Empire Earth

A classic military, real-time strategy game from Stainless Steel Studios, Empire Earth was released in 2001 for the PC. The player controls a civilization as it advances through "epochs" (14 in the original, 15 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. 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. This also did fairly well. Empire Earth III, by contrast, was a commercial flop, and is widely believed to have been the end of the series.

A dedicated fanbase lives on.

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Tropes used in Empire Earth include:

• 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.
• 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 History: The first game had the German campaign where it was possible to defeat Britain in World War Two.
• Annoying Arrows: Played straight for hand-bow style archers, subverted for arrow towers (which carry a surprising punch), and averted for crossbow (because you know they'll be deadly). It's entirely possible for a crossbow team to destroy a Million Mook March of swordsmen single-handedly.
• Area of Effect: The nuclear weapon in the first game.
• Ascetic Aesthetic
• 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.
• 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.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Even before dye is invented
• 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.
• 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.
• Expy: Oh come on, as if you didn't think that Grigor II from the Russian campaign was really a Gundam.
• 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.
• Game Mod: Plenty for the first two games, from simple reskins to massive gameplay changes.
• Garrisonable Structures - Forts are available, but other structures too. 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.
• Hover Tank: Goes underwater most likely due to engine limitations.
• Humongous Mecha: All three games have them in later epochs.
• Just a Stupid Accent / Poirot Speak : Most of the voice acting in the first installment was pretty Egregious.
  • This troper absolutely loved the silly French accents in the English campaign. Here are some nice examples.
• 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...
• Ridiculously-Fast Construction: The buildings also start out as flat and gradually inflate as your villagers build them.
• Rule of Cool: No other way to justify the cartoonish mecha, weird futuristic architecture, and lasers.
• Rule of Funny: Prophets in the modern and future eras wear sandwich boards. And nothing else.
• Russians With Rusting Rockets: The beginning of the Novaya Russia campaign.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The final mission in the Novaya Russia campaign is a repeat of the first scenario--except Molotov, a defector from Novaya Russia, and Molly Ryan, an American special agent have traveled back to the past to stop Grigor's ascension. However this is complicated by the fact that Grigor II captured their time machine and sent back his 22nd century armies, leading to one of the most brutal battles in any of the campaigns where the player must manage the early-21st century Russian army against forces from the future.
  • It is not clear what actually resulted from this horrific battle, since it ends with both Grigors dead and either Molotov or Molly Ryan travelling back to the future, wondering what they will see. However, subtle clues in the Chinese campaign in the expansion pack hint that Russia continued the decline that Grigor tried to combat but Novaya Russia appears in a scenario that takes place in the mid- to late-21st century, indicating that someone--perhaps a survivor of the battle--took up the mantle of Grigor's revolution.
• Shout-Out: The Cybers and HERCS are shoutout to another Franchise: Cyber Storm and Starsiege
• Space Is an Ocean: This is how space is treated in the expansion pack to Empire Earth. See Recycled in Space.
• Splash Damage: For artillery units in all three games and the nuclear weapon in EEII.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: In early epochs, the classic matchups occur between infantry, cavalry, and archers (with exceptions), though it gets more complicated as the epochs go on, becoming extremely convoluted when robots and lasers are introduced.
• 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!
• Wave Motion Gun: From the expansion, the Devastating Beam of Death ability of the space capital ship
• World War I: The first four missions of the German campaign in the first, featuring Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron. Also shown are the battles of Verdun and Somme.
  • In EE 2, featured in the second mssion of the US campaign as the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
• World War Two: The last two missions of the aforementioned German campaign. The fifth mission is a reenacting of Germany's blitzkrieg across Europe while the last scenario is an Alternate History version of Operation Sealion.
  • The American campaign in EE 2 sees you slogging through Tunisia, Italy and the Low Countries. A optional mission is also set during the Normandy landing, where you can either take control of the Allies or the Axis.
• 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" which change depending on the age. You won't get iron and uranium the same age, for example.