attrition, and the Tau are Cannons who specialize in ranged combat. Chaos gets pushed closer to Balanced status due to the Necrons becoming the definitive Powerhouse faction.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Winter Assault'': Space Marines (Balanced), Orks (The Horde), Eldar (Subversive), Chaos (Powerhouse) and Imperial Guard (Cannons).

* (Original) ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Space Marines (Balanced), Orks (The Horde), Eldar (Subversive) and Chaos (Powerhouse).

** The "Mobile Warfare" doctrine is a Cannons, focusing on superpowering armored and mechanized units, while giving infantry units more organization and breakthrough so they can attack for longer. You can choose whether you want to spec for tanks or motorized/mechanized infantry. The second branch allows the you either to continue developing blitzkrieg doctrine, or increase your manpower pool in case you're losing a late-game war. Germany always starts with this doctrine.

** The "Grand Battleplan" doctrine is Balanced and Subversive, giving units better defense while entrenched and better attack while executing a battle plan. While units have better defense and attack stats when they have these bonuses than with any other doctrine, they require time to prepare, and is dangerous if the enemy manages to mess up your entrenchments or foils your plans. The United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan all start with this doctrine.
** The "Mass Assault" doctrine sides with either Subversive or the Horde, with the first branch decreasing the combat width of your infantry (allowing more men to participate in a single battle) and giving auxiliary bonuses to your mechanized troops, while the second branch increases your recruitable population, allowing you to field many more divisions. The Soviet Union, Communist and Nationalist China, and all the Chinese warlords start with this doctrine.

*** Clan Jade Falcon is a textbook Cannon-type faction. Favoring fast, weapon-laden units, they buy this speed and firepower at the cost of armor, and as a result Jade Falcon unit tends to favor desigs such as the ''Hellbringer'' or ''Summoner''. Jade Falcons hit hard and fast, but are unable to absorb much in the way of counter-fire and often lose more units in battle as a result.
*** Subversive Clan factions are fewer, based on the focus on honorable single combat, but Clan Ice Hellion is certainly this. Favoring small, fast units such as the ''Viper'' and ''Fire Moth'', they move quickly and are more numerous for the price than their other Clan peers. Unfortunately for them, while they can field the units, they usually fail to field a necessary amount of power, and must rely on achieving a win condition that isn't a straight duel to the death.
** Inner Sphere factions are also quite diverse, in different ways. Most Inner Sphere factions are Balanced as opposed to the overall Powerhouse design of the Clans.

** However, things are a bit different when air units are involved, Orcs and Undeads being basically swapped: Undeads are air Powerhouse with frost wyrms being a huge, costly and powerful late game unit, Orcs are air Subversive with wyverns being a cheaper middle game unit that you want to mass and use for hit-and-run tactics, and bat riders being a subversive unit. Humans are still Balanced (Griffins are a powerhouse-like unit, flying machines and dragonhawks riders are subversive-like units), Night elves are still the Cannons (chimeras are very powerful and destructive, but can't attack air units and are easy to kill relative to their cost).

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'': United Federation Of Planets, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Borg. The Romulans do not appear in the sequel.