Strategic Interface

Strategic map

What sets Emperor apart from most RTS games is its use of a strategic map for players to choose their next battle. Those who have played EA's Shogun: Total War are already familiar with using a strategic map. Instead of a map of Japan divided into fiefdoms, what players in Emperor will see is a circular "map" of Arrakis divided into 33 territories between the three houses Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos. Mission selection is a matter of choosing an enemy controlled territory that borders your own. As you take over territories, you'll eventually come upon a stronghold of one of the rival houses that leads back to that house's home planet. The final victory comes when you warp over to your rivals' home planets and give them a beatdown in their own living room. You can select a straight line invasion path to your rivals' jumpgate territories for a shorter campaign, although this may be tougher than if you opted for the longer strategy of taking out the weaker surrounding territories first (we'll explain this more when we talk about reinforcements). The choice is yours.

Boom	Elevation does play a role in firing range and sight range

Mission planning

Mission selection isn't just arbitrary though. Before you agree to play a scenario, you'll be taken to a mission briefing screen that will give you a set of goals chosen randomly from a set of about 100 different possible missions. You'll also be given information regarding relative reinforcement strength, worm activity, and sub-house intrigue for that particular territory. The reinforcement strength is based loosely upon how many territories you have that border the invasion target, and how many enemy territories are bordering that target territory, and of course the relative strengths of all the territories in question. During a skirmish, reinforcement units will spawn into both bases at set periods of time. The frequency with which these reinforcement units spawn in, the number of troops each side gets, and the quality of those troops is dependent upon the reinforcement score shown during the mission planning screen. If you plan on invading an enemy territory that shows a reinforcement strength of 10 while yours is 3, then you might want to choose a less fortified territory to take. That is, unless you think you're a much better tactician than the computer, because he'll be getting more, and better units a lot more frequently than you will during the course of the battle.

Nice lighting effects

Allying with the subhouses

As we mentioned earlier, there are five subhouses in Emperor in addition to the three primary houses. Each of these subhouses has strengths and weaknesses, and depending on which primary house you choose to play, you will want to pick your allies to best complement your strengths and mask your house's primary weaknesses. Your choice in missions will have a lot to do with which subhouses you end up allying with. Doing a certain mission may win you favor with the Sardaukar subhouse, which will enable you to use the vicious Sardaukar warriors in battle. However, this will anger the Fremen, who aren't exactly best buddies with the Sardaukar. And do you really want sandworm-riding cowboys to be mad at you? Another mission might allow you to buy arms from the Ix, but that will enrage the Tleilaxu who may choose to send dozens of zombie warriors against you in the next mission. The five subhouses aren't just a bunch of mercenary chumps who will fight for the highest bidder - they each have base racial hatreds that will affect your standing with at least one of the other subhouses. Your choice in missions will have consequences that affect you throughout the campaign.

Mixing it up

Gotta love the shadowing