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There are five resources that can
be collected in Empire Earth. On space maps, the wood/tree resource is
replaced with 'carbon' but it is
basically the same thing just a different name is all. As far as anyone
knows, trees don't exist on Mars,
so it had to be changed to something else and carbon sounds good to
me too.
The first resource is food. Food
is used for epoching up and creating certain military units. Infantry,
archers, medics, cavalry, heroes,
priests, prophets, citizens, support units (diplomats and such), cybers
(hey, the creators of computer
stuff are WELL known for putting away loads of food), some tanks, and
many upgrades use food. Food looks
like so:
*
fish, a forage patch, farm, rice
patty^, cyber farm*, chicken, deer, eagle, elephant, giraffe, goat,
hippopotamus, horse, ostrich, tiger,
walrus, wolf.
So that means hunting, farming,
and fishing. Hunting doesn't require anything except a citizen. Farming
requires some wood (not much though)
to build the farm with. Once you create a farm, the food
resource of 300,000 most likely
will not run out. If the farm is destroyed however, you need to reinvest
resources into building those farms
again. Best to keep your farms and other resources protected.
Fishing uses a boat which requires
wood as well. Fishing boats can't fight back so they need
protection as well.
Note also that if you don't exterminate
all of an animal, they create more. So a few horses left unhunted
can gradually become a herd so
long as not hunted to extinction. Some animals (like wolves, elephants,
and such) have an attack and it
might be better to hunt them into extinction than to get messages about
being attacked now and then. What?
You never had giraffe steak or baked hippo surprise? Well, now's
your chance... (well, a chance
for your citizens to enjoy it at least).
Next on the list would be wood.
Wood is the possible 'short supply'
resource on a map. Trees, unlike animals, don't grow back. So once
they are gone, they don't come
back. Also, each tree isn't 300,000 wood so they can possibly run out
(unlikely but possible). Wood is
mainly used in most buildings, siege weapons (catapults and such),
archers, ships, and upgrades to
most of these as well.
Wood looks like (except for that ONE piece of carbon if you spot it):
And in the space maps, wood becomes carbon which looks like this:
*
Carbon is harvested just like wood is and is also just as likely to possibly run out.
Next on the list is stone.
Stone is used pretty much for defensive
structures like towers, walls, and gates. Stone is also used for
wonders but primarily is the defense
structure resource. In tournament mode, walls and towers aren't
as durable but they are still useful
in any game mode. Towers help alert you to attacks and also, when
used properly, slow down the opponent
so that you can bring in your defensive forces to deal with these
barbaric invaders on your soil.
Stone is mined from a stone mine which looks like this:
Next comes gold.
Gold is pretty much like the money
of the resources. Gold is used for many upgrades and for many
different units. Gold is also used
for some wonders. Priests, prophets and many of their upgrades
revolve around gold. To build a
strong army and to do research, gold is essential.
Gold looks like:
Next comes iron.
Iron is pretty much needed for armored
type units like tanks, strong ships, and also for upgrades and
such. A couple wonders also require
iron as well. Iron is needed for a strong army and really needed
with gold if you wish to develop
an air force in the later epochs.
Iron looks like this:
All resources are essential in some
way. In the early epochs, iron is not needed whereas in the later
epochs, stone becomes nearly obsolete.
Resource priority should revolve around what you are trying to
do. If trying to build up your
economy, food becomes the priority for making citizens to forage and hunt
for food, chop wood, mine the other
resources. Wood becomes important for buildings and for some
units, so that should be #2 priority
when starting out. If going defensive, stone comes next as it allows
towers and such which help protect
you from invaders and act as an early warning that you are being
attacked. Many times the towers
get taken down but it lets you know where someone is and the tower
does kind of delay the enemy. Gold
and iron if or as needed after that. Always try to get as much of
each as possible and always try
to have the full amount of people (6) harvesting as much resource as
possible (without cutting into
your military that you need to maintain through the PopCap [Population
Capacity]). Remember also, that
each resource you control is a resource that your opponent doesn't
have. That is also why your resources
are essential to protect because without them, you have no future.
Without a military to protect those
resources, you have no future either. Resources need to have a
purpose. Collect with a plan. If
you need more wood and less gold then move some from gold over to
wood. The game really is "fighting"
but is really a lot of management as well. The best generals and
military leaders are good resource
managers. You can know the terrain and where to attack and all, but
without the troops in the area
to carry out that plan, the plan is kind of worthless. Also, without the
proper military and upgrades, the
plan will most likely fail as well (but not always either). You need to
keep track of everything and get
a 'plan' going. People think tanks and planes and stuff but really,
without having the resources to
make them, the plan becomes just a dream as Stalin marches all over
your beaches and bombards your
undefended capitol. If no one is there mining the iron to build the
bombers, the bombers can't be built.
Work with a plan, but a flexible plan in case something else comes
along. Always be prepared for the
worst, because sooner or later it WILL happen.
* denotes unit/building only available
in the Empire Earth - The Art of Conquest add-on pack.
^ denotes unit/building only available
in campaign/scenario play.