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{{trope}}
▲{{quote box|[[File:Warcraft_2_8815.jpg|link=Warcraft (Video Game)|right]]}}
The universe is too small for the intergalactic powers of the day. Their armies, developed on different planets by several different cultures, eventually come to an epic clash.
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Instead, the enemy walkers take the same amount of damage as your tanks and dish out just as much hurt. Okay, so they're shooting laser zaps instead of artillery shells, have different names, and almost certainly will have different looks... But in the end side A's heavy [[Cool Tank|tank]] has the exact same purpose and tactical function as side B's heavy [[Hover Tank|hovertank]] and side C's heavy [[Spider Tank|crawler]]. Ditto for A's scout vehicle, B's fast hovercraft and C's four-legged jumping crawler. There might be some minor race differences, and maybe one or two units that are genuinely different, but the end result is still a ridiculously improbable balance.
This trope is most often seen in [[Real Time Strategy]] games whose designers are too lazy to think of alternate tactics for the various sides and/or ways to balance the differences; in fact, games such as [[
This is a lot more common in games set in real or historical settings, as it's rare for any human military to have a technological advantage for long without someone on the other side trying to copy it, and possibly one-upping it. At least at the infantry end. Once you get into vehicles, things tend to shift: a Tiger is imbalanced vs. a Sherman, but they're both tanks.
Where the two sides are identical besides their colour, it's a [[Palette Swap]]. The [[Trope
{{examples
* ''[[
** ''[[
** Mercs even ''look'' the same. Only difference is the color. [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|This is never remarked upon]], even in supplementary material.
** Justified: both teams are (secretly) controlled by the same person.
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*** However, each unit was specialized in a different direction. The Rapier's rockets weren't much good against moving targets, but could rip a base down in no time flat. Brawlers would take forever to knock down buildings, but could demolish columns of ground units with relative ease.
** Total Annihilation just covers a lot more unit types then most RTS. Where one game would make a tank race and a walker race and a floaty race, TA:CC gives both factions a vehicle plant, a bot plant and hovercrafts (floaty). The difference is bigger then just the appearances. Stats, costs, buildtime,... are usually slightly different. The only units to which this trope truely applies are the builder units, a lot of the buildings and the commanders.
* In the spiritual successor, ''[[
** The designers said in interviews before the game was released that they did this simply because the game would be practically impossible to balance otherwise.
** Although the game does have an agenda regarding balance, for the level of balance reached it is quite diversified in subtle details and not-so-subtle. Each faction Artillery have their unique strengths and different ballistic particularities, for instance. The UEF is generally straightforward, the Cybrans are sneaky and adaptable (most Cybran units aren't the best in their roles, but have minor specials to help them fill in for other roles), Aeon is extremely specialized (their units completely incapable of doing anything outside their function, but doing it extremely well) and the Seraphin are multipurpose resource hogs, expensive but effective in all areas.
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* ''Thandor: the Invasion'' reverses this trope. Not only are units aesthetically the same, they are even ''called'' the same. And yet, for motives unknown, side A's vehicle can very well be twice as powerful as its side B visual twin...
* In the ''[[Halo]]'' multiplayer, at least in 2 and 3, Elites and Spartans are exactly alike aside from the obvious differences by the former being alien and the latter being human. ''Reach'' averts this, though - Elites are faster, have better shields and fully recharging health, but are bigger targets.
* RTS/vehicular action cross ''[[Battlezone (1998
** Its sequel ''Battlezone 2'' adds more aesthetic changes since one of the races is not human, so the vehicles vary greatly in appearance. They are, of course, still mostly the same.
*** Except the fact the aliens vehicles transform to alter their weapons and their high end units usually function completely differently compared to the human high end units.
* ''[[SWINE]]''s two factions (Rabbits and Pigs, yes) are almost identical in gameplay terms, with equivalent units on both sides, but are set apart by a few subtle differences. A few Pig units are a bit more heavily armored, and their main tank packs slightly more firepower than that of the Rabbits, while Rabbit units tend to be faster and more fuel-efficient than their Pig counterparts. Also, they both have one unique unit; the Pigs have their heavy tank, while the rabbits have tank-killer buggies.
* The page image comes from ''[[
** The cosmetic designs do make a very slight difference, however. Since certain guns are mounted in different places on each respective unit, it gives them different firing arcs for engaging enemy units, which in turn affects how you use them. The difference is very slight, however, and can only really be noticed for slow and/or large ships that don't have the maneuverability to simply bring their front to bear on a target.
** Homeworld: Cataclysm partly averts this, although it's
** Homeworld 2 averts this to a greater
* In the early ''[[
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' originally subverted this by restricting the Shaman and Paladin classes to Horde and Alliance respectively. Alas ... no more.
** However, each race varies slightly in base stats and racial abilities. The Paladin also had slightly different abilities on both sides, but this was ultimately tossed out in the next expansion.
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* The [[Game Boy Color]] game ''[[Warlocked]]'' is similar. Each side had workers, soldiers, and archers, and they had exactly the same stats as their equivalents on the opposite side (despite the humans' archers being elves and the beasts' archers being [[Dem Bones|skeletons]].) Each side can also summon wizards to help, and while most wizards are mercenary, there are some who only work for one side or the other... and have an exact counterpart on the opposite side (the Necromancer turns enemies into skeletons while the Elvenwiz turns enemies into elves, the Sage and Mysticwiz both turn enemies into healing hearts, and so on).
* The SNES game ''Rampart'' was a classic story of the epic battle [[Palette Swap|Red Castle Versus Blue Castle]].
* [[Averted Trope|Averting this]] was part of the plan in the development of ''[[
** However, the ''Brood War'' expansion gets special mention in this department. [[All There in the Manual|The backstory of the game]] says that the Terrans we play are the remnants of a prison colony of mind-wiped mutants and deviants in [[Human Popsicle|cold sleep]] removed from Earth during an enormous ethnic cleansing campaign that was sent zillions of lightyears off-course by a computer failure. After crash-landing on several planets and pretty much building civilization anew, they formed a makeshift interstellar empire of [[Corrupt Hick
** Even more hilarious when you realize certain units (like the Command Center) have the same logo painted on them, no matter what faction they belong to. Guess these come standardized.
** To a lesser extent, this applies to the Protoss Templars & Dark Templars. They have different units, but otherwise the exact same buildings. The Dark Templars don't even bother to paint theirs, well, ''dark''. And like the Terrans, there are two units of difference between them, but the player gets access to all of them, anyway.
*** Justified better with the Protoss, because they are very tradition-bound, normally discovering old technology rather than inventing something new.
*** Also justified in that the split was relatively recent compared to the fact that Protoss are absurdly long-lived, Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal REMEMBERS the split. Despite being the oldest living Protoss, that means that we are only a generation or two out.
** The UED intervention is [[Handwaved]] by saying that UED Admiral DuGalle was ordered to steal local (i.e. Terran Dominion) hardware instead of use their shiny different Earth ships. This would be more believable if it wasn't for the fact that even the ''flagship'' was a colonial design, as confirmed in cinematics.
** Somewhat averted in the UED's victory cinematic, which depicted a Goliath with a under-slung missile pod instead of the twin machine guns they're normally depicted with. It implies that both units shared a similar base, but diverged due to the Korpulu's isolation.
* A non-game example would be ''[[
** [[Lampshaded]] in ''Fleet Command 3'', the photon torpedoes used by the Federation and Klingons are stated to be the exact same model due to co-development by the allied governments.
* In ''[[Advance Wars]]'', provided that the armies are led by the same commander character (and in Days of Ruin, have the same skill level), the only difference between units is their appearance. Then again, the game relies on the commander characters to provide varying bonuses and penalties.
* ''[[Battlefield (
* ''[[
** ''[[
** A more grievous offender is ''[[Star Wars]]: Galactic Battlgrounds'', due to being ''[[
*** Until the later tech levels, where Wookiees get regeneration and large [[The Berserker|berserkers]] [[Dual Wield|with a sword in each hand]].
** Averted with ''[[
* Averted by ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' and its expansions, where each race has a different FTL drive, which leads to different ship designs, which leads to different turret placements, which leads to different combat advantages. Each race also has different percentage bonuses in the partially randomized tech tree. However, the actual guns are
* In the 2-D ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games, the only difference between your enemies and your units is the coloring and facial portraits. Everything else is identical. Averted in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn- most of your units have their own character models. It does, however, get interesting when you start fighting different enemy armies, who all share the same models. Why do Daein, Crimea, and Begnion all employ the same ten soldiers, again?
** This can be partially explained by the fact that the entire (human-inhabited part of the) continent was under Begnion rule until a few centuries before. (It's [[All There in the Manual]]. Or at least [http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Begnion the wiki].)
* ''[[Civilization]]'' has been gradually growing away from this. ''Civilization'' and ''Civilization II'' both featured more or less identical civilizations, with some minor variations in leader attitude. After Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds left Microprose to found Firaxis and came out with Civ II's [[Spirtual Successor]] ''[[Sid
**
** It gets averted HARD in some [[Game Mod|GameMods]] such as [[Fall From Heaven]].
* The Red and Blue races of [[Machines]] seem to follow the same logical paths when it comes to constructing units. At least one mission gives you an idea of why this is happening, every time one side comes up with a new idea the other side steals it, restoring the status quo.
* General Lionwhyte's forces in ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' are just reskinned versions of your own troops: Headbangers become Hairbangers, Razor Girls become Groupies, etc.. Subverted later with the other two factions, the Drowning Doom and the Tainted Coil, which have their own unique units and strategies.
* The Eucadian ''[[Warhawk (1995 video game)]]'' and Chernovan ''Nemesis'' aircraft handle identically in ''[[Warhawk (1995 video game)]]''. The teams' ground vehicles also have distinct models, but handle identically.
* In ''Conflict'' for the NES, the American and Soviet sides have corresponding units which are exactly equal except for their names, e.g., an American A-10 has the same stats as a Soviet SU-25.
* The ''[[Total War]]'' series plays this somewhat straight, but ends up subverting it in a unique fashion. There are hundreds of different types of units, but these can all be broken into a handful of very basic categories. For instance, there may be about 10 different kinds of heavy cavalry in ''Medieval: Total War'', belonging to different factions, with only slight variations in armor or attack score. The trick, however, is that no faction has representatives from all categories. Each faction is missing some key elements that most other factions have, and at the same time possesses a few unit types that outperform those belonging to other factions. So for instance, Romans lack any serious Heavy Cavalry, but they make up for it with extremely disciplined infantry (the Legionnaires). The player's job is to learn how to use whatever troops they ''do'' have to exploit deficiencies in other factional armies. This is extremely apparent with factions that are ridiculously similar to the untrained eye, like Greeks and Macedonians, where a few key units are available to one but not the other, making a huge difference in the way they fight their wars.
** On the other hand, some of the occasions where this trope is played straight are [[Justified Trope|justified]]. For example, many of the greek and semi-greek factions (Macedon, Seleucids, Thrace, Pontus) share some of the same units (companion cavalry with Macedon and Seleucids, Phalanx Pikemen for all of them) because, historically, all of them were descended from the same empire (the Macedonian empire, i.e. Alexander the Great's empire). In fact, there are occasions where subverting this trope can be jarring, [[Video Game Historical Revisionism|Such as the depiction of Egypt in "Rome", which should ALSO be a greek faction, but looks like it just walked right out of the Ten Commandments.]]
* Averted in ''[[The Unholy War]]'' on the [[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Command
** The first Red Alert averted this in a strange way, as the navies are totally different. This leaves gaping holes in both fleets, like the allies not having submarine technology.
* ''Original War'' has sides with identical resource gathering, production, and basic units. They diverge with their high-tier abilities that come from researching the local [[Green Rocks]]. Unfortunately, the same [[Green Rocks]] stranded all sides in prehistory at the beginning of the game: by the time they're established well enough for high-tech research, the campaign is near its end.
* In the NES game ''Conflict'', you're an army composed of American technology against an army of Soviet technology. However, although you can build the F-15E as your attack jet, for example, it's exactly the same as the Soviet MiG-29A. The game was more about positioning and strategy than technological superiority anyway.
* The three playable races in ''[[RHDE]]'' for NES (Nander, Poli, and Volci) handle identically.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Older Than the NES]]
[[Category:Strategy Game Tropes]]
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