Line #57 VideoGame/RiseOfNations


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/g16144eeqdl_2261.jpg]]
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3	''Rise of Nations'' is a RealTimeStrategy computer game, developed by Creator/BigHugeGames and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} II'' and ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri''.
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5	''Rise of Nations'' features 18 civilizations, playable through [[TechnologyLevels eight ages of world history]]. Though overall it's a ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' rip-off, concepts taken from FourX games were added, including territories and attrition warfare. It also has one of the most clever user interfaces in recent RTS history, averting the "hunt-and-peck hotkeys" nuisance that has plagued so many other titles in the genre.
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7	On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games released the ''Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots'' expansion, featuring new civilizations, campaigns, and game mechanics. Later that year, a Gold edition of ''Rise of Nations'' was released, which included both the original and the expansion. In 2006, a SpiritualSuccessor, ''Rise of Nations: VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' was released, but instead of a historical game, ''Rise of Legends'' turned more towards fantasy elements (CF how ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' followed ''Age of Empires''), creating a world where fantasy and technology coexisted. ''Rise of Nations: Extended Edition'' was released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} on June 12 2014, featuring both the original and expansion pack with enhanced graphics, Twitch integration, and reworked multiplayer. With this causing a revival of the game's fan base and fan sites, the game is more popular than it has been for years.
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10	!! This videogame contains examples of:
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12	* FourX: A real time strategy version of this.
13	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Chinese's medieval firearm unit is called the Fire Lance. The developers admitted that they don't know how the real thing works in action and portrays them as a spear that's propelled by a rocket. The real thing is more like a tube on a shaft that sprays fire like a flamethrower that's capable of shooting projectiles.
14	* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: In the gunpowder age a unit known as the Arquebusier will look straight down the barrel of their gun when idle to check it as will the minutemen and partisans in later ages. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] however as guns had only just been invented.
15	* ATeamFiring: Asian "Partisans", who look suspiciously like [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Viet Cong]], cannot shoot a machine gun to save their lives (even though they often need to for that very reason). Like an untrained civilian probably ''would'', they can't control the gun because of recoil and fire randomly. They still hit their targets 100% of the time, though...
16	* AllYourPowersCombined: There are certain missions in the "Cold War" campaign that has the playable nation borrow unique units from other nations from their side. For example, for NATO, the Americans borrow the Landcaster Bomber during the Korean War and the Leopard Tanks during the unification of Germany.
17	* AlternateHistory: Some campaigns in ''Thrones and Patriots'' (especially those relating to Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and the Cold War) can (and often will) become this if you deviate from what happened historically.
18	** In the Cold War campaign, for example, you can get the Bay of Pigs invasion to succeed in deposing Castro and intervene in Prague Spring for the US; for the Soviets you can take a more active role in the Korean War than historically and unite the Koreas under Kim Il-Sung, and defeat NATO and subsume Western Europe into the Warsaw Pact as your puppet without nuclear war.[[note]]This will cause Canada and Australia to join the US proper.[[/note]])
19	** In the New world campaign, it's possible for any of the European nations, the native tribes, or the United States to conquer both North and South America.
20	** Interestingly, the Napoleon campaign alludes to this happening offscreen as well as onscreen (like winning the Battle of Leipzig and the Invasion of Russia), if you pay attention to the Wonders you control. Assuming you do well enough, you're given wonders from Southeast Asia (French Indochina being formed decades early) and Mexico (French victory in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_intervention_in_Mexico Franco-Mexican War]]). You can also choose whether to sell the United States the Louisiana territory.
21	* AmericaIsStillAColony: In the "New World" campaign, the players can deviate from history quite heavily, including the European colonial powers (especially Britain) keeping the United States from gaining independence.
22	* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: This game has a pretty huge limit of 200 units. Some units count as two, but this still allows for some really huge armies. With the right civilization chosen, the correct rare resources collected and the right wonder built it can reach 320[[note]]You can also change the game files to allow more units, such as changing the population cap to 1000.[[/note]] Also, most infantry units count as one person, but consist of 3 people, so it makes those armies look even bigger.
23	* ArmyOfTheAges: Largely averted thanks to the game's smooth unit upgrade system, but it can easily happen if several players on the same team are at [[DecadeDissonance wildly different points along the march of history]] and staging a coordinated attack.
24	* ArtificialStupidity: The computer would give away a supply depot right next to its capital territory if offered enough tribute or territories, allowing the player to conquer a huge empire in a single battle.
25	** Without your guiding hand, your units might not survive a paper bag. They'd go into an ambush or attack a fortress alone even though it's certain death, but might not protect fellow units in their line of sight if they're not right next to them.
26	* AssetActor: In the various "Conquer the World" campaigns, there are some nations exclusive to some campaigns that simply borrow the powers of one from the game proper. Examples include the Portuguese using the Nubians' powers in the New World campaign, and a handful of nation states in the Napoleonic campaign (such as the Knights of Malta-Americans, Austrian-Greeks, Portuguese-Incans, Papal State-Romans, and Prussian-Turks).
27	* AthensAndSparta: Both city-states are encountered in the Alexander campaign (in the same level, no less!), with the Athenians occupying dense riverside cities, and the Spartans camped in fortified mountain domains. Even the way they correspond with Alexander/the player is distinct from one another: while the Athenians staunchly refuse to submit to Alexander, the Spartans quietly stand by while the player's advisors warn against attacking the Spartans.
28	* AttackAttackAttack: The tactical offensive campaign mode. It starts with a large amount of your troops landing in a completely hostile territory without any backup. Then, you must capture every single city in the map with the forces you have at hand (usually just the one city in the center of the map).
29	* BarbarianTribe: The main Conquer the World Campaign has your nation dealing with these early on, while the Cold War one has either the Americans or Soviets dealing with warlords that serve as the modern equivalent.
30	* BarrierMaiden: The whole point of the Supply Caravan unit, which serve no function other than to ward off the effects of attrition on your forces. They can also heal forces in the field if you either have the Versailles wonder active or if you're playing France.
31	* BattleThemeMusic: The game plays depressing music when you're losing and triumphant music when you're winning.
32	* CapitalOffensive: Taking an enemy capital activates a countdown timer, which ends the game once it expires unless the city is retaken. If the capital is the last unoccupied city, the game instantly ends. The Persians are unique in that they are given two capitals, both of which need to be occupied to defeat them. In the Alexander campaign, the player is required to capture Persepolis and then Bactria (modern Afghanistan) to topple the Achaemenids.
33	* CapRaiser: Since resources are infinite in this game, the limiting factor for the economy is the ''rate'' at which resources are gathered, which is limited by the Commerce Cap. Researching Commerce technologies at the Library boosts the Commerce Cap, allowing the player to get more out of their economy.
34	* ColorCodedArmies: Done in the traditional way on the battlefield as per a Real Time Strategy game, but also done in Conquer the World mode; each nation on the globe has their unique color associated with them on the map (such as the Americans' brown, Russians' deep purple, France's light blue, etc), with the player's Red overriding that nation's default color. This isn't indicative when a battle occurs; the player will still be Red but any AI-controlled armies will follow the game's order of colors, starting with blue and moving onto purple, green, etc. without necessarily matching that nation's color on the globe.
35	* CompositeCharacter: As a nation progresses through the ages, certain types of units may become outdated and fold into an existing class to make room for new ones. Examples include the archer merging with light infantry come the Enlightenment Age, light and ranged cavalry becoming armored cars in the Industrial Age, and bombardment ships becoming heavy ships in the Industrial Age. Since there are gaps in which the replacement unit won't be available until the following age, archers do not become machine guns and bombardment ships do not become aircraft carriers.
36	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Mostly averted, although this might be due to the fact that, if the enemy is overwhelming you, you can change difficulty settings from the Pause menu. However, this is played straight when an AI player gets a missile online--it knows just where your Cities and Barracks are when human players wouldn't. And whenever you fire a V2/cruise missile, the AI '''always''' knows where it targets and sends the troops away from the target.
37	* ConstructAdditionalPylons: Except that you're not just building a network of military bases; at the core of each new outpost is a village, growing to a town and then a city. You're building a nation, not just winning a war. In theory, at least.
38	* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Subverted. Since the game is a historical [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]], there's a decent bit of variety; each nation has unique advantages and disadvantages alongside units which are significant enough to seriously influence playstyle. Units are ultimately mostly similar but their special units and bonuses definitely pushes individual nations towards particular playstyles. Aesthetics-wise meanwhile, there are subtle visual differences even among nations belonging to the same cultural group; the standard [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne Industrial Age]] infantry units for the Germans wear gas masks while the Japanese's [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo Modern Age]] fighter plane is clearly a Zero.
39	* CrosshairAware: The target of a nuclear missile is shown on everybody's minimap. Most units are too slow to avoid the blast if they are anywhere near the impact point. Deployed artillery is completely screwed regardless.
40	* DamageIsFire: However, the fire itself is fairly understated, closer to "Damage Is Smoke".
41	* DamageOverTime: Attrition works by subjecting any unit in enemy unit to gradual damage over time, unless they are in the range of a supply wagon or dictatorial Patriot.
42	* DeathFromAbove[=/=]RainOfArrows: Mod the range of ranged units, and this will happen.
43	* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Any attempt to destroy buildings with pre-Gunpowder Age ships will result in this, if the ships are not stopped first.
44	* DecadeDissonance: Without any support, a nation could remain at early technological levels while its neighbors are developing stealth bombers and aircraft carriers.
45	* DecapitatedArmy: {{Downplayed\|trope}}; killing an army's [[FrontlineGeneral General]] or even Patriot (their equivalent to a national leader) won't win the battle right there, but losing the bonuses those units provide is a major setback that often precedes a loss or costly victory for that army. Similarly, taking out an army's supply wagon (and Patriot, if a dictatorial government) on enemy territory will subject them to attrition, subjecting every unit to DamageOverTime.
46	* [[DefconFive DEFCON Five]]: Averted in ''Thrones and Patriots''. The threat meter in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar scenario accurately starts from DEFCON 5, and counts down the more reckless you are. If your threat meter reaches DEFCON 1, both sides launch the nukes, and MutuallyAssuredDestruction results.
47	* DefenselessTransports: All land units turn into landing craft when moving over water, which can be easily and quickly sunk by destroyers, submarines, or fighters.
48	* DemocracyIsBad: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zagged]]; the consensus-based governments provide defensive and economic bonuses, making them a better fit for nations and playstyles that focus on these aspects. Meanwhile, more aggressive nations such as the Turks or Aztecs tend to prefer the discounts on military units that dictatorial governments provide.
49	* DifficultButAwesome: The Aztecs' nation powers are based around plunder from killing enemy units and destroying buildings, meaning the player not only has to play aggressively but ''well''. If an Aztec player is too careful, they will fall behind other nations, but if they're too hasty, they'll suffer heavy losses with no other nations powers to fall back on. If they have the micromanagement skills to build up their army quickly, and the timing to strike once the opportunity arises, they can inflict heavy losses ''on the opponent'' while acquiring a windfall of bonuses for themselves.
50	* EarlyBirdBoss: In the Alexander campaign, if you consider attacking the Persians before uniting Greece, your advisors will warn you that it "will bring the might of the Persian Empire down upon us", and suggest you unite Greece first.
51	* EasyLevelTrick: In the Conquer the World mode, weaker territories can be seized using only your starting troops, ignoring base building entirely. It's a rush to destroy a single building in the small enemy base.
52	* EasyLogistics: Averted to some degree: any unit that stands in enemy territory suffers attrition damage, which can usually be negated by the presence of a nearby supply wagon or some leader units.
53	* EasyModeMockery: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]; the description for the "[[HarderThanHard Toughest]]" difficulty considers it "a sparring partner for the tournament level player or [[YoureInsane the mentally deranged]]".
54	* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: The main infantry unit for the Americans and the Russians are respectively the [[SemperFi Marine]] and the Shock Infantry (VDV/Spetznaz).
55	* EnemyExchangeProgram: Of the EveryManHasHisPrice variety.
56	* {{Fanfare}}: The game plays victorious fanfares whenever you are winning a battle, and during the victory debriefing screen.
57	* FirewoodResources: Only the icon for wood. Workers are shown moving small logs while logging camps (which must be built near forests) are seen moving around large logs and lumber.
58	* FemmeFatale: The spy unit, especially in pre-modern eras.
59	* FromNobodyToNightmare: The [[{{Eagleland}} Americans]] in the New World campaign start out as a small group of colonies subjugated by the British that no other nation (including the natives) take seriously and simply get dismissed as a "nation of shopkeepers." Even after you gain independence, the colonists are still not considered a threat since everyone's convinced that their democratic form of government will surely collapse in chaos. By the end of the campaign, if you go by the American victory condition, they will have united all of North America and driven all European imperial powers off the Western Hemisphere.
60	* FrontlineGeneral: The General is a support caster unit and can't actually fight; keep him slightly back from the front lines, but he has to be close in order for your troops to benefit from having him around.
61	* GarrisonableStructures: Cities can raise an alarm to take cover, at which time citizens will garrison themselves in a nearby city, tower or fort and use guns or bows to defend themselves. Scholars generate the Knowledge resource when garrisoned in a University, and can be moved from one to the next. Oil platforms require a worker to garrison him/herself inside to function. Almost every military building can also be garrisoned to some heal units at a faster rate than others (barracks for infantry, stables/auto plants for cavalry/tanks and siege factories/factories for artillery and supply wagons), some simply hold units (airbases, missile silos), while others just get an increase in firepower (towers, forts and cites).
62	* GeoEffects: The major one being attrition: units in enemy territory suffer damage over time. The Russians have a "Russian Winter" perk that means this applies much more on their land.
63	* GlassCannon: The Katyushas and just about any Artillery Weapons available.
64	* GRatedDrug: In one mission in Cold War scenario, the Americans are tasked to hunt down Colombian dye merchants. Of course, this is an allegory to the Colombian Drug War; with cocaine and marijuana being the "dye".
65	* HoldTheLine: The defender in "Barbarians at the Gate" game mode wins by staying alive until the timer ends.
66	* InstantWinCondition: When the "sudden death" setting is used, a player wins the moment any victory condition is met without the usual countdown.
67	* InvadedStatesOfAmerica: Besides starting a [[NukeEm nuclear war]] with them, the Soviets can also stage a conventional invasion of the United States during the Cold War.
68	* InvisibleWall: Averted, in a funny way. The edge of the map is literally the edge of a map.
69	* LandmarkOfLore: Relics rare resoruce is represented by a group of Maoi statues placed somewhere on the map, providing a staggering ''-33%'' research time reduction.
70	* MechanicallyUnusualFighter:
71	** There are a few unique units that go beyond having simple stat bonuses:
72	*** The Spanish and Persian heavy infantry lines not only obtain the capability of fighting from range prior to the Enlightenment Age, they also upgrade to gunpowder in the Gunpowder Age.
73	*** The Chinese obtain gunpowder infantry in the Medieval Age, earlier than the Gunpowder Age.
74	*** The American marines automatically entrench themselves when stationary without the need for a general.
75	*** The Dutch get caravans, merchants, and supply wagons that can fight back.
76	*** The Incas' pre-Gunpowder light infantry are melee combatants, and are anti-cavalry rather than anti-archer.
77	*** The Persians and Indians get WarElephants that don't replace units at all. They're effective against crowds of infantry while being vulnerable to archers and heavy cavalry.
78	*** Iroquois scouts can pass through forests.
79	*** Some of the Conquer the World campaigns have unique units that aren't available anywhere else. Examples include the Napoleonic Imperial Guard, Colonial American Ironclad, Imperial Spanish Conquistador, NATO Humvee, and Soviet Nuclear Submarine.
80	** The Lakota have the most unorthodox playstyle of the available nations: they produce food from individual Citizens and cavalry units, rather than agriculture; have invisible borders; and can build anywhere outside of enemy territory.
81	* ModernMayincatecEmpire: This is the result of having the Aztecs, Mayans, and Inca survive far into the future beyond their historical demises. The Aztecs in particular have late-era unique units that are reminiscent of Latin-American paramilitary groups.
82	* MoneyForNothing: The Persian, Incan, and British empires have powers that allow them to generate wealth more easily than other nations, the first automatically creating caravans and unlocking taxation upgrades, the second being able to extract wealth from mines in addition to metal, and the third simply having taxation have a much greater effect. This makes it very easy to go over the commerce cap for wealth, even with the Incans' increased cap.
83	* MookCommander: The General, an unarmed unit which provides nearby military units with bonuses to armor, as well as possessing a number of useful tactical powers. The ''Thrones and Patriots'' ExpansionPack adds the Patriot, a unique version of the General who gains additional powers based on your government type and is immune to sniping and bribing.
84	* MookMaker: The Terracotta Army wonder continuously spawns infantry for whoever builds it.
85	* MoreDakka: Stock in trade of the Machine Gun line of units, which specialize in mowing down infantry at the cost of having to deploy like an artillery unit. Their Information Age incarnation takes the cake by using a [[GatlingGood minigun.]]
86	* NoFairCheating: Cheating in the main campaign gets you labeled "the Cheater". [[note]]Specifically using cheat codes. [[LoopholeAbuse This doesn't happen if you switch the game's difficulty mid-way through a mission.]][[/note]]
87	* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: France having the "power of the leaders" and their special units being horse grenadiers ? [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Now where did we see that ?]] Comes full circle in ''Thrones and Patriots'' with the Napoleon campaign.
88	* NonstandardGameOver:
89	** There are two types of defeat in skirmish and the "Conquer the World" campaign--the normal sort, when your opponent simply wins, and the Armageddon defeat, involving a nuclear holocaust.
90	** The UsefulNotes/ColdWar campaign adds a few new ones involving strategic missiles: Winning the war with a nuclear strike gives you a WhatTheHellHero combined with a BittersweetEnding regarding the amount of civilians that died on both sides because of it. Having the same happen to you condemns you for choosing the complete destruction of your entire population over surrender and if both sides have enough strategic nukes to completely raze the other's territory, you get a special kind of Armageddon which is even snarkier about your strategy of conquest then the regular one. Conversely, all of the endings for winning, stalemating and losing the war the regular way congratulate you with avoiding the apocalypse.
91	* NuclearNullifier: The Missile Shield future technology prevents Missile Silo units (both nuclear and conventional) from being targeted or detonated in the researcher's national boundaries (as well as turning the Armageddon Counter back by 2); once everyone has the Missile Shield technology, nukes are essentially useless.
92	* NukeEm:
93	** Though too much of it could invoke NonstandardGameOver. But hey, it looks really cool!
94	** There's also a cheat (hit Enter and type "cheat nuke") that causes a nuclear missile to drop on where your mouse is pointed.
95	* OneWorldOrder[=/=]UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: Researching the "World Government" [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Future tech]] implies this, though with your chosen nation being the one running things. This also makes conquering enemy cities instantaneous.
96	* OptionalBoss: The Spartans in the Alexander campaign don't have to be conquered, and the advisors even suggest skipping over them to prevent a difficult battle (note this comes near the end of a MarathonLevel). However, conquering the Spartans prevents them from attacking Alexander's army in later battles.
97	* PermanentlyMissableContent: Once a wonder is built, nobody else can build it and others who were also building it (but didn't complete it first) lose all their progress. Also, once a wonder is destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt by anyone.
98	* ProudIndustriousRace: The Egyptians, with their "Power of the Nile", are the ultimate Wonder-builders, the Maya fully justify the name of their "Power of Architecture" when it comes to buildings in general, and the Germans, due to their [[GermanicEfficiency "Power of Industry"]], are particularly encouraged to construct a lot of resource-gathering buildings and lean more than usual on such buildings as Lumber Mill and Smelter.
99	* ProudScholarRace: The Greeks. The "Power of Philosophy" allows them to collect Knowledge from the beginning of the game and provides various bonuses related to Libraries and Universities.
100	* RageQuit: It's perfectly possible for a player who is about to lose to intentionally set off the Armageddon counter so nobody wins.
101	* {{Railroading}}: The Napoleon campaign starts out like this, where choices of scenarios are limited between two maps at a time. The campaign also forces you to retreat whenever the scenario tells you to, until Napoleon becomes Emperor.
102	* RateLimitedPerpetualResource: The amount of resources an empire can harvest in a tick of time is limited, and several technologies increase this ceiling.
103	* RedIsHeroic: The player is always red in Conquer the World mode, both on the globe and on the battlefield. The enemy army on the battlefield is usually blue, with additional colors being added in for multiple factions. This gets a bit weird in the Napoleon and American-side Cold War campaigns, and the New World scenario when playing as the likes of the French or Americans, where the normally blue but colored red French and American armies fight the normally red but colored blue British and Russian armies.
104	* ReinventingTheWheel: To ''Rise of Nation'''s credit, while the campaigns play this trope straight, as you advance through different eras the names of the technologies are at least altered to match the time period (if still serving the same function).
105	* RiskStyleMap: The Conquer the World campaigns have a strategic map which looks very much like Risk maps, complete with Risk army pieces and bonus cards.
106	* RockBeatsLaser:
107	** Averted for units of the same category. More advanced units are almost guaranteed to be superior to their less technological versions, eventually leading to CurbStompBattle situations in your favor if you're moved up the tech tree enough...except for naval units, which inexplicably gain relatively minor increases in stats, even with the transition from [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen wooden]] to metal ships.
108	** However, played straight for hard counters if the circumstances are right. You can still have the situation where a spearman beats a tank, because [[TacticalRockPaperScissors Heavy Infantry hard counter Heavy Cavalry]]. On the other hand, motorized vehicles are more likely to gun down any approaching spearmen before they get the chance.
109	* RussiaTakesOverTheWorld: The expansion pack ''Thrones and Patriots'' has a UsefulNotes/ColdWar campaign where you can diverge heavily from history to ensure that the Soviets dominate the globe. A more generic Russian takeover is also possible in the vanilla Conquer the World campaign.
110	* SceneryPorn:
111	** The landscapes are quite pretty, especially the Caribbean-esque archipelagos.
112	** Maps in the Conquer the World campaigns actually resemble (quite closely) the area they represent (a battle in Japan will take place on a map of Honshu, attacking Britain will require a dock built in the English Channel, etc.)
113	* SchizoTech: You can have main battle tanks squaring off against crossbowmen and dragoons (leading to a CurbStompBattle). Also, although it's most likely going to be strategic suicide to focus on Science research rather than going up Ages and upgrading your troops, you can access electronics and computers while your men consider the arquebus to be the latest big thing.
114	** Taken to the Nth degree if you lock the game's advancement to an early age (like the Medieval Age) yet can still research Supercomputers at the University.
115	* SchmuckBait: Attempting to storm Greenland in the New World campaign is a very daunting prospect. You need to gather 1000 food in a short amount of time, all the while the enemy is harassing your base. The only reward for it is the rare resource fish, which can be found anywhere with water and only provides a food and commerce bonus, resources that are already plentiful in the campaign map.
116	* SemperFi: The Americans' infantry units from the Enlightenment Age on are various incarnations of the United States Marine Corps. While they don't have the raw firepower of other unique infantry, their sea transports move faster and they automatically [[DefendCommand entrench]] after a few seconds of idling, allowing them to [[StormingTheBeaches cross dangerous waters and establish a beachhead]] with ease.
117	* ShockingDefeatLegacy: In the Napoleon campaign, if the player loses a battle after being crowned Emperor, Napoleon will be removed from power and exiled to Elba. He'll then escape and attempt to reclaim his empire, resulting in the Battle of Waterloo. If the player loses, the campaign is over, but if the player wins, they can continue with the campaign.
118	* ShownTheirWork: There's a good deal of detail put on much of the game. Even the way infantry units move or stand in place vary depending on role and time period. Even the look of some units change from one nation to the other (most obvious with the fighters).
119	* ShoutOut:
120	** The Russian Information Age infantry, the Shock Infantry, is the spitting image of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'''s Conscript.
121	** The icon for the Advanced Machine Gun unit is an [[Film/{{Predator}} alarmingly burly man in a boonie hat with an impressive mustache and a massive chaingun.]]
122	* SlapOnTheWristNuke: Averted, for the most part. A single nuke can level an entire city and severely damage nearby units and buildings, while the Information Age ICBM can obliterate ''everything'' within its blast radius. If the explosion still looks small, then that's because of [[UnitsNotToScale disproportionate unit sizes]].
123	* SkillGateCharacters: Coincidentally, both of the playable nations in the Cold War campaigns are this trope, being appealing to newer players but easily exploited in higher level play.
124	** The Americans produce resources from infantry units, can instantly build their first wonder,[[note]]Except for ones from the Information Age or are being built by other nations[[/note]] and have a powerful unique unit - [[SemperFi the Marines]] - that can automatically entrench itself even in enemy territory. However, they don't receive their first unique unit until the Enlightenment Age, and progress more slowly in the earlier ages even with the aforementioned nation powers. At best, they're GatheringSteam before the Enlightenment Age, and are vulnerable to being defeated by other nations up until that point.
125	** The Russians have broader territory and greater [[GeoEffects attrition damage]], and are the only nation to have the latter available in the Ancient Age. This makes the prospect of invading them daunting... without a [[BarrierMaiden supply wagon]], which negates attrition damage, and what experienced players use for sieges anyway. The Russians are placed in an even worse position if the opponent has the Palace of Versailles, which allows supply wagons to heal units in range, or the Statue of Liberty, which negates ''all'' attrition damage. Savvy Russian players would know to focus on taking out enemy supply wagons on their territory (which their unique unit, the Cossack, is specialized in) while preventing other nations from obtaining the aforementioned wonders.
126	* SuicideAttack: Fire ships attack with this method in mind. This is the only available hard counter to heavy warships until the industrial age, where they're replaced with the not-so-suicidal submarines.
127	* SupportPower: Type 3, in the Conquer the World campaigns. If you attack a region that is adjacent to another one of your armies (or an ally's) then you will receive reinforcements at some point during the battle.
128	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Pitting [[RockBeatsLaser spearmen and archers in a battle against machine-gunners and aircraft]] goes about as well as one would expect. While launching too many nukes [[NonStandardGameOver triggers a nuclear Armageddon]].
129	* SweetPollyOliver: Before the Modern Age, put some male scholars on partisan duty.
130	* SymbologyResearchFailure: The Kremlin wonder is actually St. Basil's Cathedral, but hey, who's gonna notice?
131	* TacticalRockPaperScissors: ''Rise Of Nations'' plays this trope absolutely straight; it's practically CripplingOverspecialization. Several combinations abound but here's a general example: Light Infantry ➞ Heavy Infantry ➞ Heavy Cavalry➞ Light Cavalry ➞ Light Infantry, with a mix of Archers thrown in the mix. Machine Guns rip up enemy infantry that get in range, Ranged Cavalry just commit war crimes (ie are used for hit and run tactics and are effective against defenseless targets), and Flamethrowers neutralize garrisons. For the water, Heavy Warships beat Light Ships, which fend off Fire Ships or Submarines, which destroy Heavy Warships. Better write that down. The entire web is about as convoluted as {{Franchise/Pokemon}}. The more obvious cases are Artillery units on both land and water are ideal for smashing up structures, as are bombers, and fighter planes being used to destroy other air units. Mobile Anti-air units shoot down planes while being unable to fight other ground units while Helicopters can take pot-shots against anything that can't shoot back at them. On the other hand, this tends to break down to a degree if one side is an age or so ahead or behind technologically. See RockBeatsLaser above.
132	* TakeOverTheWorld: The objective of the various Campaigns:
133	** World: Take over the entire world in a free-for-all between every sizable nation on Earth from the beginning of history up to the future.
134	** Alexander: Take over the known world of ancient times as UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat.
135	** Napoleon: Take over Europe, and hence the colonized world, as UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte.
136	** New World: Take over the New World as either the Americans, a European colonizer, or one of the Native nations.
137	** Cold War: Take over the entire world as either the Americans or the Soviets.
138	** AmericaTakesOverTheWorld[=/=]ChinaTakesOverTheWorld[=/=]JapanTakesOverTheWorld[=/=]RussiaTakesOverTheWorld: Each of these is possible in one or more of the campaign modes.
139	* TechnologyLevels: Eight of them. Nine, if you count the TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture technologies.
140	* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Alongside Theme Music Power ''Down'' should the player be on the losing end.
141	* TurnBasedStrategyRealTimeCombat: The Campaign mode takes place on a turn-based RiskStyleMap, but the player has the option to fight individual battles in real time.
142	* UnderestimatingBadassery:
143	** Playing as either the Americans or Native factions in the New World Campaign can give this impression. Mainly since the European Nations tend to look down on them as upstart colonials and savages respectively.
144	** Certain factions controlled by AI in the general Conquer the World Campaign can be a lot like this compared to real life (such as Korea taking over China, Mongolia, and Japan without difficulty).
145	* UnitsNotToScale: Typical of an RTS game. A Main Battle Tank, for instance, is one third the size of its factory. A real army tank plant, on the other hand, takes several hundreds of acres. In the case of the [[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lima.htm Lima Army Tank Plant]], the main production building is roughly the size of ''thirty'' football fields. Fairly well averted between most units, however.
146	* UpdatedRerelease: Rise of Nations: Extended Edition, released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in June 2014. In addition to including the ExpansionPack content and being compatible with modern operating systems, nearly all the graphics got some serious spit and polish and Internet streaming options were built in.
147	* VideoGameCaringPotential:
148	** Not much, but it does make you feel kind of sad or like an [[WeHaveReserves inept, uncaring bastard]] when your Citizen, who you sent out with your army to make any emergency captured-city repairs, screams in agony and staggers away to die as the enemy [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice plugs her with a five-foot-long flaming ballista bolt]]–and it's all [[YouBastard because of your tactical failures.]]
149	** Garrisoning weakened units and allowing them to recover is oftentimes preferable to letting them die on the battlefield, as players will be able to save on the resources they would have spent replacing them.
150	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: There's something to be said for watching a nation that's getting [[CurbStompBattle destroyed]] plead frantically for peace even as your troops are marching on their capital. Not to mention how much fun it is to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nuke the fishermen, use cruise missiles on the Citizens, and launch airstrikes against the Scholars]] of the nations you've defeated. Attacking Scholars, regardless of method, usually qualifies as this, unless they turn themselves into militia. Slaughtering Citizens is both this and good strategy.
151	* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment:
152	** Using nukes reduces the "Armageddon Clock". Using too many means the game ends in apocalypse. Using a nuke in general also invokes an embargo that prevents you from buying/selling resources for some time.
153	** In the Cold War campaign, you can sign a treaty with China promising to not attack them at lease until the Information Age in exchange for their military support during your conquest of South Korea. If you decide to betray them, one of the Warsaw Pact countries will quit and join NATO since it doesn't want to be associated with a liar.
154	* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: Almost, but not quite. As in most games, they're not much good in combat. But most games don't allow you to set fire to wooden buildings (thus also forcing garrisoned units outside where they're more vulnerable), which flamethrowers are pretty handy for both in real life and in this game.
155	* WashingtonDCInvasion: In the Cold War campaign, if the player as the Soviets launch a conventional attack on the US capital territory (Eastern Seaboard), the scenario that plays starts with the Soviets having seized control of New England up to Hartford (even if you attack from the south). The win condition is the capture of Washington.
156	* WasItReallyWorthIt: If you win the Cold War campaign with the nuclear victory, the narrator in the ending slid will give you a massive WhatTheHellHero speech, asking you if committing a nuclear holocaust in the name of democracy/socialism was really worth it. [[YouMonster If so, then feel free to celebrate with what is left of your country]].
157	* WeHaveReserves: Attempting an amphibious assault without sufficient naval and air cover requires this.
158	* TheWindowOrTheStairs:
159	** When uniting the city-states in the Alexander campaign, the player is given the option to either leave the Spartans be or conquer them along with the other city-states. The advisors urge the player not to go to war with the Spartans, expressing fear of a difficult battle (at the end of a MarathonLevel). If the player takes this advice, the Spartans will then send reinforcements to attack the player throughout the rest of the campaign, to which the advisors {{lampshade\|Hanging}} this trope.
160	** Similarly, on the American side of the Cold War campaign, players are given the option to first defend South Korea and, after successfully [[HoldTheLine holding the line]], push back to the North. The thing is, the scenario is intentionally designed to make even the mere defence a tedious and uncertain thing, while the North is heavily protected by defensive structures, both on the initial border and inside. Thus, it is tempting to abandon the scenario when fulfilling the main objective. Doing so offers a tiny pay-off for the whole mission and can go down as far as making the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory domino theory]] happen in-game, since there might not be enough resources for executing the equivalent of the Marshall plan and Western Europe will switch sides. Meanwhile, while putting a dent in initial defences is tough, the rest of the Korean Peninsula is easy to subdue, and the AI isn't even scripted to fully develop itself - while the winning trophy carries a long way and saves extra stress later on.
161	* AWinnerIsYou: The game has this for the different campaign modes. You conquer the entire known world as Alexander the Great and all you get is a splash screen that says something along the lines of "Great job. Your empire will surely go down in history as the greatest." The only amusing ones are when the game goes WhatTheHellHero on you if the NuclearOption is employed in the Cold War campaign.
162	* WorkerUnit: Called citizens, in this case.
163	* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Even if you are in the Modern age, you will still have to research things such as crop rotation or medicine as if they are totally unknown to your civilization. However, some researches are cheaper if someone else on the map has already researched it. Also, Science research lowers the cost of other types of research. Averted with Library technologies, whose names change appropriately depending on the match's beginning and ending [[TechnologyLevels Ages]].
164	* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Food, Timber, Wealth, Metal, Knowledge, and Oil. Unlike other games, there's limits to how quickly each resource can be gathered or produced; making a bunch of Farms early on in the hopes of becoming an economic superpower will fail without Commerce research or Wonders to increase those limits.
165	* ZergRush:
166	** The Terracotta Army wonder automatically produces free infantry, except in the Conquer the World Campaign, where it just counts as a separate army.
167	** In the New World campaign, the native American nations will start with this as the only tactic available to them, since unlike the European colonists they don't have access to gunpowder weapons and only have their larger population as an advantage. But eventually, [[TookALevelInBadass they will get access to gunpowder weapons to level the playing field]].
168	** Later upgrades allows citizens to instantly become militia.
169	** One of China's bonuses is instant citizens, scholars, caravans, and merchants. Combine that with the Partisan upgrade in the Modern Age and you'll get an inexhaustible horde of AK-47 wielding villagers and bookworms.
170	** Researching the NearFuture technology ArtificialIntelligence reduces all your units' creation time to zero, allowing you to [[WeHaveReserves instantly spawn entire armies if you have the resources]]. This bonus also applies to [[NukeEm nuclear weapons]], allowing you to [[MacrossMissileMassacre spam ICBMs]] with abandon.
171	** On campaign maps, if you attack a territory with at least two more armies than what your opponent has in the target territory plus all its neighbors (including any allies you and your adversary have), you automatically win by overrun and the attack doesn't count as your one attack allowed for the turn. Capital territories are exempt, however.

Context VideoGame / RiseOfNations