Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Empire Earth

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Empire_Earth_2050.jpg

A classic military, real-time strategy game from Stainless Steel Studios, Empire Earth was released in 2001 for the PC.

Similar to Emsemble Studios' Age of Empires, the player controls a civilization as it advances through "epochs" from the prehistoric era to the "Nano Age", with an additional "Space Age" added in the Art of Conquest expansion. Specific buildings allow the construction of units and the research of improvements. The game employs a complex technology tree, with literally hundreds of land, sea, and air-based units. The goal, outside the preset scenarios, is the military destruction of the opponent or the construction of Wonders (large historical monuments). Users can play against the computer or other players online.

The original was very well received, prompting the release of Empire Earth II in 2005, which also did fairly well. The second game changed the formula in favor of territory management and tech points obtained from universities and temples that are used to upgrade your civilization's military, economy and infrastructure to advance to the next epoch. A year later it received an expansion titled Art of Supremacy that includes three new campaigns, two African civilizations and some new skirmish/multiplayer options and modes.

Empire Earth III (2007), by contrast, was a commercial flop, and is widely believed to have been the end of the series.

A dedicated fanbase lives on.


This video game series provides examples of:

  • Action Bomb: Furies are melee cybers that blow up on death (or when ordered), damaging ground units, helicopters, planes, and even space units.
  • Action Girl: Molly Ryan, one of the final heroes. Most of the pilots (both tanks and planes) in the final eras are women.
  • A.I. Breaker:
    • In EE1, the AI is very bad at amphibious invasions, often sending a single transport with no backup or attempt to clear the landing zone. On skirmish maps, playing on islands and ringing the island with towers is the key to keeping your base unharmed (in later eras, doing the same with Anti-Air guns to prevent helicopter drops).
    • EE2's AI is prone to Zerg Rush with extra resources, but they never seem to get the importance of having multiple territories (which lets you field more troops, get more resources (especially gold via trade), and most importantly get tech points faster), often gaining new territory one at a time where a human player can grab several territories at once and immediately start teching up. If the map is big enough and with a long ceasefire at the start, it's entirely possible to swamp them with troops five or six epochs ahead (and if aircraft are among those troops...).
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
    • In the Novaya Russia campaign, AI may not be a crapshoot for Novaya Russia, but from the start, Novaya Russia's advances in robotics prove very disastrous for every other country.
    • It's averted with Grigor II himself, as he never actually diverts from the original directive given to him by the first Grigor, the complete subjugation of the Earth under Novaya Russia. He simply takes it to it's logical conclusion and the results inspire rebellion from within his ranks.
    • The Standard Game mode A.I. from Empire Earth will exclusively focus on building a city of guard towers and anti-air guns, making extremely stressful for players that attempt an ground offensive.
    • The skirmish mode A.I. from Empire Earth II is infamous for heavy cheating. It will add resources and units to the enemy team instantly if you do too well. Winning is almost impossible as the AI will constantly try to Zerg Rush your base with more than 100 units at once, mostly artillery/siege guns, tanks/cavalry and bombers in the later ages.
  • All There in the Manual: Lampshaded in the fourth mission of the Russian campaign when the briefing recommends you to check out the manual to learn more on cybers' abilities.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe: The final Greek mission "And Alexander Wept" sees Alexander escape an assassination plot that Philotas was in on. Philotas is executed in the final cutscene. The narration notes that it is said Alexander wept when he had no more lands to conquer, but maybe there were other reasons for him to do so...
  • Alternate History:
    • The first game had the German campaign where it was possible to defeat Britain in World War II. The scenario is actually based on Operation Sea Lion, which of course was never carried out in the real World War II.
    • It's possible to kill both Marshal Ney (executed after Waterloo, despite his best efforts to die during the battle) and Napoleon (died in exile six years later) at the battle of Waterloo.
    • The final level of the Roman campaign lets you side with Cleopatra or Ptolemy during the Egyptian civil war.
    • EE2's tutorial has the Aztecs beat back the invading Spanish and survive until at least World War II, at which point they ally with the US against an Axis-aligned fascist Inca nation. The American campaign with the charge of San Juan hill and ends with a Robot War.
    • The Cold War ends when the US steals a Soviet stealth bomber and uses it against the Soviets, embarrassing them into admitting defeat.
    • The Meso-American civilizations (Maya, Inca and Aztec) get units long after they'd been wiped out by Europeans, including cavalry, cannons and crossbowmen, while the modern era gives them mobile missile launchers, artillery and a more effective medic respectively.
  • Alternate Personality Punishment: After Grigor II (a giant robot with an AI powerful enough to serve as Grigor's heir) becomes a totalitarian dictator, Molotov (a true believer in Grigor's cause) returns to the past in the hopes of convincing Grigor of taking Novaya Russia down another path to avoid turning the revolution that returned Russia to a global superpower into a fascist nightmare. Unfortunately, Grigor turns out to have no problem letting things turn out this way as long as he's in power. Molotov shoots him dead and returns to the future, but the ending doesn't show whether this was for good or bad.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The barbarians at the beginning of AOC's Roman campaign. You could replace them with orcs without changing their dialogue.
  • America Saves the Day:
    • Somewhat yes, but mostly no. Novaya Russia in the first game conquers all of Europe and Asia, leaving the United States as the only power able to potentially resist. However, by this point, the United States realizes they don't have a chance of defeating Novaya Russia militarily. Only Molotov's defection with the blueprints for a time machine gives them hope of traveling to the past and preventing it all from happening. However, the United States was not able to prevent Grigor II from capturing the time machine in the present and following Molotov back to the past. Grigor II even points out that the fact he was able to travel to the past at all indicates that Molotov's plan will ultimately fail (as if it succeeded, Grigor II presumably wouldn't exist in the future to travel back in time in the first place). The game ultimately leaves the question of whether Molotov changing the past leads to a better or worse future completely unanswered.
    • In the second game, the US tries to stop a rogue general and his cybernetic experiments from threatening the world 20 Minutes into the Future, just in time for the 300th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Anachronism Stew:
    • Infinite possibilities abound when it comes to having one side on the far end of the technology spectrum attacking another side that is way behind in development. Even on the same side, with the same era featuring Julius Caesar and Charlemagne or Napoleon Bonaparte and Otto von Bismarck.
    • The medieval heroes are William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart (great-great-grandson of the former, they lived about a century apart).
    • While it's not exactly history, the first Greek mission has Calchas appear alongside Heracles, long before the Trojan war.
  • Anti-Air:
    • Air units are divided into planes (which can only be hit by planes, AA guns/turrets, cruisers or the specialized Anti-Air units) and balloons, helicopters and flying cybers (which can be hit by the aforementioned units and most ranged ground units). Space units can only be hit by anti-space turrets and other spaceships.
    • The Tempest cyber can create an Antimatter Storm, functionally identical to a hurricane except that it moves over all terrain and simultaneously attacks air units.
  • Annoying Arrows: Played straight for hand-bow style archers, subverted for arrow towers (which carry a surprising punch), and averted for crossbows (who One-Hit Kill infantry). It's entirely possible for a crossbow team to destroy a Million Mook March of swordsmen single-handedly.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Each battle or scenario has a global unit limit, which is then divided equally among players. Of particular note is the Russian campaign mission, A Change in Heart, which crashes because your forces change sides, and causes a crash because your previous forces join a team that now has too many units.
  • Arbitrary Weapon Range: Curiously enough, averted for catapults and trebuchets, which are capable of hitting units attacking them in melee (it's just horribly inefficient) by flinging their payloads near-vertically. Played straight for gunpowder artillery, who have minimum ranges.
  • Area of Effect: The first game has the prophet's Malaria and Earthquake abilities (which are dangerous in the early game), as well as general artillery and the nuclear weapons.
  • Army of The Ages:
    • When you use the editor to create an army with units from every epoch, or just start in Prehistory or work your way up. Especially evident when playing with computer allies who send troops to protect your wonders and never retreat them.
    • An aversion in the second game, where converting an enemy unit turns it into the corresponding era's unit, giving it an immediate upgrade or downgrade (although tanks and cavalry aren't interchangeable).
  • Artistic Licence – Geography:
    • Particularly visible on some campaign maps. The next-to-last English campaign has Britain just to the northwest of Spain (the Channel apparently separates the two countries), while the second Russian mission moves it up just off Scandinavia.
    • Skirmish territories and city names in the second game are assigned names taken from the first civilization to take them over (Roman provinces, American states), neither of which match up with each other (building Chicago in New York, etc.)...
  • Artistic License – Physics: Underwater Hyperions and hover tanks are still targetable by battleships (submarines are immune to battleship attacks).
  • Artificial Insolence: You can use a flare to signal allies to send troops at that point. AI players will either obey or respond with various degrees of snark, such as mentioning that all their bombers are busy at the moment (even in the Stone Age).
  • Artificial Stupidity:
    • One of the patches in the first game introduced a major pathfinding issue where melee units trying to attack an enemy moving in their general direction run away from the target until the last second. This is caused by the new pathfinding algorithm trying to anticipate the target's own movement in an attempt to overtake them rather than chasing them. While sound in theory, this behavior does not take into account situations where the target is moving in the attacker's general direction and thus a direct course would be faster, hence the algorithm overcompensates and sends the attacker running in the completely wrong direction.
    • Playing on an island-type map makes the computer very stupid indeed; since they can't use their usual Zerg Rush tactics, they'll settle for sending units one transport at a time, often without any guards. Surrounding the island with towers often ensures the transport sinks before it even lands.
  • Ascetic Aesthetic: The color scheme for architecture from the Digital Age onward is white, black, and faction color.
  • Back to the Early Installment: The final level of the Russian campaign sends the heroes back in time to the first level, but on the opposite side as they're there to stop Grigor Stoyanovich (the campaign's initial hero) before he can turn evil. Unfortunately, his successor also had access to the time machine, and is helping Grigor by bringing in troops from the future, two or three Technology Levels ahead of you. The mission ends without telling you whether the future changed for good or bad.
  • Attack Animal: Caesar keeps two tigers (named Romulus and Remus) which he's trained to attack on command. Sadly, they're nowhere near as strong as standard units, and can't be healed.
  • Battering Ram: Most technology epochs have their own version of a siege engine, something that can destroy buildings. In the Stone Age, it's a "Samson", which is just a guy carrying a log he uses to ram enemy huts.
  • Baseless Mission:
    • The first scenario of the German campaign. One English mission has you rampage around France looting artifacts, while others give you a base and the means to make units but no resources.
    • EE2 has San Juan Hill, in which reinforcements are constantly sent by boat, and the second Maasai mission, where you protect your cow herd until you can get to a base and start building.
  • Bamboo Technology: The Cyber labs and factories require only lumber to be built.
  • Barbarian Hero:
    • Hierakles looks exactly like the Barbarian unit (though with a bronze breastplate). One of Alexander's generals is a Barbarian unit, down to being able to move through trees.
    • Gallic and Celtic warriors continue the trend, sharing the Barbarian's voiceset.
  • Battle Cry: A power available to Strategist heroes, with the one used by William the Conqueror sounding remarkably like the Long Patrol’s battlecry “Eulalia” from Redwall.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Priests cannot convert units that are within range of a university. However, temples prevent the casting of disasters like earthquakes and pestilence.
  • Berserk Button: In Skirmish Mode, the AI does not like it when you finish building a Wonder, and will immediately start to atttack you (and any allies will send troops to protect it) while taunting you. This can be used to set up (very expensive) traps.
  • Bombardier Mook:
    • In the first game, Bombers unleash a string of bombs and then return to base to reload, while Fighter/Bombers can attack both air and surface units until they run out of fuel and return to an airport.
    • In the second game, Bombers are divided into two categories: Tactical (best against units) and Strategic (best against buildings) and have a limited stock of bombs that drop two at a time, so they can be used for longer bombing runs.
  • Boring, but Practical: Of all AOC's civ powers (basic troops or towers that work like priests, invisible units, Arrows on Fire, infantry units that move through cliffs and trees, intercontinental ballistic missiles, stealing enemy civ powers...), one of the most useful ones makes citizens build town centers instead of settlements, which vastly accelerates resource gathering, saves thousands in food from not having to populate them, and makes towers harder to kill.
  • Boss Battle: William's duel against a beefed-up French knight in the English campaign, and in the last Russian mission against Grigor II. It has 35000 health points, compared to the mere 6000 he had when you could control him.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece:
    • Emptying a now-advanced Fortress you garrisoned in a past epoch, and receiving an army of outdated troops with long-dead tech trees, such as swordsmen, archers, cavalry, or even rock-throwing cavemen.
    • The final level of the German campaign has attacks from the French resistance featuring Napoleonic units.
    • The sequel's unique units suffer from this: A unique unit (one every five epochs) starts off better than its equivalent (for example, building a Zero or a Rafale in World War One, or samurai or mangonels in the Stone Age), but is unable to be promoted to Elite until three epochs in. By the time of the fifth epoch, its stats are inferior to the standard unit, and the only reason to build them is because they use different resources (thus using a Zero or a Rafale in an age where planes are entirely automated or attacking from orbit).
  • Broken Pedestal: Molotov for much of his appearance in the Novaya Russia campaign idolizes Grigor and all he stood for. This is completely shattered however upon finding out that Grigor was far from the heroic messiah he thought him to be.
  • The Cameo: Grigor II from vanilla Empire Earth's Russian Campaign appears in "The Breaking Point" of the Asian Campaign of The Art of Conquest, at the Novaya Russian base that you trade troops for iron at. He doesn't have a unique name, though, and is just referred to by his editor name of "Command Unit;" that may well be justified, though, given the time travel shenanigans of the Russian Campaign.
  • Canine Companion:
    • The Canine Scout unit serves as, well, a scout (it can move through trees).
    • In the Roman campaign, one barbarian army uses wolves (renamed guard dogs) as Attack Animals.
    • The sequel's Scout is always accompanied by a dog.
  • Can't Catch Up: Some A.I.s randomly stop trying to go up on the tech tree for no reason. Especially painful if it's in the early ages before anyone has Anti-Air weapons.
  • Cap Raiser:
    • The Coliseum wonder increases the builder's total population cap while lowering it for everyone else.
    • Population cap can regularly be increased by research every few eras.
    • Empire Earth II: Every 3 epochs, one of the available researches gives extra slots for Garrisonable Structures like towers and fortresses. The latter is particularly important for Western civilizations, as their modern-age power lets them teleport a garrison anywhere on the map via air-drop.
  • Chekhov's Time Travel: The Russian campaign features a Chinese Time Travel attempt being foiled. Two missions later, renegades from Novaya Russia ally with the US to go back in time in order to prevent Novaya Russia from becoming the totalitarian nightmare, essentially reliving the first Russian level from the other side. The ending cuts just before we see the effects this has had on the future, (even though the sequel features the same faction, it has no impact on the plot).
  • Cherry Tapping: Hyperions standing just next to water will be targeted by submarines (or underwater and targeted by flyers and ground units), but the torpedoes won't hit. The Hyperion's laser, however, will.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The presence of a temple is enough to prevent disasters.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer: Even before dye is invented. Best exemplified by the earliest Dock, where ownership is shown by a brightly colored starfish.
  • Combat Medic: The Strategist hero is the only healer available until actual medics show up in the Industrial era. While they can attack, they won't do so unless specifically ordered to, even with the attack-move command.
  • Comically Small Bribe: In the English campaign, the leader is offered treasure chests in exchange for giving up the invasion. It's an insult, as the chests are filled with tennis balls.
  • Commie Nazis: Novaya Russia seems to combine socialist ideas and nostalgia for Soviet times with ultranationalism, religiousness and expansionism. Note that ideologies which combine leftism with nationalism, such as national bolshevism are pretty popular in modern Russia.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
    • Computer players don't follow any resource-gathering rules; they just build units at an arbitrarily fast pace. Also computers don't seem to be bothered by Fog of War, since they commonly send bomber planes after your sneaky armies with impunity. They also know where your forces are strong and weak, so attempts to save scum after the loss of a base and send the bulk of your forces to said doomed base will result in the AI switching targets to the other one, even if they have no legitimate way of knowing where your forces are.
    • Computer players also build walls everywhere for some reason (though how stupid this is depends on the terrain: on maps with small chunks of forest it leaves gaping holes in their defenses, on those with long tracts of woodland it makes getting to them a slow and arduous process).
    • In the first Empire Earth, it is actually possible to toggle this off in the Scenario editor, so by saving and re-naming your save game to turn it into a Scenario file, it's possible to disable the cheating AI in both random battles and the campaign.
  • The Computer Shall Taunt You:
    • In EE1, AI players make threats as soon as you finish building a Wonder.
    • In EE2, they constantly taunt you when attacking or when you advance an epoch. Amusingly, one taunt tells you you should have used cheats... even if you already have cheats active.
  • Creator Provincialism: The default WW1-era infantry unit for most factions is the "Doughboy", that being US soldiers deployed on the Western Front between 1917 and 1918.
  • Crippling Overspecialization:
    • Sea Kings target submarines and only submarines.
    • Downplayed with galleys and battleships: galleys do disproportionally high damage to battleships, but still die to them in a one-on-one fight. Until they're replaced by submarines, which can't be targeted by battleships.
    • Most units are very good at killing a specific unit type, decent at killing others, and bad at killing their counters (swordsmen have anti-arrow armor to kill archers, archers kill spearmen at range but can't outrun them, and spearmen have anti-sword armor and high damage). Even then it's not entirely crippling: archers and artillery are the only units that can fire over walls, which can protect them from all melee attacks.
    • Fighters deal a lot of damage to air units and only air units.
  • Critical Existence Failure: Every unit and building will still be standing with just one HP. Planes, ships, and buildings will smoke and catch fire but won't work any worse for it.
  • Crystal Landscape: Space maps have crystalline carbon deposits instead of trees.
  • Culture Chop Suey:
    • The first game had every culture use the exact same buildings and monuments (so the Chinese could live in Roman villas, build the Lighthouse of Pharos and Library of Alexandria, etc.).
    • The second game splits its civilizations by geographic location: East Asian (Japan, Korea, China), Middle Eastern (Egypt, Turkey, Babylon), African (Maasai, Zulu), Mesoamerican (Maya, Inca, Aztec) and European (England, France, Italy, Germany, Greece... and Russia and the USA). Slightly better in that each civilization's buildings and 3 wonders are appropriate to its location, but the trope is still in play when Russia can build the Parthenon, the Brandenburg Gate and, of all buildings, the Pentagon.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Subverted in the Russian Campaign; after General Molotov absorbs a lethal amount of radiation, Grigor II has him turned into a cyborg, causing the previously loyal General to begin questioning his leaders methods, concerned with the possibility of losing more of his humanity. Ultimately he defects from Novaya Russia when Grigor II callously orders him to wipe out the population of Cuba for being too troublesome to rule in the long term.
  • Damage Is Fire: Buildings, pre-modern siege engines and aircraft catch fire when damaged. Spacecraft emit bright blue plumes of flames (or possibly oxygen leaks).
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: General Blackworth escapes his first defeat grievously wounded. In the next mission, he's in a souped-up mecha.
  • Deadly Deferred Conversation: In the Greek campaign, this is how King Phillip of Macedonia's death is presented: Alexander asks to speak to him after a battle, but the king is busy, and is killed by assassins before he has a chance to talk to his son.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: Although the P-47 has weak guns, its blinding rate of fire gives it a higher Damage-Per-Second capacity than the more general purpose Fighter-Bomber.
  • Defector from Decadence: A minor general of the enemy forces in the second scenario of the British campaign deserts to join your side upon seeing how determined William is to retain his title of Duke. Also Molotov during the penultimate scenario of the Russian campaign.
  • Demythification:
    • During the Greek campaign, Heracles is a chieftain leading his people away from extinction by raiding the village that will become Troy and Calchas is the village prophet. The only references to gods are the Trojan Horse's sudden appearance and Theseus being called up to Olympus (inspiring his people to beat Sparta and Thebes, no mention of the Minotaur).
    • Gilgamesh is present as the first hero unit, a man on a horse (the other option being the historical Sargon of Akkad). Useful against prehistoric-era raiders, but quickly outclassed.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: One of the enemy factions in the Asian campaign is called "New Novaya".
  • Didn't Think This Through: Count Holck flies through the burning town of Wicznice, which starves his biplane's engine of oxygen, slowing it down long enough for anti-air fire to hit it.
    Holck: Nonsense! We fly straight through!
    (biplane engine sputters)
    Holck: What has happened!? I'm losing control! The engine is dying!
  • Driven to Suicide: One of the units that cannot be accessed in normal gameplay is the Chinese Spearman. And a gruesome detail about this particular unit is its death animation: The Chinese Spearman sets his spear to the ground and jumps on it. The Samurai unit, also unavailable in normal gameplay, commits seppuku when he loses all his health.
  • Easily Conquered World: Novaya Russia only had a tough time in the Middle-East, North Africa and China and by the time of Molotov's defection, Novaya Russia held direct or indirect control of pretty much the whole world except North America.
  • Easy Level Trick:
    • The second Russian level can be beaten in 10 minutes top on easy mode if you build 3 Titan bombers and spend all your civilization points to make them faster and stronger.
    • The Art of Conquest: In the final scenario of the Roman Campaign, you are given the choice of completing the mission by siding with either Cleopatra VII or Ptolemy XIV. If you side with Cleopatra, not only will you need to defend Alexandria but the Great Pyramid of Cheops as well as you'll lose if it falls below 50%. A script bug in the scenario allows you to destroy the Great Pyramid by pressing delete without being defeated, removing the need and risk of defending a structure that's outside the safety of Alexandria's walls.
    • The penultimate Russian level has you take over Cuba and build a base there, then Molotov defects to the US, leaving you to face a very powerful army and two bases. However, it's not necessary to eliminate the Cubans entirely, just their Capitol, and it's possible to use a few Ares to take out the Capitol and provide security until you've built the required buildings. And as for the original base, you can delete your own buildings just before the switch if you don't feel like fighting.
    • The third Asian mission requires you to take out heavily fortified island bases, giving you the ability to build missile bases once troops have landed. ... Except the game doesn't care if units landed or just flew over.
  • Eco-Terrorist: One Maasai mission features constant raids on your allies and fishing vessels by Zulu "eco-terrorists". Who have battleships and submarines.
  • Elite Mooks:
    • In addition to the Mk. II versions of cybers, the factional unique units (Persian Immortals, Spanish Cavalry, German Infantry, etc.) have the same stats as their equivalent unit's upgrade, one epoch early (so the 1800s British Infantry is the same as a WWI Doughboy, WWI's German Infantry is the same as a WW2 Marine, etc.). However, they're only available in the campaign or the editor.
    • EE2 lets you give units Veteran and Elite training, improving their health and damage. The catch is that if you go up an epoch and they automatically upgrade into that epoch's equivalent, you need to buy the training all over again. Also, unique units can only advance to Elite with a research that's only available in the third/eighth/thirteenth epoch.
  • Enemy Exchange Program:
    • The Priest's job is to convert enemy units that are not near a University. They're fun to use but they start being useless once you get access to gun units from the Renaissance Age and beyond (though they can convert other priests and enemy buildings past this point).
    • The Poseidon cyber uses this on enemy cybers.
    • The Priest Tower civ power gives you a tower that converts incoming enemies (who are unlikely to be near a University).
    • Priests get a serious buff in EE2, since immunity to conversion is no longer a universally-available condition.
  • Everything Fades: This can be averted with a special trigger, as used in the second-to-last mission in the Russian Campaign, to make a dead unit become persistent and never disappear. The blackened area where a building once stood stays around forever unless built on.
  • Evolving Weapon:
    • Nearly every unit has a superior version it can be upgraded into by going to a better era. Best seen on the Arquebus unit, which goes from arqubus to rifle to laser gun while the citizens start by dragging their loads on the ground before using buckets and finally using wheelbarrows to being turned into cyborgs.
    • The humble War Raft (two guys on a raft throwing big rocks at enemies) is the longest-running one, becoming a Frigate and going from rocks to arrows to cannons to lasers.
    • EE2 uses this for every unit except cavalry and tanks: a unit of, say, Heavy Infantry will go from maceman to musketeer to assault rifleman, but if converted by a priest of a different epoch will instantly turn into their new owner's epoch-equivalent. Cavalry and tanks, despite being made by the same building, will remain cavalry and tanks of the highest/lowest type, however.
  • Exact Words: Yes, the game does span 500,000 years... it's just that around 490,000 of them happen in the very first era.
  • Expy: Molly Ryan from the later missions of the Russian Campaign is for all intents and purposes an American Major Motoko Kusanagi
  • Eye Patch Of Power: The expansion's intro movie showcases warriors during Earth's history, each with a weird right eye: a caveman with a scarred eye, an 18th century ship captain with a bandage, a WW2 tank commander with an eyepatch, and a Space Marine with an Electronic Eye. And given the way the game works, they could all very well be the same guy.
  • The Famine: During the Egyptian campaign in 2, one level has a famine strike, and the people are so desperate for food they break into pyramids just to eat the mummies (despite the fact that there are other, normal sources of food around). It also occurs in the Greek Campaign in vanilla Empire Earth, when Pericles' Athens is cut off from its farms by Sparta and needs to import food from elsewhere, which is symbolized by the city becoming affected by Plague, as in the Calamity that Prophet units can cast, which won't let up until you reach a certain level of Food stockpiles.
  • Fog of War: Unexplored areas of the map are pitch-black, and areas unobserved by the players' units or buildings do not show enemy movements. Building the Library of Alexandria allows the player to see all enemy buildings and target them, but not the units around them (unless they're standing on farms).
  • The Fundamentalist: The Eye of God organization is determined that mankind stay on Earth, and will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons to prove their point. They also use space fighters to attack you, but presumably their own soldiers get a pass.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: The Novaya Russia campaign from the first game initially follows Grigor Stoyanovich from a young firebrand to supreme leader before dying. Later on, Molotov and Molly time travel back to confront the young Grigor before he could assume power.
  • Game Mod: Plenty for the first two games, from simple reskins to massive gameplay changes.
  • Garrisonable Structures:
    • Forts are available, but they only serve to reduce your headcount. And for certain structures (especially in the first game) it is wise to do so as garrisoning a certain number of units in them will upgrade the structure. But you won't get the units back after you upgrade said buildings.
    • In the second game, fortresses, towers, and docks can be garrisoned, but it's not permanent and doesn't remove units from the population cap. Instead, each unit inside a defensive building increases its damage, while units in fortresses and docks are healed (and is the only way for ships to heal). City Centers and Warehouses can also be garrisoned, giving extra income whenever resources are returned to the garrisoned building.
  • General Ripper: Charles Blackworth. His concern over America's apparent diminishing power prompts him to launch a coup d'etat against the US government, which the player foils. He eventually goes into hiding in South America and attempts to trigger a nuclear holocaust, only to be foiled once again and Killed Off for Real.
  • Glass Cannon: Howitzers may be slow and fragile, but their shells hit extremely hard against everything except tanks, from infantry (whom they usually kill in one hit) to structures (which go down in 3-4 hits) to ships (which they sink faster than any other unit in the game), and they can be healed on the fly by medics.
  • Gullible Lemmings: Luring enemy units into your archers/riflemen/ships is an effective way to avoid and minimize casualties. This is a very important tactic in scenarios where your ability to reinforce your army is limited or nonexistent.
  • Hard-Coded Hostility: The diplomacy settings are locked in single-player missions so you can't try to ally with your enemies. Some missions have special conditions to let you ally with them.
  • Heal Thyself: Medics can't heal themselves (though they can heal each other). Heroes have slow regeneration, but they only heal in the presence of a hospital (even the Strategist hero can't heal other heroes).
  • Heir Club for Men: Grigor wanted a son or daughter to take over the leadership of Novaya Russia, but even futuristic medecine couldn't cure his sterility. So he named the robot instead.
  • Herding Mission: Empire Earth II has a level where a Maasai tribe is moving its herds to different grazing grounds. The cows follow the workers, so the main danger is not them wandering around but armed conflict (at 20 Minutes into the Future levels of technology) with another tribe.
  • Hero Unit:
    • Heroes come in two types: Warriors, which have stronger attacks and increase unit morale around them, and Strategists, with a weaker attack which they don't use by themselves but an automatic healing ability.
    • EE2 uses a different mechanic: researching four military, economic or imperialistic upgrades gives you a chance to win the corresponding Crown, giving you a leader with a related power (military units are combat-based, economic units boost resource gathering, imperials boost research and landgrabs). Garrisoning the leader in a fortress reduces the power of its passive crown aura but extends it to the entire map.
    • Age of Supremacy added a new type of Hero: When a ground unit or helicopter gets thirty kills, it becomes a hero, which lets it form an army with normal units, giving them bonuses to health and damage (bigger ones for those of its class). It can also be used as a Leader when a crown is won.
  • Highly Specific Counterplay: The expansion for the first game introduced the Anti-Missile Battery, a truck whose only purpose was to shoot down nuclear missiles (nuclear bombs require shooting the plane down) which were only available to the Novaya Russia civilization, unless playing with custom civs.
  • Historical Domain Character: Every Hero Unit up to the Modern era is an actual historical figure from that era, despite the considerable gaps (Napoleon and Bismark is already a stretch, Julius Caesar and Charlemagne even more so). The two heroes of the Space era are related to each other... some 250 years apart.
  • Historical Domain Superperson: Strategist heroes (historical characters who often get a Historical Badass Upgrade as well) get a Battle Cry ability that greatly reduces enemy armor and have a single-target healing ability. Including the likes of William the Conqueror, Isabella of Castille, Elizabeth I, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Charlemagne.
  • Hover Tank: Goes underwater most likely due to engine limitations. Also, it cannot be built outside custom maps.
  • Humongous Mecha:
    • All three games have them in later epochs. Especially the campaign/editor-only Command Unit/Grigor II and Blackworth.
    • In EE1, cybers are big, but closer to Mini-Mecha in scale. The expansion's campaign makes them tower above most buildings (but upgrading them reverts them to their usual size).
  • Improbable Aiming Skills:
    • The animators messed up on Napoleon's attack animation: When he shoots, it looks like he's firing into the air. It doesn't stop the bullet from hitting the enemy though.
    • Partisans are meant as a Curb-Stomp Cushion defense against air units, being available before anti-air defenses can be built. While this makes sense for WW1 planes (the earliest of which were historically armed with darts tossed by the low-flying pilot), it makes less sense that they're able to shoot down modern planes afterwards, or even top-of-the-line nuclear bombers. Or, as of the expansion, orbiting satellites.
  • Interchangeable Asian Cultures:
    • All over the place in the Asian campaign, where China is part of a United Federation of Asian Republics (which doesn't include Taiwan or Japan). Japan uses pagodas and has a colony on Mars with a distinctly Chinese-sounding name, while the descendant of the Chinese hero Hu Kwan Do (referred to as Khan by underlings) goes around in future-samurai armor (down to the kabuto and sashimono) Dual Wielding laser katanas, and his chief spy has a Chinese name but builds Japanese-speaking cyber ninja (note that UFAR and the Japanese are enemies at this point).
    • In the sequel, the Far Eastern civilizations use the same buildings and unit models (so they at least look East Asian), except for the unique units (samurai, hwacha, etc.)
  • Invaded States of America: Novaya Russia's attempted invasion of America in EE1.
  • Lighthouse Point: The Pharos of Alexandria can be built repeatedly in multiplayer, as it reveals a vast amount of water (but not land, strangely). In the German campaign, a modern lighthouse can be built for the same effect.
  • Little Miss Badass: Molly Ryan put a fifteen-year-old bully in intensive care for a week at the age of nine.
  • The Low Middle Ages: The Dark Age epoch encompasses both the later days of Rome and the beginnings of the Middle Ages (the available heroes for that period are Julius Caesar and Charlemagne).
  • Just a Stupid Accent / Poirot Speak: Most of the voice acting in the first installment was pretty egregious.
  • Mayincatec: Averted: The Maya, Inca and Aztecs are separate civilizations, each with three unique units. The game goes further into Alternate History by giving them unique colonial (horsemen and cannon) and modern (medics and artillery)-era units as well.
  • The Mafiya: Grigor was an enforcer whose brutality earned him the moniker "the Crocodile". Then he got into politics...
  • Magikarp Power: The American civilization in EE2 only gets bonuses to aircraft, and its first unique unit is an improved scout.
  • Meaningful Name: Most of the Cybers. Pandoras are anti-infantry, Minotaurs are anti-tank, Apollo is a flying healer, Poseidon is amphibious (and converts enemy cybers), Zeus is anti-everything...
  • Medieval Stasis: Citizens are dressed like medieval peasants from the Middle Ages onwards, only changing clothes once the modern era is researched.
  • MegaCorp:
    • The UFAR is run by one, and later the Martian colonies are taken over by mega corps more concerned with profits than the miners' well-being.
    • The African campaign pits you against the evil Globo Corp. There's also the Delta Corporation, which seems to have similar access to Private Military Contractors, but because they show no interest in running the country afterwards you ally with them, receiving advanced troops, weapon designs and tech in exchange for Behrinium.
  • Mercy Rewarded: If you use a priest to convert Sir John Oldcastle, which counts as capturing him alive, and take him to the Tower of London to face trial and execution, you will be rewarded with Civilization points.
  • Mini-Mecha: The Cybers/HERCs were only slightly bigger than infantry units. Possibly a case of Units Not to Scale.
  • Misplaced Wildlife:
    • One of the tutorials has you fight off tiger attacks in the Mediterranean.
    • The Africa campaign has llamas as a harvestable resource.
  • Modern Mayincatec Empire: The tutorial for EE2 has the player guide the Aztecs from its founding to fighting off the Spanish conquistadors, helping the Americans win their independence from Britain, and fight a fascist Inca state in the 1930's.
  • Money for Nothing:
    • Generally averted in the first game, you'll need all the resources you can get.
    • Much more apparent in the second game, where the ability to passively generate gold between markets and docks as well as a more efficient citizen management system lets you accumulate resources much faster.
  • Morale Mechanic: Morale increases your units' defense (up to 50%), and can be obtained either by being in a capitol/town center's influence if houses are built in it, or by being close to a Warrior hero.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: Animals will spawn tiny offspring that slowly grow to their adult size, but have exactly the same stats including health and food provided. Similarly, the male caveman worker is much bigger than the female but no stronger.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Molotov initially thinks this way about Novaya Russia, but after Grigor II becomes increasingly more ruthless in his pursuit of global domination, he makes the fateful decision to join sides with his country's enemies.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Molotov's attempt to convince Grigor before his rise to power is instead used by Grigor II to jump-start Novaya Russia's revolution, supplying them with troops two epochs ahead.
  • Non-Indicative Name: The Mining Units available in the Asian campaign are strictly combat units.
  • Nuclear Option:
    • One civ power in the expansion is a missile base, which fires an (extremely expensive) ICBM at a target, even on another planet. It can easily be countered by having anti-missile batteries everywhere.
    • The second game makes them available to all civs, now leaving radiation damage as well. One widespread mod focuses almost entirely on different types of ICBMs and ways to counter them.
  • Older Is Better: Averted, the last Russian mission has you facing final-age troops with only modern (well, 2030s) units. Thankfully, defenses are final-tier as well, and you can use spies to upgrade your units to their future equivalents.
  • One-Hit Kill: The incentive for using Crossbowmen is that they have a small chance of instantly killing enemy infantry. Sharpshooters and Snipers have the same purpose in later epochs with the bonus of being invisible from a distance.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: In the "Waterloo" scenario, if one French soldier makes it to Brussels, the Bourbon monarchy will panic and surrender to Napoleon, causing Wellington to automatically lose.
  • One World Order:
    • By the later missions of the Novaya Russia campaign, the country has direct and indirect control over much of the world outside of the American sphere and is poised to become one. The flavor text for the generic "Rebel Forces" meanwhile implies that said rebel groups would eventually unite into a single global counter-order to fight Novaya Russia.
  • Palette Swap: Several of the infantry and hero unit models resemble and share the exact same animations as each other, the most notable is the "Diplomat" unit which, excepting the medieval variant, is just a better-dressed swap of that time period's male Citizen unit.
  • The Philosopher: The second Prophet is the classic bald, bearded, toga-wearing Greek philosopher. Best seen when commanding Aristotle, who figures out how to use local plant life to attract rats towards enemies.
  • Planetary Core Manipulation: The final iron-gathering upgrade involves mining the Earth's core somehow (while mining iron in-game still involves a Worker Unit with a pick).
  • Power Up Letdown: Some of the Civ Bonuses are just a waste of rare and irreplaceable Civ Points, especially if the game goes past the era in which those units can be built.
  • Primitive Clubs: The Prehistoric era's melee unit is a caveman with a wooden club who speaks in grunts.
  • The Queen's Latin: In the first game, even though the Bronze and Dark Ages are themed on Ancient Greece and Rome, the units speak with English accents. The naval units also sound like they're from The Golden Age of Piracy well before the real one started (which in the game would be the Imperial Age).
  • Randomly Generated Levels: In skirmish games, while you can set the type of map (inland sea, island continent, landlocked, individual islands...), the terrain itself will never be the same for several games.
  • Rate-Limited Perpetual Resource: While resource nodes are limited, they contain such large amounts (and can only be harvested by up to six workers) that they're functionally infinite but very slow to accumulate, meaning a player who doesn't expand to other resource nodes will find himself outgunned very quickly. The sequel outright gives them infinite quantities.
    • Averted with forage patches and animals which have intentionally limited resources, as the player is meant to build farms to gain food. The sequel features infinite food nodes, but still expects the player to build farms to supplement their income.
    • All games in the series have ways of increasing the efficiency of resource gathering:
      • In the first game, the amount of resources obtained per worker cycle can be increased by permanently staffing a drop-off building with workers, with a maximum of 50 doubling the amounts of resources dropped off at that building. The sequel makes it a smaller bonus and the workers aren't removed from the headcount.
      • One civilization has the ability to send seven workers per node instead of six.
      • Resource collection rates for individual resources can be increased via upgrades at the central building in the first game, and for basic or special resources via research points in the second.
    • The second game gives Markets and Docks the ability to generate gold through trade units that head to another trade building to drop off their cargo, generating more gold the longer the trade route. However, the speed at which gold is made is limited by the trader's unloading speed (and several upgrades reduce this downtime).
    • Often averted in campaign missions where resources are scarce but can be obtained by trade with another player or by destroying and raiding their buildings. The second game's Market building allows the player to exchange resources for gold, but the exchange rate increases/decreases very swiftly with every purchase/sale.
    • The second game has resources that become obsolete as they progress through Technology Levels: Tin is no longer needed after Saltpeter becomes necessary for firearms in the Renaissance, Iron is no longer needed after Oil becomes a commodity in the Industrial age, and Saltpeter is replaced by Uranium in the modern age. Not only do they still take up space on the map, workers can't harvest them anymore.
  • Real-Time Strategy: Gameplay can be paused so the player can take time to view the situation and issue commands, but can still proceed extremely fast for inexperienced players.
  • Real-Time with Pause: One of the earliest Real-Time Strategy games that allowed issuing orders during paused mode. This allows micromanagement of formations, very useful in the earlier "epochs".
  • Recycled In Space: The Space Age introduced in Art of Conquest. You build space docks, space battleships, space carriers, space corvettes... there is a crucial difference, however: Only space turrets can hit spacecraft.
  • Red-plica Baron: The first game has a German campaign in which four missions allow the players to control Manfred von Richthofen.
  • Religion is Magic: Prophets are the spellcasters in this game, throwing storms, volcanoes, and plagues at your enemies (unless there's a temple nearby). Priests convert enemies to your side unless in range of a university.
  • Renegade Splinter Faction: The American campaign from EE2 eventually involves the US trying to stop a rogue general named Blackworth and his experimental cybernetic forces.
  • Resource-Gathering Mission:
    • In the second level of the Asian campaign, the only available resource is food, which is traded to Taiwan in exchange for troops. Troops are exchanged to Russia in exchange for iron, which is traded to Japan in exchange for FTL data. Not only are troops limited (you can't even build defenses) and resource harvesters under constant attack, once the conditions are met the populace revolts until you destroy a large chunk of your military. Just after, the FTL facility needs to be defended from a Zerg Rush, and stops working if it takes any damage. And of course, repairing it takes resources which you have a limited supply of...
    • In the fourth level of the same campaign, you are tasked with sending resources to the Mars colony while under constant attack from religious fanatics opposed to mankind leaving Earth. This one is slightly easier, as every resource type is available, and the condition is to send 10,000 resources total.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: WW1, WW2 and Modern heroes use revolvers where other units use rifles or machine guns.
  • Ridiculously Fast Construction:
    • The buildings also start out as flat and gradually inflate as your villagers build them, even faster the more builders there are.
    • In the second game, Imperial leaders and Mideastern civilizations can boost construction time.
  • Robot War:
    • The American campaign from EE2 eventually culminates in a battle against Blackworth and his cybernetic army.
    • Novaya Russia of the original game may be considered a minor example, especially after Grigor II comes to power; his obvious preference for mechanical, as opposed to organic, troops certainly gives the impression of it.
  • Rock Beats Laser:
    • Although AA Missiles are stronger and have a longer firing range, there is a noticeable delay between shooting and hitting the target (and have an annoying tendency to hit your own buildings). AA Guns, on the other hand, hit the target instantly.
    • The very first ship (a war raft that throws rocks at enemies) becomes the Frigate in later epochs. It can still attack submarines with its rocks.
    • All towers can attack subs, even the very first one, but only nuclear-missile subs can fight back. It is profoundly hilarious to see a state-of-the-art nuclear-powered submarine be defeated by cavemen in towers throwing big rocks.
    • For all their hype and inherent badassitude as Humongous Mecha, a small handful of AT guns can make a complete joke out of a numerically superior force of cybers. The only ground cyber that doesn't take increased damage from an AT gun is the Zeus, which instead gets mauled by Howitzers and Paladin cannons, built from the same structure as AT guns. What's more, unlike tanks and cybers, AT guns can be repaired on the fly by a medic, massively increasing their combat endurance.
    • Accidentally the case in EE2, where all Heavy Infantry can hit helicopters but Light Infantry can't. Makes sense when those classes wield machine guns and mortars, less so when they wield swords and bows.
  • Rule of Cool: No other way to justify the cartoonish mecha, weird futuristic architecture, and lasers. Ninjas with lightsabers are probably the fullest extent of this seen in the first game.
  • Rule of Funny: Prophets in the modern and future eras wear sandwich boards reading "The End Is Near". And nothing else.
  • Russia Takes Over the World: The game's Russian campaign is set 20 Minutes into the Future where the paramilitary group Novaya Russia seizes power and begins a war of expansion against their neighbors. Helped by robotic troops and the US's isolationism, they're able to conquer Asia, Europe, and Africa, and start moving on Cuba when a disillusioned soldier defects to the US and travels back in time to prevent the fascist regime from ever rising, only to find that future soldiers already got there and need to be eliminated with inferior modern troops.
  • Sacred Hospitality: Caesar apparently has little use for it, as the game's way of choosing which side of the Egyptian civil war you'll fight on is asking his pet tigers which side's envoy they feel like eating.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Perseus is identified as Herakles' father in one mission's historical notes. Herakles is the great-grandson of Perseus (and both sons of Zeus).
  • Schizo Tech:
    • Some units from the WW2 epoch (namely ships, artillery guns, some infantry, and even halftracks) are still used in the modern epoch.
    • In EE2, every faction has three unique units that can be built during the first/middle/last five epochs (Stone Age through Middle Ages, Renaissance through World War I, and the modern era onwards). The units start out incredibly advanced (like mail-armored men pushing a mangonel alongside cavemen) and get progressively more obsolete (such as WW2 Zeroes flying alongside space planes or WW1 machine gunners and cyborgs and minigunners).
  • Sequence Breaking:
    • In "The Rise of Athens", Theseus Ascends to a Higher Plane of Existence before the final part of the level, defeating both Thebes and Sparta. It is entirely possible to destroy both before he does so, and is in fact easier to do so as they won't send attacks towards your base, can be aggroed one at a time and Theseus provides a big defensive aura.
    • During the Trojan War, it's possible to sneak around behind Troy and destroy the palace with archers.
  • Setting Update: In the Russian campaign, you can build a Medical Center, Monument to Grigor and an Espionage HQ which have the same functions as the Temple of Zeus, Gate of Babylon and Library of Alexandria (and except the last one, use the same model). In the German campaign, you build Olympic Stadiums (the Coliseum) and lighthouses (the Pharos lightouse).
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Cybers and HERCs are shoutout to another franchise: Starsiege.
    • The spaceship that the Martian rebels claim from the colonial powers is called the Yamato, but it is portrayed as an air/spacecraft carrier rather than a battleship.
    • Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The Henry V mission is full of references to, well, Henry V, including the St Crispian's Day speech.
    • The Maasai campaign features the discovery of a new element that can absorb enormous amounts of kinetic energy and is found in vast quantities in a single African country, allowing said country to become a global superpower... are we talking about Kenya or Wakanda?
    • The story of how Alexander wept because there was nothing left to conquer is not featured in any authentic historical record (the ancient writers being very much aware that he actually didn't conquer the whole world and was bitter about it). It is first "cited" in Die Hard instead.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The intro cinematics feature combat robots that look nothing like the ones in-game.
  • Space Compression: The creators had to take several liberties with designing the campaign maps so you can expect a lot of inaccuracies when the locations are compared to real-life. Most obvious on space maps.
  • Space Is an Ocean: This is how space is treated in the expansion pack to Empire Earth. See Recycled In Space.
    • However, the game does not treat space as an ocean: lowering terrain in the editor is considered to be water on space maps, meaning that you can actually have spaceships and seagoing ships on the same map, though they can't attack each other and each considers the other as impassible terrain.
  • Space Plane: Once you reach the Space Age, the only aircraft that doesn't stop at the cliff is the planetary fighter, which goes in and out of orbit as it pleases. However, ordering an atmospheric fighter to go to an airport on a different planet will result in it cheerfully flying through space until it reaches its destination.
  • Space Travel Veto: The "Eye of God" mission in the expansion's future campaign has you send resources up to a Martian colony while fighting off attacks from religious terrorists (the titular Eye of God) who think mankind needs to stay on Earth and are willing to kill you to ensure it.
  • Splash Damage: For artillery units in all three games and the nuclear weapon in EE2.
  • Spiritual Successor:
  • Stealthy Mook:
    • Vikings, Sharpshooters, and Snipers are invisible (even when firing) until a unit gets close to them. The former is a melee unit, which isn't much of a problem, and the latter two emit a big cloud of smoke when shooting.
    • One civ power in AOC turns all your units into this.
    • The Emissary is a cloaked priest available as a civ power.
  • Stripperific: Digital Age medics, despite being outfitted with a military-green uniform with a protective face-hiding helmet like the epoch's Sentinel riflemen, wear very short shorts which expose their bare thighs to the battlefield.
  • Succession Crisis: Grigor's sterility caused him to name an advanced AI as his successor, prompting an attempted coup d'état by some high command officers.
  • Super-Persistent Missile: A homing projectile will NEVER stop until the unit that it's chasing is dead or the unit that fired it is dead (and in the case of ICBMs, will keep going as well). The same rule applies for torpedoes.
  • Super-Persistent Predator: Similarly, attacked units will target solely the attacker, even when he runs behind a wall of his allies.
  • Suspicious Videogame Generosity: In the German scenario "Somme River", you are given 15000 of each resource to build a base and huge army that you'll need to storm and overrun the allied positions. If you hit the pop cap or a scout discovers your recruitment efforts and gets away to report about the buildup, the gravy train returns to Germany and you're forced to make do with the pitifully scarce amounts of local resources.
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
    • EE1: In early epochs, the standard is shock attacks (swords) beat archers, archers beat piercing weapons (spears), pierce beats shock, so the classic matchups occur between infantry, cavalry, and archers depends on which one is holding which weapon (with exceptions and complications like ranged shock and pierce attacks), though it gets more complicated as the epochs go on, becoming extremely convoluted when robots and lasers are introduced. The same applies to warships, frigates, and galleys (later replaced by submarines).
    • EE2 takes it in a different direction (and outright calls it Rock-Paper-Scissors, or RPS for short), dividing troops into infantry, mounted (cavalry/tanks/mechs), and artillery, with each type divided into light and heavy, each effective against two classes of units.
    • Air units are divided into helicopters and planes and the latter into fighters, bombers, fighter-bombers, and anti-tank planes (see Anti-Air above). The sequel removes fighter-bombers and instead has planes that are best against air units (fighters), land/sea units (tactical bombers) and buildings (bombers).
  • Talk Like a Pirate: Ships in pre-Imperial eras, even when the pirate stereotype won't exist for another ten centuries or so.
  • Tank Goodness: Present in all epochs after World War I. The first game divides them into AP tanks (effective against other tanks) and HE tanks (effective against infantry), while the second game divides them into light tanks and heavy tanks.
  • Tanks, but No Tanks:
    • Not counting the fact that all of the series' factions shared the same units, we have the M18 Hellcat and the Jagdpanther from the second game that resembles a M48 Patton and a SU-85, respectively.
    • Anti-tank guns are only referred to by their caliber until the future ages, which are rocket launchers instead.
  • Take a Third Option:
    • The potential for such exists in the second mission of the English Campaign: with only 4-5 units to your name, you are faced with a blockade of horsemen standing in the road. The three knights that joined you a little bit ago recommend that they pull a Heroic Sacrifice and distract the enemy soldiers while William rides on to Falaise. You could do that... or you could throw all of your units at them, use William's Battle Cry to weaken the enemies, and have him heal your other units as they fight so that all of them can live and join the battle at the end of the level!
    • Molotov is faced with the prospect of executing defenseless civilians or being charged with treason and killed. He defects to the U.S. instead.
  • Take That!: Two of the cheat codes are "boston food sucks" and "boston rent" (which makes you lose your gold).
  • The Theme Park Version: Of Age of Empires; whereas Age of Empires at least attempted to maintain a semblance of historical accuracy, Empire Earth decided to include more "unusual" ideas, some fantastical, some mundane, and sometimes a bit of both; such as a Euhemeristic interpretation of Greek legends (Heracles as a tribal chief who led his people to Greece) to some minor fantastical elements (The Trojan Horse as a gift from the gods and Theseus ascending to Mount Olympus) to holy men who wield the ability to summon natural disasters on a whim and a near future featuring Star Wars-esque aesthetics mixed with Humongous Mecha and Frickin' Laser Beams. That's not even going into the alternate history aspect of the German campaign, which ends with the successful invasion of Britain.
  • The War of Earthly Aggression: The latter third of the Asian campaign in Art of Conquest. You even attack the Moon and the Earth at the end!
  • Timed Mission:
    • In the second scenario of the Greek Campaign, you're under pressure to leave Crete as soon as possible as a trigger will activate a spawn point that will send infinite Cretan soldiers to destroy your temporary settlement.
    • In the fifth scenario of the German Campaign, you'll need to defeat Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Benelux (Low Countries), and France before fall 1940 as an American-Russian alliance will be made, making future expansion impossible.
  • Uniqueness Rule: In II, Wonders are not just one per player, they're one per game: as soon as one player completes their wonder, it's unavailable to everyone else (even if they were building their own) and can't be rebuilt if destroyed.
  • Units Not to Scale: Just like Age of Empires, the people in this game are slightly bigger than the houses they live in. The Humongous Mecha from the future ages are Humongous only in name. A miner is bigger than a tank, and nuclear bomber fighter jets are smaller than their bombs. The bombs are smaller than most tanks.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment:
    • Averted in the first game and its expansion, however, since units aren't part of a long class-line like they are in the sequel: if you convert an enemy unit from a later era, it stays that way when you convert it, which can be useful in the campaigns such as converting the one siege weapon that the Trojans have and turning it against them in a level when you otherwise have no access to siege weapons.
    • This can sometimes have amusing results of units that you shouldn't have which are named differently in a campaign level when they're controlled by the enemy have their regular names when you take control of them and it no longer makes sense. This can particularly show up in the first level of the Roman Campaign when your Celtic/Germanic enemies send "Light Spearmen" against you but, if you convert them, they turn into the default unit of "Chinese Infantry".
    • In the sequel, converting an enemy unit or building turns it into to the new owner's equivalent for that era (a modern priest converting an archer or an ancient priest converting a mortar will get a mortar and archer respectively). The only exception are unique units and units that are only available up to/starting from certain eras, such as medics, rams and horsemen/tanks in which case it the unit becomes the lowest/highest tier version available.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Molotov and Molly go back in time to Voronezh, nobody says anything about Molotov, a cyborg with a half-robot face, or Molly, whose hair is made of cybernetic cables.
  • Variable Mix: There's non-combat and combat music themes.
  • War Elephants:
    • Available in ranged and melee versions. Both have the same amount of life, but the arrows somehow deal more damage than tusks.
    • A ranged version is the Egyptian unique early unit. It deals the same type of damage as heavy cavalry, but the fact that it's ranged gives it some other uses.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: From the expansion, the Devastating Beam of Death ability of the space capital ship, which is the only way they can target units from orbit.
  • Washington D.C. Invasion: Blackworth's attempted coup in the American campaign from EE2 involves an attack from his cybernetic army.
  • You Require More Vespene Gas:
    • The first game has five resource types that require intensive monitoring of the civilization's economy.
    • The second game on the other hand has four basic resource types and two "special resources" (tin, iron, saltpeter, oil, and uranium) which change depending on the age. You won't get iron and uranium the same age, for example, leading to the horrifying yet awesome conclusion that in the future, war machines are made of plastics and compressed radioactive material.
  • Your Size May Vary: Some units are made impressively huge via triggers, but for some reason converting or upgrading them turns them back to normal size. One mission in the Asian campaign makes them bigger than buildings.
  • Zerg Rush: The AI has zero qualms about sending a dozen of every unit type at once at you.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Alternative Title(s): Empire Earth II

Top

Grigor II

Orginally built as the robotic bodyguard of Russian dictator Grigor Stoyanovich, the once mechanical servent was upgraded with sentience, and named Grigor's heir, when the elderly conqueror grew distrustful of his fellow man on his deathbed. Now dubbed, Grigor the Second, the towering machine continues his master's ambitions to see the flag of Novaya Russia fly across the world, with ruthless dedication.

How well does it match the trope?

4.67 (3 votes)

Example of:

Main / TheConqueror

Media sources:

Report