In the early game of Empire Earth 1 there is a countdown & a box pops up asking me to select a Civilization. In the box that pops up I don't actually see a civilization to select, it's blank, am I doing something wrong?

Well don't I feel dumb, I can't believe I never spotted that, thank you very much

You're welcome. I did the same thing you must have done and just gone with the default setup, which has the "Use Custom Civs" box already checked. I was scratching my head wondering, WTH?
Cheers!

instead of using premade civilizations you can also make your own with the upgrades you want.