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Empire Earth is a real-time strategy game by Sierra On-Line and Stainless Steel Studios. The game spans 14 epochs (12,000+ years) starting from the Prehistoric Age and ending with the Nano Age. Many people describe this game as a mix of Civilization and Age of Empires.
The game contains many unique and innovative features, including a well implemented "morale" system which directly affects individual units statistics. It also incorporates a "hero" system, which has a special unit with extraordinary combat ability which can either heal nearby units or demoralise enemy units. "Fortresses" allow you to store units which do not count in the population, which you can for release when needed.
Empire Earth has an expansion called Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest. AOC features a 15th epoch, the Space Age (which focuses on the colonization of space, and features space terrain and space combat). It also has several special powers for building civilizations, including Priest Towers (convert enemy units into your own) and Just-In-Time Manufacturing (create units immediately for a higher resource cost).
The sequel, Empire Earth 2, was featured at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Being developed by Mad Doc Software (the company who made the Art of Conquest expansion), because Stainless Steel Studios is currently busy with a different project, Empire Earth 2 will feature completely revamped graphics, weather effects, as well as interactive and much more expanded maps to wage war in. It will also introduce a new strategy system in which players can map out the actions of a unit or group of units, such as giving them a route to take or positions to attack from, unlike most real-time strategy games in which units must be led on their route by the player directly if the player wants them to take that route. Empire Earth 2 is slated for release in early 2005.
Epochs
Empire Earth I
Prehistoric
The Prehistoric epoch is the first Epoch in the game. The game is very limited at this point; warfare is only available over land, and this is limited.
Stone Age
The Stone Age is the second Epoch in the game. In this epoch, opportunities are given to begin to formulate a navy and build temples.
Copper Age
In the Copper Age (Epoch III), players are given access to farms, which leads to an expansion in population, and walls and fortresses to enclose their cities and better protect from attacks.
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age (Epoch IV), players are given a true chance to establish themselves as a dominant superpower, with the diversification of their armies and navies, with the introduction of galleys and frigates for the sea, and siege weapons. The naval additions, in particular, being to give rise to the games rock-paper-scissors mentality, with gallies beating battleships, battleships beating frigates and vice versa. However balanced, the player with the most battleships will still rule the waves.
Dark Age
The Dark Age (Epoch V), is fairly reflective of world history, other than a marginal advance in the power of the navy, there are not really any major developments.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages (Epoch VI), towers and walls become very powerful and become a fair necessity for beating away invasions by other players, however, as in real life, siege weapons and battleships become more than a match for them. The Middle Ages mark the appearance of Crossbows that can kill unarmored infantry in a single shot.
Renaissance
The Renaissance (Epoch VII) heralds the advent of gunpowder, and siege weapons become incredibly powerful, with trebuchets and ballistas becoming the mainstay of many defences. Archery ranges are now defunct excepting the production of Crossbows.
Imperial Age
The Imperial Age (Epoch VIII), like in real life, has some huge leaps in naval power, and also the advent of medics and a huge increase in the firepower of towers and the navy as gunpowder becomes widely used.
Industrial Age
Many player's favourite, the Industrial Age (Epoch IX), affectionately known as "Indy" by the online players is the beginning of a huge technological an military upheaval in the real world, and is thus depicted in the game, with inventions such as the siege cannons and huge leaps in technologies. This is perhaps the last chance to launch an invasion before the advent of nuclear warplanes in the modern era.
Atomic Age
World War One
The Atomic Age - World War One (Epoch X), like the real world, heralds the advent of tanks and aeroplanes in a military role. Artillery is invented, and like the real world, people simply become cannon fodder for the machines. There is also a huge advent in the navy, with the mighty dreadnoughts and U-Boats coming into play. The rock-paper-scissors system mentioned earlier becomes far more complicated in this epoch.
World War Two
Atomic Age - World War Two (Epoch XI) has many huge developments in warfare, such as nuclear bombers and aircraft carriers, and a large advance in artillery and a beefing up of the infantry to combat the machines.
Modern
The Modern Epoch (Epoch XII) gives the awesome power of nuclear bombers the chance to really show themselves, as they develop the flight time to fly directly into opponents bases and evaporate civilians, known as citizens in the game. This is combated, however, by an advance in air defences. A major headache for any player is the development of nuclear submarines with their incredible range of nuclear tipped warheads. This, predictably, is combated by a new power, helicopters, specifically the Sea King anti-submarine helicopter.
Digital Age
The Digital Age (Epoch XIII) allows for the development of cybers, machines with special powers. Also notable is the addition of laser power to towers, making siege weapons largely irrelevant.
Nano Age
The Nano Age (Epoch XIV) is mainly a development of the Digital Age, with the enhancement of cybers, notably Hades, with the ability to teleport and spread a virus among opposing cybers.
Campaigns
Empire Earth I campaigns
Excluding the Russian campaign, and the German mission, "Operation Sealion", all of the battles in the campaigns actually took place throughout history.
Greek campaign
The first four scenarios (of eight scenarios total) focus on the rise of ancient Greek civilization. The story tells of the Helladic people, the Trojan War, the rise of Athens, and the Peloponnesian wars.
The second part tells the life of Alexander the Great, and the campaign ends after Persia is conquered.
English campaign
The England campaign is about the struggles between England and France for superiority in Europe.
The first three scenarios (of eight total) are about William I of England, his victory against the rebellion from the barons with the help of Henry I of France in 1047, and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The next three scenarios take place during the Hundred Years' War between England and France; Edward, the Black Prince and his raids in France are featured in the fourth and fifth scenarios. The sixth scenario is about Henry V of England's story. The first part is the internal unrest of Lollards. Henry V starts the scenario fleeing from London to Oxford, where his units are protected from conversion by Oxford University. After that Lorrard After a cutscene with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the second part concludes with the Battle of Agincourt.
The next two scenarios are led by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who meets Napolean Bonaparte in battle. The first scenario deals with the Battle of Roliça and the resulting Convention of Cintra, Battle of Talavera, and driving Napolean into Spain. The last scenario in the English campaign is the Battle of Waterloo.
German campaign
The first four scenarios take place in World War I, and feature the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. The player follows him in his early day of flight, the flying circus, the Battle of Verdun, and the Battle of the Somme (1916) before he was shot down.
The second part, consisting of three scenarios, deals with the Third Reich. The first scenario introduces the lightning war, in which Germany has to capture Poland, Paris, and Denmark. The next scenario is about the blockade of England, which features German warship Bismarck. The final scenario is Operation Sealion, which was never carried out in reality.
Russian campaign
This fictional campaign features the sci-fi style Novaya Russia with leader Grigor and his successor Grigor II (a robot). The player is set out to build the Novaya Russia empire and in scenario five, the viewpoint changes to Major Molotov, who builds a time machine and goes back to early 21st-century and destroys Novaya Russia before it is grown to full power.
Empire Earth I: The Art of Conquest campaigns
Roman campaign
Pacific campaign
This campaign focuses on American campaign in Pacific Ocean during WW2.
The campaign starts with the Battle of Midway and completes with the sinking of Akagi, Soryu, Kaga and Hiryu. The next scenario is Operation Watchtower, which is the battle at Guadalcanal in 1943. It is followed by the island-hopping campaign derived by Douglas MacArthur, recapture of Burma and Philippines. The campaign is concluded with Battle of Iwo Jima, completing by sending five marines to the southern tip of the Island (Mount Suribachi). (See Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.)
Asian campaign
This campaign consists of two parts and the story is told from the perspective of the Kwan family, of whom is said to be a descendants of a Chinese Emperor.
The first part tells the colonization of Mars. As soon as it is revealed that it is possible to colonize Mars, superpowers scrambled to develop the technologies and resources needed to make settlements on Mars. One of them is United East Asian Federation(UEAF), and members of Kwan's family are long-srving officiers. The way to ways was rough for UEAF, not only other powers would not let UEAF's efforts unchallenged, but also there are local rebellions in the country. Colonies was built after all along with other superpowers, partitioning Mars into four regions.
Part two was set 250 years after the first part for the 15th Epoch. Harsh condition on Mars has finally force those "Martians" into rebels. There, Kwan family united all four regions, and with the acquisition of Space Battleship Yamato (see link for the homage). The Martians fought a inter-planetary war for independence.
External links
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