Aircraft are units that occupy the aerial space of the map. Most of these units are designed for combat, but some serve other purposes like transport and even espionage.
Types and Uses[]
Hot Air Balloon/Observation Balloon/Spy Satellite[]
Unique, civilization center-produced Aircraft that appear before even Airports in Epoch X, with their only function being providing view of the map. They can be useful to chart the map early in the game, but once military power has grown in the game session, especially when played in Epoch X onward, they become extremely risky to use, as they have low speed and are inherently weak, often having their fate sealed once discovered by enemies' Anti-Aircraft and Fighters. These can be trained at the Capitol. In Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, the Spy Satellite is introduced as an upgrade of the Observation Balloon. It can travel through space.
Planes[]
Planes are combat Aircraft that utilize a unique mechanic; they have the fuel attribute which dictates how long they can remain active in the air. When the fuel meter reaches zero, they will be forced to fly back into their Airport/Carrier of origin; Bomber and Atomic Bomber planes' fuel will deplete completely once they unload their explosives. Planes need to be assigned to a port to be able to activate, and a port has a maximum capacity. A plane will be automatically assigned to the port that they are created in initially, but players can transfer them to a new port by selecting the plane(s) whilst they're mid-flight and not already en-route to landing, and then right-clicking on a new port that has enough capacity slot(s). If there are no valid ports for the Planes to settle in as the plane's fuel is emptied mid-air, they will automatically die as a unit. Planes themselves cannot remain idle mid-air and will circle around the spot assigned to them by the player. Individual planes can be dispatched by clicking on their icon in the Airport. Players can also set rally points of their Airports/Carriers so they will automatically dispatch matching type of planes to that site repeatedly until the command is cancelled.
- Fighter: Pure fighter-type planes are unable to attack units on land or or in nautical zones. They are specifically made to dominate other Aircraft. They can easily take down other Aircraft as effectively, if not more so, than Anti-Aircraft.
- Fighter/Bomber: Hybrid function planes that can use their conventional fire to attack units on land, air and water surface. While they're not as good as pure Fighters in taking down hostile Aircraft, they are very versatile and considerably effective against a wide range of units, including Infantry, Siege Weapons, Frigates, Citizens, Clergy, Transport Boats and even weaker Buildings. On other occasions, when land units are completely absent, hybrid planes can assist pure Fighters or substitute them in an emergency. Their value is even higher considering that most land or sea units are helpless in countering them.
- Carrier's Fighter/Bomber: The Carrier ship can produce and house their own variant of the Hybrid plane different from the ones produced by Airports. They are generally weaker in attribute than the Airport-based F/B planes, but have the advantage of a mobile port. Carrier's F/B plane cannot be ported on Airports (and vice versa), but they can transfer assignment to different Carriers that are under the player's control.
- Anti-Tank: Anti-Tank planes can only attack land units, and cannot attack buildings. While they can do some good against infantry, their primary use is to destroy tanks, which their attacks gain a huge multiplier against. These planes first appear in Epoch XI, and they, for some reason, do not have a Range value displayed in their attribute box. They are retired from production at Epoch XIV.
- Bomber: Bombers unload high-damage explosives either to an assigned target or a zone assigned to be bombarded. Their loads have AoE values and are effective against anything. Their weakness, however, being their speed and inability to actively fight back, meaning they're high-risk and high-reward in regards of operational role.
- Atomic Bomber: Similar to Bombers, except their loaded explosive have devastating damage and huge AoE range. These planes are proportionately very expensive to make and even more so to upgrade to optimal performance.
Helicopters[]
Helicopters are air units capable of being stationary mid-air and require no fuel for doing so. They are healed within Airport's LoS.
- Transport: Transport Helicopters can load and un-load most land units and carry them across the map faster than they might travel, or across boundaries impossible to get through on their own. Helicopter transport can pass through cliffs and nautical zones and are faster than Transport ship, but have less load capacity and cannot load in several types of units like the Ship can.
- Gunship: These Helicopters have high rate of fire, attacks other non-airplane aircraft, land and sea-surface units, and are very effective against infantry and Citizens. In fact, their unlimited flight duration is a considerable advantage against F/B hybrid when it comes to cleaning up enemies' Citizens.
- Anti-Tanks: Helicopters capable of attacking land and water-surface units that are exceptionally effective against Tanks and Cybers with their slower rate of fire. Though not the sharpest tool for the job, AT Helicopters also do considerable damage against Frigates and Transport Ships. This gives them potential as interceptors or aerial support in nautical warfare when working in groups, though the Cruiser can easily counter them.
- Anti-Sub: Helicopters of the Sea King line that exclusively attack Submarines. Though having a niche use, they are exceptionally good at it, especially when compared to Frigates, the nautical counters against Subs. Sea Kings are not hindered by nautical traffic, and they can move between separate bodies of water if needed. Because of their lack of defense and unimpressive health/speed, they are ideally prioritized to cripple Nuclear subs instead of participating in open engagement attacking normal Subs where Anti-Aircraft and Fighters are involved.
Ares[]
The Cyber unit line that is useful against a lot of other units, having unlimited flight time and is weak only against a few. Their only weakness being their lack of specified multiplier and relatively high cost. Being a cyber, they're also susceptible to Hades' virus.