Buildings
Every building is procedurally raised in your nation's architectural style: Dutch stepped gables, French mansard roofs, Japanese pagoda roofs or Russian onion domes. Your work crew builds it in six visible stages: a staked-out site, foundations, half-built walls with scaffolding, the roof frame, roofing, and done.
Economy
Headquarters
Stores 1000 of each resource; trains work crews; advances ages.
House
+5 population.
Farm
Infinite food for one worker.
Warehouse
Stores up to 800 of each resource. Destroyed = contents lost.
Steelworks
Workers bring iron ore here; the blast furnace smelts it into steel for your warehouses.
Oil derrick
Produces oil (build on oil field).
Bank
Vault for your gold. Exchange: trade resources for gold. War bonds earn interest.
Harbour / naval yard
Build on the coast, partly on the water. Builds ships and takes in fish.
Military
Barracks
Trains infantry.
Factory
Builds vehicles.
Airfield
Builds aircraft.
Field hospital
Heals nearby units.
Intelligence & development centre
Research technologies.
Radar station
Cold War reconnaissance: sweep an area with radar (green contacts show where enemy units are and how big they are, not what they are). Research the spy satellite to see everything in an area for a while. Needs time to recharge after each use.
Defence and infrastructure
Bunker
Does not fire by itself: right-click it with soldiers to garrison them (they fire from the loopholes with extra range and cannot be hit). If the bunker falls, they come out.
Anti-aircraft emplacement
Fixed anti-air; upgrades every age: 7.7 cm BAK, twin Bofors, 8.8 cm Flak, S-75, Patriot. Needs soldiers as crew (right-click with soldiers).
Coastal battery
Heavy guns (later missiles) against ships; build near the water. Needs soldiers as crew (right-click with soldiers).
Trench
Dug-in position for infantry. Soldiers inside take far less damage. Tanks and other tracked vehicles can cross it, wheeled vehicles cannot. Click and drag to dig a line.
Wall
Blocks ground units.
Road
Paved road. Infantry, vehicles and work crews move much faster on it than over rough terrain, and they prefer roads when picking a route. Cannot be shot at. Click and drag to lay a stretch; it connects to village roads and bridges.
Rocket site
Fires on its own at long range, but inaccurate; grows every age: mortar pit, heavy mortar, rocket rails, tube launcher, long-range rocket. Max 4.
The anti-aircraft emplacement
You build an anti-aircraft emplacement once and it grows with your age, from a gun inside a ring of sandbags to a missile battery. It does need a crew of three soldiers.
The harbour
Built on the coast, half on the water. Fishing boats come in here, and this is where you build your entire fleet, from steam drifter to Nimitz.
Bank, stock exchange and war bonds
Ordinary storage only holds a limited amount of gold: 300 in the headquarters and 150 in a warehouse. The bank is a vault for 4000 gold and is named after your country's central bank: De Nederlandsche Bank, the Reichsbank and later the Bundesbank, the Bank of England or the Federal Reserve. The fuller the vault, the more layers of gold bars you see in the model.
- The stock exchange: buy and sell food, wood, steel and oil in lots of 100 for gold. All players share the same prices. Buying drives the price up, selling pushes it down, and afterwards the price slowly drifts back.
- War bonds: invest 100 + 100 × your age in gold and get 35% more back after 150 seconds. You can hold at most three at a time, and if the bank falls they become worthless.
- Plunder: whoever destroys a vault makes off with half the gold, in a cloud of coins.
The bank in 1914 and from the Cold War onwards, with office tower
Research
The centre has a different name in every country: Bletchley Park and later GCHQ, the Artillerie-Inrichtingen and later TNO Defensie, the Heereswaffenamt, DARPA or the GRU. Every research topic has three levels and costs gold.
Firepower
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Artillery, rockets and bombs deal +15% damage per level.
from 1925 / 1960 / 2000
Aircraft +12% and missiles +15% damage per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Tanks, armoured cars and AA vehicles deal +15% damage per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Infantry, machine guns, anti-tank and snipers deal +15% damage per level.
Protection
from 1925 / 1939 / 2000
Aircraft take 12% less damage per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Ground vehicles take 12% less damage per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Buildings take 15% less damage; bunker garrisons and AA sites +10% damage per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Infantry takes 12% less damage per level.
Strategy
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
All units and defences reload 8% faster per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Units and buildings see 1 tile further per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Medics and hospitals heal 30% more; training 8% faster per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
All units move 8% faster per level.
from 1925 / 1939 / 2000
Ranged weapons +6% range per level.
Economy
from 1925 / 1939 / 1960
Gathering +12% and building +15% faster per level.
The radar station also has a research topic of its own: the spy satellite. A satellite ground station on the roof captures images that reveal everything in an area for 40 seconds, including units hiding in the dark.