History VideoGame / RedAlert3Paradox

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Paradox_-_Kopie_6499.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[YouCantFightFate You can't change the universe without repercussions...]]-] ]]

A modification of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', ''Red Alert 3: Paradox'' was a MASSIVELY ambitious expansion mod (it is probably the most ambitious mod in all of ''C&C'' history) noted both for the scope of the planned final product and for the accompanying wiki project, which slowly fleshed out an extensive [[TheSixties 1960s]] UsefulNotes/ColdWar world. Chock full of [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]], [[HistoricalInJoke Historical In-Jokes]] and the unusual results of taking the wacky world of ''Red Alert 3'' completely seriously, the project aimed to flesh out the very-not-serious world presented in the game without losing any of its NarmCharm. There was a wiki found [[http://wiki.paradoxmod.com/index.php?title=Main_Page here]], though it has since become defunct. Instead, those who want to write or see Paradox lore should go [[http://paradox-modfanmadebackup.wikia.com/wiki/Paradox_Mod_Wiki the back-up wiki for them.]]

There are eight factions, three of them from the original game greatly expanded, and five new ones. The mod has gone into open alpha, featuring an expanded Allies and Soviets, with more factions on the way. Feel free to download it at [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox its ModDB page.]]

Red Alert 3 Paradox has a character sheet for both original and Paradox-exclusive characters [[Characters/RedAlert3Paradox here.]]

The core team of Paradox is also working on VideoGame/BloodCrusher2, an indie retro shooter with rogue-like elements. The Paradox wiki also features the totally self-indulgent fic by the creator of the mod, FanFic/ARedLetterDay, a CrossOver with ''Franchise/MassEffect''.

As of February 5, 2014, the mod has officially [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox/news/realtalk ceased production]], with some of the assets from the mod to be released under creative commons attribution license.

As of January 13, 2015, Echoes Productions and the fan "Quantum" wiki are on [[http://echoespro.creativereactor.ru new]] [[http://quantum.creativereactor.ru/index.php?title=Main_Page servers]] to preserve all lore associated with the two projects.

[[foldercontrol]]

'''Major Factions'''

Major Factions are usually multinational super powers with capabilities for global-scale industry, society and warfare. They are the main players in the world and most countries belong to at least one of them.

[[folder:Allied Nations]]
''A global coalition of democratic states, the Allied Nations were founded to work as a single force against communism. Since then, they have developed into a World Police Force and aid in humanitarian and military projects around the globe. They have very high influence everywhere and are very, very PR concious. They are idealistic, socialistic (as in, truely social), but also love to be in control and often do things that are fundamentally right, regardless of what everyone else actually WANTS. A wide range of scientific advances grants them a technological edge against all other factions next to the Soviet Union and their military focuses on precision strikes and air force.''

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The Mesofortress Gunship has a complement of Lamprey Parasite Fighters for protection against hostile aircraft.
* AmazonBrigade: Riot Agents are one of the few exclusively female units in the game.
%%* ArchEnemy: To the Soviet Union.
* AttackDrone: Aircraft Carriers have Sky Knight and Paladin drones. The Claymoore Drone Missiles and Quasar Drones are independent from other units but with human controllers at the base instead. Averted with the Mesofortress Gunship's Lamprey manned anti-air fighters.
* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: The Allied Rifleman wears a ''kilt''.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: The Assault Striker is a massive transport with room for up to 5 infantrymen who can fire out.
* BadassLongcoat: The Heavy Defenders have pinned-back, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WW1]] style trenchcoats.
* BeamSpam: The Allies employ a multitude of laser-style weapons that damage, disable or otherwise hinder their enemies.
* {{BFG}}: They don't have many, but the Proton Collider, their Ultimate Weapon, certainly is one.
* BifurcatedWeapon: Pathfinders have underbarrel grenade launchers.
* BiggerOnTheInside: How the Carryall Transporters' fuel tanks work, allowing them to carry absolutely everything without problems.
* BlindedByTheLight: The Riot Agents' flashbang grenade launchers.
* BulletproofFashionPlate: The Rocketeers have a bulletproof dress uniform and stylish hair at all times.
* CastFromHitPoints: A Barkhausen Projector can disable the safeties to fire continuously at the cost of damaging itself.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: The Allies fight for world peace and fundamental human rights without being asked to. This has bitten them in the ass many times since many regions do not actually want their ''"meddling"''.
* ColourCodedTimestop: Effects that play with time are red or blue depending on if they speed it up or slow it down. Justified by the Doppler Effect changing the wavelength of light.
* ControlFreak: The Allies are very PR conscious and really do not like media working against them. They also have far more influence in their member countries than they like to admit and enjoy that position.
* CoolMask: Captain Rocket and the Rocketeers.
* CoolPlane: Sort of their thing. The Achilles, their coolest planes, are actually '''fusion-powered rocketships with wings'''.
* CryonicsFailure: One of the reasons of freezing enemies in the first place.
* DefenselessTransports: Armoured Response Vehicles are capable of transporting infantry and have no way to defend themselves outside of crushing enemy infantry.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: Spies can disguise themselves as enemy infantry. Subhunter Frigates can disguise themselves as enemy ships.
* DualModeUnit:
** The Valkyrie has to unpack into an immobile form before it can fire.
** Javelin Soldiers can toggle between using or not using their target painters, taking longer to acquire a lock but boosting the range and power of each shot.
** While on the move, Heavy Defenders use grenade launchers good against light vehicles. Once deployed, they switch to using heavy anti-infantry machine guns.
** Rocketeers can switch between flying and punching aircraft, or landing on the ground and punching infantry and light vehicles.
** Rocket Pathfinders can switch between anti-tank and anti-air modes to defend against whichever threat is most pressing.
** Guardian Tanks can switch between a conventional cannon and a target designator to paint enemies, doubling the damage they take.
** Icarus AA Guns must deploy its weapon before firing, reducing its speed in the process.
** Stewart Tanks can switch between tracking missiles most effective against tanks and HE rounds better suited to destroying fortifications.
** Instead of firing in bursts, a Particle Expeller can switch to using superheavy elements that deal less single-target damage in a bigger area.
** A Planck Compressor can switch between slowing down a targeted unit, or speeding them up.
** Hydrofoils can switch between normal anti-air guns and scrambleguns, which disable the weapons of their targets.
** The Swan Amphibious Plane, being a seaplane, can both fly and move on water.
** The Pion Isospin Array can clear garrisons and pick off individual infantry from long range, or switch to generating a field that kills all infantry in the area surrounding it.
** The Bohr Wavefunction Adjuster has two settings which will switch the target's armour from infantry to tank armour or tank armour to infantry.
** The Falcon Command Helicopter can freely take off and land on all terrain. All of its guns remain functioning when landed, but it is unable to move.
* EliteArmy: In comparison to other armies, they are highly on the quality side of QuantityVsQuality. This however means they are almost always undermanned.
* EnemyExchangeProgram:
** Spies can bribe enemies for a price, causing them to defect to your side.
** The Pavlov has a sonic signaller which cause enemy animals to have a change of heart and turn against their masters.
* EveryManHasHisPrice: The Spies have this ability. It has a reasonable radius too.
* EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: ''"Hahaha! That tank shoots a rainbow laser... oh dear, where my tanks go?"''
* EvilDetectingDog: Attack Dogs, German Shepherd dogs in armoured sweaters can sniff enemy spies and stealth units.
* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Reducts' shotguns can only fire within a limited arc.
* FlatEarthAtheist: Are straight up called this in their faction bible. They simply have yet to figure out the fact that the Red Alert universe is weird and probably never will.
* FoodPills: Since real food is difficult to come by in war-torn countries, many branches of the Allied Peacekeeper Corps have started issueing food pills containing all vitamins, minerals and whatnot to keep their soldiers fed. [[{{Deconstruction}} Many soldiers are developing chronic depressions because they aren't actually eating anything]].
* ForScience: After defeating Communism, this is the Allies' main motivation.
* FreezeRay: Alert Ice Breakers, Cryo Towers and, of course, the famous Cryo Copters.
* [[EnergyWeapon Frickin Spectrum Beams]]: Main armament of the Mirage Tanks, Spectrum Towers and various other units. Also act as targeting systems.
* FriendlySniper: The Riflemen are cheery 1960s swingers. Yeah, baby!
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: After fighting two wars against Communism, the Allies are adopting increasingly Sovietic policies. They appointed the next U.S. President, for one.
* HumanPopsicle: Convicted war criminals are kept frozen in Allied cryo-prisons. Maybe [[FateWorseThanDeath forever]].
* IfItSwimsItFlies: A mundane example are the Swans, which are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_boat flying boats]].
* JetPack: Rocketeers wear these so they can fly around.
* KillSat: The Athena Sat Net and its related systems. The Athena Cannons point at the target, the satellites fire.
* LaserSight: Guardian Tanks and Cardinal Copters use these to improve friendly units' Rate of Fire.
* LifeDrain: An Assault Striker can ride over enemy vehicles with its tracks, breaking them down and using the raw materials to repair itself.
* LimitedLoadout: A Pulsar Missile Drone carries a single Singularity missile that is monstrously effective against structures and can never be reloaded.
%%* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Peacekeepers.
* MadeOfExplodium: The Allied Tier X line of units. Of particular note are the [[CoolPlane Achilles]].
* TheMedic: Allied engineers can set up medical tents to heal friendly infantry in the vicinity.
%%* MilitarySuperhero
%%* MultinationalTeam
* NightVisionGoggles: Pathfinders have night vision gun sights, Rocket Pathfinders the classic googles.
* NoSell: The Bohr Waveform Adjusters mess with the traditional counter system, so bullets bounce off infantry and tanks ignore AT weapons. It works on enemies, too.
* OneWorldOrder: One of their goals.
%%* PoliticalOvercorrectness: They occasionally fall into this.
* PoweredArmor: Peacekeeper armour is a sealed suit with an unpowered exoskeleton.
* ThePowerOfTheSun: The Athena Cannons direct solar powered space death rays, while the Ares are solar-powered tanks with similar death rays.
* PowerFist: The Rocketeers' Proton Gauntlets can punch through tanks.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: The Alert Icebreaker freezes groups of enemies and then rams them to finish them off.
* RaygunGothic: It's dubbed ''"Jetpunk"''; a more modern take on RaygunGothic tropes.
* ReadTheFreakingManual: Turns out the [[InstantDeathRadius Pion Isospin Array]] has a friend-or-foe designator, but only the most experienced operators have read that far in the instructions to know that.
* RealityBleed: GAP technology. It's safe. As far as they know.
%%* RetroRocket: Their space ships.
* SapientCetaceans: Sentient sonic-armed dolphins.
* ScienceHero: Captain Rocket and the Rocketeers. The whole faction sort of plays this angle.
* ScienceIsBad, [[ScienceIsUseless useless]] and [[ScienceIsWrong wrong]]: They defy and discuss all of these and are convinced that science is both in itself good unless when misused and the tool necessary to improve humanity.
* SchizoTech: Freeze weapons, space ships and time manipulation, yet only 1960s computers. They're also looking into nuclear fusion because they find fission too complicated.
%%* ShinyLookingSpaceships
%%* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Peacekeepers.
* {{Sizeshifter}}: MASS tech, which allows the Allies to shrink and grow their units, as well engage in [[FantasticVoyagePlot internal surgery]].
* SniperRifle: Allied Riflemen use these to pick off enemy infantry from far away.
* SomeoneHasToDoIt: Who else will police the world?
* SquishyWizard: Experimental vehicles tend towards serious, game-changing effects, but they have paper thin armour.
* StickySituation: ''"GOOP"'' is a sticky, rapidly expanding oxygen-permiable pink foam that the Allies have taken to spraying on everyone who disagrees with them that they aren't allowed to kill.
* TakingTheBullet: Singularity Towers draw enemy fire towards themselves, protecting units and structures within their radius of effect.
* TeleFrag: (Ab)use of the Chronosphere against infantry results in this.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Chronosphere and Rosen Bridging Tanks.
* TheAlliance: Making the transition into TheFederation.
* TimeTravel: The Chronosphere works based on this, but is effectively more like a mass [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleporter]].
* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Those critical of the Allies tend to see them as this.
* {{Tsundere}}: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] with Athena-tan, an [[MoeAnthropomorphism anthropomorphic]] Athena Cannon.
%%* TuxedoAndMartini: Spies.
%%* UnitedEurope: Subverted because the Soviets ruined it.
%%* WeirdScience: Some of the weirdest in the setting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Soviet Union]]
''The communist powerblock and traditional arch enemy to the Allied Nations. The Soviet Union is a technological and industrial powerhouse with a military consisting of hundreds thousands of vehicles and even more soldiers, supported by advanced weapons usually based on electricity and magnetism. They believe in the ''"World Revolution"'' to better the world, but usually fight anyone resisting their idea of it. Like the Allied Nations, they have supporting states around the globe, but their central region is Russia and its surrounding countries. Their military consists of endless rows of infantry, tanks and artillery, various aircraft and airships and high tech weapons.''

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Zhukov War Zeppelins house missile armed [=LaGG-68=] interceptors to swat away helicopters.
* AmazonBrigade: Soviet Snipers are exclusively female.
%%* ArchEnemy: To the Allied Nations.
* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Flak Troopers are convicts given freedom in exchange for having to do community service.
* BearsAreBadNews: War Bears are armoured and can be man-cannoned and parachuted.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Averted. The Soviets are portrayed in a more neutral light.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece:
** Anvil Heavy Tanks are the same old Heavy Tanks from [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert the first Red Alert]], pressed into service again in order to augment Soviet tank divisions.
** Elephant Tanks have sat mothballed since the end of the Second Great War until being repurposed as mobile command centres for Soviet commanders.
* ButtMonkey: Essentially an entire faction of these. They try real hard, but nothing ever seems to go right for them.
* CastFromHitPoints: Microhammer Tanks can overclock their engines and autoloaders, increasing rate of fire and speed, but damaging the tank over time. Dreadnoughts, Kirov Airships and Zhukov War Zeppelins can do the same thing, which does not increase speed (for Dreadnoughts) or rate of fire (for Kirovs and Zhukovs).
* ChainLightning: Telsa weapons often do this amoung infantry.
* ColdSniper: Natasha Volkova.
* CommieLand
* CommissarCap
* {{Conscription}}: [[HistoricalInJoke Guess.]] Then we have the obvious [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Conscripts.]]
* ContinuityNod: The Anvil Tanks, designated as ''"CannonFodder Battle Tank"'', are the Red Alert 1 Heavy Tanks.
* CoolAirship: The Barrage Ballons, Kirov Airships and Zhukov War Zeppelins.
* CoolTank: Many, MANY cool tanks. One for every task imaginable, in fact.
* DefenselessTransports: Dump Trucks serve the Soviet Union as cheap and unarmed transports for infantry.
* DeployableCover: Engineer-made bunkers.
* DieselPunk
* DirtyCommunists: While the Soviets in Paradox are more seriously treated than in vanilla Red Alert 3 where they are always comically inept, at the same time they are also less violent. Doesn't stop them from attempting to invade Europe and the USA, managing at least to bring down the Statue of Liberty and weaponising... moai heads on the easter islands.
* DisintegratorRay: Infantry killed by tesla weaponry only leave their skeletons behind.
* DualModeUnit:
** Flak Troopers can switch between anti-air flak cannons and anti-tank magnetic mines.
** Threshers can temporarily trade speed and the 50mm guns to deploy a 75mm anti-tank gun more effective against tank grade armour.
** The Perun Tank Destroyer is effectively a walking gun. Helpless while on the move, the Perun can only fire once unpacked into turret mode.
** The Mag-Lift Tank can switch between pulling enemy vehicles towards your tanks and lifting them up and put them at the mercy of anti-air.
** The Flaming Ivan can switch between assault gun mode, where it specialises in destroying defences with its cannon, and mortar mode where it specialises in clearing garrisons and creating firestorms with Molotov cocktails.
** The Manta Ekranoplan is able to switch between a pair of anti-air flak turrets and an anti-sub depth charge launcher.
* ExtraOreDinary: Their magnetic weapons can actually rip armour off enemy tanks and reinforce their own armour with it.
* FoeTossingCharge: The Scythe can be ordered to charge. Due to the sheer bulk of the Scythe, it can literally send tanks flying backwards.
* GloriousMotherRussia
* GoingCritical: What a Super Reactor does when sufficiently damaged.
* HollywoodAcid: Averted by Desolator Defoilant. It's not ''"just"'' acidic; it's a cocktail of potent chemical agents, it produces toxic vapours, and it's primarily capable of breaking down things like rubber and flesh.
* InstantArmor: The ability of low-level turrets and the Ore Collectors.
* KillSat: Magnetic satellites that can suck up armoured units.
* LifeDrain: Vampire Leech Walkers can leech enemy vehicles, draining them of their health while repairing friendly vehicles within its radius of effect.
* LightningCanDoAnything: Zap enemy infantry down to the skeletons? Check. Charge up nearby Tesla Coils? Check. Jump from target to target? Oh yes.
* LightningGun: Tesla weapons.
* LimitedLoadout: In addition to jet aircraft, a Hammerhead must return to base to rearm when it has expended all five of its missiles. Downplayed with Yaks, which only need to return to the base to reload their bombs, not their chain guns.
* MolotovCocktail: Conscripts.
* MugglesDoItBetter: Everyone else is experimenting with psionic powers as fast as they can, but the Soviets have already figured out how to burn out telepathic intrusion with doublethink.
* NobleDemon: ''"They'll use Desolators to slow the Allied advance in Normandy, but they'll make damn sure everyone is evacuated first."''
* NotSoBadassLongcoat: Conscripts. [[ZergRush Alone, anyway]].
* TheParalyzer: The Potemkin Warship can use its magnetic harpoon to lock a ship in place while letting the very slow Potemkin close in.
* ThePoliticalOfficer: Commissars are used to spread the Revolutionary spirit throughout the ranks by propaganda and example.
* PoweredArmor: The Gagarin X is a man in a heavily armoured space suit that grants him enhanced strength and a surprising resilience to small arms fire.
* PretextForWar: Cherdenko invades Europe using the shooting down of Gary Power's spy plane as an excuse.
* RedScare: Subverted, the Soviets are displayed more positively than in the normal game.
* SelectiveMagnetism: They base weapons, including ''"orbital weapons"'', on this principle.
* ShinyLookingSpaceships: Chromed even.
* ShedArmorGainSpeed: Alkonosts' Psych Up ability increases the speed and ferocity of nearby units but lowers their defence with every use.
* ShockAndAwe
* SmokeOut: Grenadiers have a supply of smoke grenades, which they can use to create smokescreens that protect those within from being attacked, although they are unable to fire out.
* SovietSuperscience
* SpaceMarine: Conscriptnaughts are glorified conscripts in spacesuits; the protocol that deploys them is called 'Space Marines'.
* SpiderTank: Sickles, Threshers, Vampires and Alkonosts are quadrupedal walkers; Scythes are hexapodal.
* StaticStunGun
* SuicideAttack: A weird case is the Crisis Drone, because when it explodes it ''heals'' stuff around it.
* TakingTheBullet: The Scrapper Tank's giant plow can be used to soak up the attacks of enemies.
* TankGoodness: The Soviet's MO.
* TheTunguskaEvent: Origin of magnetic weapons.
* TractorBeam: Magnetic harpoons suck enemy vehicles towards the grinders of the Apocalypse Tanks. If the target is a large vehicle or a structure, the Apocalypse gets closer to it instead.
* VodkaDrunkenski: The whole lot of them are implied to be drunks. A sniper's final test is supposedly to shoot an empty vodka bottle from nearly a kilometer right after emptying aforementioned bottle.
* WeaponsThatSuck: The Vacuum Imploder, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin true to its name]], creates a sphere of perfect vacuum which sucks in everything in range to destroy.
* XRaySparks: Again, thanks to tesla tech.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: Mag-Lift and Apocalypse Tanks can pull enemy ground vehicles towards themselves (and in the Apocalypse's case, their grinders).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Empire of the Rising Sun]]
''The islands of Japan, this long-forgotten archipelago surprised both Allied Nations and Soviet Union with a global-scale surprise attack and ran into and changed the course of World War III. Extremely advanced robotics, mecha and nanotechnology as well as a focus on mobility allow the Empire to attack before the enemy can shoot back. Originally under Emperor Yoshiro their goal was to conquer the whole world to fulfill their ''"divine destiny"''. When this did not work out, they became friends with the Allies and started selling their weaponry and various other technologies to everyone interested, becoming an economical juggernaut in the process. Their new motivation is to beat their economical enemies like the Mediterranean Syndicate while staying true to a balance of modernism and traditionalism.''

* ActionBomb: The Burst Drone can self destruct while attached to an enemy vehicle to damage it. Final Squadron summons a squadron of suicide drones armed with kinetic weapons into the enemy position while shooting everything they can.
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The Masakari Drone Command is armed with a variety of drones. In both naval and aerial modes, the Aerial Battleship Musashi has a complement of Stellar Angel Fighter Bombers providing air cover and scouting.
* AmazonBrigade: Rocket Angels and Battle Psychics are exclusively female.
* {{Animesque}}
* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: Shinobi are armed with nothing more than regular steel swords and throwing stars.
* ArtificialIntelligence: They are the leaders in this science field thanks to their Nanotechnology.
* BadassAdorable: [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell Masamune Drones]].
* BarrierWarrior: The Tedate can lay down a short-lived Nano-Shield, which will fend off most attacks of ground units, but cannot move when doing so.
* BaseOnWheels: The Incredible Mobile Fortress Tatsu is a mobile airfield that can construct and support up to six dedicated aircraft, repair and rearm friendly units and transport a large number of ground vehicles.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Their war motivation under former Emperor Yoshiro.
* BeehiveBarrier: Nanoswarm shields.
* BifurcatedWeapon: An oversized version, the Hanzo Zs' Hyper Rifles can have underbarrel electrospectrum guns.
* CastFromHitPoints: Th Hot Blooded protocol causes all affected mecha units to gain speed, armour and attack power as they are slowly but steadily damaged.
* ChargedAttack: The Wave-Force Artillery can fire at different energy settings. By default it always fires at max-capacitance, but can be ordered to discharge its weapon prematurely at the cost of reducing damage.
* CombiningMecha: The VIP unit.
* {{Conscription}}
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: An actual mechanic for the overhauled Shinobi. Alone, they are incredibly badass with shuriken deactivating vehicles, smoke bombs making them invisible, several weapons completely failing to hit them and chain-slashing infantry with their ninja-to and lightning speed. However, if two (or more) friendly Shinobi are in the same area, they heavily nerf each other to the point of being even worse than they were in vRA3.
* CoolBoat: Lots, like the Naginata Torpedo Cruisers or the Shogun Battleships.
%%* CoolHelmet: [[VideoGame/MegaMan Tsukumogami Proto-Suits]].
* CoolShades: Tsukumogami Proto-Suits have [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina shades]].
%%* CuteMachines: Masamune Drones.
* DefenselessTransports: Sudden Transports and Ikiryo Mini-Mechas have no weapons to defend themselves.
* DelayedExplosion: Ashigaru Bombardiers can set explosive charges that will instantly destroy buildings, though this takes a few seconds to do.
* DittoFighter: The Tsukumogami Proto-Suits can copy enemy or friendly weapons.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: The Sudden Transport can project the external appearance of any vehicle, friendly or enemy.
* DroneDeployer: The Tanuki can release small drones to intercept vehicles and slow them down with electromagnetic pulses to allow the Tanuki to escape.
* DualModeUnit:
** Tankbusters can bury into the ground, which prevents them from being crushed and makes them stealthed, but prevents them from moving or firing.
** The Masamune can switch between anti-air rocket pods and shock paddles that can temporarily disable enemy vehicles and buildings.
** Rocket Angels can switch between firing rockets and using a whip to disable ground targets.
** Battle Psychics can take down both ground and air targets with telekinetic darts or switch to psychic shields to intercept enemy attacks.
** The Jishin can burrow into the ground, turning itself into a powerful anti tank turret. Obviously, it is immobile in this state.
** In wheeled form, the Izanagi can move fast and use kinetic-burst autocannons and missile pods. Switching into walker form sacrifices its speed and allows it to use its Fujiwara cannon, a weapon of devastating power.
** The Tengu can switch forms between an amphibious anti-infantry walker and a swift air superiority fighter.
** The Kitsune can transform from a fast but unarmed quad to a mecha, armed with a sniper cannon.
** The missile armed VX can go from anti-air walker to anti-tank helicopter.
** When in water, the Samehada Buster Mecha can transform into a submarine, which prevents it from firing on land vehicles.
** In tank mode, the Nezumi uses a heavy machine gun turret, before it deploys into the slow mecha form, which is armed with a large, indirect artillery piece.
** The Sea-Wing anti-aircraft submarine can transform into the Sky-Wing ground attack aircraft.
** In its default state, the Musashi cruises across the sea, and despite its massive size, it can take off into the air and stay aloft.
* {{Facepalm}}: One of the animations of the Hanzo Z.
* FragileSpeedster: The Empire army focuses on mobility, with fast, amphibious units that lack durability.
* HitAndRunTactics: The Isha Vector Jet Tank is an amphibious and extremely fast flanker with limited ammunition designed to attack the enemy, then rush back.
* HonorBeforeReason: Shinobi show the full extent of their powers when alone, but refuse to work with each other, even if means certain death.
* HotBlooded: An actual ability which increases combat effectiveness of [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann all mecha units]].
* HotSubOnSubAction: Yari Mini-Subs are very good against other subs.
%%* HoverTank
* HumongousMecha: Prime unit class. Has a dedicated building only for Mecha production.
* IfItSwimsItFlies: The Sea/Sky Wings and Tsurugi Submersible Fighters can do this.
* JackOfAllTrades: Their units, especially the TransformingMecha, are quite versatile but none really excel in any role that much.
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: It did not work with military means, so they are trying it with economical means which works quite well.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Imperial Warriors and Shinobi are armed with surprisingly lethal katanas.
* LaserBlade: Imperial Warriors use superheated Katana to OneHitKill enemy infantry.
* LimitedLoadout: An Isha Vector Jet Tank's ammunition is limited, and it has to return to base for reloading.
* LockedOutOfTheFight: Its secondary allows the Tedate to shut down a unit completely, turning it indestructible in the process.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Hanzo Z mecha wear shields, in true Franchise/{{Gundam}} fashion.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: A specialty. Comes in rapid fire and volley fire varieties.

* MiniMecha: Ikiryo Mini-Mechas, which are used to [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann hijack]] enemy vehicles and are piloted by champions of the [[Series/TakeshisCastle boot camp's obstacle course]].
* MotionCaptureMecha: Hanzo Z suits.
* {{Nanomachines}}
* {{Ninja}}: Shinobi are the Japanese infiltration unit, armed with a giant sword and throwing stars.
* NobodyHereButUsStatues: The Holotree Sniper can deploy a sniper perch equipped with a holographic projection device, which makes the perch resemble an unassuming object.
* OneHitPolykill: The Wave-Force Artillery fires blasts of energy that can pass through multiple targets.
* TheParalyzer: The Masamune can deliver a shock to temporarily disable vehicles and buildings.
* PostCyberPunk
* PsychicPowers: The Psionic Decimator, their Ultimate Weapon and Yuriko Omega.
* RealRobot
* {{Roboteching}}: Almost everyone in the setting uses dumbfire rockets or primative early IR or radar tracking missiles. The Empire have AIs dedicated to controlling missile swarms. It shows.
* RocketPunch: The Kintaro, using traditional rocket punchs, but attached to a chain for retracting: allowing them to grab enemies from a distance.
* {{Samurai}}: Imperial Warriors.
* SchizoTech: Giant Robots? Check. Nanotechnology? Check. Radar? Not so much.
* SmokeOut: A shinobi can throw a smoke bomb to cover his tracks and escape.
* SpiderTank: In wheeled form, an Izanagi moves with six legs.
* SpyBot: Burst Drones are robots that serve the role of scouting and snuffing out spies.
* SquishyWizard: Although they can bolster the durability of friendly units with psychic shields, Battle Psychics are rather lightly armoured and squishy by themselves.
* TransformingMecha: Kitsune, Tengu and VX.
* {{Transhuman}}: A good variety.
* WorkerUnit: Nanocores unfurl into structures at any given location but are very barely armoured.
* {{Yakuza}}: Makes a load of problems for everyone.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: A Kintaro can launch its right hand as a deadly rocket to strike enemy vehicles and reel them in.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Confederate Revolutionaries]]
''The result of killing US President Ackermann, the Confederates want to get the Allied Nations out of the USA, get rid of their influence on America as a continent and generally do things they feel are right. Without a proper military, they utilise Allied technology from World War II to great effect, modifying and improving those obsolete designs with their own technology and cleverness. They believe to know what is right and they will fight for it until they have ''"liberated"'' the USA. Terrorists for the Allies, Freedom Fighters for the American population, they are mostly good guys who happen to be fighting other good guys. They lack a proper idea for '''after''' they liberated the USA, but as they say, first things first.''
* ActionBomb: RC Cars can explode via ability. Their power can be increased with the bombs of the Bomb Trucks, which however is not a suicider himself.
* AmazonBrigade: The aptly named Amazon Warriors, which while not as elite as Minutemen or Delta Rangers can pack a punch on the units the other two cannot effectively fight.
%%* AmericansAreCowboys
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: The vast majority of their equipment are aging [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert WW2]] vehicles.
* CombatPragmatist: To make up for their obsolete tech, they use the dirtiest tactics in the game. Several types of land mines and booby traps, ambushes, fake structures, RC cars with bombs on them, invisiblity, electronics jamming, tunneling and stealing enemy resources are all fair game.
* ContinuityNod: The Confederate equipment is the over-15-year-old tech left over from the first ''"Red Alert"'' game.
* CreepyChild: Thieves.
* CustomUniform: ''Everyone''. The Confederates have no official uniform; the closest to it are grey overalls, and they can't even get everyone to wear those. Notable for being the only side where infantry of the same type have different appearences.
* DeepSouth: Used as a theme, though their members come from all over America and all walks of life.
* DefenselessTransports: Jackson [=APCs=], Transport Trucks and Omni-Landers have no weapon whatsoever.
* DrillTank
* EagleLand: Both types 1 and 2 are present.
* EarthquakeMachine: The Resonance Jackhammer offensive superweapon shatters enemies with a pulse of seismic energy.
* EvilDetectingDog: Doberman Guard Dogs can sniff spies and stealth units.
* IncrediblyObviousBomb: Bomb Trucks lay those.
* InvisibilityCloak: PAWI Tech paints over people and the machinery they use with ''"blank"'' images.
* LaResistance
* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: The counterculture's experimentation with LSD has created a whole bunch of psychics.
* MildlyMilitary
* MundaneUtility: Radar Domes are used as hydroponic bays when not otherwise in use.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: Tunnel Rats and Flower Children are this.
* NoseArt: Many Confederate air planes have NoseArt that ranges from subtle to fairly blatant. Some units even have multiple of them selected at random when the plane is build.
* PatrioticFervor
* RealityBleed: PAWI technology. Like GAP, it's (mostly) safe.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: The Mortarmen carry revolvers that can punch straight through a Peacekeeper's shield and [[BlownAcrossTheRoom send infantry flying]].
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Only a part of them. They normally have understandable motives and happen to fight other good guys.
* SeaMine: They can deploy versions of these from their torpedo boats that move under their own power.
* ShockwaveStomp: Their Ultimate Weapon, direct fire artillery, and high level base defenses work like this.
* StealthBasedGame: Becomes one when you play as them.
* SuperSerum: ''LSD'' gives you ''psychic powers''.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified / TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Hard to tell which yet, though they ''"do"'' lean towards dirty tricks and stealing technology.
* TheMultiverse: Why PAWI works.
* ThisIsADrill: ''[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann "Spiral Tech"]]'' is a mathmatical oddity that allows improbable levels of mechanical effienciency with certain patterns of rotating machinery such as drills or fans. They use it to dig tunnels, make drill-based projectiles, and create tornados/whirlpools.
* TooManyBelts: A more western example, Confederate infantry are covered in bandoleers, low-slung holster belts, and other straps for equipment instead of more modern webbing.
* TunnelKing
* WorkerUnit: 'Dozers and Construction Trucks create main structures and fake structures, respectively. They and defenses are build by the Construction Yard.
* WrenchWench: Both their standard engineer and their commando, Dixie, are female, and both are repair specialists. The mechanic can repair single vehicles in the field, which Dixie has a sizable repair radius and can heal damage nearly as fast as it's dealt.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Order of the Talon]]
''An 800 years old order of Knights, the Order of the Talon secretly control great parts of the world from the shadows, fighting an ominious enemy known only as ''"The Cult"''. They possess impressive Steam Punk technology, including walkers and moving castles. Able to move from place to place with their castles and armoured with the strongest metal known to humanity, they fight everyone they deem heretical despite their outdated tech. Most Talon personnel are unwitting of the greater scheme behind the Order's actions and those who know at least something prefer to command from the shadows to avoid being targeted. They are not afraid of assasinations or leading countries to war if it helps them - in fact, they are responsible for World War I. However, they are noble and pragmatic enough to not abuse others too much, because their goal is to fight the Cult, not the rest of the world.''
* ActionBomb: Sappers and Priests of Judas via special ability.
* AmazonBrigade: The Chevaliers, personally trained by Lady Maria.
* AncientConspiracy
* AnnoyingArrows: Subverted. Rogues and Footmen with their bows and crossbows hit just as hard if not harder than their gun-using contemporaries.
* ArchEnemy: To the Cult of the Black Hand.
* ArrowsOnFire: Sort of - they prefer red-hot crossbow bolts.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: They've got a battle locomotive.
* AxCrazy: Fanatics.
* BadassCreed: The Iscariot Vow.
* BadassPreacher: Hospitallers. A flamethrower-armed priest WILL make you confess.
* BaseOnWheels: Master Crawlers, castles on tracks, produce every single unit they have. In addition, Mini-Crawlers, which are mobile tech buildings/refineries.
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Averted. They might be using old technology, but Talon equipment generally equals or outperforms it's conventional (not to mention unconventional) counterparts. Also, they had computer software in 1842.
* {{BFG}}: Apostle bombardment ships mount a ''914mm'' cannon, the largest in Paradox.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: In a setting of GreyAndGrayMorality where everyone does good and bad things, sometimes more of one than the other, the Talons believe in this one instead. This leads too...
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: ...with them being white and everyone else being black and/or potentially compromised. The only faction where this is actually true is the Black Hand.
* {{Brainwashed}}: A fair number of Talon officers were military officers from around the world who were kidnapped and brainwashed/indoctrinated into serving the Talon.
* BrownNote: Calliope Tracks can do this.
* CarFu: The aforementioned battle locomotive can do this.
* CatapultToGlory: The secondary ability of the Emissary Track.
* ChurchMilitant: Started as a knightly order in the Catholic church, has since become independent.
* ClockPunk
* ClockworkCreature: Automatons.
* CoolAirship: The Lazarus Air Dreadnoughts.
* ConspiracyTheorist: They are an AncientConspiracy group fighting at least one other ancient conspiracy group.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Their colour of choice is black, but they're still good[ish] guys.
* DeadlyGas: Emissary Tracks launch censers filled with mustard gas.
* DeadpanSnarker: Cannon Turret gunners [[ICallItVera call their turrets]] ''"Saint-Maker"''.
* DeathFromAbove: True to their nature as expies of [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Assault Marines]], Templar Lords can do jetpack jumps that crush anyone they land on (and who stand near them when they start). RocketJump indeed.
* DecapitatedArmy: You start with a Master Crawler, whose loss equals an automatic Game Over.
* DefectorFromDecadence: A lot of Talon personnel start as this.
* {{Determinator}}: Their history is basically eight hundred years of failure. They're still going strong.
* {{Expy}}: When you get right down to it, the Talon are the steampunk counterpart of GDI with Catholic overtones.
* FireBreathingWeapon: They have a lot of flamethrowers.
* GaleForceSound: Jericho Cannons work this way, though they shake things apart rather than directly blowing them to pieces.
* ImprovisedWeapon: According to the backstory, a couple of the Talon's weapons like the Altars of Light and Consecrator Tracks started as this.
* IShallTauntYou: Chevaliers can do this. Notable in that it inspires friendly units rather than demoralizing enemies.
* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: If the Talon decides that you're guilty, you will die.
* KillItWithFire: The Talons LOVE flame weapons.
* KillSat: They hijacked both Athena Sats and Mag Sats and then combined them into something even worse.
* KnightTemplar: Varies by the individual Talon, but the Order as a whole tends towards this. The actual, literal Templars among their ranks do not, ironically.
* LandDownUnder: They've basically taken it over, but haven't informed the Australians or their government of the fact.
* LoudOfWar: Calliope Tracks.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: Specialty of the Metatron Gunboats.
* MagneticWeapons: And not the usual kind either. A more conventional coilgun is the Apostle bombardment ship's ultimate upgrade.
* MedievalStasis: Not quite, but they are very, very slow to adopt new technology. Thanks to Talon Steel, this doesn't stop them from being a major threat.
* MightyGlacier: Many of their strongest units.
* MindRape: The Order is not above indoctrinating and brainwashing new recruits to make them loyal to the organization.
* MinovskyPhysics: Talon Steel fits, more or less.
* MoreDakka
* PillarOfLight: The Firestorm Generator, their Ultimate Weapon.
* ProperlyParanoid: They're an ancient conspiracy fighting other ancient conspiracies. Paranoia is both a given and understandable.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: The special ability of Vicar Torpedo Rams. Just watch out - Shogun Battleships and Alert Ice Breakers do it better.
* RocketJump: Templars.
* ScienceIsBad: Discussed. They ''are'' centuries behind the times technologically, but this is mainly because their existing technology is still competitively effective. Their is however no innate aversion to science or technological progression itself.
* SmallReferencePools: Whenever a Talon design shows up, 9 out of 10 people think it is inspired by ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''.
* SpiderTank: The Cataphract Land Ironclad.
* StartingUnits: Pawns are unbuildable infantry that spawn for free from the Master Crawler while it is deployed.
* SteamPunk
* TheAestheticsOfTechnology: They have fun with this one. Talon units ''"look"'' archaic and primitive compared to, say, the Empire, but this is the MightyGlacier faction...
* TheFundamentalist
* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Holy Triumvirate.
* ThePowerOfTheSun: Like the Allies, the Order has solar death rays, but these are more inspired by Archimedes' Mirror.
* ThisIsADrill: Have a submarine fitted with a drill for attacking other submarines. It uses spiral tech stolen from the Confederates.
* TrainingFromHell: Their elite military training school is in Death Valley, USA. 'Nuff said.
* UnknownRival: To the Mediterranean Syndicate - aside from the highest levels of TheNecrocracy running from behind the scenes, most of the Syndicate has no idea why the hell the Order has them pegged as the AntiChrist, and can only try their best in holding them off when they come around for one of their executives head on a pike.
* {{Unobtanium}}: Subverted - Talon Steel is possible in RealLife.
* UnwittingPawn: Lower Talon personnel don't know who they are really serving. Also, there's the aptly named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Pawns]], who are unwitting soldiers duped into aiding the Talon, and the Barracuda crews.
* WalkingTank: The Cataphract.
* WeAreEverywhere: Unfortunately, so are their enemies.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Their goal is to fight the group that is by WordOfGod the only truly evil faction in the entire setting. They're still willing to perform unethical and questionable acts if necessary in pursuit of this goal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Atomic Kingdom of China]]
''The remaining population of a 30 years long civil war that ended in a nuclear holocaust, the Atomic Kingdom of China is lead by a man only known as ''"The Viceroy"'' and his right hand, a young appearing girl genius. With nigh impenetrable defenses, energy shields and strange vehicles, hordes of cloned soldiers and all sorts of radiation technology resembling 1960s scifi, they strive to take revenge on the world. Their longtime goal is to leave Mother Earth and preferably before others decode the secret of nuclear weapons. For the voyage they need technology from Allies, Soviets and Japan alike, but it is not their goal to kill everyone outright when leaving - and neither is their goal to take the clones with them.''
* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: Courtesans have poisoned saliva and tears but are themselves immune to the effects. They actively use this as an [[OutWithABang assasination method]].
* AfterTheEnd: They arose from the ashes of a nuclear civil war in China.
* AlienGeometries: To represent the classic era of science fiction, Royal Chinese constructs tend to look very, very strange.
%%* {{Antimatter}}
* AtomPunk: The basic premise and any kind of it.
* AttackDrone: Great Wing Ships produce Little Wing Patrol Boats, who in turn attack the enemies with their ray guns.
%%* BadassLongcoat: Fireworks Mistresses.
%%* BeamSpam
* ChildSoldiers: Chiren Kilong is 15 years old and acts as second in command of the space fleet under Yuming Oshang, who is just 18 herself. This is because they, like all commanders, belong to the very few non-cloned humans who have a natural resistance against radiation which was turned into a requirement to be commander by The Viceroy. Chiren also shows great potential in strategy and tactics so wasting her talent would be out of the question.
* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld: Subverted. They want to give everyone a good beating, stealing some needed technology in the process and then leave Earth before the other factions unlock the secret of their nuclear weapons.
%%* ClonesArePeopleToo
%%* CloningBlues
* CoolStarship: Loads, like the Eclipse Star Destroyer.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The House Colour for the Chinese isn't painted onto them, but instead glows off their radiators and shows up in the colour of their beam weapons. Yes, this even allows pink or black ray guns.
%%* DisintegratorRay
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even though they want revenge on pretty much every other world power, they still have a strict policy of only targeting military forces with their atomic bombs. Understandable, consider that they've seen the horrors of nuclear holocaust first hand.
* ExpendableClone: Clones are used as grunts, for slave labor and for getting rid of mine fields. There also are no plans to take them along when leaving earth.
* FantasticRacism: Treatment of clones.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Chinese Civil War is this.
* GreenRocks: ''"Jade"'', the radioactive alien mineral that enables nuclear fission. It is effectively [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries Tiberium]] and also one of the reasons their colour of choice is green.
* HistoricalInJoke: Their entire existence represents the power shift caused by nuclear China in the real 1960s.
* {{Homage}}: To ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
* JiangShi: InNameOnly since they are more like the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] than zombies.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Inverted. China is the only side not to follow this; their weapons are in fact far better than everyone else's, and are almost always some form of DeathRay or other beam weapon. However, they tend to suffer from shorter range, which forces their units to take a beating while closing in to their adversaries before they can bring their beams to bear.
* MundaneUtility: Mantis War-Walkers can be used to plow land with their heat rays and War Thrones can grow plants there via healing radiation.
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: My name is Captain Lei Lun, you have humiliated my country. [[PrepareToDie Prepare to eat atomic fire.]]
* NuclearMutant: Jiang Shi. Chinese Tigers are similar, in that they are generally better than their non-augmented brethren.
* NukeEm: Should be obvious by the name; their Ultimate Weapon is just as obviously an air-dropped nuclear bomb.
* OpeningACanOfClones
* OurClonesAreIdentical: Most infantry are mass-cloned from the genes of warriors who died in the previous war.
* OutWithABang: As mentioned above, Courtesans can kill with poisoned saliva or tears, which is usually done during intercourse.
* PantheraAwesome: Chinese Tigers, irradiated and mutated to be bigger and tougher.
* PointyEars: Clones have these as a way of segregating them from the population.
* RadiationInducedSuperpowers: Radiation usually kills, but every so often you become an Expy of the Hulk.
%%* {{Ramscoop}}
%%* SendInTheClones
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Their ray guns are hampered with a short range ingame, but it's caused by [[Franchise/StarTrek a total lack of any sort of gunsights]].
%%* SicklyGreenGlow
%%* SightedGunsAreLowTech
* SlapOnTheWristNuke: Subverted with truely ''horrifying'' effects! A dropped nuke has far more power than any other Ultimate weapon in the game, being powerful enough to eradicate a complete base, leaving massive amounts of radiation that will prevent any life in the area for a while and [[TruthInTelevision turn the very ground into glass]] from the heat. Add map-wide EMP effects and gale force winds of about 350 km/h and the game will be completely reversed after the bomb fell.
* SpectacularSpinning: The Fortress Gate looks like a [[Franchise/StargateVerse Stargate]] and naturally it spins.
%%* SpaceElevator
%%* StandardSciFiFleet
%%* TeleportersAndTransporters
* TheMusketeer: Royal Officers.
* ThreateningShark: Mutated sharks also use radiation-infused guns to add to their threatening factor.
* TowerDefense: They've been deliberately designed to play like a Tower Defense game, with upgrading defenses and walls designed especially for ''"mazing"''.
%%* TractorBeam
%%* TripodTerror: Mantis War-Walkers.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: How clones are usually used.
* WhyAmITicking: One of the protocols lets a turret explode for massive damage.
* YellowPeril: Deliberately played as ComicStrip/FlashGordon style pulp sci-fi villains.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mediterranean Syndicate]]
''A Roman-age crossed with Cyber Punk obsessed group of Mega Corporations, the Mediterranean Syndicate embody everything the Allies fear and fight - forced roboticization, drug and people trafficking, abuse of the weak and generally doing everything only for money. The Syndicate uses high-range weapons for everything, from micro rocket firing machine guns to multi-target striking railguns to weather control, battlesuits, drugged gang members and all sorts of mercenary security forces. Their sprawls, regions of eternal night illuminated by neon lights and packed with camera systems, are haunted by packs of cybernetically improved Wolves and violence is a daily occurrence. People there apparently enjoy their lot because the Syndicate educates them practically for free - in utter self-interest of course.''
* AnachronismStew: They are TheEighties in a TheSixties setting.
* AncientGrome: What they are effectively idolizing.
* ArmyOfLawyers: Helios Security, equipped with projectors that use "zero-point energy" hold you in place. Inspired by Literature/TheSupernaturalist.
* AxCrazy: Satyrs.
* BrainInAJar: Man'O'War jellyfish are controlled this way.
* ChurchOfHappyology: Also Sea-Org.
* CompanyTown: Sprawls are usually this.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Lots.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul
* CyberPunk: Neon lights. Cybernetic power armour. Rogue AIs. Absolute lack of respect for human life. Their Hero is even an evil {{Expy}} to ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' Hero Motoko Kusanagi and Molly Millions from the ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy''.
* CyberPunkIsTechno: If [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox/videos/il-futuro-adesso Il futuro é adesso]] is any indication.
* {{Cyberspace}}: The mind of the user lends the processing power needed for complicated inferfaces. Non-cyberspace interactions resemble 1980s text interfaces as a result, and connections are barely good enough to transfer MIDI music.
* DeadlyGas: Sear gas is this, combining the debilitating effects of tear gas with the lethal effects of your eyes and throat suffering chemical burns! [[SarcasmMode Fun stuff!]]
* DelayingAction: Until the better guns are available.
* DrugsAreBad: Being the local evil bastards, they of course run the drug trade. Basic infantry are drugged gang members and the drugs make them shortly invincible to automatic gun fire. Of course, they burn them out afterward.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even the AxCrazy Satyrs would not automatically attack Ambulance units.
* FeelNoPain: Auxiliaries can take PCP to survive bullet wounds that would otherwise kill them and will bleed to death if left unattended afterward. TruthInTelevision.
* ForkliftFu: Syndicate forklifts can steal defenses and crush infantry.
* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Legion Security uniforms are shiny silver with holographic advertising.
* IfItSwimsItFlies: Pluto Airmobile Submarines.
* LossOfIdentity: Happens to almost everyone turned into a battle suit.
* LongGame: The ultimate goal of the Board of Classics is to [[spoiler: lure out Kane and destroy him for leaving them unable to die. They have been playing this game for centuries and centuries.]]
* MagneticWeapons: Mainly railguns, which are notable for being able to pass through a tank and hit the one behind it as a game mechanic.
* MegaCorp: A massive alliance of corporations huge and small loosely ''"ruled"'' by a sort of super board of directors.
* NGOSuperpower
* OneHitPolykill: Railguns.
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The Syndicate effectively only care about profit, be it short-term or long-term.
* PrivatelyOwnedSociety
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Board of Classics, [[spoiler:they are actually old kings and queens from ancient civilizations. Xerxes, Alexander the Great, Gilgamesh, Cleopatra... And Romulus really was the first king of Rome. Kane made them immortal and left their civilizations to crumble, and they want revenge.]]
* {{Roboteching}}: Like the Empire, the Syndicate has AI controlled missiles. Unlike the Empire, the AI is located '''inside the missile'''.
* RocketPunch: The Atlas' fire their fists with compressed gas.
* ScienceMarchesOn: Deliberately invoked to imitate 1980s cyberpunk; Syndicate wireless technology ''"sucks"'', being limited to infrared beams like a television remote, so pretty much everything needs to be plugged in and wires are everywhere.
* SinisterSurveillance: Since cameras are everywhere.
* StreetSamurai: Satyrs, in the most insane way possible.
* SuicideAttack[=/=]WhyAmITicking: Fury Combat Drones can happen to not survive diving into an enemy airplane's fuel tanks.
* SuperPersistentMissile: Syndicate missiles follow their target until impact or running out of fuel. It's usually the former.
* TheCityNarrows: Sprawls.
* TheEighties
* TheNecrocracy: According to WordOfGod, this trope applies in a way to the ''"Board of Classics"''.
* TheSyndicate
* TooKinkyToTorture: The Satyrs enjoy receiving pain almost as much as they enjoy inflicting them.
* {{Transhuman}}: A bad variety.
* UnusualUserInterface: All Syndicate vehicles are piloted by single man crews, who replace their sensory input and motor impulses entirely with that of the vehicle.
* UnusualWeaponMounting: Battlesuits have weapons mounted on shoulders, under shoulders etc.
* UnwillingRoboticisation
* UrbanWarfare: Their specialty. In order to ensure they can take advantage of it, [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction they can take some city with them.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Syndicate educate people and create jobs world-wide and build massive megacities (their Sprawls) to house them. They do that because it's easier to milk a population that loves than one which hates them. This also makes it harder for the Allies to take action against them.
* WarForFunAndProfit
* WeatherControlMachine: Their Ultimate Weapon. May or may not be even upgradable.
* WetwareCPU: High level battlesuits are like this.
* WorkerUnit: Construction Lifters work similar to Nano Cores but can build their structures unlimited times to save money (exceptions are the Super and Ultimate Weapon).
* WretchedHive: They have a way of popping up in the Syndicate's path.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Electrical Protectorate]]
''A group of Imperial lab castoff nanomachines who developed self-awareness and formed the Core Mind met a stranger, who gave them a goal - to accomplish the ''"pure state of the universe"''. In other words, kill everyone else, and that is exactly what they do. Hordes of robots without built times but hideously weak, the Electrical Protectorate overwhelm everyone else with sheer numbers of weaksauce units aided by bigger units with bigger guns and a commando that looks entirely human but has a heart and body of steel. The Protectorate do not care about humans as much as seeing them as an obstacle to reach the pure state. They are unknown to the other factions because they kill without asking questions or before anyone can react, ending up as a rumor in people's heads until it is too late.''
* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted; humans didn't really create them, they evolved from lab castoff nanobots.
* AndIMustScream: Subverted; the Protectorate keep Jacob in their main city in a form of statis and dimly awake but they make sure he's happy the way he is. In theory.
* ArtificialIntelligence: What they really are is a formless group of AIs who can ''"posses"'' their machines at will - with all the (dis-)advantages this implies.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: As robots, they do not have to follow human conventions of ''"Right and Wrong"''...
* BrownNote: Basilisk Patterns work by using visual and audio patterns to cause your brain to go completely insane. That is, if they don't kill you outright.
* CoolButInefficient: The Protectorate don't even need an army to win the war, as they could simply cover the world in GreyGoo and win the war in about a day. However [[DoingItForTheArt due to]] [[LargeHam their nature]] the idea of it is completely alien to them.
* CyberCyclops: Agressors.
* DarkIsEvil: [[MeaningfulName Nightmare Drones]] create pitch-black fog to kill enemies.
* DeadlyGas: The secondary weapon of the Protectorate Tripod: Black Gas. The chemical composition of this gas is unknown, but what is known is that any unprotected person who finds themselves inside a cloud of Black Gas is as good as dead.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Aggressors.
* DoingItForTheArt: In-Universe, their prior motivation. Even now, they can't help but work this in; their TinCanRobot imagery is the result of them designing what they think a robot army ought to look like given the contemporary pop culture they had absorbed.
* EldritchAbomination: They made a deal with some, and it's started to change them... Their superweapon even unleashes one on their enemies.
* {{Expy}}: Their leaders are pretty similar, typing quirks and all, to the [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Trolls]].
** They also appear to have a bit of [[VideoGame/{{CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars}} Scrin]] to them.
* GoingCritical: When a Singularity Core gets damaged enough...
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: What happens to pityful humans seeing [[EldritchAbomination The Icon]].
* GreyGoo
* LargeHam: Despite being composed entirely of software, they are an entire ''"race"'' of these.
* MadArtist: They essentially want to destroy all life as an artistic statement.
* MechaMooks: A whole army of them.
* MechanicalMonster: Some of the bigger EP units can be this.
* {{Nanomachines}}
* NietzscheWannabe
* RobotReligion: More like ''"Robot Cthulu Cult"''.
* RobotWar
* StrawmanEmotional: Originally programmed to understand and play off of human emotion, the Protectorate as a whole borders on bipolar, in contrast to the classic emotionless machines.
* SuicideAttack: Mitosis Subs, Gremlins, and Seekers.
* TechnicolorFire: The Protectorate use Potassium, [[FauxSymbolism which burns purple]].
* TheMultiverse: The origin of The Icon.
* ThePowerOfRock: Protectorate fractal weaponry contains singularities which offer beautiful light shows. The killing, however is done by firing pure, undiluted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDlif8Km4S4 Dubstep]].
* TinCanRobot: Played with. The Protectorate are made out of nanites and have no real machine components comparable to contemporary human technology. They wholly embrace the TinCanRobot look, however, out of a combination of sentiment for the B-Movies of their ''"youth"'' and a healthy dose of irony.
* TripodTerror
* TrueArtIsAngsty: InUniverse. Their concerns over the effects of entropy on their works and society spiraled them into increasingly dark works and eventually to war.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: InUniverse. Protectorate bases and high-level constructs are increasingly abstract, with loose forms symbolically representing their role rather than the more direct TinCanRobot stylings.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Played with. The base AIs of the Protectorate were created by humanity (in particular by a Japanese experiment that went awry) but were lost and then promptly forgotten about. The protectorate as it is now has nothing against humanity (and indeed a mere human brought them back from a DespairEventHorizon), but we are in the way for them to get to the pure state.
* WalkDontSwim: If Protectorate units cannot swim, they walk on the sea floor towards their targets.
* WeHaveReserves: Justified. Their units are almost all mindless robots that the true [=AIs=] puppeteer. Thus, they don't particularly care if they get blown up.
* ZergRush: Standard tactic taken up to eleven, to the point where they completely forgo build times.
[[/folder]]

'''Minor Factions'''

Minor Factions are national powers from various countries not powerful enough to be globally active.

[[folder:Army of the Republic of Vietnam]]
''South Vietnamese national forces fighting the Communist regime of the North. They love flame weapons and idolise the Allied Nations. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are '''Peacekeeper Air Cavalry.'''''
* AmmunitionBackpack: Napalm Rangers.
* {{BFG}}: The Peacock mounts six anti-tank cannons. It's based on the Ontos, a real life Vietnam-made Tank Destroyer.
* BifurcatedWeapon: The Jungle Ranger's assault rifle has an underbarrel shotgun.
* CoolShades: The Rocket Ranger's stern look owes a great deal to her period-approprete sunglasses.
* CuteAsABouncingBetty: Peacock Tank Destroyers.
* FanBoy: They almost worships the ground the Allies walk...
* FireBreathingWeapon: The ARVN loves its flamethrowers.
* HistoricalVillainDowngrade
* KillItWithFire
* [[FashionableAsymmetry Practical Asymmetry]]: The Napalm Ranger only has one shoulder pad, but it's on the shoulder that faces the enemy (together with the end of his weapon).
* SmallReferencePools: The ARVN Jungle Ranger wears a slouch hat, one issued to the RealLife ARVN. Everyone just makes ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' references whenever they see him.
* StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure: Rascal Dive Bomber.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Most of the Western Bloc are democratic, humanitarian idealists, but the ARVN are a corrupt military authoritarianist state, and the Rangers are cynical and pragmatic fighters making heavy use of traditionally ''"bad guy"'' gear like chemical weapons and flamethrowers. Even so, they are considerably nicer than their real-world counterparts.
* UselessUsefulStealth: The ARVN's job is enforcing this; it has tanks with scanners and lots of napalm to burn the enemy out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Allied Reservists]]
''The various national militaries of the world aiding the elite Peacekeepers. They also form the bulk of units fighting in Vietnam. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are '''Peacekeeper Recon.'''''
* BlindedByTheLight: Like the Riot Agent, the Defender has a flashbang grenade launcher.
* BoringButPractical: Compared to the Peacekeepers; the Reservists don't use costly experimental systems or quantum weapons, but their designs are proven and cost-effective.
* {{Expy}}: They resemble the USA faction from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals''.
** The Peacekeeper Recon are a direct expy of First Recon from Literature/GenerationKill
* FashionableAsymmetry: To drive home their nature as "weekend warriors", the basic Reservist has an almost completely asymmetrical uniform.
* OnlySaneMan: They are the only (more or less) truly conventional army.
* PuttingOnTheReich: Though their tan desert and olive green jungle uniforms don't look it, their garrison uniforms are black and grey. However, the Allies are blissfully unaware due to the lack of Nazis in the Red Alert timeline.
* WeHaveReserves: Again, to the Peacekeepers; where the Peacekeepers are expected to make precision strikes on the enemy line, the Reservists hold the front and support PK operations.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:National Revolutionary Army]]
''One of the two factions that fought the Chinese civil war for about 30 years supplied by the Allies, and ended it in a nuclear holocaust. There are barely any survivors of their faction, most defected to the Atomic Chinese. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are '''Indian Reservists.'''''
* DrivenToSuicide: The Nationalists, after seeing the aftermath of the nuclear war.
* FeudalFuture: Mixed a bit with UsedFuture; the surviving NRA warlords are stratified into a feudal system, using their remaining clones and rusting weapons to try and hold against the Atomic Kingdom.
* GasmaskMooks
* GasMaskLongcoat
* HoverTank: The Indian Reservists have one; it's notably not very good against conventional designs. It is, however, excellent against the designs of the Atomic Kingdom and PLA.
* StoneWall
* TheRemnant
* TheUndead: Several units have been brought back from the dead to serve via technological means.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cult of the Black Hand]]
''Long-term enemy of the Talons, the ominous Cult are waiting for their Messiah and do all sorts of things they believe will accelerate his coming - fighting other people for example.''
* ArchEnemy: To the Talons.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Many members suffered this treatment.
* ConspiracyTheorist: As the long-term enemy of the Talons.
* DarkMessiah: They are waiting for him. [[spoiler: It's [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries Kane]], in case you haven't figured out already.]]
* {{Expy}}: Subverted - they were based on Nod, but developed away from them. Nowadays apart from imagery they have barely anything in common.
* ForTheEvulz
* HatePlague: The Cult makes extensive use of this in the form of hallucinogenic chemicals, they come in many form, such as darts, grenades, or gas.
* InsaneTrollLogic: They actively believe that causing suffering will make their Messiah come quicker.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: Everyone wears masks when in battle.
* MonowheelMayhem: Their version of the [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn Ezekiel's Wheel]] is literally just a wheel with guns.
* UnstoppableRage: The Cult have gas grenades which do exactly this, forcing enemy units to fire at each other. They are based on Nod's hallucinogenic grenades from ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Global Liberation Army]]
''A group of middle-eastern terrorists, the GLA fight for their cause - whatever it is - against the Allied and Soviet infidels to gain territoy in Arabia and Africa. Outdated and ill-equipped troops meet toxin weapons and Soviet missiles. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are the '''Saudi White Army''', soldiers loyal to the Saudi royalty fighting against the Allied backed democratic forces.''
* CanonImmigrant: They ''are'' the GLA faction from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', a bit modified due to the alternate history of the Red Alert universe.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Their attempts to create an effective fighter-bomber aircraft to counter the Allies failed spectacularly multiple times, as the article about their ''"Devastation Toxin Planes"'' shows.
* HitAndRunTactics
* {{Hypocrite}}: Most GLA leaders reside in palaces, drink wine, eat cavier and watch hollywood movies while sending men to their deaths against the ''"decadent west"''.
* MiddleEasternCoalition: Loosely.
* SuicideAttack: Terrorists.
* TerroristsWithoutACause: They fight against oppression, or so they claim. They regularly mistake their enemies, as in anyone they happen to come across, for one another, burn the wrong flags when claiming Jihad [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and are really terrible at English]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:International Inc]]
''A Geneva, Switzerland based military contractor, International Inc are an independent arms manufacturer and send their vehicles to anyone who can afford them.''
* LawEnforcementInc: Internal Inc can be hired to do police work with cheap, but underequipped mercenaries named [[LampshadeHanging Enforcers]].
* PragmaticVillainy: Although being shameless {{ArmsDealer}}s who will sell to any country that wants their wares, the leaders of II aren't at all pleased when their patented [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals Scorpion Tanks]] end up in the hands of TerroristsWithoutACause, like the [[MiddleEasternCoalition GLA]] and [[OmnicidalManiac the Black Hand]], simply because they don't want their company name associated with their nation-destabilizing antics.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Will send vehicular support to anyone paying the bill.
* XanatosGambit: Their main shareholder [[IAmTheTrope is NAMED Xanatos]], and he's able to prove his credentials by outfoxing [[TheSyndicate The Mediterranean Syndicate]] too.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Communist China]]
''One of the two factions that fought the Chinese civil war for about 30 years supplied by the Soviets, and ended it in a nuclear holocaust. There are barely any survivors of their faction, most defected to the Atomic Chinese. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are '''North Korean Commandos.'''''
* AttackAttackAttack: The most common form of a Red Chinese attack is a frontal assault.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: Gatling Crawlers.
* BayonetYa: Red Guard troops can either attack enemies with their peashooters or knife them to death in close combat.
* {{BFG}}: The ''"[[MeaningfulName Armageddon Cannons]]"'' are 800mm artillery pieces and gain nuclear shells on heroic. The Overlords mount 200mm, which is almost twice the caliber of the Soviet Apocalypse Tanks.
* CloningBlues: Subverted, most clones do not mind their lot as they usually are just fine doing the things their originals did.
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: North Korean Commandos fight in full dress uniform and can wipe out whole squads on their own.
* ExpendableClone: Communist China started cloning people after they developed the technology to clone body parts and transfer brains.
* {{Expy}}: They resemble the Chinese faction from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals''.
* GasmaskMooks: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], considering the very hostile environment they are fighting in.
* GatlingGood: Gatling Crawlers.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The destruction of their leadership and country did this to the soldiers at Rat Base, to the point where their only leader is a giant poster of Mao, which they pretend is actually him, to the point of having it attend meetings, speeches, and rallies.
* HarpoonGun: Overlord Tanks have harpoons which are made to reel in enemy vehicles much like the Apocalypse Tanks' TractorBeam. They are also lethal to infantry, unlike said TractorBeam.
* MachineWorship: The crews of Armageddon Cannons and various people attracted to these things worship them as deities of war, sing for them, sacrifice stuff, use holy oil etc. because the cannons survived until now and are indeed among the most powerful weapons ever made.
* StealthPun: General Leang met her demise with a nuclear bomb, shortly after a Courtesan seduced her and revealed her base' position to the Atomic Chinese. In other words, she went OutWithABang.
* TheRemnant: They are the few survivors of a decades long war that ended nuclear.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Vietcong]]
''An underground resistance group supplied by North Vietnam and the Soviet Union, the Vietcong fight for Vietnamese unity under their ideas. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are the '''North Vietnamese Army (NVA).'''''
* AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats: Victor Charlies wear those. Unlike most examples, these actually do serve to block the sun (and hide in the jungle).
* BayonetYa: NVA Regulars only use their guns to keep the enemy's head down long enough to use these.
* BoobyTrap
* BraidsOfAction: Guerrillas sport these.
* {{Hipster}}: A running gag regarding the Vietcong, due to the puns made about being underground, and the scarfs they wore in RealLife.
* HistoricalVillainDowngrade
* NatureHero
* TokenGoodTeammate: Most of the Eastern Bloc are variously aggressive, autocratic, incompetent and/or just plain insane. The Vietcong, however, have real grievences and are allied with them more out of convenience than ideology. To drive it home, they share skills and abilities with the Confederate Revolutionaries, right down to their basic infantry sharing their statline with the Confederate Minuteman. North Vietnam, however, is still quite malevolent.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters
* ZergRush: The basic NVA tactic is a massive wave of terrible infantry who can shoot on the move.
[[/folder]]

'''Misc'''

Faction-unrelated tropes.

[[folder:Game Tropes]]
* ACommanderIsYou: Every listed type of faction, including two variations on ''"Brute Force"''. To iterate:
** Allied Nations: Technical. Low cost efficiency but pin-point accuracy and many useful effects.
** Soviet Union: JackOfAllStats. All-arounders capable of specializing into offensive, defensive, or support roles depending on which upgrade paths are taken.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: Offensive Ranger. Lots of light but very fast units capable of mounting hit and run attacks, transforming to get in or out of danger, and good at maneuvering and expanding.
** Confederate Revolutionaries: Guerrillas. Stealth generators, tunnels, traps and good infantry but (initially) bad vehicles.
** Order of the Talon: Elitists. Units are slow and rather expensive but possess extreme armour. They also improve themselves on every veterancy rank with new weapons or abilities.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: Turtle. Weak units overall without even veterancy but absurdly powerful defenses, out of which some are mobile.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: Economic Rangers. Long-ranged units that specialise in urban warfare and benefit from an immense economy.
** Electrical Protectorate: Spammers. Massive amounts of instantly-made units without armour or veterancy drown the enemy in fire.
* AdaptationExpansion: The basic idea is to expand the material and explore it's implications while remaining true to its campy core.
* AscendedGlitch: The Confederate Minelayer goes stealth after planting its mines, until it's moved. This is the result of unusual interactions between the stealthed mines and the minelayer on spawning, but it meant that players didn't have to worry about microing the minelayer away after placing its mines. This "Fire and Forget" feature was so useful it was left in.
* CastFromHitPoints: Barkhausen overdrive as well as the Kirov and Dreadnaught secondaries carrying over from the original game. The Chinese ore collector exposing it's atomic core also tends to self-damage with radiation.
* ColorCodedArmies: Gleefully played with; most everything is Type 1, but House Colour is displayed uniquely for each faction; while the original game factions use plates or sections of their machines with their colour, the Confederates actually spraypaint it on haphazardly, and it is similarly splattered on for the Vietcong. The Syndicate have colour-coded holograms, the Chinese have their weapons, glowy doodads, and shield effects, and the Order weave their colour into heraldry. The ARVN have camo patterns with their teamcolour, and the Cult of the Black Hand have stain-glass patterns.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Tracers are shared between power blocks or suppliers, so Allied-aligned powers fire red, communist powers fire a sickly yellow-green, and anyone buying from the Syndicate, such as the Confederates, GLA and International Inc, fire gold. The Japanese stick to blue, the Order to greys, and the Protectorate to whites and purples. Of course, China [[DeathRay doesn't use bullets at all]], but their beams are their house colour, by default a bright green.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: Played with. The general source of income is still from Ore Mines, but some factions possess secondary ways (the EP for example turn killed enemies into cash). As for the rest of the trope like building buildings to get units, everyone does it in some way.
* DoNotRunWithAGun: Played with. Infantry are divided into Standard Infantry and Light Infantry. Standard Infantry have to stop to fire, while Light Infantry can fire most any weapon while running or even backpeddling, allowing them to remain mobile during fights at the cost of additional penalties when surpressed.
* EnemyExchangeProgram
* EveryBulletIsATracer: Subverted! Conventional guns fire a mix of tracer rounds appropriate to the faction (like red for Allied-aligned factions and yellow-green for Soviet-aligned ones) and subdued streaks indicating non-tracer rounds.
* ExpansionPack: What this mod basicly is, but it increases the content by at least four times.
* FactionCalculus: Eight sides with fundamentally differing play styles.
* GameMod
* GarrisonableStructures: Also garrisonable vehicles.
* GuideDangIt: Because many in-game descriptions lack, the Wiki is your best place for information.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: As Heroic-ranking units no longer shoot red tracers, they are often instead denoted with unique, high-contrast texture additions, as well as whatever heroic feature is now hanging off of them.
* PinnedDown: The barely used Suppression mechanic is much more important here; suppressed units are slowed to a fraction of their regular speed, making them easy victims of CarFu. Light infantry get it even worse; not only can they not move at all while suppressed, they also can't defend themselves either.
* RealTimeStrategy
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Everyone is fairly quick with training troops, making vehicles and building structures. The Electrical Protectorate ignore build times almost altogether. This is usually {{Handwave}}d by the factions using advanced construction methods like nanomachines or secretly bringing pre-build units on the battle field from outside the battle.
* TacticalRockPaperScissors: While still present, this has been complicated with the introduction of AnAdventurerIsYou style changes to the balance system, with units specifically designed to buff and debuff, heal, mezz, tank damage, defy counters, and otherwise confuse things.
* UnitsNotToScale: Subverted. Many (but not all) units have quite realistic sizes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Setting Tropes]]
* AKA47: Many of the vehicles distinctly resemble real world ones with different names and unusual features. The Mastiff tank is clearly a King Tiger, the Cardinal is a Huey, the Achilles a streched Avro Arrow, the Ranger a jeep, and so forth. Most of the weapons are similarly renamed, though weapons from before 1927 usually keep their names as a nod to the point of divergence.
* AlienSpaceBats: Soviets traveled back in time in an already alternative timeline without UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ThoseWackyNazis to kill UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein to make a new timeline where they can finally win WorldWarThree. Team Paradox changed the outcome of THAT timeline's third world war again for its own story.
* [[AllGermansAreNazis All Germans Are Militaristic]]
* AllNationsAreSuperpowers: Either you are part of a power block or your country has super power status outright.
* AllohistoricalAllusion: Plenty.
** There is still a Tet Offensive, but it's launched a year later by the NVA instead of the Vietcong. Where the real-life Tet Offensive resulted in the Vietcong crushed and the NVA gaining the initiative, this one results in the NVA running scared and the VC in a perfect position to tear into Allied/ARVN supply lines.
** Atomic China is a destabilizing third superpower arriving suddenly on the world stage with atomic weapons... sort of like Red China did in RealLife.
* AlternateHistory: Time travel plot and killings of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein aside, the time before 1927 went at times and places differently too.
** The formation of the Order of the Talon and Cult in the 11th century.
** Japan never invaded the rest of Asia. This is because the Battle of Kumamoto Castle ended with a Shinobi running up the castle wall and opening its doors, changing the entire war scenario. The new government decided to not spend resources on invasions and went along with trading with America and Europe without being influenced much.
* CrapsackWorld: Three world wars, a UsefulNotes/ColdWar and five new super powers, two of them planning to get rid of everyone else. It is mainly a current age TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}. Also goes hand in hand with WorldOfBadass.
* [[Creator/DavidHasselhoff Dennis Hoffhassle]]: Ackerman's Vice President who briefly became the President of the United States after his death, he later became the political leader of the Confederate movement.
* ForWantOfANail: Paradox takes place in an alternative timeline to Red Alert 3 where no one wins WorldWarThree.
* GenderIsNoObject
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that some of the names are reversed (Japanese Empire, Chinese Kingdom), the factions fit the bill:
** The Allies have democratic elections and the Japanese have councils, which the current Emperor actually listens to. Then we find out he is famous with the people but not all that liked by the rest of the government which still tries to TakeOverTheWorld (this time with economic means), making this trope [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] for the Empire.
** The Soviets and Chinese also have councils, who in the former case leave the premier doing the global state running and do the day-to-day tasks instead while the Chinese Viceroy has gathered people around him but still reigns alone.
* LensmanArmsRace: Allies, Soviets and Syndicate are the main players for this. Not that everyone else is far behind.
** At the beginning of [=WW2=] in 1949, jet fighters were still experimental and most infantry ran around with bolt-action rifles. Horses were as common as trucks. By the end in 1955, everyone had assault rifles, the Allies were hiding behind rips in space-time, the Soviets were fielding tanks the size of houses and could make them invicible shortly, VTOL jet fighters were the norm, and jet packs and lightning guns were being employed. Then the Cold War arms race started...
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: The Allies, Soviets, Talon, Confederates and sometimes the Empire actively try to get civilians out of war zones. The other times the Empire attacks civilian villages for moralic shock value. The Syndicate only do it when it suits their money-based goals. The Protectorate and Atomic Kingdom don't bother with evacuation.
* Literature/NineteenEightyFour: The Soviets have similar telescreens and paranoia like in the novel. Also, not quite an example, but the Syndicate, who consider themselves ''"fifteen years ahead"'', like to claim they are living the 1984 life.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Until the Chinese broke it. The technology still hasn't spread to any of the other factions yet.
* PropagandaMachine: The Soviets might be the most obvious, but they aren't the only ones. The Allies initally started running their humanitarian programs as one of these to draw small nations to their cause. The Empire has massive state-run media, both sides of the Chinese Civil War lied to their population constantly, the North Vietnamese use theirs to whip their soldiers into a frenzy, and the Cult of the Black Hand like to set these up to pit people against each other.
* PunkPunk: Every human faction except the Confederates are some kind of PunkPunk. The wierdness comes because they are all '''different''' sorts.
** Allied Nations: RaygunGothic. Retro-futuristic designs, vacuum tube computers. Extensive laser, wave and advanced physics theories based weaponry.
** Soviet Union: DieselPunk. Big, powerful, utilitarian. Creative use of reliable and simple technologies like electricity and magnetism. Major space program.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: [[{{Nanomachines}} Nano Punk]] / PostCyberPunk. Superior design and engineering. Automated precision manufacturing on microscopic scale. Research into psionics.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: CyberPunk. Circuits, cyborgs, powered armour. Very commercial mindset and a large budget.
** Order of the Talon: ClockPunk / SteamPunk. Adepts of mechanics and metallurgy. Potential evidence of supernatural religious power.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: AtomPunk / SpaceOpera. Mastery of cheap nuclear energy. Orbital habitats, teleportation, segregated caste of clone workers/soldiers.
* RetroUniverse: Each faction embodies a retro style as mentioned under PunkPunk but attitudes and technology are modern and border on SchizoTech, respectively. There also is a Wiki Rule named "Law of Crimson Skies" which requires people both real and InUniverse to be culturally sensitive in terms of {{Double Standard}}s against genders, races and religions.
* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: A lot of future US presidents are involved in the Confederate Revolution, Nikita Khrushchev is a lowly grain farmer, Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet RedShirt who was unceremoniously killed, and so forth, though many figures in the lore have similar professions but just work for different organizations. And Richard Nixon actually IS a car salesman.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome / SequelNonEntity: All of the characters from the original Red Alert 3 (or the characters borrowed from other Command and Conquer games) have either been killed or otherwise reduced to a state of non-importance. The sole execeptions are the commandos.
* TheSixties
* WashingtonDCInvasion: Played with, as Washington DC is being invaded ''by Americans''.
* WorldOfBadass: All heroes are this, many non-hero units are this, many other non-hero units can be this if they try and every important commander is pretty much a ColonelBadass or FourStarBadass in their own right.
* WorldWarThree: Paradox takes place after it with big parts of the world in ruins or under reconstruction and its three major players (Allies, Empire and Soviets) economy and military wise exhausted, thus opening space for 5 new super powers.
* ZeeRust: Every faction represents a different take on retro ''"The World of Tomorrow!"'' concepts. Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with DieselPunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic EagleLand using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from [[TinCanRobot Tin Can Robots]] to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanised EldritchAbomination. The result is something of a MegaCrossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Meta]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Unit headers with listed key features usually do this for RuleOfFunny.
* TheBackwardsR: The logo swaps several letters in the word "paradox" with Cyrillic letters that are visually similar. The result would read "rdyadaozh".
* BanOnPolitics: Talking about RealLife politics is banned on the Wiki and everywhere else too.
* BerserkButton: It is unwise to ask for a release date, especially repeatedly (Answer: When it's done). It is also unwise to ask if Uprising units will be included (Answer: No). It is extremely unwise to ask for a Wiki account and break the rules (Reaction: You gonna get banned). Some people do all three and then wonder why everyone on the team suddenly turns hostile.
* CanonDisContinuity: Since Paradox heads into a different direction, Uprising is excluded from the mod canon.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks ''"What would it be like if this was serious?"'' and the answers tend to go dark places.
* FunWithAcronyms: The [[http://paradox-modfanmadebackup.wikia.com/wiki/Auras Auras page]] on the Wiki.
* GenderIsNoObject: Played realistically straight. Allied, Chinese, Soviet, Syndicate and even some minor faction infantry have sometimes randomised gender with only slightly changed armour and fitting voices. The Imperial Japanese do not do this, for obvious reasons.
* [[DarkerAndEdgier Grimmer and Pulpier]]: Done meta-wise to the Chinese Civil War. It used to be just a fairly normal if horrible depiction of a stalemated version of the real life version until Jade was discovered. Post-lore revamp, it's been drastically darkened in the last eight years, to the point where both sides were running around with clone armies, guns that turn a person inside out, and blood-diamond creating atom smashers.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The Mod's [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox Moddb page]] had a rather humorous flash imitating an eternally loading loading bar, which loads anything from normal stuff to utter nonsense, then either the loaded part keeps falling out, regress back or just spills out.
* {{Pun}}: [[http://wiki.paradoxmod.com/index.php?title=Cobra_Gun_Truck Very technical]].
* ReferenceOverdosed: As mentioned above, almost every unit and lore is a ShoutOut to something else.
* RuleOfCool: It is firmly established that anything which doesn't violate the base lines of the universe (free energy and FasterThanLightTravel among them) is allowed. Added twist being that when it's '''not''' made cooler by violating every other rule of the universe, there is no reason for it to be scientifically wrong in the first place.
* SatireParodyPastiche: All three of them as follows:
** Satire: Industrial excess, warfare, supression of human rights and blind following of idiologies (and fighting others) simply for assuming of being right and everyone else being wrong.
** Parody: Scifi works from the 1950s up to modern day, eastern and western alike across all media.
** Pastiche: Works of all genres in all media and way too many to count them all. The most notable are ''Franchise/StarTrek, Film/BladeRunner, Film/MinorityReport, Franchise/{{Gundam}}, Film/SuckerPunch, Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' and all Vietnam themed films.
* ShoutOut: As mentioned above. Has its own [[ShoutOut/RedAlert3Paradox page]].
* TakeThat: The various ''"Uprising"'' units, [[GameBreaker overpowered as they are]], are not in the mod for various reasons, mainly because in-lore they are worth nothing.
* YellowLightningBlueLightning: Soviet lightning blasts are blue-white, and purple at high levels, but when the Protectorate throw around electricity it is yellow.
* {{Troperiffic}}
* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: A mod based on ridiculous science for a game based on ridiculous science.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Every theory and scientific idea of the mid 20th century is viable in this setting.
* AlwaysFemale: The faction heroines.
* DecadeDissonance
* DeflectorShields: Allies, Soviets, Empire, China and even the Syndicate use variations of those.
* ExpandedUniverse: It has one RolePlay/RedAlert3ParadoxExpandedUniverse.
* FanService: The new heroes fall into this out of tradition of the original three. However, Lady Maria is an exception.
* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Almost every tank destroyer.
* GrayAndGreyMorality: Everyone has corpses in the basement, but most factions at least try to be moral. Most.
* InsistentTerminology: The word ''"laser"'' does not exist in universe; the word ''"spectrum"'' is used instead, leading to spectrum beams, spectrum designators, electrospectrum plasma channels, and so forth. Using the word ''"laser"'' in a suggestion is a good way to show you haven't been paying attention.
** In-universe, some scientists insisted that the term "L.O.S.E.R." ('''L'''ight '''O'''scillation by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation") is more accurate, but it never caught on due to [[FunWithAcronyms obvious reasons]].
** Also, every mention of kevlar was replaced with "Kwolek", after the inventor of kevlar.
* OpposingCombatPhilosophies: Everyone compared to everyone else.
* ScaleOfScientificSins: The Allies have committed sins one and two, the Empire and Syndicate have done one through three, and the Protectorate ''is'' the first sin. Even the Confederates and their PAWI tech clock in with number two, as does China with a lot of its tech as well as doing genetic engineering. Note that three through six are well within the Allies' reach and four through six for the Empire and Syndicate... they just haven't done it yet. The Soviet Union and Order of the Talon seem to be the only major factions with a clean slate here, and that's mostly through not ''having'' the tech to do it rather than the will.
** As far as the minor factions go, Red China developed cloning technology and genetic engineering thus reviving the dead in new bodies, while Blue China can revive the dead (or rather produce zombies) with deliberate usage of crude cybernetics. Green China condemned them for both but keeps using cloning tech.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Played with. Some factions, such as the Soviet Union and Order of the Talon, believe that the Paradox world is on the cynical end of the scale and try to be good guys through the lens of a cynical world. Others, such as the Allied Nations and Confederate Revolutionaries, believe that the Paradox world is on the idealistic end and behave as good guys through the lens of an idealistic world. Where exactly the Paradox world ''"does"'' fall on the scale is largely left to the viewer's imagination.
** According to the April 17 paradoxcast, the Paradox world is very cynical. Apparently, every campaign will have either a bad or bittersweet ending.
*** That being said, the wiki still maintains the Unit Lore shouldn't be TOO bleak. While one or two units [[TheWoobie can be completely tragic]], the lore on the whole must be closer to Red Alert style BlackComedy, "[[CrossesTheLineTwice Even if it's so black]], light cannot escape it's surface"
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Required to win most battles.
* TechnoBabble and MagiBabble: Tries to avoid it when it can; if a basis in real world science can be established, it is much preferred. However, the sheer ''"wierdness"'' of the setting means this isn't always possible.
* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: In-lore as well as an actual Wiki rule.
* WeWillWearArmorInTheFuture: Everyone armours at least some of their infantry up. The Talon get a pass because they are knights, though.
* WhamEpisode: The April 17 paradoxcast, which included the first hints of what the eventual campaigns will include, ranging from what was described as the Normandy landings [[RecycledInSpace on the moon]] to an Allied mission '''inside a human body.''' This latter revelation met with a FlatWhat from the community.
* WouldNotShootACivilian: It's actually quite expensive to do that.
[[/folder]]

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* BerserkButton: It is unwise to ask for a release date, [[WhatAnIdiot especially repeatedly]] (Answer: When it's done). It is also unwise to ask if Uprising units will be included (Answer: No). It is extremely unwise to ask for a Wiki account and break the rules (Reaction: You gonna get banned). Some people do all three and then wonder why everyone on the team suddenly turns hostile.

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Radiation-gun armed mutated super sharks, no less.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The Fortress Gate looks like a [[Franchise/StargateVerse Stargate]] and naturally it spins.

As of Feb. 05, 2014, the mod has officially [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox/news/realtalk ceased production]], with some of the assets from the mod to be released under creative commons attribution license.

* NobleDemon: ''"They'll use [[NuclearNasty Desolators]] to slow the Allied advance in Normandy, but they'll make damn sure everyone is evacuated first."''

* {{Antimatter}}

* AwesomeMcCoolname
* BadassLongcoat: Fireworks Mistresses.
* BeamSpam.
* [[ChildSoldiers Child Commanders]]: Chiren Kilong is 15 years old and acts as second in command of the space fleet under Yuming Oshang, who is just 18 herself. This is because they, like all commanders, belong to the very few non-cloned humans who have a natural resistance against radiation which was turned into a requirement to be commander by The Viceroy. Chiren also shows great potential in strategy and tactics so wasting her talent would be out of the question.

* ClonesArePeopleToo
* CloningBlues

* DisintegratorRay

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Radiation-gun armed mutated super sharks no less.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Radiation usually kills, but every so often you become an Expy of the Hulk.

* [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya My name is Captain Lei Lun]], you have humiliated my country. [[PrepareToDie Prepare to eat atomic fire.]]
* NuclearNasty: Jiang Shi. Chinese Tigers are similar, in that they are generally better than their non-augmented brethren.

* {{Ramscoop}}
* SendInTheClones

* SicklyGreenGlow
* SightedGunsAreLowTech

* SpaceElevator
* StandardSciFiFleet
* TeleportersAndTransporters

* TractorBeam
* TripodTerror: Mantis War-Walkers.

* JiangShi: InNameOnly since they are more The [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk]] than zombies.

* NiceHat: Jiang Shi.

* NiceHat: Between the Jungle Ranger's slouch hat and the Rocket Ranger's French-style cap, the ARVN are well equipped with nice hats.

* [[DarkerAndEdgier Grimmer and Pulpier]]: Done meta-wise to the Chinese Civil War. It used to be just a fairly normal if horrible depiction of a stalemated version of the real life version until Jade was discovered. Post-lore revamp, it's been [[UpTo11 drastically]] darkened in the last eight years, to the point where both sides were running around with clone armies, guns that turn a person inside out, and blood-diamond creating atom smashers.

*** That being said, the wiki still maintains the Unit Lore shouldn't be TOO bleak. While one or two units [[TheWoobie can be completely tragic]], the lore on the whole must be closer to Red Alert style BlackComedy, "[[CrossesTheLineTwice Even if it's so black]], [[UpToEleven light cannot escape it's surface]]"

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: They occasionally fall into this.

* ArchEnemy: To the Soviet Union.

* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Peacekeepers.

* MilitarySuperhero
* MultinationalTeam

* RetroRocket: Their space ships.

* ShinyLookingSpaceships
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Peacekeepers.

* TuxedoAndMartini: Spies.
* UnitedEurope: Subverted because the Soviets ruined it.
* WeirdScience: Some of the weirdest in the setting.

* ArchEnemy: To the Allied Nations.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Inverted. China is the only side not to follow this; their weapons are in fact far better than everyone else's, and are almost always some form of DeathRay or other beam weapon.

* FingerlessGloves: Jungle Rangers wear these.

* ExpandedUniverse: It has one Franchise/RedAlert3ParadoxExpandedUniverse.

* FoodPills: Since real food is difficult to come by in war-thorn countries, many branches of the Allied Peacekeeper Corps have started issueing food pills containing all vitamins, minerals and whatnot to keep their soldiers fed. [[{{Deconstruction}} Many soldiers are developing chronic depressions because they aren't actually eating anything]].