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Analysis
In the Prehistoric Epoch, there isn't a whole
lot to do except try to advance to another epoch (if available). This epoch
is very
basic and pretty straightforward as far as strategies.
You have very few options available. You can't do anything on the water,
no farming, very limited military, and slow resource
gathering. On the positive side, everyone else is slowed down as well and
are just as handicapped. Forage food and throw
rocks is about it in this epoch. Best to try and move on to another epoch.
Economy
Food and wood are the big necessities in this
epoch. Gold is probably third with stone just about as useful. Iron is
needed
for the Clubman but is not a real priority. Rock
throwing and clubbing are the military of the day. Priests and Prophets
are the real military might though. "Ugg throw
rock real good but leader say follow me and Ugg now follow him."
Unit resource breakdowns:
Canine Scout = food
Citizen = food
Clubman = food & iron
Priest = food & gold
Prophet = food & gold
Rock Thrower = food & gold
Building resource breakdowns
Barracks = wood
House = stone & wood
Settlement = wood
Temple = stone & wood
Tower = stone
To start out, you'll need a couple Citizens
which you should start out with. Next objective is to build a
Settlement
Town Center then Capitol
as needed. To upgrade from
a Settlement to a Town Center requires 5 Citizens
to populate the Settlement. After 10 Citizens populate a Town Center it
becomes a Capitol. Adding more citizens adds
a bigger morale bonus. From a Town Center or a Capitol (but not a Settlement)
you can produce more Citizens or even the Canine
Scout which can go
through trees and makes a decent unit to "see
what the Joneses are up to". Got to keep up with
those Joneses you know.
Also, try to keep a Settlement, Town Center or
Capitol near resources so that the resources are gathered
faster. Don't make the citizens have to walk
too far.
Next is the house .
The house makes your units stronger and more durable within range of the
house. Houses help
improve your defenses. Town Centers and Capitols
also provide defensive bonuses as well.
The Babylon Priest Tower "rush" in epochs I and II*
Many people have panicked because of the lack
of a university to 'protect' you from conversion by these buildings. Priests
are
mobile and can reconvert or convert. Build a
Temple and a few Priests to protect against this. If your opponent didn't
think to
build Temples nearby these buildings then by
all means make a Prophet and use Earthquake to take down the tower(s).
A
Babylon Priest Tower can only try to convert
one unit at a time. Also, if your opponent does happen to put up a tower
close
to one of your producing buildings (Capitol,
Town Center, or Barracks) just set a rally point away from the tower so
that units
produced don't get converted just standing around.
If a Priest Tower gets set up around one of your resource areas, have
some Rock Throwers combined with Priests to take
it or them out. When one of your Rock Throwers gets close to being
converted, pull him back out of the way so that
he doesn't get converted. If a Rock Thrower does get converted, use a Priest
to convert him back. Priests and Prophets can't
be converted in the first two epochs so don't be afraid to keep a Priest
or a
Prophet hanging around Priest Towers. Also, buildings
can't be converted by Priest Towers either. Therefore a Tower can be
built close by using the same principle of putting
a Citizen near the Priest Tower to build a Tower. When the Citizen gets
close
to conversion, pull him away and bring in another
Citizen. The Priest Tower 'rush' is not as bad as a Priest rush can be
though
because you can see where a Priest Tower is and
they can't move. A Priest on the other hand can disappear to somewhere
else. The Kingdom of Israel's Priests can be
MUCH nastier because they are cloaked (invisible). Try defending against
an
invisible enemy that can sneak up and convert
you. There is always a way to combat any situation. The best way is to
use
your head and think through what the problem
is and what the solution to that problem is. there is always a unit (or
two or
three) that can counter whatever your enemy throws
at you.
Towers (defense)
After you get your economy going with food and
wood production/collection, you'll want to start thinking about your defensive
and military options. For defense you have the
Primitive Tower available which is very sturdy for the epoch. Takes a lot
for
any of the units in the Prehistoric age to even
dent these suckers. There are no walls though and it takes a bit to gather
the
stone to put up a couple here and there where
they may protect important areas, resources and/or buildings. Also, in
the early
going, these towers can help protect against
the famed "Babylon Priest Tower rush" where someone playing as Babylon
puts
up a bunch of Priest Towers to convert units.
A Primitive Tower in an area can't be converted and if the Babylon player
puts
up a Priest Tower too close to a Primitive Tower,
use the Primitive Tower to beat it down. Putting up a small group of
Primitive Towers in key places can help keep
out the Priest Tower rushers. Priest Towers can't convert buildings in
the
Prehistoric Epoch. You can improve the range
of Towers but can only increase it once. Once is all you need though.
Also take note, trees and other obstacles make
great boundaries for your village, town, and eventual (hopefully) prosperous
city. Also note that Carthage's Pathfinding*
ability negates this strategy in The Art of Conquest Expansion.
Priests/Prophets
In all epochs, the Priests
and Prophets are made
at the Temple. No universities in this epoch so there is no
safeguard against Priests (or Priest Towers).
Prophets can not do their 'voodoo' around a temple so there is protection
against Prophets if you plan out making Temples
for protection. Not having Universities doesn't create a real problem
against Priests though. What can be converted
can be converted back. Remember also that in the 'Priest Tower rush' that
Priest Towers can't move whereas Priests are
moving Priest Towers in a way. A really good strategy is to make several
priests and keep them around where any Babylon
Priest Tower may be. If some of your units get converted, use the priests
to convert them right back. Priests can't convert
other Priests until a much later epoch. Priests also can't convert Prophets.
Priest Towers can't convert Priests until a much
later epoch and also can't convert Prophets either.
There are two upgrades available in the Prehistoric
Epoch and both are only for the Prophet. The Mysticism upgrade ,
which increases Prophet's hit points, and the
Sandals upgrade , which
increases the Prophet's speed.
Military
Barracks
The Barracks is it and no other military buildings?
Yes it is. And only two units as well from here. The Clubman
and
Rock Thrower
are the only two military units that you can build in this epoch. The Clubman
is a basic infantry unit and
the Rock Thrower is a basic range unit. Improvements
to hit points, range, speed, and attack are arbitrary depending on your
playing style. If you like moving fast across
the map then improve speed - can't hurt what you can't catch. If you like
just
'duking it out' up close then hit points will
keep you healthier longer. If you need some extra umph in your attack,
then
improve attack. For the Rock Thrower, range can
give you an edge by allowing you to attack from farther away. But
anyway, you should always try to improve your
units to suit your playing style and/or situation. Each improvement has
a
good effect so improve when you can.
Civilizations and their bonuses
(bonuses vary between different
versions/updates)
Note: How to determine which bonuses are right
for you? Look at how you plan to play the battle. If you plan on walling
yourself in then the Civ - Economy (stone) bonus
plus the Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers bonuses will help out. If
you plan
on using lots of Priests then Religion - Priest
bonuses and Civ - Economy (gold) bonuses are the way to go. Each
civilization
has its advantages and disadvantages throughout
each epoch and each map type. Island maps will require ships and ships
require wood, gold, and iron so not only the
Ship bonuses but also Civ - Economy (wood, gold, iron) help as well. There
is
no perfect civilization and even picking a civilization
that may seem 'handicapped' usually does not decide a game's fate
same as picking a seemingly advantaged civilization
does not decide either, but it can help if facing a similar opponent and
any
edge you can get over some one else is a good
thing I feel. The nice part of Empire Earth is that the game structure
allows for
miscalculations without any severe penalties.
The other player's Ships may have better range but yours are faster so
the range
advantage is not very useful now because with
the speed, the shots now miss most of the time. There is always a counter
for
everything available. Improvements give an advantage
to a certain area. Also, the beginning civilization bonuses give an early
advantage and a later advantage as well. Even
though you may start out with a civilization bonus of Infantry - Ranged
(range)
you can still improve that range more with the
unit improvement feature. So you start out with +2 but then improve twice
more
at +2 each time so now the range is +6 whereas
your opponent can only upgrade range twice and didn't have the starting
Infantry - Ranged (range) bonus so can only get
to a +4 range. However, his civilization started out with a Citizens &
Fishing
Boats (speed) bonus so he can therefore get more
resources faster. More resources = faster and larger army production.
See how that works?
Also, a breakdown on how the bonus system can be applied to units.
Civ - Building, Walls & Towers = defensive
bonuses
Infantry - Ranged = Rock Thrower
Infantry - Sword = Clubman
Religion - Priests = Priest
Religion - Prophets = Prophet
Economy bonuses are always good as are Citizen
bonuses too.
Ancient Greece = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (speed), Civ - Economy (gold, hunting & foraging), Civ
- General (conversion
resistance)
Assyrian Empire = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (range), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (build time,
hit points),
Civ - Economy (hunting & foraging), Civ -
General (pop cap)
Babylon = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (hit points), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (range), Civ -
Economy (stone, wood),
Religion - Prophets (range, speed)
Byzantine Rome = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (build time), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (cost,
hit points), Civ - General
(pop cap), Infantry - Ranged (range, speed),
Infantry - Sword (attack, hit points, speed)
Carthage = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (cost), Civ - Economy (stone), Civ - General (mountain combat), Infantry
- Ranged
(armor, cost)
Kingdom of Israel = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (build time), Civ - Economy (iron), Infantry - Sword (hit
points, speed),
Religion Priests (build time, cost, hit points),
Religion - Prophets (hit points, range)
Austria = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (attack, cost), Civ - Economy (hunting & foraging), Civ - General
(conversion resistance)
England = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (build time), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (cost, range),
Civ - Economy (gold),
Infantry - Ranged (hit points, range)
Franks = Civ - Buildings, Walls
& Towers (attack, cost), Civ - Economy (gold, wood), Civ - General
(conversion
resistance), Religion - Prophets (cost, range)
Kingdom of Italy = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (cost), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (build time,
hit points),
Civ - Economy (stone), Civ - General (mountain
combat), Infantry - Ranged (cost, hit points), Religion - Priests (hit
points,
range, speed)
Ottoman Empire = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (build time, speed), Civ - Economy (stone), Civ - General
(pop cap),
Religion - Priests (cost, hit points)
Spain = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (speed), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (range), Civ - Economy
(iron),
Civ - General (mountain combat), Infantry - Ranged
(attack, build time, hit points), Religion - Priests (hit points, range)
France = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (hit points, range), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (attack,
hit points, range),
Civ - Economy (gold, wood), Infantry - Ranged
(attack, range)
Germany = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (cost, hit points), Civ - Economy (stone)
Great Britain = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (speed), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (attack, build
time, range),
Civ - Economy (gold, hunting & foraging)
Italy = Civ - Buildings, Walls
& Towers (attack, build time, range), Civ - Economy (stone), Civ -
General (conversion
resistance), Infantry - Ranged (build time, cost)
Russia = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (build time), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (attack), Civ -
Economy (iron),
Civ - General (pop cap), Infantry - Ranged (build
time, hit points)
United States = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (attack, speed), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (build
time, cost),
Civ - Economy (gold, iron), Civ - General (pop
cap)
China = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (cost), Civ - General (pop cap)
Novaya Russia = Citizens &
Fishing Boats (cost, hit points), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (hit
points, range),
Civ - Economy (wood)
Rebel Forces = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (build time, range), Civ - Buildings, Walls & Towers (hit points),
Civ - Economy (iron), Civ - General (mountain
combat), Infantry Ranged (attack, range)
Japan = Citizens & Fishing
Boats (speed), Civ - Economy (iron), Civ - General (pop cap), Infantry
- Ranged (armor, speed)
Korea = Civ - Economy (gold), Civ
- General (mountain combat), Infantry - Ranged (armor, hit points)
Civilization Specific Powers*
For the Prehistoric epoch, these civilizations have these powers:
Assyrian Empire = Slavery (I-XV)
Babylon = Priest Towers (I-XV)
Byzantine Rome = Insurance (I-XV)
Carthage = Pathfinding (I-XV)
Kingdom of Israel = Emissaries (I-XV)
England = Exploration (I-XV)
Kingdom of Italy = Metallurgy (I-XV)
Ottoman Empire = Expansionism (I-XV)
France = Camouflage (I-XV)
Russia = Advanced Mining (I-XV)
China = Just In Time Manufacturing (I-XV)
Rebel Forces = Cloaking (I-XV)
Korea = Fanaticism (I-XV)
* denotes unit/building only available in the Empire Earth - The Art of Conquest add-on pack.
Note: the I icon
for the epoch is not part of the game but was designed by myself. The thought
behind the color
scheme for this epoch is the red paint usually
found on cave walls hence red on gray.