When it comes to the Empire Earth franchise, nobody can fault them for a lack of ambition. The game basically offers all of human history in one RTS, covering 15 eras ranging from cavemen wielding clubs and spears all the way to near-future warfare using cybernetically enhanced soldiers. Even better, the game itself is almost infinitely customizable. If there's an RTS variation, multiplayer game type, or weird little rule set, Empire Earth II can probably play it (even before the mod makers get their hands on it). The problem for developers Mad Doc Software, then, was how do you create a compelling expansion pack for a game so overloaded with features and customization possibilities that players are still trying to come to grips with them? The answer is (at least judging by The Art of Supremacy expansion pack): You don't.
The Art of Supremacy's biggest new feature, naturally, is the four new civilizations it brings to the table, The French, the Russians, the Zulu, and the Masai. Of these, only the new African races manage to rise above the expansion's general level of mediocrity. The Zulu and the Masai are part of the new "African" region, and as such, they get a whole host of new regional powers and abilities. They also each sport their own unique units for ancient, medieval and modern warfare. Both races' military doctrines reflect a cultural bias toward an individualistic warrior ethos, which makes their ancient infantry units particularly devastating. That makes using both of them in ancient era games a lot of fun when opponents have to figure out how to deal with powerful columns of warriors that can cut through the infantry of most other races.
