Empire Earth

Encyclopedia : E : EM : EMP : Empire Earth

Empire Earth, also known as EE, is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published by Sierra Entertainment in November 2001. The game is based on world history, spanning 14 epochs (500,000+ years) from the Prehistoric Age and ending with the Nano Age. Many people describe this game as a mix of Civilization and Age of Empires.

Mad Doc Software developed an expansion called (AOC) that was released in 2002. 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 Empire Earth Gold Edition was released on May 6, 2003. It contains both the original game and the expansion pack, manuals and technology trees for both games, hotkey reference and the official strategy guide.

Contents

7 Reception and the Successor to Empire Earth

7.1 Initial Reactions
7.2 Empire Earth II

8 External links

Overview

Empire Earth is similar to the Age of Empires series in that it is a history-based RTS game. Empire Earth uses 3D graphics instead of sprites as Age of Empires II, the comparable game at the time. The game itself 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, which are mostly historical people, with extraordinary combat ability which can either heal nearby units and demoralise enemy units, or provide moral support for armies in the field by taking the front lines himself. "Fortresses" allow you to store units so that do not count in the population; then can be released when needed. Priests are able to convert enemy units and buildings to the player's side. The prophet unit can cast plagues, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other calamities against the enemy. Wonders grant bonuses such as extended line of sight and player healing when they are constructed. Mineral resources were at such a high value that they effectively did not become depleted. Population is always at its peak and does not require houses to become greater. The explore option makes units scout on their own. Finally, the player has the option of creating their own civilization with unique bonuses. The scenario editor was also considered superior and it enabled the use of lighting and weather as well as the creation of cinematics. The editor adds tremendously to the replay value allowing players to create their own campaigns and scenarios.

Epochs

Epochs (pronounced as "epics") are simply the ages in Empire Earth. Each of these epochs represent an age within history. In Empire Earth, the last two ages are set into the moderate future, and a third future age, only in the Art of Conquest, deals with space colonization. Each epoch brings new technologies and units, though some epochs are fairly uneventful and are merely more sophisticated evolutions of the previous epoch. Occasionally, however, epochs bring with them huge leaps forward and put the first civilization to attain them at a massive advantage, rendering competing civs mostly impotent and forcing them to focus on closing the gap. Epoch advancement requires additional buildings to be built and the costs of advancing increases as more epochs are attained, though the ability to gather the requisite resources greatly increases as well.

Empire Earth Epochs

(500,000 BC - 50,001 BC) The Prehistoric epoch is the first Epoch in the game, and begins with the discovery of the usefulness of fire. The game is very limited at this point; warfare is only available over land, and this is limited to tribe members armed with heavy sticks and large rocks. Resource gathering is slow at this point; the harvesting of food is limited to hunting and gathering, mineral gathering is limited to what can be collected by hand, and wood gathering takes place on a minimalized local level. There are only a few technologies available. Some players jokingly call this age "The age of stupidity", due to the sounds units make when being selected, and the relatively few technologies, though it is nonetheless very important, as any civilization which can do even a moderate amount of damage to another one at this point is likely to put themselves at a great long term advantage, advancing through epochs much faster and leaving the disadvantaged civilization far behind.

(50,000 BC - 5,001 BC) The Stone Age is the second Epoch in the game. In this epoch, opportunities are given to begin building a navy, which essentially consists of log rafts, the first bows become available, enabling archery. A primitive battering ram, called a Sampson, is also available; it is merely a man dragging a big log. This age is little more than a somewhat more sophisticated Prehistory.

(5,000 BC - 2,001 BC) In the Copper Age (Epoch III), players are given access to farms, which leads to an expansion in population, and walls, palisades (only found in the Art of Conquest expansion) and fortresses to enclose their cities and better protect from attacks. Hospitals become available to heal injured troops and upgrade citizens and increase your population capacity. Universities also are available. The Priest Tower, a special tower (also available only in the Art of Conquest expansion) which can convert units, becomes available only to the Babylonian civilization. Finally, heroes and wonders become available. For most players, the game really begins to pick up at this point, after a fairly slow and mostly uneventful beginning.

A Bronze Age city during winter.

(2,000 BC - 1 AD) 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, begin to give rise to the game's rock-paper-scissors mentality, with galleys beating battleships, battleships beating frigates and frigates beating galleys. However balanced, the player with the most battleships will still rule the waves.

(1 AD - 899 AD) The Dark Ages (Epoch V), is fairly reflective of world history, with more 'barbarian' weapons becoming available. Notable newcomers are the crossbowman, who has a one shot one kill ratio with infantry, and the fast but short ranged cavalry archer.

(900 AD - 1299 AD) 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. This is the last chance for players to conquer their enemies before gunpowder comes along.

(1300 AD - 1499 AD) 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.

(1500 AD - 1749 AD) 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. Also, many new units come into use, like the sharpshooter and the hand cannoneer.

(1750 AD - 1899 AD) Many players' favourite, the Industrial Age (Epoch IX), affectionately known as "Indy" by the online players is the beginning of a huge technological and 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 age is the last chance to launch an invasion before the advent of aircraft and nuclear warplanes in the modern era.

(1900 AD - 1999 AD) The Atomic Age is the 20th century and is divided in to 3 parts.

(1900 AD - 1933 AD) The Atomic Age - World War I (Epoch X), like the real world, heralds the advent of tanks and airplanes in a military role. Artillery is invented, and like the real world, people simply become cannon fodder for the machines, most visibly when your stables go out of use. 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. Markets becomes available to the United States (in Art of Conquest), which allows you to sell and buy resources.

(1934 AD - 1966 AD) Atomic Age - World War II (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 said artillery. In The Art of Conquest expansion, Paratrooper Planes becomes available to Italy and the SAS commando becomes available to Great Britain, which is a special unit that can travel through water and set explosives.

(1967 AD - 2049 AD) The Modern Epoch (Epoch XII), which is the age mankind is currently in the process of transitioning out of, 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 balanced 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 is predictably combated by the new power of helicopters, specifically the H-3 Sea King anti-submarine helicopter.

(2050 AD - 2099 AD) The Digital Age (Epoch XIII) allows for the development of cybers, combat machines which take over most of the land-based warfare. Once again, infantry are largely reduced to cannon fodder in the face of powerful, long range mechanized weaponry armed with LASERs, as well as reinforced energy-weapon wielding base defences. Genetic engineering and advances in information technology allow for major increases in infrastructure and economy. Enhanced SAM weaponry renders most aerial assaults obsolete unless they are conducted by planes specifically designed for excessive speed. Spy satellites become available (only in the expansion), and make exploration an automatic and expedient endeavour. The Digital Age is a massive leap forward from the Atomic Age, and essentially renders all pre-Digital military traditions irrelevant, as only a handful of Digital cybers and tanks, or a few base defences can easily wipe-out even large scale Atomic attacks.

(2100 AD - 2199 AD) 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. A special cyber called Zeus, which is powerful enough to destroy all other cybers except its own kind, becomes available. Also ultra cybers come to their full potential; they have special abilities to supplement your forces such as anti matter storms (against aircraft), teleportation, and cloaking.

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest Epochs

The expansion added a new epoch: the Space Age (Epoch XV) (2200 AD +). For more on this age, see .

Technologies

Like many RTS games, there are technologies available to improve your civilization.

Agriculture

Agriculture research is done at the granary. These technologies increase production on farms.

Health

Health upgrades can be researched at the hospital. One benefit is that it upgrades the hitpoints and attack of citizens and scouts and increases citizen speed. Another increases the hospital's healing rate and range. And one can increase your population capacity.

Education

Education upgrades are found in the university, which can protect units from being converted. One upgrade will increase your buildings line-of-sight. Another will add to the university's range. Another one will add hitpoints to all your buildings. One will increase your dock's/naval yard's healing rate. And one will decrease tribute cost.

Temple

Temple upgrades are found in the temple. A series of research projects will increase your prophets: speed, hitpoints and range. The upgrades for the priests are also almost the same, except that they have two extra upgrades which can let them convert other priests and buildings. And one upgrades your temple range, which protects against calamities created by enemy prophets.

Economy

Economic upgrades are found in the town center or capitol. All of these upgrades will increase your gathering rate for: hunting and foraging, wood cutting, gold mining, iron mining and stone mining.

Nations

Empire Earth has 21 civilizations (with two additional ones in ). Civilizations are predetermined in scenarios, but chosen by the player shortly after the beginning of random map games. Each civilization has several bonuses such as increased speed or decreased cost for a type of unit.

The following are the available civilizations, grouped into their relative epochs. With the exception of the futuristic Novaya Russia and Rebel Forces, all civilizations in Empire Earth are based upon history.

Japan and Korea are added in the expansion and belong in the "Digital Age to Space Age" group.

Wonders

In the game, wonders give special powers to the builder. A player is capable of building a wonder more than once. At the start of each game, players can set the number of Wonders required for victory. Once a player or team has at least that number of Wonders standing simultaneously, a countdown of 1800 seconds (30 minutes) begins. Once the countdown reaches zero, victory is declared.

Tower of Babylon:
*Power: Revelation - players priests can convert with an area of effect.
Colosseum:
*Power: Spectacle - raises your population capacity by 20% and decreases your enemies' population capacity by 20%.
Pharos Lighthouse:
*Power: Guiding Light - lifts fog of war over areas of water within 50 tiles.
Temple of Zeus:
*Power: Sanctity - player's units self-heal automatically.
Ishtar Gate:
*Power: Safeguard - +200% building hit points.
Library of Alexandria:
*Power: Survey - reveals all fully constructed enemy buildings.

The expansion adds the Orbital Space station wonder of the world with the Inspiration power which boosts morale to all of the owner's spaceships.

Campaigns

Like many other games in the RTS genre, EE has campaigns. But unlike some games, each scenario has a story to tell and by playing that scenario, you are actually playing out the story for that scenario. In order to win a campaign, you must play and win all scenarios in order.

Learning Campaign

This campaign is where players are taught how to play Empire Earth. This campaign is available in both the original game and . This campaign is not required to be played in order and is divided into two parts. The first part is about the rise of Phoenicia. The second part is about the rise of the Byzantine Empire. Players are taken through the scenarios step-by-step to learn the basics of gameplay.

Empire Earth Campaigns

Excluding the Russian campaign, the German mission, "Operation Sealion", and perhaps the ancient Greek scenarios such as "The Trojan War", all of the battles in the campaigns have actually occurred.

Greek campaign

The first four scenarios (of eight scenarios total) focus on the rise of ancient Greece. The story tells of the early Helladic peoples, the Trojan War, the rise of Athens, and the first years of the Peloponnesian War, though with some fictional elements (such as the Trojan horse being given to the Ithacans by the gods).

The second part tells the life of Alexander the Great. The first scenario is about Alexander crushing the revolt of Thebes and Athens. The following scenarios are about the Battle of the Granicus, Battle of Issus and the siege of Tyre. The final scenario is the Battle of Gaugamela, the capture of Babylon and the battle for the Persian Gates, a mountain pass which beyond lies Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of Persia. The campaign ends when Alexander and his army enters Persepolis and Alexander manages to escape an assassination attempt while visiting the tomb of Xerxes I of Persia.

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, some parts based on William Shakespeare's play. 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 Lollard churches are required to be destroyed and the capture or death of Sir John Oldcastle in order to end the Lollard's. After a cutscene with Henry Chichele, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the second part takes the player to France, where Harfleur must be subdued to gain a foothold. Finally, the Battle of Agincourt takes place.

The next two scenarios are led by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who meets Napoleon I of France in battle. The first scenario deals with the Battle of Roliça and the resulting Convention of Sintra, Battle of Talavera de la Reina, and driving Napoleon out of Spain. The last scenario in the English campaign is the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon finally meets Wellesley in person.

German campaign

The first four scenarios take place during World War I, and feature the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. The player follows Richtofen through his early days of flight and the development of his flying circus. The first mission involves directing Richtofen and his pilot, Count Holck, to safety after their aircraft is shot down over Poland in 1914, but in subsequent missions, Richtofen is a minor character. In the following missions, the player struggles to protect shipments of war materials into Germany, directs German forces at the Battle of Verdun, and directs the Kaiserschlact at the Battle of the Somme.

The second part, consisting of three scenarios, deals with Nazi Germany and the first years of World War II in Europe. The first scenario introduces the Blitzkrieg, in which the player has to conquer Poland, Scandinavia, and France. The next mission deals with the German U-boat and naval blockade of Great Britain and the Battle of Britain, which features the gargantuan German battleship Bismarck. In the final scenario, the never-attempted Operation Sealion, the player leads German forces in an invasion of Great Britain, under the famous Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, ultimately conquering the country and annexing the United Kingdom to the Greater German Reich.

Russian Campaign

In this fictional campaign, the player leads Novaya Russia, a restructure of the Russian Federation.

The game begins in the early 21st century, with the player directing the Russian political dissident Grigor Stoyanovich from the city of Voronezh to safety in Volgograd, followed by a seizure of power in the Kremlin and Moscow. The subsequent scenarios involve Novaya Russia's conquest of Europe, which is the toughest scenario in the game according to the official strategy guide. Grigor must then crush a coup in Moscow. He dies soon after this and is succeeded by a robot called Grigor II. Under Grigor II, Novaya Russia continues its conquest of the world by invading and subjugating China.

In the fifth scenario, during an attempted invasion of the United States, the player directs the disillusioned General Sergei Molotov and U.S. agent Molly Ryan as they try to build a time machine to transport them back to the early 21st century and warn the original Grigor of the future. The final scenario takes place at the same time as the first. The Time Expedition, using Atomic Modern Age technology, battle against the technologically superior forces (thanks to Grigor II, who arrived earlier despite having left later) of the Ushi Party. At the end of the mission, Molotov or Ryan (it does not matter who; the outcome is ultimately the same) informs Grigor of the future atrocities that the machine will commit, and urge him to reconsider his seizure of power. Grigor is too propagandized by the cyber to listen to reason, and the character has no choice but to kill him. The Russian Campaign ends with an unanswered question:

"I can feel the tug of the time vortex...pulling...me...back. But what future will I return to? One that is better, or worse?"

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest Campaigns

The expansion for Empire Earth gives players three new campaigns:

Roman - about the last years of the Roman Republic.
Pacific - about the war in the Pacific during World War II.
Asian - a future campaign which takes place both on earth and in outer space.

Reception and the Successor to Empire Earth

Initial Reactions

The gameplay of Empire Earth is more in depth than Age of Empires, which had been created some years before. Empire Earth introduces 14 different epochs and more than 200 unique units (with an additional epoch and more units in the expansion pack). The game earned both popular and critical acclaim, selling more than 2 million copies worldwide and earning GameSpy's 2001 "PC Game of the Year " award. It was rated 8.5/10 by IGN and 7.9/10 by GameSpot.

Empire Earth II

The sequel, Empire Earth II, was featured at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Being developed by Mad Doc Software, since Stainless Steel Studios left the project to work with Activision on ', Empire Earth II features completely revamped graphics, weather effects, as well as interactive and much more expanded maps to wage war in. Empire Earth II was released in April 2005. The expansion for Empire Earth II, ', was released on February 14,2006.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.