Red Alert 3: Paradox

You can't change the universe without repercussions...

A modification of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Red Alert 3: Paradox is an massively ambitious expansion mod (it is probably the most ambitious mod in all of C&C history) noted both for the scope of the planned final product and for the accompanying wiki project, which is slowly fleshing out an extensive 1960s Cold War world. Chock full of Shout Outs, Historical In Jokes and the unusual results of taking the wacky world of "Red Alert 3" completely seriously, the project aims to flesh out the very-not-serious world presented in the game without losing any of its Narm Charm. There is a wiki found here.

There are eight factions, three of them from the original game greatly expanded, and five more original ones. The mod has gone into open beta, featuring an expanded Allies and introducing the Confederates, with planned updates on the way. Feel free to download it at its ModDB page.

Red Alert 3: Paradox has a character sheet for both original and Paradox-exclusive characters here.

Tropes for Red Alert 3: Paradox, Organized by Faction

Major Factions

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

Allied Nations

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


Soviet Union

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


Empire of the Rising Sun

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


Confederate Revolutionaries

The result of killing US President Ackermann, the Confederates want to get the Allied Nations out of the USA, get rid of their influence on America as a continent and generally do things they feel are right. Without a proper military, they utilise Allied technology from World War II to great effect, modifying and improving those obsolete designs with their own technology and cleverness. They believe to know what is right and they will fight for it until they have "liberated" the USA. Terrorists for the Allies, Freedom Fighters for the American population, they are actually good guys who happen to fight other good guys. They lack a proper idea for after they liberated the USA, but as they say, first things first.

  • Action Bomb: RC Cars can explode via ability. Their power can be increased with the bombs of the Bomb Trucks, which however is not a suicider himself.
  • Amazon Brigade: The aptly named Amazon Warriors, which while not as elite as Minutemen or Delta Rangers can pack a punch on the units the other two cannot effectively fight.
  • Americans Are Cowboys
  • Badass Mustache: The Minutemen sports those.
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: The vast majority of their equipment are aging WW2 vehicles.
  • Continuity Nod: The Confederate equipment is the over-15-year-old tech left over from the first "Red Alert" game.
  • Creepy Child: Thieves.
  • Custom Uniform: Everyone. The Confederates have no official uniform; the closest to it are grey overalls, and they can't even get everyone to wear those. Notable for being the only side where infantry of the same type have different appearences.
  • Deep South: Used as a theme, though their members come from all over America and all walks of life.
  • Drill Tank
  • Eagle Land: Both types 1 and 2 are present.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: Doberman Guard Dogs can sniff spies and stealth units.
  • Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Bomb Trucks lay those.
  • Invisibility Cloak: PAWI Tech paints over people and the machinery they use with "blank" images.
  • La Résistance
  • Mass Super-Empowering Event: The counterculture's experimentation with LSD has created a whole bunch of psychics.
  • Mildly Military
  • Mundane Utility: Radar Domes are used as hydroponic bays when not otherwise in use.
  • New Age Retro Hippie: Tunnel Rats and Flower Children are this.
  • Nose Art: Many Confederate air planes have Nose Art that ranges from subtle to fairly blatant. Some units even have multiple of them selected at random when the plane is build.
  • Patriotic Fervor
  • Reality Bleed: PAWI technology. Like GAP, it's (mostly) safe.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: The Mortarmen carry revolvers that can punch straight through a Peacekeeper's shield and send infantry flying.
  • Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Only a part of them. They normally have understandable motives and happen to fight other good guys.
  • Sea Mine: They can deploy versions of these from their torpedo boats that move under their own power.
  • Shockwave Stomp: Their Ultimate Weapon, direct fire artillery, and high level base defenses work like this.
  • Stealth Based Game: Becomes one when you play as them.
  • Super Serum: LSD gives you psychic powers.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified / The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Hard to tell which yet, though they "do" lean towards dirty tricks and stealing technology.
  • The Multiverse: Why PAWI works.
  • This Is a Drill: "Spiral Tech" is a mathmatical oddity that allows improbable levels of mechanical effienciency with certain patterns of rotating machinery such as drills or fans. They use it to dig tunnels, make drill-based projectiles, and create tornados/whirlpools.
  • Too Many Belts: A more western example, Confederate infantry are covered in bandoleers, low-slung holster belts, and other straps for equipment instead of more modern webbing.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: To make up for their obsolete tech, they use the dirtiest tactics in the game. Several types of land mines and booby traps, ambushes, fake structures, RC cars with bombs on them, invisiblity, electronics jamming, tunneling and stealing enemy resources are all fair game.
  • Tunnel King
  • Wild Weasel: Good luck shooting down a Duster before it bombs you.
  • Worker Unit: 'Dozers and Construction Trucks create main structures and fake structures, respectively. They and defenses are build by the Construction Yard.
  • Wrench Wench: Both their standard engineer and their commando, Dixie, are female, and both are repair specialists. The mechanic can repair single vehicles in the field, which Dixie has a sizable repair radius and can heal damage nearly as fast as it's dealt.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters


Order of the Talon

An 800 years old order of Knights, the Order of the Talon secretly control great parts of the world from the shadows, fighting an ominious enemy known only as "The Cult". They possess impressive Steam Punk technology, including walkers and moving castles. Able to move from place to place with their castles and armored with the strongest metal known to humanity, they fight everyone they deem heretical despite their outdated tech. Most Talon personnel are unwitting of the greater scheme behind the Order's actions and those who know at least something believe their way of doing things in secret is right. They are not afraid of assasinations or leading countries to war if it helps them - in fact, they are responsible for World War I. However, they are noble enough to not abuse others too much, because their goal is to fight the Cult, not the rest of the world.

  • Action Bomb: Sappers and Priests of Judas via special ability.
  • Ancient Conspiracy
  • Annoying Arrows: Subverted. Rogues and Footmen with their bows and crossbows hit just as hard if not harder than their gun-using contemporaries.
  • Arch Enemy: To the Cult of the Black Hand.
  • Arrows on Fire: Sort of - they prefer red-hot crossbow bolts.
  • Awesome Personnel Carrier: They've got a battle locomotive.
  • Ax Crazy: Fanatics.
  • Badass Automaton: The name-sake Automatons, springcore-powered gatling-armed robots for anti-infantry purposes. Only hampered by their limited lifetime, they'll mow down anything in their path.
  • Badass Creed: The Iscariot Vow.
  • Badass Preacher: Hospitallers. A flamethrower-armed priest WILL make you confess.
  • Base on Wheels: Master Crawlers, castles on tracks, produce every single unit they have. In addition, Mini-Crawlers, which are mobile tech buildings/refineries.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Averted hard. They might be using old technology, but Talon equipment generally equals or outperforms it's conventional (not to mention unconventional) counterparts. Also, they had computer software in 1842.
  • BFG: Apostle bombardment ships mount a 914mm cannon, the largest in Paradox.
  • Black and White Morality: In a setting of Grey and Gray Morality where everyone does good and bad things, sometimes more of one than the other, the Talons believe in this one instead. This leads too...
  • Black and White Insanity: ...with them being white and everyone else being black and/or stupid. The only faction where this is actually true is, ironically enough, the Cult of the Black Hand.
  • Brainwashed: A fair number of Talon officers were military officers from around the world who were kidnapped and brainwashed/indoctrinated into serving the Talon.
  • Car Fu: The aforementioned battle locomotive can do this.
  • Church Militant: Started as a knightly order in the Catholic church, has since become independent.
  • Clock Punk
  • Clockwork Creature: Automatons.
  • Cool Airship: The Lazarus Air Dreadnoughts.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: They are an Ancient Conspiracy group fighting at least one other ancient conspiracy group.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Their color of choice is black, but they're still good[ish] guys.
  • Deadly Gas: Emissary Tracks launch censers filled with mustard gas.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Cannon Turret gunners call their turrets "Saint-Maker".
  • Death From Above: True to their nature as expies of Assault Marines, Templar Lords can do jetpack jumps that crush anyone they land on (and who stand near them when they start). Rocket Jump indeed.
  • Defector From Decadence: A lot of Talon personnel start as this.
  • Determinator: Their history is basically eight hundred years of failure. They're still going strong.
  • Expy: When you get right down to it, the Talon are the steampunk counterpart of GDI with Catholic overtones.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: They have a lot of flamethrowers.
  • Good Is Not Nice: They are pretty well-intentioned. You do not want to get on their bad side.
  • Improvised Weapon: According to the backstory, a couple of the Talon's weapons like the Altars of Light and Consecrator Tracks started as this.
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner: If the Talon decides that you're guilty, you will die.
  • Kill It with Fire: The Talons LOVE flame weapons.
  • Kill Sat: They hijacked both Athena Sats and Mag Sats and then combined them into something even worse.
  • Knight Templar: Varies by the individual Talon, but the Order as a whole tends towards this. The actual, literal Templars among their ranks do not, ironically.
  • Land Down Under: They've basically taken it over, but haven't informed the Australians or their government of the fact.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Specialty of the Metatron Gunboats.
  • Magnetic Weapons: And not the usual kind either.
  • Medieval Stasis: Not quite, but they are very, very slow to adopt new technology. Thanks to Talon Steel, this doesn't stop them from being a major threat.
  • Mighty Glacier: Many of their strongest units.
  • Mind Rape: The Order is not above indoctrinating and brainwashing new recruits to make them loyal to the organization.
  • Minovsky Physics: Talon Steel fits, more or less.
  • More Dakka
  • Pillar of Light: The Firestorm Generator, their Ultimate Weapon.
  • Properly Paranoid: They're an ancient conspiracy fighting other ancient conspiracies. Paranoia is both a given and understandable.
  • Ramming Always Works: The special ability of Vicar Torpedo Rams. Just watch out - Shogun Battleships and Alert Ice Breakers do it better.
  • Rocket Jump: Templars.
  • Science Is Bad: Discussed. They are centuries behind the times, technologically, but it's been suggested that this is mainly because their existing technology is still competitively effective. They do seem to think that humanity's progress is a bit out of control, but at the same time don't think science is wrong in and of itself. One fanfic has Lady Maria deliver a pointed Take That to those who do believe in this trope.
  • Shout-Out: Lots. Warhammer 40,000 is a popular one.
  • Small Reference Pools: Whenever a Talon design shows up, 9 out of 10 people think it is inspired by Warhammer 40,000.
  • Spider Tank: The Cataphract Land Ironclad.
  • Steampunk
  • The Aesthetics of Technology: They have fun with this one. Talon units "look" archaic and primitive compared to, say, the Empire, but remember that this is the Mighty Glacier faction...
  • The Archer: Rogues with magnetic longbows, Footmen with crossbows.
  • The Eternal Churchill: For eight hundred years and counting.
  • The Fundamentalist
  • The Knights Hospitallers: Act as a part of the Talon.
  • The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Holy Triumvirate.
  • The Power of the Sun: Like the Allies, the Order has solar death rays, but these are more inspired by Archimedes' Mirror.
  • This Is a Drill: Have a submarine fitted with a drill for attacking other submarines.
  • Training from Hell: Their elite military training school is in Death Valley, USA. 'Nuff said.
  • Unobtanium: Subverted - Talon Steel is possible in Real Life.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Lower Talon personnel don't know who they are really serving. Also, there's the aptly named Pawns, who are unwitting soldiers duped into aiding the Talon.
  • Walking Tank
  • We Are Everywhere: Unfortunately, so are their enemies.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their goals are fundamentally good, and there are a lot of good people among them. They still do highly questionable things on a regular basis.


Atomic Kingdom of China

The remaining population of a 30 years long civil war that ended in a nuclear holocaust, the Atomic Kingdom of China is lead by a man only known as "The Viceroy" and his right hand, a young appearing girl genius. With nigh impenetrable defenses, energy shields and strange vehicles, hordes of cloned soldiers and all sorts of radiation technology resembling 1960s scifi, they strive to take revenge on the world. Their longtime goal is to leave Mother Earth and preferably before others decode the secret of nuclear weapons. For the voyage they need technology from Allies, Soviets and Japan alike, but it is not their goal to kill everyone outright when leaving - and neither is their goal to take the clones with them.


Mediterranean Syndicate

A Roman-age crossed with Cyber Punk obsessed group of Mega Corporations, the Mediterranean Syndicate embody everything the Allies fear and fight - forced roboticisation, drug and people trafficking, abuse of the weak and generally doing everything only for money. The Syndicate use high-range weapons for everything, from micro rocket firing machineguns to multi-target striking railguns to weather control, battlesuits, drugged gang members and all sorts of mercenary security forces. Their sprawls, regions of eternal night illuminated by neon lights and packed with camera systems, are hounted by packs of cybernetically improved Wolves and violence is a daily occurance. People there apparently enjoy their lot because the Syndicate educate them practically for free - in utter self-interest of course.


Electrical Protectorate

A group of Imperial lab castoff nanomachines who developed self-awareness and formed the Core Mind met a stranger, who gave them a goal - to accomplish the "pure state of the universe". In other words, kill everyone else, and that is exactly what they do. Hordes of robots without built times but hideously weak, the Electrical Protectorate overwhelm everyone else with sheer numbers of weaksauce units aided by bigger units with bigger guns and a commando that looks entirely human but has a heart and body of steel. The Protectorate do not care about humans as much as seeing them as an obstacle to reach the pure state. They are unknown to the other factions because they kill without asking questions or before anyone can react, ending up as a rumor in people's heads until it is too late.


Minor Factions

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

Army of the Republic of Vietnam

South Vietnamese national forces fighting the Communist regime of the North. They love flame weapons and idolise the Allied Nations. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are Peacekeeper Air Cavalry.

  • Ammunition Backpack: Napalm Rangers.
  • BFG: The Peacock mounts six anti-tank cannons. It's based on the Ontos, a real life Vietnam-made Tank Destroyer.
  • Bifurcated Weapon: The Jungle Ranger's assault rifle has an underbarrel shotgun.
  • Cool Shades: The Rocket Ranger's stern look owes a great deal to her period-approprete sunglasses.
  • Cute as a Bouncing Betty: Peacock Tank Destroyers.
  • Fan Boy: They almost worship the ground the Allies walk...
  • Fingerless Gloves: Jungle Rangers wear these.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: The ARVN love their flamethrowers.
  • Historical Villain Downgrade
  • Kill It with Fire
  • Nice Hat: Between the Jungle Ranger's slouch hat and the Rocket Ranger's French-style cap, the ARVN are well equipped with nice hats.
  • Practical Asymmetry: The Napalm Ranger only has one shoulder pad, but it's on the shoulder that faces the enemy (together with the end of his weapon).
  • Small Reference Pools: The ARVN Jungle Ranger wears a slouch hat, one issued to the Real Life ARVN. Everyone just makes Team Fortress 2 references whenever they see him.
  • Standard Hollywood Strafing Procedure: Rascal Dive Bomber.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Most of the Western Bloc are democratic, humanitarian idealists, but the ARVN are a corrupt military authoritarianist state, and the Rangers are cynical and pragmatic fighters making heavy use of traditionally "bad guy" gear like chemical weapons and flamethrowers. Even so, they are considerably nicer than their real-world counterparts.
  • Useless Useful Stealth: The ARVN's job is enforcing this; they have tanks with scanners and lots of napalm to burn the enemy out.


Allied Reservists

The various national militaries of the world aiding the elite Peacekeepers. They also form the bulk of units fighting in Vietnam. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are Peacekeeper Recon.

  • Blinded by the Light: Like the Riot Agent, the Defender has a flashbang grenade launcher.
  • Expy: They resemble the USA faction from Command & Conquer Generals.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: To drive home their nature as Weekend Warriors, the basic Reservist has an almost completely asymmetrical uniform.
  • Only Sane Man: They are the only (more or less) truly conventional army.
  • Putting on the Reich: Though their tan desert and olive green jungle uniforms don't look it, their garrison uniforms are black and grey. However, the Allies are blissfully unaware due to the lack of Nazis in the Red Alert timeline.


National Revolutionary Army

One of the two factions that fought the Chinese civil war for about 30 years supplied by the Allies, and ended it in a nuclear holocaust. There are barely any survivors of their faction, most defected to the Atomic Chinese. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are Indian Reservists.


Cult of the Black Hand

Long-term enemy of the Talons, the ominious Cult are waiting for their Messiah and do all sorts of things they believe will accelerate his coming - fighting other people for example.


Global Liberation Army

A group of middle-eastern terrorists, the GLA fight for their cause - whatever it is - against the Allied and Soviet infidels to gain territoy in Arabia and Africa. Outdated and ill-equipped troops meet toxin weapons and Soviet missiles. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are the Saudi White Army, soldiers loyal to the Saudi royalty fighting against the Allied backed democratic forces.


== International Inc ==A Geneva, Switzerland based military contractor, International Inc are an independant arms manufacturer and send their vehicles to anyone who can afford them.


Communist China

One of the two factions that fought the Chinese civil war for about 30 years supplied by the Soviets, and ended it in a nuclear holocaust. There are barely any survivors of their faction, most defected to the Atomic Chinese. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are North Korean Commandos.


Vietcong

An underground resistance group supplied by North Vietnam and the Soviet Union, the Vietcong fight for Vietnamese unity under their ideas. In minor faction deathmatch, their reinforcements are the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

  • Bayonet Ya: NVA Regulars only use their guns to keep the enemy's head down long enough to use these.
  • Booby Trap
  • Braids of Action: Guerrillas sport these.
  • Green Thumb: They can regrow jungle destroyed by the enemy in order to keep hiding.
  • Hipster: A running gag regarding the Vietcong, due to the puns made about being underground, and the scarfs they wore in Real Life.
  • Historical Villain Downgrade
  • Nature Hero
  • Token Good Teammate: Most of the Eastern Bloc are variously aggressive, autocratic, incompetent and/or just plain insane. The Vietcong, however, have real grievences and are allied with them more out of convenience than ideology. To drive it home, they share skills and abilities with the Confederate Revolutionaries, right down to their basic infantry sharing their statline with the Confederate Minuteman. North Vietnam, however, is still quite malevolent.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters
  • Zerg Rush: The basic NVA tactic is a massive wave of terrible infantry who can shoot on the move.


Misc

Faction-unrelated tropes.

Game Tropes

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


Setting Tropes

  • AKA-47: Many of the vehicles distinctly resemble real world ones with different names and unusual features. The Mastiff tank is clearly a King Tiger, the Cardinal is a Huey, the Achilles a streched Avro Arrow, the Ranger a jeep, and so forth. Most of the weapons are similarly renamed, though weapons from before 1927 usually keep their names as a nod to the point of divergence.
  • Alien Space Bats: Soviets traveled back in time in an already alternative timeline without Adolf Hitler and Those Wacky Nazis to kill Albert Einstein to make a new timeline where they can finally win World War Three. Team Paradox changed the outcome of THAT timeline's third world war again for its own story.
  • All Germans Are Militaristic
  • All Nations Are Superpowers: Either you are part of a power block or your country has super power status outright.
  • Allohistorical Allusion: Plenty.
    • There is still a Tet Offensive, but it's launched a year later by the NVA instead of the Vietcong. Where the real-life Tet Offensive resulted in the Vietcong crushed and the NVA gaining the initiative, this one results in the NVA running scared and the VC in a perfect position to tear into Allied/ARVN supply lines.
    • Atomic China is a destabilizing third superpower arriving suddenly on the world stage with atomic weapons... sort of like Red China did in Real Life.
  • Alternate History: Time travel plot and killings of Adolf Hitler and Albert Einstein aside, the time before 1927 went at times and places differently too.
    • The formation of the Order of the Talon and Cult in the 11th century.
    • Japan never invaded the rest of Asia. This is because the Battle of Kumamoto Castle ended with a Shinobi running up the castle wall and opening its doors, changing the entire war scenario. The new government decided to not spend ressources on invasions and went along with trading with America and Europe without being influenced much.
  • Berlin Wall: In-lore, Berlin is parted in half like in real-life. The irony is, the Allies are building it.
  • Cold War: Between the Allies and the Soviets. Mostly.
  • Crapsack World: Three world wars, a Cold War and five new super powers, two of them planning to get rid of everyone else. It is mainly a current age Warhammer 40,000. Also goes hand in hand with World of Badass.
  • David Hasselhoff: The US American president.
  • For Want of a Nail: Paradox takes place in an alternative timeline to Red Alert 3 where no one wins World War Three.
  • Gender Is No Object
  • Good Republic, Evil Empire: Subverted in that some of the names are reversed (Japanese Empire, Chinese Kingdom), the factions fit the bill:
    • The Allies have democratic elections and the Japanese have councils, which the current Emperor actually listens to. Then we find out he is famous with the people but not all that liked by the rest of the government who still try to Take Over the World (this time with economic means), making this trope double subverted for the Empire.
    • The Soviets and Chinese also have councils, who in the former case leave the premier doing the global state running and do the day-to-day tasks instead while the Chinese Viceroy has gathered people around him but still reigns alone.
  • Lensman Arms Race: Allies, Soviets and Syndicate are the main players for this. Not that everyone else is far behind.
    • At the beginning of WW 2 in 1949, jet fighters were still experimental and most infantry ran around with bolt-action rifles. Horses were as common as trucks. By the end in 1955, everyone had assault rifles, the Allies were hiding behind rips in space-time, the Soviets were fielding tanks the size of houses and could make them invicible shortly, VTOL jet fighters were the norm, and jet packs and lightning guns were being employed. Then the Cold War arms race started...
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: The Allies, Soviets, Talon, Confederates and sometimes the Empire actively try to get civilians out of war zones. The other times the Empire attacks civilian villages for moralic shock value. The Syndicate only do it when it suits their money-based goals. The Protectorate and Atomic Kingdom don't bother with evacuation.
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Soviets have similar telescreens and paranoia like in the novel. Also, not quite an example, but the Syndicate, who consider themselves "fifteen years ahead", like to claim they are living the 1984 life.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Until the Chinese broke it. The technology still hasn't spread to any of the other factions yet.
  • Propaganda Machine: The Soviets might be the most obvious, but they aren't the only ones. The Allies initally started running their humanitarian programs as one of these to draw small nations to their cause. The Empire has massive state-run media, both sides of the Chinese Civil War lied to their population constantly, the North Vietnamese use theirs to whip their soldiers into a frenzy, and the Cult of the Black Hand like to set these up to pit people against each other.
  • Punk Punk: Every human faction except the Confederates are some kind of Punk Punk. The wierdness comes because they are all different sorts.
    • Allied Nations: Raygun Gothic. Retro-futuristic designs, vacuum tube computers. Extensive laser, wave and advanced physics theories based weaponry.
    • Soviet Union: Dieselpunk. Big, powerful, utilitarian. Creative use of reliable and simple technologies like electricity and magnetism. Major space program.
    • Empire of the Rising Sun: Nano Punk / Post Cyber Punk. Superior design and engineering. Automated precision manufacturing on microscopic scale. Research into psionics.
    • Mediterranean Syndicate: Cyberpunk. Circuits, cyborgs, powered armor. Very commercial mindset and a large budget.
    • Order of the Talon: Clock Punk / Steampunk. Adepts of mechanics and metallurgy. Potential evidence of supernatural religious power.
    • Atomic Kingdom of China: Atom Punk / Space Opera. Mastery of cheap nuclear energy. Orbital habitats, teleportation, segregated caste of clone workers/soldiers.
  • Retro Universe: Each faction embodies a retro style as mentioned under Punk Punk but attitudes and technology are modern and border on Schizo-Tech, respectively. There also is a Wiki Rule named "Law of Crimson Skies" which requires people both real and In-Universe to be culturally sensitive in terms of Double Standards against genders, races and religions.
  • Richard Nixon the Used Car Salesman: A lot of future US presidents are involved in the Confederate Revolution, Nikita Khrushchev is a lowly grain farmer, and so forth, though many figures in the lore have similar professions but just work for different organizations.
    • Taken literal in that Richard Nixon actually IS a car salesman.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome / Sequel Non Entity: All of the characters from the original Red Alert 3 (or the characters borrowed from other Command and Conquer games) have either been killed or otherwise reduced to a state of non-importance. The sole execeptions are the commandos.
  • The Sixties
  • The Space Race: In this setting it's less about getting to the moon and more about ensuring orbital superiority, though so far space military has been so expensive that there has been an orbital Cold War even as the Allies and Soviets fight for real.
  • The Vietnam War: South Vietnam forces (ARVN) and Vietcong are in the game, supported by the Allies and Soviets, respectively.
  • Washington, D.C. Invasion: Played with, as Washington DC is being invaded by Americans.
  • World of Badass: All heroes are this, many non-hero units are this, many other non-hero units can be this if they try and every important commander is pretty much a Colonel Badass or Four-Star Badass in their own right.
  • World War Three: Paradox takes place after it with big parts of the world in ruins or under reconstruction and its three major players (Allies, Empire and Soviets) economy and military wise exhausted, thus opening space for 5 new super powers.
  • Zeerust: Every faction represents a different take on retro "The World of Tomorrow!" concepts. Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with Dieselpunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic Eagle Land using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from Tin Can Robots to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanized Eldritch Abomination. The result is something of a Mega Crossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.


Meta

  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Unit headers with listed key features usually do this for Rule of Funny.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: Very technical.
  • Ban on Politics: Talking about Real Life politics is banned on the Wiki and everywhere else too.
  • Berserk Button: It is unwise to ask for a release date, especially repeatedly (Answer: When it's done). It is also unwise to ask if Uprising units will be included (Answer: No). It is extremely unwise to ask for a Wiki account and break the rules (Reaction: You gonna get banned). Some people do all three and then wonder why everyone on the team suddenly turns hostile.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Since Paradox heads into a different direction, Uprising is excluded from the mod canon.
  • Deconstruction: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague Cold War setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks "What would it be like if this was serious?" and the answers tend to go dark places.
  • Fantasy Axis of Evil: While Paradox does not categorise factions into good and evil but rather shades of grey, some similarities pop up:
    • Crafty: Mediterranean Syndicate. Hightech, Zerg Rush units (Auxillaries) and smart, but globally the weakest main faction.
    • Eldritch: Electrical Protectorate. Robots, Zerg Rush tactics and an actual Eldritch Abomination.
    • Fallen: Empire of the Rising Sun. Psychic, manipulative, and ruthless, bouncing back quickly from a failed attempt to conquer the world militarily to trying to conquer the world economically.
    • Humanoid: Most dark minor factions.
    • Savage: Atomic Kingdom of China. Out to pulverize the world for revenge and completely lacking in subtlety.
  • Five Races: As with the above, Five Races factions tend to be brighter grey than Fantasy Axis of Evil ones rather than being purely good and fit into categories:
    • Cute: Confederate Revolutionaries. A freewheeling collection of fiercely determined hippies, rednecks, and all of 1960s America's other fringe groups.
    • Fairy: Allied Nations, with their almost magical technology.
    • High Men: Order of the Talon fit this the most, when they are not scheming nations against each other.
    • Mundane: Allied Reservists, International Inc.
    • Stout: The Soviet Union. Happily and efficiently authoritarian, glorifying hard work and brute force.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The Auras page on the Wiki.
  • Gender Is No Object: Played realistically straight. Allied, Chinese, Soviet, Syndicate and even some minor faction infantry have sometimes randomised gender with only slightly changed armour and fitting voices. The Imperial Japanese do not do this, for obvious reasons.
  • Grimmer and Pulpier: Done meta-wise to the Chinese Civil War. It used to be just a fairly normal if horrible depiction of a stalemated version of the real life version until Jade was discovered. Post-lore revamp, it's been drastically darkened in the last eight years, to the point where both sides were running around with clone armies, guns that turn a person inside out, and blood-diamond creating atom smashers.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading: The Mod's Moddb page had a rather humorous flash imitating an eternally loading loading bar, which loads anything from normal stuff to utter nonsense, then either the loaded part keeps falling out, regress back or just spills out.
  • Reference Overdosed: As mentioned above, almost every unit and lore is a Shout-Out to something else.
  • Rule of Cool: It is firmly established that anything which doesn't violate the base lines of the universe (free energy and Faster-Than-Light Travel among them) is allowed. Added twist being that when it's not made cooler by violating every other rule of the universe, there is no reason for it to be scientifically wrong in the first place.
  • Satire, Parody, Pastiche: All three of them as follows:
    • Satire: Industrial excess, warfare, supression of human rights and blind following of idiologies (and fighting others) simply for assuming of being right and everyone else being wrong.
    • Parody: Scifi works from the 1950s up to modern day, eastern and western alike across all media.
    • Pastiche: Works of all genres in all media and way too many to count them all. The most notable are Star Trek, Blade Runner, Minority Report, Gundam, Sucker Punch, Nineteen Eighty-Four and all Vietnam themed films.
  • Take That: The various "Uprising" units, overpowered as they are, are not in the mod for various reasons, mainly because in-lore they are worth nothing.
  • The Wiki Rule: Both an official one and an unnofficial one.
  • Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Soviet lightning blasts are blue-white, and purple at high levels, but when the Protectorate throw around electricity it is yellow.
  • Troperiffic
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The way faction revamps were and are done always results in this.
  • Willing Suspension of Disbelief: A mod based on ridiculous science for a game based on ridiculous science.


Other

  • All Theories Are True: Every theory and scientific idea of the mid 20th century is viable in this setting.
  • Always Female: The faction heroines.
  • Decade Dissonance
  • Deflector Shields: Allies, Soviets, Empire, China and even the Syndicate use variations of those.
  • Fan Service: The new heroes fall into this out of tradition of the original three. However, Lady Maria is an exception.
  • Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: Almost every tank destroyer.
  • Gray and Grey Morality: Everyone has corpses in the basement, but most factions at least try to be moral. Most.
  • Insistent Terminology: The word "laser" does not exist in universe; the word "spectrum" is used instead, leading to spectrum beams, spectrum designators, electrospectrum plasma channels, and so forth. Using the word "laser" in a suggestion is a good way to show you haven't been paying attention.
  • Opposing Combat Philosophies: Everyone compared to everyone else.
  • Scale of Scientific Sins: The Allies have committed sins one and two, the Empire and Syndicate have done one through three, and the Protectorate is the first sin. Even the Confederates and their PAWI tech clock in with number two, as does China with a lot of its tech as well as doing genetic engineering. Note that three through six are well within the Allies' reach and four through six for the Empire and Syndicate... they just haven't done it yet. The Soviet Union and Order of the Talon seem to be the only major factions with a clean slate here.
    • As far as the minor factions go, Red China developed cloning technology and genetic engineering thus reviving the dead in new bodies, while Blue China can revive the dead (or rather produce zombies) with deliberate usage of crude cybernetics. Green China condemned them for both but keeps using cloning tech.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Played with. Some factions, such as the Soviet Union and Order of the Talon, believe that the Paradox world is on the cynical end of the scale and try to be good guys through the lens of a cynical world. Others, such as the Allied Nations and Confederate Revolutionaries, believe that the Paradox world is on the idealistic end and behave as good guys through the lens of an idealistic world. Where exactly the Paradox world "does" fall on the scale is largely left to the viewer's imagination.
    • According to the April 17 paradoxcast, the Paradox world is very cynical. Apparently, every campaign will have either a bad or bittersweet ending.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Required to win most battles.
  • Techno Babble and Magi Babble: Tries to avoid it when it can; if a basis in real world science can be established, it is much preferred. However, the sheer "wierdness" of the setting means this isn't always possible.
  • The Metric System Is Here to Stay: In-lore as well as an actual Wiki rule.
  • We Will Wear Armor in the Future: Everyone armors at least some of their infantry up. The Talon get a pass because they are knights, though.
  • Wham! Episode: The April 17 paradoxcast, which included the first hints of what the eventual campaigns will include, ranging from what was described as the Normandy landings on the moon to an Allied mission inside a human body. This latter revelation met with a Flat What from the community.
  • Would Not Shoot a Civilian: It's actually quite expensive to do that.
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