Total Annihilation/The Lost Isle

Mission Briefing
Narration: ''Water was an especially important resource for the Arm, whose soldiers still made use of organic components. Nigh Pilago was a principal source of that water. Once covered completely by a single, vast ocean, the planet had been drained to the point where small land masses were beginning to appear.''

Intell-tap The seas of Nigh Pilago are swarming with Arm naval units. Communication intercepts imply that the Arm has developed a new, more powerful Carrier ship. In addition to serving as a mobile repair base for air units, the Carrier has the capability to generate tremendous energy levels. Destroy all Carriers that you find.

Destroy the Arm Carriers.

DO SO NOW

Details
Starting units: Commander, 2 Thuds, 2 Storms

Space is at a premium, and there are a lot of little islands for Arm to hide out on. Before starting on building anything you might want to burn down the forest with you D-Gun directly west to your starting position. That way no enemy will start a fire and destroy all your buildings at once. Get started quickly building to get some KBots out and resources coming in. Crashers and Storms will be a good defense against the naval and amphibious attacks coming fast. Build a Construction KBot as soon as you can manage, and keep repairing and rebuilding any structures you lose. Building Punishers along the northern and eastern shores of the island will help your defenses dramatically if you can get enough of them.

As soon as you can, start advancing your structures to level 2, tearing down level 1 structures (or building an Advanced structure where a level 1 structure was destroyed by the Arm assault). Start with Moho Mines and Fusion Plants, so resource drains don't get too heavy. Get an Advanced Radar Tower up as soon as possible to start attacking the enemy with the Punishers (instead of trying to maintain a defensive posture indefinitely). Replace the Punishers with Intimidators to extend your range and damage. At this point, it should be safe to build a Shipyard. As usual, this will bring Arm's ships coming as fast as they can to attack the Commander. Target them quickly with your base's defenders, but remember to pull the Commander out of harm's way if needed (or maybe submerge the Commander the get away from the surface ships' weapons).

Once the Shipyard is up, build Snakes as usual to defend it, followed by a Construction Ship to build an Advanced Shipyard. Reclaim shipwrecks to keep the metal flowing, and start building Hydras and Executioners. Clean up as much of the island north of you as possible with your Intimidators (and the fleet beyond it if you can target the ships), and then send in your ships. Lurkers and Piranhas will be defending the Arm base and fleet, so make sure there are plenty of Snakes guarding the fleet to take care of them.

Once the fleet has recovered from the first probe outwards, it's time to head southwest. Attack the large island in the southwestern quadrant with a large mix of surface ships and subs. The fighting might be a little heavier here, but it's the same routine.

At this point, it's time to start working on two items: an Advanced Aircraft Plant (wherever you can find the room), and ann Advanced Radar Tower. Start with the Aircraft Plant and a Construction VTOL. It's probably a good idea to build plenty of Avengers to defend your units as you expand, since the Arm aircraft are going to start taking notice of what you're doing. Next is an Advanced Radar Tower on the smaller island just southwest of your starting island (between it and the last Arm base you attacked). Once the Tower's up and the Avengers are available to defend your expansion, look for a place to build the Advanced Aircraft Plant. Once this is online, start producing level 2 aircraft in preparation to head northwest.

Make sure you have some Rapiers and Snakes ready to start the assault. The easiest way to deal with the Arm aircraft is to send in the Snakes first, and target the Brawlers with your Rapiers. The Snakes draw the attention of the Brawlers and Lancets. The Brawlers are the biggest threat to the Rapiers, and the Lancets are slow enough to cause little concern before the Brawlers are dealt with. Once all of the planes are gone, it's time to focus on eliminating the Arm from the archipelago.

Use radar and the long-range weapons available to your navy to scour the remaining islands in the northwest while taking minimal damage. Keep fighters and subs near the ships in case more aircraft or subs are roaming or decide to respond to the assault on the islands. Stick with the navy as long as possible, but if something small is avoiding the heavy weapons, you may have to send in some planes or even small ground units on a transport to clean up. Just make sure all of the hard targets and major defenses are cleared out before sending a plane or transport anywhere near the islands.