After releasing Empire Earth II earlier this year, the folks at Mad Doc Software are hard at work on an expansion pack to their epic real-time strategy game that stretches from the dawn of time to the future. The Art of Supremacy will introduce several new civilizations to play with, as well as a host of new features and improvements. For the first details on the expansion, which is due next year, we caught up with Matt Stokes, associate producer for the game.

The Russians are one of the new factions in the expansion.

GameSpot: Empire Earth II shipped way back in April, so we imagine that you've probably spent all your time since then working on the expansion. Could you briefly sum up what The Art of Supremacy is, and tell us what the overall theme or goal for the project is?

Matt Stokes: We were all very happy with Empire Earth II, but there were things that we really wanted to get in there that just didn't make it in time for the final ship of the game. Our expansion pack rounds out the main game to give you the complete Empire Earth II experience. Most expansions just give you a few new maps and a handful of new units, whereas ours updates and adds to every section of Empire Earth II, as well as gives you three new story-driven campaigns.

GS: We know there are already 14 civilizations in the core game of Empire Earth II. So what are some of the new civilizations in the expansion? How many are there? Are any of these new playable factions being added at the strenuous request of fans, who may have felt one or more factions were a major omission? Or were these civilizations previously cut from the original due to time constraints? Or are they being included in the expansion pack to add to it in specific ways, such as using new strategies or options that are unique to the expansion?

MS: With the expansion, we add four new civilizations to the mix. We've added the French and the Russians for two reasons: We wanted fans in those countries to be able to play as their native civilizations. And both countries have an extremely rich history that is great for the title. Both France and Russia play a large role in one of the expansion's new campaigns.

We're also excited about our other new civilizations: the Maasai and Zulu of the all-new African region. Both the noble Maasai and the fearsome Zulu add completely different powers and tactics to the landscape of Empire Earth II. We're happy to get them in to completely round out the region's civilizations.

GS: We understand that there are 10 new combat units in the expansion, such as the Zulu warriors, Russian howitzers, and the Rafale stealth fighter. What other units can you discuss? And what are some of their obvious advantages if you're using them, as well as challenges if you're battling against them?

MS: All of the new units belong to one of the four new civilizations we've added. The Rafale, for example, is a French stealth fighter that is decently strong. But its main advantage comes from how early the French gain access to it. While your enemy is still scraping by with old B-52 bombers, you've got stealth planes already bombing his civilization back to the Dark Ages.

The laibon is a special priest that the Maasai get access to in the midgame. While able to convert units like a normal priest, these guys can also heal friendly units. Since this is long before any civ gains access to medics, the laibon is the only unit that can heal midgame. An army backed by these guys becomes extremely difficult to stop.

In addition to new units, the Zulu and Maasai have all-new powers that players have not faced before in Empire Earth II. Both of these civilizations build very quickly and are great for rushing. The Zulu, especially, have unique unit formations and powers that let their melee fighters just shred through other players on the battlefield. The only counter to these guys is a strong defense (and lots of guns).

GS: Can you name some issues that fans have brought up that you're going to address with the expansion? Did some feel that certain civilizations were unbalanced? And were there any other gameplay features that they requested in particular?

MS: The new civs are a big one. Players from those areas were disappointed that they were not included in the original release, so we wanted to make sure they were taken care of. We also wanted to add the new African region to give players access to new powers and strategies to vary the gameplay.

The Zulu are another of the new factions in The Art of Supremacy, and they're hard-hitting and fast-moving.

A big complaint for any RTS is the fact that after spending all the time it takes to build up units and bases in a battle, you lose all of them when you move on to the next map. With our new tug-of-war multiplayer mode, I think we've offered a unique solution to that.

Finally, players wished that units getting hit by cannon fire and artillery shells reacted differently and did not just take damage as if being hit by gunfire. We're proud to say that with the expansion, firing a cannonball into a pack of infantry will send soldiers flying. The new effect works on infantry, cavalry, and a bunch of other things, and watching little soldiers fly through the air screaming is great--and it's what we think the fans were looking for.