History Main / SeparateButIdentical

* The single-player campaign in ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' has Ironheade and Lionwhyte's army; their units are exactly the same, except that Lionwhyte's troops are glammed-up. [[JustifiedTrope Justified,]] as that portion of the game is a civil war and Ironheade is composed almost entirely of defectors from Lionwhyte's side.

[[quoteright:330:[[Videogame/WarCraftII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warcraftcompare_6918.png]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'', the manual contained quite a bit of background information on the setting, including blurbs about the different human nations and orcish clans and their differences. For example, the nation of Stromgarde is said to have an especially strong martial culture, but when they appear in the single-player campaign the only difference from the standard Alliance is that their faction colour is red rather than blue. Similarily, Alterac is orange Alliance, Dalaran is purple Alliance and so on. However there is a slight aversion in that some of their [=AIs=] and starting structures had differences. Dalaran, the magocracy, had a lot more mage towers and the orcish Dragonmaw Clan attacked solely with dragons.
* Averted in the campaigns of ''Videogame/WarcraftIII''. The Blackrock clan which appears in two missions has a ''Warcraft II'' tech tree, and when the blood elves break off from the Human Alliance, the human footman is replaced by an elven footman (identical stats), and the basic ranged unit is an elven archer (functionally equivalent to the standard rifleman); the rest of dwarven and human unit positions are filled by [[spoiler: Naga]] units that are quite different from the units they replaced. Also, [[spoiler:Admiral Proudmoore]] has aquatic-themed units in the expansion.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' has three quite distinct playable factions, but this comes up in the expansion: when an expeditionary force from Earth shows up, it has units identical to those of the original Terran faction, who are descended from exiled criminals and had no contact with Earth for several centuries. The new faction is the in-story [[HandWave justification]] for several new Terran units, and [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] states that the UED has been spying on the local factions for generations. Blizzard in the early planning stages wanted to have a separate UED faction but they didn't want an even number of campaigns, so they made the UED use Terran units and still have only three campaigns.

* VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'s Kushan and Taiidan forces are pretty much palette-swapped units with different designs, but plays exactly the same way save for one unique unit each. Fighters defeat bombers, bombers attack cap ships, [[TacticalRockPaperScissors etc]] Justified in-story, as most of the advances along the tech tree are either back-engineered from captured enemy vessels or something new being thrown at you and your R&D guys coming up with a version of your own.
** Homeworld 2 however, pulls an aversion. While some ship roles between Hiigaran and Vaygr units are analogous (i.e. Destroyers are still front-line capital ships), design differences and unit behavior means that everything, including fighting strategy is completely different. For example, while Hiigaran fighters and corvettes are invariably weak against frigates, one Vaygr corvette type is designed specifically as a frigate killer, and amassed enough (very easy due to Vaygr's DeathOfAThousandCuts doctrine), they will sink destroyers in short order.

* In ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'', the manual contained quite a bit of background information on the setting, including blurbs about the different human nations and orcish clans and their differences. For example, the nation of Stromgarde is said to have an especially strong martial culture, but when they appear in the single-player campaign the only difference from the standard Alliance is that their faction colour is red rather than blue. Similarily, Alterac is orange Alliance and Dalaran is purple Alliance, and so on. Subverted in that some of their [=AIs=] and starting structures had differences. Dalaran, the magocracy, had especially many mage towers and the orcish Dragonmaw Clan attacked solely with dragons.
* Averted in the campaigns of ''Videogame/WarcraftIII''. The Blackrock clan which appears in two missions has a ''Warcraft II'' tech tree, and when the blood elves break off from the Human Alliance, the human footman is replaced by an elven footman (identical stats), and the basic ranged unit is an elven archer (functionally equivalent to the standard rifleman); the rest of dwarven and human unit positions are filled by [[spoiler: Naga]] units that are quite different from the units they replaced. Also, [[spoiler: Admiral Proudmoore]] has aquatic-themed units in the expansion.
* Also present in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' in the expansion when an expeditionary force from Earth shows up and has units identical to those of the original Terran faction, who are descended from exiled criminals and had been cut off from all contact with Earth for several centuries. The new faction is the in-story [[HandWave justification]] for several new Terran units, and [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] states that the UED has been spying on the local factions for generations.
** That being said Starcraft does at least feature three races that are quite distinct.
** Blizzard in the early planning stages wanted to have a separate UED faction but they didn't want an even number of campaigns, so they made the UED use Terran units and still have only three campaigns.