Total Annihilation/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.

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 has little effect on ballistic weapons unless it is very high.

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. Very energy-expensive compared to a metal extractor placed on a deposit, so if you can build one of those instead, do.

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 counter tank rushing in early stages.

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. Produces energy that varies by map (usually between 25 and 30). Excellent on any map with water and essential on maps with no land.

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. Fairly useful, as the water protects it from most air and ground attacks.

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.

Torpedo Launcher
An automated defense unit. Launches torpedoes at enemy ships or subs that come within range. Vulnerable to air attack as it is incapable of defense against aircraft.

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. Though they need to form the outer ring of your defense you can protect them with a "screen" of tanks and of course Dragon's Teeth which you also should be dumping like Chicklets. Needed to shoot down basic and advanced fighter jets; they are mandatory for air defense. Build tons of them and assign them to a macro key, as you will need all the help you can get against gunships and bombers. You will need to manually target them in air raids because by themselves they will target Fink/Peeper or even Vamp/Hawk "chaff" that are far less dangerous. And build them in "batteries" of 4-6 and keep them together and mutually supporting as they are only useful in large groups. Have at least 20 by the time you start seeing advanced aircraft.

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.

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, but without help they will be destroyed by a group of 10 of them. Make sure these structures have supporting radar, scout planes, air defense and ground units to form a wall of sorts to prevent enemies from getting close. Mines and other obstructions also help. Doesn't really measure up against naval units.

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 necessary to power an advanced base. Excellent for powering (moho) metal makers.

[Long-range artillery will be found in the race-specific sections, due to small differences between both sides' weapons.]

Moho Mine
Type: Resource Generator.

Built by: Adv. construction vehicle, Adv. construction Kbot, Adv. construction Airplane.

Comments: These fairly expensive mines suck metal from the ground at an impressive rate. Once you have the technology, start reclaiming your Metal Extractors and replacing them with Moho Mines to provide a metal boost.

Moho Metal Maker
Type: Resource Maker.

Built By: Adv. construction vehicle, Adv. construction Kbot, Adv. construction Airplane.

Comments: You basically need a fusion plant to power one of these, but they synthesize a massive 20 metal per tick. Use them in combination with Moho Mines to supply a large metal income. Very useful everywhere but the metal worlds, where you should use Moho Mines instead.

Nuclear Missile Launcher
Launches nuclear missiles. These nukes can be neutralized by the anti-nuclear missile launcher, but can still overwhelm them in large numbers.

(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.)

Anti-Nuclear Missile Launcher
Shoots down any nuclear missiles that would have landed within the unit's range (indicated on the minimap), provided that it has at least one shot. The unit is built without any ammo, the anti-missile rockets must later be built by clicking on the unit and selecting the rocket icon.

Pop-up Gun
These work roughly the same as the Guardian/Punisher. Although they are of a higher tier, their range is less than that of Guardian/Punisher and they deal the same amount of damage. They do have the ability to fold up, increasing their armor which makes them a bit more useful on planets with meteor showers, and lowers their damage taken from bombers and long range artillery. Against ground units you would want these guns to be deployed to deal damage so they don't benefit from being a pop-up gun. All in all the Guardian/Punisher is better for base defense, but because the pop-up guns can be built by tier 2 construction units the pop-up cannon can be built faster.

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.)

Advanced Anti-Aircraft Gun
Have a relative long building time, but are relative cheap and work excellent against enemy gunships and bombers. They have trouble taking down the fast fighters, but if you spread these flak cannons out over your base they can take down the fighters when they're turning in mid-air. A must-have for endgame, but their splash damage could also take down your own aircraft. When using big groups of advanced construction planes take into account that nearby flak guns could take your planes out, if an enemy plane decides to fly through your planes.

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 its 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.

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.)