Total Annihilation/Printable version

Total Annihilation

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The Basics

This chapter will cover the basic information about the game, either for those who want to know more before acquiring it, for those who are interested in information about the game which isn't obvious while playing it, or those who just like to read trivia about computer games. It will not cover the controls, or basic gameplay - it will be assumed that you own a legal copy of the game, or intend to get a legal copy before playing, and so will have the instruction manual, either in paper form or as a PDF. Using these assumptions, it becomes apparent that describing the basic gameplay would be an entirely redundant exercise.

Game history

Chris Taylor

Total Annihilation was released in 1997 by Cavedog, with most of the inspiration for the game having come from Chris Taylor. At the time that it was released its engine and gameplay concepts were revolutionary, although it never gained the popularity of other games released at the same time, such as Starcraft, because it was not extensively advertised.

In 1999, Cavedog folded and Total Annihilation was acquired by Infogrames, later Atari. In July 2013, Wargaming bought the Total Annihilation franchise from Atari's bankruptcy proceedings. Two expansion packs were released for Total Annihilation, "The Core Contingency" which was much like an expansion pack in the traditional sense, in that it provided new content i.e. maps, tilesets and units.

The second expansion pack was called "Battle Tactics" and rather than featuring new content like traditional expansion packs & The Core Contingency it contained extensive single player missions to try to teach tactics to the player, as opposed to the more crude 'throw more units at the enemy than they throw at you' approach. It was mostly aimed at more experienced players as it assumed proficiency in actually playing Total Annihilation. Unfortunately, most of the experienced player either had small-scale tactics organized already, or had perfected the brute force method and didn't really need them.

Total Annihilation was, for a time, released on the 'Replay' label (and, in-fact, may still be in such a situation) and it's having been released earlier means that copies of the original Total Annihilation are much easier to find than copies of Battle Tactics or The Core Contingency. This means that physical copies of the two expansion packs are rare, and expensive when they do become available, as they are no longer being produced. The game, including its two expansion packs and last patches, has been released on GOG under the title Total Annihilation: Commander Pack.

Backstory

This is mostly covered in the instruction manual, so it will only be briskly covered here. In a large, technologically advanced society, the armed forces decided the to make their weapons, vehicles, 'k-bots' (units, in general) more effective, by reducing the need for controls & life support and reaction times, they would integrate the consciousness of their pilots into the machines themselves.

A rebel group started a violent rebellion to stop this practice, preferring traditional methods of piloting their various machines, and cloning their best pilots to make up for the lost advantages from consciousness-transfer.

This spilled over into a full-blown war, which lasted a very long time and exhausted all the resources of an entire galaxy. Total Annihilation is set in the aftermath of this, with the once-mighty armies slugging it out for final victory using whatever weapons and machines they can scrape together.

The two sides

The government/military forces (the people who support consciousness-transfer) are called the Core, the rebels (the people who don't support consciousness-transfer) are called the Arm. Arm units tend to be smaller, lighter, faster and cheaper than Core units, which favor a "Bigger is Better" philosophy. Each side also has equivalent units, for instance, each side has a basic infantry k-bot, a fighter, and a medium plasma battery. This is discussed further in the Units section.

Units

Units of the two factions, Arm and Core, in Total Annihilation.

Relative Nanolathe speeds

Commander > FARK > Tier 2 Construction Vehicle > Tier 2 Construction Kbot > Tier 2 Construction Plane > Tier 1 Construction Vehicle > Tier 1 Construction Kbot > Construction Hovercraft > Tier 1 Construction Plane > Construction Seaplane

Commander

The Commander is a very powerful unit. It is the only unit which wields the D-Gun, which is able to destroy anything it hits. It has more armor than most units in the game and is also equipped with an arm mounted red laser and nanolathe on its right arm. It is able to build basic structures, cloakable, amphibious, and is the only unit which heals itself over time. It also has the unique ability to capture other units. The commander supplies the starting resource storage in its back mounted pack. If the commander is destroyed, this storage and the resources stored are lost. In addition, when destroyed, the commander will detonate with the yield of a nuke. While very strong, the commander is not invincible and can be destroyed quite easily by groups of advanced units and structures. Later in the game, it is best to cloak your commander to keep him hidden, if you can spare the energy. Another way to hide the commander effectively without using energy is to submerge him underwater. This will hide him from radar but not sonar. The nanolathe will function underwater but neither of the commander's weapons do. Submerged, he is vulnerable to torpedos, such as those from subs, cruisers, and torpedo planes.

ARM

Kbots

Tier 1

Level 1 Construction Kbot

Class: Construction Kbot Builds: Solar Collector, Metal Extractor, Wind Generator, Energy Storage, Metal Storage, Metal Maker, Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard, L.L.T, Radar Tower, Adv. Kbot Lab, Punisher, Defender, Sentinel, Dragon's Teeth, Geothermal Powerplant.

Peewee

Class: Fast attack Kbot

Weapon: EMG (Energy Machine Gun)

Comments- The Peewee is a fast, light, and cheap trooper that is useful for scouting and early game battles. However, due to the Kbot's weak attack and defense, it is not the best unit for rough battles, especially against level 2 units. Due to its fast firing rate, it eats up buildings. It's good to deploy against the enemy base early in the game, before strong defenses are in place.

Rocko

Class: Rocket Kbot

Weapon- Rocket Launcher

Comments- A durable Kbot with a powerful rocket, useful for a regular trooper as level 1's go. Its weapon packs a punch, but it is hindered by its slow fire rate, and the low speed of the rocket. However, the Rocko is an all- around good soldier for any early army to have, and the rocket's long range makes for easier early Commander kills!

Hammer

Class: Artillery Kbot

Weapon: Light Plasma Cannons

Comments- The Hammer is a good and strong, albeit slow trooper. It is your first "artillery" of sorts, and its shells travel a good range, and pack a good punch. However, it suffers like the Rocko, in which it is slow, and has a slow fire rate.

Jethro

Class- Anti- Air Kbot

Weapon- Missile Launchers

Comments- Jethro's are really a nice, and vital, addition to any early army. It has good speed, a relatively fast fire rate, and the ability to hit pesky enemy air units which are plaguing your march to the enemy base. However, this comes with the price of weaker armor and weapons than its other launcher counterpart, the Rocko.

Warrior

Class: Assault Kbot

Weapon- Light Plasma Cannon/ EMG (Energy Machine Gun)

Comments- The Warrior is your standard trooper. Pretty much everything about them is just average, which is not a bad thing: it means they don't have any real weaknesses. Plus, the have the nifty feature of having the Peewee class machine gun in one hand, and the Stumpy class cannon in the other. (Well, maybe not as powerful as the Stumpy's) It uses both these weapons in battle, which is pretty cool.

Flea

Class: Fast Light Scout Kbot

Weapon: Extra- Light Laser

Comments: This thing is very fast. Yep, that's pretty much what it has going for it. It makes for an excellent scout, providing there's not some turret it runs into, because if it does, it's toast. Flea's have barely any defense. Less than the Weasel, if you can believe that. Plus, its laser exceedingly weak, so don't go against anything with these, unless you have a massive group of them. Then there would be an infestation of Fleas!

Tier 2

The Arm's Level 2 Kbots are a huge strength that they possess. Nearly every one of them are a superior make. Here is a showcase of the Arm's excellent Kbots.

Level 2 Construction Kbot

Class: Adv. Construction Kbot

Builds: Kbot Lab, Moho Mine, Fusion Powerplant, Adv. Radar Tower, Moho Metal Maker, Big Bertha, Vulcan, Retaliator,

Zeus

Class: Assualt Kbot

Weapon: Heavy Lightning Cannon

Comments: The Zeus is a good Level 2 Kbot which packs a heavy weapon which will easily destroy units. The problem is, in order for this bolt of pure energy to fry an enemy tank, it has to be quite slow, because it has a hard time trying to hit fast units. This comes from the fact it rather slowly moves its arm to aim. But aside from that, this is a worthy, sturdy Level 2 Kbot.

Fido

Class: Assault Kbot

Weapon: Gauss Cannon

Comments: Fidos are really excellent. These 4- legged Kbots are quite fast, sport a accurate and surprisingly long- range weapon, and are able to take a reasonable amount of punishment. There's pretty much no faults in this mechanized "man's best friend", and ranks up with the best Kbots you can have in your army.

Invader

Class: Crawling Bomb

Weapon- Destroying itself for a large explosion

Comments: Yep, if you read the stuff above, that perfectly describes a Invader: a very small bomb on legs. And its explosion is devastating for any unit/ building that is unlucky to be caught in it. However, everything comes with drawbacks, and the Invader is no exception. Invaders move at a amazingly slow speed, so it isn't a very good shock suicide bomber. Also, units with a decent range (ie. Storms, almost anything with missiles) will be able to take this thing out without any loss of life. So what can you do with this thing? Well, there's a few things. First, put crawling bombs in a narrow canal, or a well travelled shipping lane. When a group of ships goes over this crafty guy, simply detonate him at the right time, and the enemy navy will be feeling the hurt. Kamikaze aircraft are a fun and deadly way to use these critters. Load a Valkyrie with a crawling bomb, fly it over to the enemy base, and detonate it for a shower of death! However, this plan requires perfect timing, for it the transport gets hit a couple times, its dead, and the bomb will do next to nothing. Instead, start the self- destruct timer a little before you get to the base, and with good timing, you'll have the bomb blow up right when it gets to the enemy! The same goes for Kamikaze ships! Load a Envoy with about 6 Invaders, and cruise to the nearest enemy seaport. You need good timing for this one, but its easier to do than the air method. With luck, the entire enemy sea base will be a blazing inferno!

Zipper

Class: Fast- Attack Kbot

Weapon- Laser

Comments: A very effective scout Kbot. Zippers are super- fast and have a good, fast laser. Used in groups, they are good for quickly overwhelming a group of heavy units. With their speed, they can dodge most shots, which is good, because their armor isn't very thick. Also great for quickly stopping the sprawl that the enemy AI usually does.

Pelican

Class: Aquatic Kbot

Weapon: Laser, Dual Missiles

Comments: Pelicans are really cool units; very useful, and superior to hovercrafts for what they do. A very competent land unit, they also have the great feature of going out to sea. This is where they start to shine. Their great speed and good weapons makes it possible to inflict huge damage to water based units. And used in groups, they can surround and overwhelm an incoming navy! Although their armor could be a little better, (a flaw that most Arm units have), they can still take some hits before sinking to the bottom of the sea. In groups, these expert swimmers are very competent at water- based land invasions! Except for speed, these guys are better than hovercrafts in every way. Plus, you got to love the way they enter the water, swim, and walk!

Maverick

Class: Gun- Slinging Kbot

Weapon: Heavy Gauss Cannons

Comments: The Maverick K-bot is very effective at taking out anything that isn't air or long-ranged based. His cool weapon has decent range (about a green laser's distance) and takes out units quite quickly and very useful in the campaign and in skirmish. However, with all the power of its sweet weapon, its armor does not compare, and can be killed quickly if you aren't cautious. Otherwise, this expensive and rather long building Kbot is arguably the best Kbot in the game. (Other than the Krogoth, of course, but does that really count as a Kbot? I'd say it's more of a mech.)

FARK (Fast Assist Repair Kbot)

Class: Fast Assist Repair Kbot

Weapon: None

Comments: This nifty unit has a powerful nanolathe that effectively helps build unfinished structures and units, or repair damaged structures and units in record time. However, it cannot start any structures itself. As the name implies this Kbot can move at a good speed and act as an effective healer for damaged units on the front line. His small size allows him to maneuver effectively. A great field medic.

Shooter

Class: Sniper Kbot

Weapon: High Powered Blue Laser

Comment: Behold the wielder of the all- powerful BLUE LASER OF DEATH! All kidding aside, this is the sniper of the game. And snipes he does, as his Blue Laser (of Death) suddenly erupts from his rather long gun, and kills a poor unsuspecting unit instantly from more than a screen away. Plus, it can render itself invisible, just like the commander, making stealth kills even easier! Sounds like God in the form of a Kbot, you say? Well, it's an awesome unit, but it comes with its drawbacks. First, its all powerful weapon has a terrible fire rate, taking many seconds to "load" and fire again. Coupled with its lack of good armor and rather slow movement rate, and this thing is a sitting duck if it just fired, and the enemy is closing in on our sniping friend. So where should the Shooters be, you ask? In the back lines, of course, like any other sane sniper in real life. Its cloak ability is great, if you have the large amount of energy to back it up. And when the Blue Laser (of Death) fires, be prepared for a large energy drain. Wow, these things must have large energy bills at the end of the month :)

Aircraft

Tier 1

The Arm's Level 1 Aircraft are superior to the Core's. Here are the Arm's aircraft:

Level 1 Construction Aircraft

Class: Construction Aircraft

Builds: Solar Collector, Metal Extractor, Wind Generator, Energy Storage, Metal Storage, Metal Maker, Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard, L.L.T, Radar Tower, Adv. Aircraft Plant, Punisher, Defender, Sentinel, Dragon's Teeth, Geothermal Powerplant.

Peeper

Class: Scout

Weapon: None

Comments: Flies fast and has radar. Good for mapping the area and early scouting.

Freedom Fighter

Class: Fighter

Weapon: Missiles

Comments: This fighter is a great swarm unit because they have an almost nonexistent price and can build incredibly fast. They are great in numbers. However, don't use Freedom Fighters against buildings because they have several downsides. Firstly, their missiles are weak and comparatively short ranged. Secondly, they pretty much don't have armor. However, they are good for patrolling your base against Rapier attack.

Thunder

Class: Bomber

Weapon: Bombs

Comments: The Thunder is a decent, cheap bomber. Useful early in the game to keep your enemy occupied. It lacks air-to-air weapons, but a large group of these can take out an enemy base pretty quickly. If you expect enemy fighters, send Hawk or Freedom Fighter escorts.

Atlas

Class: Transport

Weapon: None

Comments: Carries units (one at a time) with clamps under the fuselage. Slow and ungainly. But a fun strategy is to pick up an enemy commander and then self destruct your Atlas at the beginning of the game. That is if you want a very short game...

Tier 2

Arm Level 2 Aircraft are arguably the overall best units of the game. The Adv. Aircraft Plant can build a nice mix of speed, armor, transport, unit-killers, and building-killers.

Level 2 Construction Aircraft

Class: Construction Aircraft

Builds: Aircraft Plant, Moho Mine, Fusion Powerplant, Adv. Radar Tower, Moho Metal Maker, Big Bertha, Vulcan, Retaliator.

Comments: Maneuverable, but not very tough, and slow at building compared to other Level 2 construction units. It does build faster than the Level 1 units, though... plus, you can have an infinite number drifting around working on a single building at a time. It's also interesting as a field medic or for reclaiming hard-to-reach wreckage.

Phoenix

Class: Bomber

Weapon: Bombs/light LIGHT laser

Comments:In addition to a larger bomb capacity than the Thunder the Phoenix also has a light laser that attacks targets that are a threat to the bomber around it(meaning it won't target solar collectors but will fire at enemy fighters and AA defenses)

Lancet

Class: Torpedo Bomber

Weapon: Torpedoes

Comments: Only for use in deep, open water. This aircraft cannot hit land targets or ships moving perpendicular to its current flight path.

Brawler

Class: Gunship

Weapon: Twin EMG cannons

Comments: Think helicopter gunship, but without the rotors. Great for it's "staying power" over the target, as it weaves back and forth spraying EMG pulses. Good for hammering clusters like front line defenses and mopping up after the day is won. NOT for dogfighting. Its armor is OK, but you'll need quite a swarm to take out missile towers. Great for slowing the enemy's attack waves, and for CTRL-#'ing into a group. If you can catch heavy Core units like The Can without air cover, these are your best bet at taking them out.

Hawk

Class: Stealth Fighter

Weapon: Missiles

Comments: Excellent for dogfighting, extremely fast and has no radar signature.

Eagle

Class: AWACS (Radar Plane)

Weapon: None

Comments: Good radar coverage. However, because it is airborne, it makes an inviting target.

Ships

Tier 1

Searcher

Comments: Basic scout and your only form of air cover for the fleet until Tier 2 Archer (with Core Contingency)

Crusader

Comments: Good Tier 1 Battleship

Envoy

Comments: Large sea-going transport. Can carry up to 20 units. Because of it's thin armor and slow loading/unloading times, this ship is not suited to landings under fire.

Lurker

Comments: Sub, fair at taking out slow ships. Very slow and has very small LoS.

Tier 2

Adv. Construction Sub

Allows the creation of advanced sea structures

Conqueror

An advanced battleship.

Ranger

Launches unguided missiles not unlike the Merl or Diplomat. Also has a small anti-aircraft missile launcher (like the Defender)

Millennium

Largest of the Arm fleet, this mighty ship has two large guns that can target independently of each other.

Colossus

Floating Air-repair pads

Piranha

Excellent Anti-Submarine platform. Not good for anything else. It can be useful in swarms, though.

Vehicles

Tier 1

Construction Vehicle

Type: Construction

Builds: Solar Collector, Metal Extractor, Wind Generator, Energy Storage, Metal Storage, Metal Maker, Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard, L.L.T, Radar Tower, Adv. Vehicle Plant, Punisher, Defender, Sentinal, Dragon's Teeth, Geothermal Powerplant.

Jeffy

Fast little unit with a weak laser. Designed for scouting, excels at scouting.

Flash

The flash is tougher than the PeeWee, and is excellent for raiding outlying enemy structures. These are handy backup for Stumpy waves at the beginning of the game, as they can keep enemy units busy with their EMG's, leaving the Stumpies free to fire from a long distance, usually undisturbed.

Stumpy

An excellent all-around unit that has a ballistic shell and medium armor. The acceleration and turn rate is a little low, and so this unit is not well suited to being in the heat of things. However, it is great for shooting from behind hills and wreckage, as well as assisting with raids.

Samson

Anti-Aircraft platform. Also used for supporting ground attacks and a retreating defense.

Podger

Minelayer. Only available at the Tier 1 level. Lays six different kinds of mines, all which are cloakable.

Tier 2

Advanced Construction Vehicle

Builds a lot of stuff. Faster at building than all other construction vehicles except the FARK and Commander. Many consider this the best construction unit in the game. Beware: due to its bulk, it won't fit into all the confines of a typical cramped base.

Spider

The spider is a type of vehicle that is designed to be able to walk up any surface. And it can! However, the spider has no real offensive weapons. It only has a weak laser that "stuns" the enemy. The enemy unit sits there, unable to move or shoot, until the spider is destroyed or it stops being hit with the laser. It is good for capturing units and is rumored to have uses in stunning enemy gunships, which are then blown to pieces by nearby anti-aircraft fire.

Bulldog

The ARM's heavy hitter. Though not as powerful as the CORE Goliath, it still packs a powerful punch.

Merl

A missile launching vehicle that arcs unguided rockets high into the air, only to rain down death and destruction on unsuspecting stationary targets.

Triton

An amphibious tank. Comparable to the Stumpy in firepower.

Hovercraft

Tier 1

Construction Hovercraft

Builds:

Solar Collector, Wind Generator, Energy Storage, Metal Storage, Metal Extractor, Metal Maker, Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard, L.L.T., Radar Tower, Geothermal Powerplant, Sentinel, Defender, Dragons Teeth, Guardian, Sonar Station, Tidal Generator, Underwater Metal Storage, Underwater Energy Storage, Underwater Metal Extractor, Floating Metal Maker, Defender - NS, Floating Dragons Teeth, Torpedo Launcher, Stingray, Hovercraft Platform

Skimmer

Class: Scout Hovercraft

Weapon:

Comments: Slow like a hovercraft, weak armor like a scout... bad combination. Not really worth building.

Anaconda

Class: Hovercraft

Weapon: Ballistic plasma shell.

Comments: Not strong enough for land or sea units, but all hovercraft are like that. Good for amphibious landings and bulking up a sea fleet. Not built to be the main invasion force, but to establish a foothold and function as preliminary defense for the new base.

Swatter

Class: Anti-Aircraft Hovercraft

Weapon: Missiles

Comments: Good basic AA hovercraft.

Wombat

Class: Rocket Hovercraft

Weapon: Unguided Rockets

Comments: Merl- and Diplomat-like rockets at the Tier 1 level. Best for shooting immobile and/or unsuspecting targets.

Bear

Class: Transport

Weapon: None

Comments: Holds six units. Large target and not to be used for amphibious landings under fire.

Core

Kbots

Tier 1

Construction Kbot

Builds:

Solar Collector, Wind Generator, Energy Storage, Metal Storage, Metal Extractor, Metal Maker, Kbot Lab, Vehicle Plant, Aircraft Plant, Shipyard, Light Laser Tower, Radar Tower, Advanced Kbot Lab, Geothermal Powerplant, Gaat Gun, Pulverizer, Dragons Teeth, Punisher, Hovercraft Platform, Viper, Immolator

A.K.

Class: Infantry

Weapon: Red Laser

Comments: Can't hold it's own against the PeeWee. So not worth the effort of building unless you want cheap scouts. However they are extremely deadly in great numbers, as the laser is accurate, and large numbers translate into a high rate of fire, especially while the enemy units are busy auto-targeting your higher-tiered units.

Storm

Class: Rocket Kbot

Weapon: Rockets

Comments: Launches rockets in a horizontal trajectory. Good punch, excellent range, but has a long reload time. It's useful at taking out slow-moving units like Stumpies, especially if you can keep it moving around, making it difficult for the Stumpies' cannons to track.

Thud

Class: Artillery Kbot

Weapon: Plasma Shells

Comments: Excellent fighter, and has a big advantage over the ARM version: It doesn't have to flip any muzzle covers up before it fires.

Crasher

Class: Anti-Aircraft Kbot

Weapon: Guided Missiles

Comments: Good at shooting down basic aircraft and assisting with fighting retreats. Not for close-in fighting or "standing your ground" with.

Tier 2

Adv. Construction Kbot

Builds:

Kbot Lab, Advanced Radar Tower, Fusion Power Plant, Moho Mine, Intimidator, Doomsday Machine, Silencer, Fortitude Missile Defense, Air Repair Pad, Cobra, Fortification Wall, Toaster, Cloakable Fusion Reactor, Moho Metal Maker, Targeting Facility, Buzzsaw, Krogoth Gantry

Pyro

Class:

Weapon: Flamethrower

Comments: A flamethrower unique to the Core, the Pyro is excellent at taking out immobile defenseless structures. An added plus is that it's flame will not harm your units. However, it cannot hit moving targets, and it's armor is weak. Best used for mopping up, or perhaps for the initial rush on enemy defenses.

The Can

Class:

Weapon: Green Laser

Essentially a giant slab of armor with two stubby legs. Virtually unstoppable, the Can is one of the Core's most powerful and yet vulnerable units. Extremely slow and unable to hit distant targets, any unit with even a slightly greater speed and range of fire, can, in theory kill a Can without being hit once. However, with its heavy armor and The Green Laser of Doom, the Can will effectively annihilate anything in its slow and merciless path. Proper use of the Can is often a key part to an effective Core strategy. Care must be taken to provide them support, in the form of long range and aerial defense. When mixed in with a larger force of many small units, they are easily worth their "bang for the buck."

Roach

Class: Kamikaze Kbot

Weapon: Self-Destruct.

Comments: See ARM Invader

Spectre

Class: Radar Jammer

Weapon: None

Comments: Jams radar nearby to prevent enemy from tracking you with radar

Freaker

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Morty

Class: Mortar Kbot

Weapon: Plasma shells

Comments: Good mobile unit with good weapon and excellent reload time. Good at circumventing LLT defense---it can hit them from out of their attack range, and even fire over hilltops, compounding its advantage. Excellent in groups. The best way to stop these is counter-attack, as they can destroy defenders without getting into range.

Dominator

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Voyeur

Class: Radar Kbot

Weapon: None

Comments: Good for raiding parties and temporary radar. If used with jammers this unit can use it's radar and still not be seen by enemy radar!

Sumo

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Gimp

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Parasite

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Decoy Commander

Class:

Weapon:none

Comments:want to fool your enemies. then this is the unit for you. try building lots of these units to confuse your opponent. this is a very handy unit during multiplayer games. However, in skirmish mode it is even better because while the AIs may have trouble figuring out which commander is real, all of their decoy commanders say "Decoy Commander" when your cursor is over them.

Necro

Class: Resurrection Kbot

Weapon: None

Comments: Can bring wreckage of friendly and enemy units back to life: on your side! Good for rebuilding an army (if you have a second army of Necros) and reclaiming deep in enemy territory (the Necro can't be seen on radar)

Vehicles

Tier 1

Weasel

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Instigator

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Raider

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Slasher

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Spoiler

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Leveler

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Tier 2

Advanced Construction Vehicle

Builds:

Vehicle Plant, Advanced Radar Tower, Fusion Power Plant, Moho Mine, Intimidator, Doomsday Machine, Silencer, Fortitude Missile Defense, Air Repair Pad, Cobra, Fortification Wall, Toaster, Cloakable Fusion Reactor, Moho Metal Maker, Targeting Facility, Buzzsaw

Crock

Class: Amphibious Tank

Weapon: Ballistic plasma shell

Comments:this is a great unit for assembling surprise attacks on enemy coastlines. sneak in close and bombard the enemy coast with shells. the downside of this is that they cannot fire underwater and just one lurker/submarine can wipe out an entire raiding party.

Reaper

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Deleter

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Mobile Artillery

Class:

Weapon:long range plasma shells

Comments:this is a fantastic unit for bombarding enemy defenses from a great distance. even missile kbots have to close the gap before firing on this baby! although guardians can still fire on it and other long range structures.

Goliath

Class:

Weapon:

Comments: The biggest, baddest, most butt-whupping-est land unit in the game, besides the Krogoth. This huge slab of metal has a big gun with an impressive refire rate and splash damage. The ultimate in conventional base-cracking units, a dozen or two will flatten front line defenses. Combine with Pyros to double the damage to anything stationary!

Informer

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Diplomat

Class:

Weapon:

Comments:

Krogoth

The ultimate unit to many commanders, the Krogoth comes equipped with 2 anti-air rockets, 2 cannons located in the arms, and an Annihilator laser (blue laser of death) that is found on its head. (Extreme weapon and reload rate of 4 seconds) In addition, the Krogoth has massive armor (able to withstand seven nuclear missiles), extreme range (V-launch missiles and Annihilator Laser). The only downsides to this great unit are its high cost, long building time, and semi-slow movement (minor disadvantage). Having just one Krogoth will add a tremendous boost to your base's defense, to say nothing about it's offensive capabilities. A Krogoth is extremely powerful, and hard to kill. The best defense against one is to destroy it while it is being built (think mass bombers). Otherwise, large numbers of guardians are effective in an open area, since the Krogoth must close in in order to utilize its Annihilator laser. The Krogoth might be extremely powerful, but its large cost and slow build time severely inhibit its effectiveness (thank goodness). A more conventional mix of forces may not inspire the dread in opponents, but usually is more cost-effective. A single target is easier to kill than forty spread out units.

Structures

Structures of the two factions, Arm and Core, in Total Annihilation.

Structures Common to Both Sides

These structures (or buildings) look different for either side, but are functionally the same. Unit producers (such as KBot labs, Vehicle Plants, and others) will be listed under each specific side, so that the "unit's produced" can be listed.

Tier 1

Solar Collector

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane.

Comments: Basic energy collector. Gives 20 Energy per tick. Good to throw up in your basic base before you can build geothermal/nuclear power.

Wind Generator

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane.

Comments: Another basic energy collector. Best used on windy planets. The amount of energy produced depends on wind speed which varies from planet to planet and from time to time. Wind seems to have no affect on ballistic weapons.

Energy Storage

Type: Resource Storage

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Stores 3000 units of energy. Sometimes used to even out the ups-and-downs in Wind Generator power, or to ensure power is available for heavy artillery.

Metal Storage

Type: Resource Storage

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Sometimes useful, if one reclaims a large amount of wrecks in battle. Otherwise it is rarely needed. Stores 1000 units of metal

Metal Extractor

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane.

Comments: Extracts the most important resource: metal. Metal is required for all construction, but you knew that already.

Metal Maker

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Very useful, as it allows for the conversion of the more plentiful resource, energy, to be converted into something more coveted: metal. Converts 60 units of energy into one unit of metal.

Light Laser Tower

Type: Land Weapon (Laser Bolt)

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction

Comments: Does not have enough range to be useful at any time in the later game, and is a tad too expensive to be worth it in the early game. It would be better to crank out mobile units instead. However, they can be used to prevent flash rushing.

Radar Tower

Type: Battlefield Intelligence

Built By: Commander, Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft and Construction Seaplane

Comments: A good, basic radar unit. Excellent for early base protection. (That is, serving as an early warning unit.) Because it is very cheap and builds quickly, it is easy to set up redundant towers. However, these can be jammed later in the game, and so they will become useless. (if you are playing a competent general who uses jammers frequently)

Tidal Generator

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Construction Ship, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane.

Comments: Yet another basic energy generator, which varies in output with the tides. Often overlooked.

Floating Metal maker

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Construction Ship, Construction Hovercraft, Construction Seaplane

Comments: More expensive than a land Metal Maker, and it floats. Otherwise, it's just the same.

Underwater Energy Storage

Type: Resource Storage

Built By: Commander, Construction Ship, Construction Hovercraft, Construction Seaplane

Comments: 3000 units of energy storage under the sea. Really only useful for water bases.

Underwater Metal Storage

Type: Resource Storage

Built By: Commander, Construction Ship, Construction Hovercraft, Construction Seaplane

Comments: Stores 1000 units of metal. Rarely used, but as shipwrecks hold a lot of metal, this can still be useful.

Underwater Metal Extractor

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Commander, Construction Ship, Construction Hovercraft, Construction Seaplane

Comments: Extracts metal from underwater metal patches. The more metal, the better.

Tier 2

Geothermal PowerPlant

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Tier 1 Construction Kbot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft, and Construction Seaplane.

Comments: This power plant can only be placed on top of venting cracks in the ground. They take time to build, but when completed, they will produce 250 energy per tick, which is a great bonus.

Heavy Laser Tower

Note: Arm calls this the "Sentinel", Core calls it a "Gaat Gun"

Type: Land Weapon (Laser Bolt)

Built By: Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Excellent laser tower, with enough range and firepower to be useful right up until the end of the game. It is a bit expensive, but worth every penny. These HLTs chew up light units, and can dent the armor of more powerful tanks too. It can occasionally hit gunships, though this is rare.

Defender/Pulverizer

Type: Land/Air Weapon (Guided Missile)

Built By: Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Again, excellent to the endgame. They are cheap and easily built, and groups of them can slow down attacks. Unfortunately, these guided missile towers are too weak to withstand any direct attack, but with their medium range they can help protect each other. Needed to shoot down basic and advanced fighter jets.

Dragon's Teeth

Type: Wall Unit

Built By: Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft and Construction Seaplane

Comments: A single Dragon's Tooth, designed to delay enemy movement. Dragon's teeth are able to soak up a LOT of enemy fire. Their height keeps them low enough to allow defense turrets to shoot over them, but enemy units have difficulty shooting back. Use them as walls to force the enemy to move where you want them, to slow the enemy down, or to help shield defensive structures from enemy rockets. NOTE: After building, Dragon's Teeth are not counted as "units" in the 200 unit limit. Thus, you can build as many of them as you want.

Note: For the original use of the word "Dragon's Teeth," see Dragon's_teeth_(fortification)

Guardian/Punisher

Type: Land Weapon (Ballistic Plasma Shell)

Built By: Tier 1 Construction KBot, Tier 1 Construction Vehicle, Tier 1 Construction Aircraft, Construction Hovercraft and Construction Seaplane

Comments: Large plasma ballistic shell launcher. Expensive but worth it for the havoc it can wreak on ground forces. Also useful because it out-ranges the unguided rockets used on the more advanced Merl and Diplomat units. This makes it much easier to dispose of them.

Tier 3

Adv. Radar Tower

Type: Battlefield Intelligence

Built By: Adv. Construction Kbot, Adv. Construction Vehicle and Adv. Construction Airplane

Comments: Powerful radar with a large range. It is still cheap, still builds quickly, and is still susceptible to jamming.

Fusion Reactor

Type: Resource Generator

Built By: Adv. Construction Kbot, Adv. Construction Vehicle and Adv. Construction Airplane

Comments: The big mamma of energy production. Throw up one of these as soon as possible and you'll have an energy boost of +1000 per tick. Built 2 or 3 and your energy needs will be pretty well met. These are required for an advanced base. Excellent for powering metal makers.

Moho Mine

(Heavy Artillery will be listed in the "Race Specific" sections, due to the differences between the two weapons, even though they fill the same category.)

Nuclear Missile Launcher

(Heavy Laser Weapons (or the "Blue Laser of Death") will be listed in the "Race Specific" sections, due to the differences between the two weapons, even though they fill the same category.)

Cloakable Fusion Reactor

(Stun Missiles will be listed in the "Race Specific" sections, due to the differences between the two weapons, even though they fill the same category.)

Fortification Wall

Type: Wall Unit

Built By: Adv. Construction Kbot, Adv. Construction Vehicle and Adv. Construction Airplane

Comments: "Dragons Teeth on steroids." That's what the manual called them, and it's a pretty good description. These walls are taller than Dragon's Teeth, and can take much more damage. However, they cannot be used to shield defensive structures because they are too tall. Therefore, they should be used to protect important structures such as Fusion Powerplants, Geothermal Powerplants, Moho Metal Extractors, Moho Metal Makers, and other such critical infrastructure. Simply make a ring of them around the completed building to protect it (somewhat) from bombing runs and artillery fire.

(Moho Metal Makers will be listed in the "Race Specific" sections, due to the differences between the two weapons, even though they fill the same category.)

Targeting Facility

(Rapid-Fire Artillery will be listed in the "Race Specific" sections, due to the differences between the two weapons, even though they fill the same category.)

Tactics and Strategy Guide

Tactics

Control, guide and structure your attack waves

A proper mid-game or post mid-game attack with any force should never be single directional and especially not attack in the most obvious direction. A proper attack should come from the least expected directions simultaneously, e.g. from top and rear instead of a frontal assault. The attack should not be initiated before all units are in place, that is: lined up right outside where the outer radar perimeter and defense systems are believed to have range. The attack should consist of various effective units, if the enemy is known to have large air forces the player should utilize his own air force as escort to shoot down enemy aircraft and the units should have some mobile anti aircraft units grouped together with them. The group should also consist of not only attack-units; radar jamming units and radar units should also be among the group. There are two basic reasons for this: radar jamming makes the enemy unable to target the opposing player's forces and normal mobile radar units make the player's units able to automatically (with a targeting facility) strike at hostile targets spotted on radar. Every one of the items listed will solely make the attack more effective and should all be combined to make the attack as effective as possible.

Scouting

Learning about the enemy's resources and plans is crucial in regard to directing the player's own actions. There are several units designed for this purpose both for land, sea and air and they should be used frequently for this purpose. Scouting should start early and be a continuous activity throughout the game, unless fixed player starting locations are selected for game play the location of the player's enemy/enemies is unknown and should be learned as quickly as possible. Some scouts should be sent directly to known hostile areas and others should be set to patrol either important areas like paths that are needed to be crossed in order for an attack force to advance against the player. Another form which can be considered scouting is to use advanced construction aircraft to move around the map, building advanced radars in various locations, this will give you a nice overview of the map, but is of course no security against radar jammers or cloaking. Units that serve both purposes combined (radar and visual sight) are mobile radar units, radar planes in particular are very useful in many cases, the drawback with such units are cost, build time, lack of speed and weak radar, i.e. the fixed radars and scouts are better at their specific sole purpose than the hybrid units. Smart continuous scouting, multiple advanced radars placed throughout the map and mobile radar units combined together should give the player the best possible overview of the map.

Pressure on the Opponent

Sometimes putting pressure on the opponent by attacking even though the player is aware they are ineffective can be very useful to lead the attention of the adversary away from what the player is actually doing. E.g. the player can attack the opponent continuously over a period simply to keep the enemy busy while the player simultaneously constructs long range weapons within range to hurt critical components of the enemy base. Several smaller attacks can of course also be used to lead the attention away from where the actual huge attack will be coming (which might consist of a tightly packed group completely invisible on radar due to radar jamming).

Search and Destroy

Roaming around the map searching for hostile targets to kill with little or no defense puts pressure on the opponent and often destroys useful things such as radar posts. This is especially useful if the enemy is using a distributed strategy/layout.

This is also important to do prior to a large scale attack, i.e. roam the map, destroy every unguarded (or lightly guarded) scout, radar post, etc. so that the enemy will be as unaware as possible of the fact that an attack is coming at all, and not knowing from which direction. A pattern of hunting for scouts and radars prior to the attack will though of course quickly be obvious to more aware players. For this reason it might be wise to not hunt for radar posts and simply rely on radar jamming to hide the advancing force (radar jamming should be utilized in all cases), however there is no way to hide a large force from patroling scouts, these should be avoided (difficult to almost impossible, but might be possible if very few in numbers) or destroyed.

Base Construction and Maintenance

The most effective way to construct several structures early in the game is to use the Commander and a set of arbitrary helper construction units working together as a team. One of the construction units will initiate the construction with the other units guarding that unit. Having construction units guard another construction unit will make them automatically follow and help constructing whatever this unit is building at the time, thus assigning the initiating unit to construct any number of buildings will have all the helper units assist in the construction of all the structures. However, when reaching mid-game on larger maps and espeically with very high unit limits the player will have vast numbers of construction units and the above tactic will arise some problems; very often the helper-units will stand in the way of the new building to be constructed, making several of the buildings planned to be constructed fail to be built. A more serious problem is that with even larger numbers of helper-units the helpers may actually trap the leader (the construction unit that initiates the constructions) as the helpers tend to pack themselves in a tight circle around the construction site.

A solution to the above problem is to set the helpers to patrol back and forth on a line adjacent with where the new soon-to-be structures will be instead of guarding the initiating construction-unit. Setting construction units on patrol sets them on "repair patrol" which also makes them aid in any construction taking place nearby their patrol route. The idea with a patrol-route being that the helper-units will move out of the way automatically when finished with the building being constructed at the moment, making way for the initiating unit to move itself and also allow it to initiate the new building -- thus making it a fully autonomous process.

There is a limit to the number of construction units that can assist in building a single building, the limit is however only the space and range of the construction units, there are however no such limits on construction aircraft, > midgame the player should utilize enormous groups of construction aircraft to aid in construction as these can do this in almost unlimited numbers. It should also be noted that construction vehicles build faster and move faster than kbots, with construction aircrafts being the slowest builders but fastest moving construction units.

The following steps illustrate a construction set of solar arrays using the former early-game method:

1) Select the helpers
2) Order the helpers to guard the constructor
3) Select the constructor
4) Select the Solar array out of the build menu
5) Hold down shift and left-click a spot to place the first solar array
6) Continue holding shift while left-clicking other areas to place as many solar arrays as necessary

The Commander

The Commander is a very special unit in the game, in addition to having strong armour and having special features like the very powerful weapon called the "D-gun", being cloakable and being able to capture enemy units the Commander is also the unit that can construct buildings the fastest of all and also houses almost all of the energy and metal resources of the player, and most importantly the game can be set to end if the Commander is killed.

Even if the game is not set to end if the Commander is lost this is critical to be avoided at all costs until post mid-game (unless the player can gain an extreme advantage somehow which is mentioned in later sections). Post mid-game the player has enough resource storage facilities and resources in general that losing the commander is not as important, however another "feature" of the Commander is the powerful explosion it makes when destroyed, this has to be carefully taken into account as it can be an advantage in some cases and a disadvantage in others (elaborated in later sections).

The Commander should be heavily utilized during the game to construct buildings and aid in construction of buildings the Commander cannot initiate itself. The Commander should only engage in battles where it is certain it will not be destroyed; e.g. the Commander can help deal with an early rush attack but should not be a unit part of a large defence or attack force as it can easily be destroyed despite its heavy armour, this is especially true if the opposing player recognizes the commander is engaged in the battle and then targets all units to directly attack the Commander.

It is possible to build decoy commanders, however the usefulness of this is questionable as the opposing player can easily discover if an arbitrary unit is a decoy-Commander or the real Commander by holding the cursor over the unit and the label will reveal which is the case. Post mid-game simply continuously cloaking the real Commander to preserve it for possible later use can be an option.

Make sure to avoid enemy transport ships as your opponent might be using the commander capture strategy.

Strategy

Resources

Early in the game the player should seek out metal located on the map and build metal extractors in these locations. Locations close by should be built using either construction vehicles or kbots while locations further away should be built using construction aircraft. Once the battle has escalated into a longer game (i.e. rush-period is over) on a normal map, the main way of gaining resources is by using Fusion Reactors and Moho Metal Makers to convert excess energy into metal, this technique is highly superior at this stage in the game. Normal metal extractors simply produce too little metal and have to be scattered across the map in order to function in the first place - making them difficult to protect. Moho metal extractors produce more metal, but suffer from the same (the latter) problem as the normal metal extractors. The player should however not limit the metal production to merely metal makers, a combination of the two can be utilitzed to some degree. On pure metal maps, e.g. "Seven Islands" metal extractors (either normal or moho) is the technique of choice as they can be built anywhere and still extract maximum metal, thus making them able to be grouped tightly together so they become more easy to build and protect.

Rushing

One of the most effective ways to win a game is by rushing the enemy. After the start of the game the player will use all resources on building no defence at all and only building cheap and fast attack units (e.g. the level 1 tank "Flash") by having the Commander guard the vehicle plant and help constructing. Once the player has a few units (or perhaps even after the first unit is completed) he sends them to the enemy base and starts attacking whatever structures and units are there. Any consecutive units are swiftly (or perhaps by even using waypoints) sent to the enemy base to help the first attack wave. The player will continue doing this while expanding his own base at a slow rate. Although the player expands his base slow (slow relative to the rate it would be expanding without either player rushing) his base will most certainly expand faster than the player rushed even if his attacks are only somewhat successful. The player will simply keep this up until the enemy is destroyed.

Distributed Base Layout

One way to organize the structure of the base is to have all buildings scattered across the map with no central core of it all. The most obvious advantage is the player can very easily expand and control large parts of the map and has no huge attractive spots to attack like the Porcupine base will have - the player can scatter valuable structures like Fusion Reactors around the map and have heavy defences for each. The disadvante being that mid-game and beyond the player will be mostly unable to effectively defend every structure scattered across the map, offering the enemy easy targets to destroy.

The Porcupine Strategy

This is another way to structure and organize your base. The basic idea is to build it small and with extreme protection - keeping all your most valuable structures in the middle of the protection, e.g. your fusion reactors, moho metal makers, targeting facility and missile protection system(s). The protection being large numbers of fixed weapons organized in several circles around the base and in some cases several layers of walls. Such a base is difficult and in some cases almost impossible to destroy with conventional tactics. Sending waves upon waves of normal units against it will be slaughtered by large numbers of weapons such as the Vulcan or Big Bertha even before they are in range to return fire, the few units that might make it all the way will be swiftly dealt with by other fixed weapons which can easily be built in extreme numbers. The same problem will arise if the enemy attempts a normal air-strike - anti-air weapons can also be constructed in vast numbers and the Flakker is especially dangerous to large swarms of aircraft. The Porcupine base will not last in the long run if used on a smaller maps where long range plasma weapons can hit any target on the map. If both players adapt this strategy on larger maps where long range plasma weapons is not a direct threat the game can seem to be never-ending for both players as neither is able to really harm the other.

Dealing with the Porcupine Base

Despite the porcupine base seeming difficult to harm on first sight there are several ways to deal with this strategy.

Long range weapons: The first thing the opposing player should do is gain dominance in terms of mobile units, once the opposing player controls the map he can travel across the map with construction units and start building long range weapons within range of the enemy but remove the enemy's ability to retalite with radar jammers. One or more Big Bertha (together with advanced radars) set at "fire at will" (utilizing the "Targeting Facility") can do a lot of damage if not completely destroy the Porcupine base. The Porcupine base will most definitely have long range weapons to return fire and the player needs to assume he will sooner or later be spotted (by scouts) even though radar jamming is being used. Thus the distance of the Porcupine's defences should be measured and the opposing player's artillery should be built outside the range of the Porcupine bases' defences. The downside is of course not being able to strike at any point in the enemy base, but a lot of damage will surely take place in any event if the attacking artillery is not destroyed. The long range weapons of the player should have a high wall around them as this will stop most types of units from being able to effectively strike at them without being an obstacle for the player's own artillery to hit targets far away. A high wall will also allow a direct hit (and in some cases several) to be taken from the enemy artillery's return-fire without destroying the player's artillery.

Defeating the anti-missile system: This tactic is to simply destroy the anti missile system(s) at all costs and then launch several nukes at the Porcupine base, as the Porcupine base is so tightly constructed it will usually be completely destroyed by such an attack. The anti-missile system can also be "beaten" by carefully timing when to fire the next missile, there is a small window which will allow a missile to slip past the defence system.

Cloaked units: A group of cloaked units can (if possible) sneak into the enemy base and attack the most valuable structures which are usually tightly grouped in a Porcupine base, as the cloaked units of the player disable the cloak-feature and engage this will make all hostile base defences instantly retaliate and quickly make them succumb. However some of the shells from the base's defences will almost certainly strike the buildings the cloakable units are standing next to - most likely destroying them in the process, this is especially true if they survive long enough for super-weapons such as a group of Vulcans to suppress fire.

Commander Bomb: The idea here is to make a hole in the Porcupine base which your forces can advance through, this can be done by cloaking your Commander, walking all the way across the map to the enemy base and continue all the way until the Commander is as close as possible to the outer defense perimeter (and if possible sneak even deeper if there are no walls or if there are openings), once close enough or actually inside the Commander will start attacking with the D-gun and be sacrificed, once the commander explodes its powerful explosion will really harm the Porcupine base. The player thus sends in his several waiting attack forces the instant (or perhaps even before) the Commander explodes. Obviously, this doesn't work in games set to end when the commander is destroyed.

Dealing with Artillery

The most simple way of dealing with long range weapons attacking is to return fire with the players own long range weapons. If the source of the attack is unknown - i.e. radar jamming is utilized the player needs to scout for the source of the attack, this is easily done by tracing the bullet as it files across the screen to see which direction it comes from and then sending a wave of scout aircraft in that direction. After sending the scouts off the player selects his artillery and follows the planes as they travel, once they obtain visual contact with the enemy artillery the player orders his own weapons to return fire by selecting the opposing artillery. Once selected the player's defences will continue to fire at the target even if not visible nor on radar. If the player has no artillery to return fire, cannot return fire due to lack of power, cannot target the source of the attack or cannot strike at the target because it is out of range:

1. Destroy the artillery with ground or sea forces. Artillery built outside the enemy base is an easy target for cloaked units (e.g. the "Shooter"). In the event no cloaked units are available conventional attack units and tactics should be utilized.

2. Use an airstrike to destroy the artillery. However if the player does not have air dominance the opposing player will have his air force patroling over (or close by) the area where the long range weapon(s) are located.

3. As an end-game tactic the player can destroy the opponent's energy sources. Artillery cannons need two thousand units of energy to fire each shot and will thus be unable to operate with little or no power. Mobilizing such an attack is however time consuming and should thus only be used as a tactic if a large battle is already talking place around or within the enemy base.

Tips

Codes

These are useful codes that are not considered cheats. Type these strings in the chat text-field for the desired effect:

• "+shootall" will make units automatically attack any enemy structures, normally units will only attack dangerous structures and units even if set at "fire at will", note that using this code can sometimes (or perhaps often) be a disadvantage as sometimes it is desired to focus on units that are a direct threat instead of structures that can do no direct damage to the player's forces.
• "+bps" will display transfer rates.
• "+noshake" will make the screen not shake when large explosions occur.
• "+showranges" will make the selected unit's various ranges (such as visual contact, weapon ranges, etc) show on the mini-map. This clutters the screen if multiple units are selected, so it's best toggled on and off as needed.

Using D-gun

The commander has a very powerful weapon called the disintegrator gun, or "d-gun". This weapon will destroy almost everything with a single hit and can be heavily used early in the game during rush or in end-game (more on this in the Strategy section).

Using the "capture" feature

If your enemy is the opposite of you (e.g. you are playing ARM while the enemy is CORE) then a transport airplane can be used to capture a lone enemy construction unit, bring it to a location where all your units are set to hold fire and then use the Commander to capture the construction unit, i.e. giving you control over it and thus making you able to build units from both sides. The capture feature can also be used to capture other structures and units, such as capturing the CORE Krogoth. If you spot a Krogoth send a group of spider tanks to paralyze it. Once it's paralyzed you can capture it with your Commander.

Tactics considered cheating

These tricks are not fair playing and are considered by many to be cheats and/or bugs.

Commander Capture

After game start, use all resources to build a transport airplane as fast as possible, fly over to the enemy base and pick up the enemy Commander. After this is done the player can simply hover with the airplane until it gets shot down, which will destroy the enemy Commander.

Commander Drop

Early in the game the player will construct a transport airplane, pick up the player's own Commander, fly the Commander to the enemy base (drop the Commander off close by and walk the rest to avoid air defences, if any), walk up to the enemy Commander and attack by D-gun. This will destroy both Commanders but will also destroy most of (if not the entire) base of the enemy without hurting the player's base at all. Both player's energy and metal storage abilities will drop to near nothing, but this can be restored and the player will of course have a great advantage due to the extreme damage caused in the enemy base. Followed by a rush this can easily win the game in an unfair way. Self destruct the transport with a commander inside to destroy the enemy.

"Stealing" energy

After mid-game, building a lot of moho metal makers and turning them off one by one after construction is completed. Once the player has a large amount of metal makers he can turn them on and give them to the enemy - making the enemy's energy resources drop quickly to naught. And of course at the same moment the opposing player's large attack forces sweeps through the enemy base.

Mistakes commonly made by players new to TA

Grouping units and structures

Forgetting to make a group for each type of units. E.g. one group for aircraft, one for ground units, one for moho metal makers, one for artillery, etc.

Unaware of shortcut-keys

New players are often not familiar with the most basic shortcut keys, there is a list of the keys in the in-game help, most of these should be learned by heart and utilized whenever needed.

Not utilizing resources

The player should at all times maximize the available resources. E.g. when building a structure the player should have all other available construction units help building (unless energy/metal is a shortage at the time, of course). The fact that this is even possible to do is often forgotten by new players. Having a lot of construction units in general is also something new players regularly do not do.

Wasting resources

In TA there is a maximum amount of energy and metal that can be stored. If you are gaining net metal or energy, and the storage for that resource is full, then the resources you should be getting are simply lost. To avoid wasting resources like this you should spend resources in such a way that your resource storage is never full, or increase your resource storage by building metal and energy storage buildings. If you are about to fill your energy storage you could turn on more metal makers to convert that energy into metal. If you are about to run out of energy, or fill your metal storage, you can turn metal makers off. If you are about to fill both metal and energy storage then you need to build more units and buildings.

Not grouping an attack force

When attacking the enemy, make sure that your forces don't arrive all spread out and so get picked off one by one. Instead, send them all to one spot close to the enemy but out of enemy range, and then send them in. Alternatively, you can have your army guard its slowest unit, then send that one unit on its way. This keeps the group moving together. For more see the Tactics section in the top.

Miscellaneous

Remember that hovercraft can travel over acid and lava, thus being able to attack from very unexpected directions on maps where this is present. Remember to turn off metal makers (these should be assigned a group for easy access) when under heavy attack to allow long range plasma weapons to be able to suppress fire continuously and at a high rate, especially important for weapons such as the Vulcan.

Strategy Links

• Gnug Home Page - Gnug Home Page. Watch out for pop-ups.
• Planet Annihilation Warguide - A large, mostly accurate repository of Total Annihilation Strategies

Maps

• Official Maps Download Page (From Mirror Site)

Click on the maps tab in the sidebar.

• The Total Annihilation Map Evaluation Centre
• T.A.R.-Total Annihilation Resources
• TA-Zone

Patching

Patches

The most important patch can be found here: http://www.fileuniverse.com/Cavedog/ta1x-31c.exe

Websites

Official Website

• Official TA Site (Redirects To Atari)
• Original TA Site Mirror

Major Fansites

• TAUniverse - Hosts a number of TA-related 'sites, *forums and news.
• Planet Annihilation - The Gamespy network TA site. Hosts TA-related sites, forums and news.
• TA Designers
• TA Fansite - Features loads of units.

Smaller Fansites

Independent/hosted fansites

• Andrewace3158
• Axis And Allies
• Beon
• Bethany Brand Units
• Central Consciousness
• Complete Annihilation
• Designed 4 Demolition
• Encyclopedia Galactica
• TAU Image Gallery
• Insane Systems
• Mayhem Inc.
• Monolithic Inc.
• Nova Design
• Quantum Design
• Site Updates
• Switeck's
• TAPCD
• TA Revival
• TA-Starship Troopers
• TA: Gang Wars/TA: Stars & Stripes
• Ubercrack Shack
• Unit Review Central
• Unlimited Units
• Visual-TA
• Warhammer TA
• Wormhole Productions
• Aftermath Design
• Annihilator Units
• AI Central
• Antirral Royal Engineers
• Brave Sir Robin's Research & Development
• Caer Druagh
• C.A.N.A.D.A.
• Core Prime
• ChaosRealm
• Design-X
• D.T.A.K.M.A.
• Legacy Map Pack
• MAD TA
• M.A.G.M.A.
• MechWars
• Merciless Creations
• Metal Storm Design
• Operation Barbarossa
• Orion Designs
• Scientific Design
• Star Wars TA
• T.A.A.N.
• TA: Commander
• TA Design Corp.
• TA Forever
• TA Loyalists
• TA Mad
• TA Maps Creator
• T.A.M.E.C.
• TA Power
• T.A.U.C.P.
• Terror Maps & Units
• Tileset Heaven
• The Lost Legacy
• Warmonger
• Epic Class Productions
• Genetically Modified TA
• Mutation Clearinghouse
• Real-Time Strategic Carnage
• TA: Independence War
• TA Battle Dome

Clan sites

• 222 Clan
• Better Than U
• Blitz/Rush
• Core Blood Brothers
• Combined Liberation Forces
• Duke
• Dynamic Eradicating Warriors
• Gnug
• PL Clan
• Swedish Yankspankers (Also Creators Of The TA Demo System And More)

Mods and Addons

Total Annihilation is one of the most moddable games there is, with already more than 2918 custom units, one hundred mods (including TA:Mutator mods), and a dozen custom races available for download. Some well-known TA mods and total conversions:

Cavedog expansions and patches

• The Core Contingency: A commercial expansion released by Cavedog in 1998. Adds extra units and maps, a campaign and a map editor. Patches the game to version 3.0, allowing third-party units to be added.
• Battle Tactics: The second commercial expansion fot TA released by Cavedog. Adds extra units and maps.
• Cavedog 3.1c Patch Free download. Fixes bugs and lets the game be modified more freely. Fileplanet download.

Mods

• Absolute Annihilation 510 carefully-balanced units. The largest stable 3rd-party compilation.
• GMTA 248 custom units, including a whole tech level.
• The Pack Uberhack-based mod for Mac users.
• Seal Pack Naval-based mod.
• Raven TA Compilation Mod
• TAUCP
• TAUIP
• Ultimate War Mod
• UTASP
• Thunder Ball 2 (direct download) Faster paced game.

Retunes and Bugfixes

• Uberhack First and most popular mod.
• TA Evolva Project Link to English Translation Replace original TA's 3D models with more detailed ones.
• Switeck's Bugfix Switeck's excellent bugfix is the foundation for many mods and custom AIs
• Warmonger Mod Anti-porcing mod.
• XTA Bugfix.

Total Conversions

• Armoured Typhoon Converts TA into a modern tank mod with one resource.
• Command and Conquer TA Replacing TA units with a 3D set of Command and Conquer units and structures.
• Dune TA Replacing TA units with a 3D set of Dune units and structures.
• TA: Command and Conquer: Red Alert (direct download) Replacing TA units with a 3D set of Command and Conquer: Red Alert units and structures.
• TA Mech Wars Replacing TA units with units and structures from Mech Wars.
• Warhammer 40,000 TA Replacing TA units with units and structures from Warhammer 40,000.
• Axis and Allies TA Replacing TA units with extremely accurate World War 2 units and structures. (Broken Link...)
• Operation Barbarossa TA total conversion for Operation Barbarossa
• World Domination Realistic modern TC featuring NATO and the Soviet Union|Soviet Mospact.
• WW2 Reborn World War 2 mod featuring the Soviets and Nazi Germany.
• Imperial Authority Star Wars unit pack.
• Star Wars TA Massive Star Wars total conversion.
• Star Wars TA: War In Space Star Wars total conversion in space.
• TA: Final Frontier Space total conversion featuring the Arm Space Navy and Corespace.
• TA: Independence War Space total conversion featuring The Federation, The Corporation, The Raiders, and The Aliens.
• TA: Dark Suns Space total conversion.
• Opherium 3 Space total conversion.
• TA MOD: Battle for Paradise

Races

• Aeropalmon Confederation/Defence Commission
• Mynn First race
• The Joined Tribe
• The Lost Legacy Massive race with over 100 units
• The Rumadians
• Rhyoss

Unit Packs

• Aftermath Design Unit Pack
• Emergency Pack A pack of smart units.
• MAGMA Pack
• Micropack A pack of early game and really small units.
• Spider Pack A pack of all-terrain assault vehicles.
• The Total Annihilation Aerial Assault Force A pack of advanced assault aircrafts.
• UDG 40 Pack

List of Abbreviations

• BB: Big Bertha. The long-range artillery gun built by the Arm faction.
• Bertha: Short for Big Bertha
• BLOD: Blue Laser of Death. The weapon fired by the Annihilator building, sniper k-bots, and some other units.
• D-Gun: Disintegrator gun, able to destroy any unit in the game in one shot. Used only by the commander, this weapon of war costs 400 energy to fire and leaves no wreckage to be reclaimed.
• DT: Dragon's tooth
• HLT: Heavy Laser Tower (or Gatling Gun)
• LLT: Light Laser Tower
• LRPC: Long-range plasma cannon (i.e. Big Bertha or Intimidator)
• Mexxor or just Mex: Metal Extractor
• PA: Planet Annihilation (TA website)
• TA: Total Annihilation
• TA:BT or BT: Battle Tactics, a Total Annihilation expansion pack
• TA:CC or CC: The Core Contingency, a Total Annihilation expansion pack
• TAU: Total Annihilation Universe (TA website)
• Timmy: Intimidator. The artillery gun used by the Core.