Your journey begins in the Prehistoric Age (50,000 B.C.E.) with a Stone Axe-wielding villager and a single Scout. From there, you can progress all the way to the Nano Age (2200 C.E.), where you are building cybers and giant mechs.

The core promise of Empire Earth ’s gameplay is simple: But how does it actually hold up two decades later? Let’s break down the mechanics that made this "Spore of RTS games" a cult classic. The Epochs: A 500,000-Year Tech Tree The headline feature of Empire Earth is the Epoch system . Unlike the four ages of Age of Empires , EE features 15 distinct epochs (14 in the original, 15 with the Art of Conquest expansion).

Because the epochs last so long, "rushing" is rare. However, a specific strategy dominated the meta: By advancing to the Copper Age quickly, players could walk a citizen into an enemy base and drop a Sentry Tower right next to the enemy Town Center. Because towers are incredibly strong against early units, this often resulted in instant victory.

In the golden age of Real-Time Strategy (RTS), two giants stood head and shoulders above the rest: Age of Empires II and StarCraft . But lurking in the shadow of these titans was a third contender that dared to dream bigger. Much, much bigger.