Total Annihilation/Tactics and strategies

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. Alternativly, you can have your army guard its slowest unit, then send that one unit on its way. This keeps the group moving together.

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

Using D-gun
The commander has a very powerful weapon called the disintegrator gun, or "d-gun". It is a virtually ultimate weapon that requires energy but can kill almost anything in one hit! Use it wisely though, 'cause if your commander gets killed, you are kind of screwed.

Using the "capture" feature
Your commander has an awesome ability to take other buildings and units and make them yours. In the orders menu, there is the capture option. Although this insane ability seems like the best choice ever, it takes some time to capture the target. That's a downside =[

The capture feature provides a devilishly clever way of defending yourself against krogoths. If you spot a krogoth send a group of spider tanks to paralyse it. Once it's paralysed you can capture it with your commander. It is difficult to pull this off but if it works you'll have your Core opponent pulling out his hair.

Dealing with Artillery
When your opponent has artillery you have a problem. Artillery (Big Bertha cannons or Intimidators) have enormous range and very high power and will often put inexperienced players on the defensive, trying to protect their structures with walls and such. There are several good responses to artillery fire, none of them are defensive.

1. Destroy the artillery with ground forces. This is difficult for two reasons. The first is that the artillery itself can seriously damage your attack force as your force makes its way to the target. The second is that artillery is likely to be well guarded. There is, however, a wonderful trick that can make even relatively small ground attacks sucessful. Send an attack group to one side of the artillery and begin an advance. Once you see the explosions from the artillery indicating that the cannon sees and is attacking your attack force, move a second attack force toward the artillery from the opposite direction. Artillery takes a very long time to turn around giving your second force a serious advantage and increasing your chances of taking the cannon out of business.

2. Simply bomb the cannon with airplanes. If you have level two airplanes this will only take four or five planes assuming that they all hit their target. However, artillery is usually guarded by anti-air units just for this reason. Note that for this to work you need to know exactly where the cannon is. This can be achieved by using spotter planes (finks and peepers) or fighter planes. Fighters are more expensive but make better scouts as they are faster than spotters.

3. Hunt down your opponent's energy sources. Artillery cannons need two thousand units of energy to fire each shot. If you can deny your opponent the luxery of fusion power his artillery will be shut down.