Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency/Through Bog and Swamp

Mission Briefing
The Core hovercraft technology is ours! The hovercraft construction pad has been converted to our specifications. Use the new hovercraft units to assault the Core base to the north.

Priority Critical:

We now know that Core seeks the alien beacon here on Lusch. Though we are uncertain of its importance to Core, the fact that they want it is reason enough to deny them the beacon. We must find it first.

Info Feed:

Hovercraft are uniquely designed for this world. Use the rivers and swamps for your assault route.

Scouts have encountered a dangerous insectoid life-form. Because of its shape and behavior it has been dubbed the Scorpion.

The species seems to be of alien origin and may indicate that we near the alien beacon. Be on the lookout for the Scorpions... and the beacon.

All Core units must be destroyed to ensure that they not remain to contribute to Core's search. Destroy any Scorpions as well... they are not of this galaxy... who knows what contaminants they bring with them.

To complete this mission destroy all Core units and Scorpions.

END

Opposition
The central island is heavily fortified, its shores are ringed by Gaat Guns and in the centre is a Doomsday Machine surrounded by Cobra flak guns. Hovercraft Platforms are on the peninsulas at 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock, there's an Advanced Aircraft Factory at 6 o'clock and a Fusion Reactor at 1 o'clock. Most of the hovercraft come over the northern end of the island and down the western shoreline, some go round the southern end - more so at the beginning.

Detail
You start on the left edge of the map, at 8 o'clock. Once you've got metal and energy production, start churning out hovercraft - hovertanks and the odd construction hovercraft. You'll also want a radar and some missile towers as soon as possible to keep the bombers away, and an Advanced Kbot lab for Pelicans may be nice. Attacks will come down the river to the southeast, so organise your base accordingly. There's extra metal deposits just out of sight to the north and east.

At Easy level it's possible for the Commander to single-handedly capture the Advanced Aircraft Plant base intact. It should be visible on your radar screen - go east from the start point and then come down the east shore of the 6 o'clock peninsula, just in from the shore. The main resistance will come from the lasers of the bombers parked southeast of the base. D-gun the right-hand ones first, then wait until you've got a bit of an angle before D-gunning the last one, to make sure you don't get the Moho Mine. Then walk up to the missile towers and capture them one-by-one, followed by the Moho Mine, the aircraft plant, repair pad and solar collectors. By this time you should have some hovertanks to defend your new base, and a construction hovercraft to start building Sentinels to the east of your new base, to defend against the waves of enemy that will come down the rivers towards you. When you get a quiet moment it's worth clearing a path from your main base to the captured one, as otherwise your units tend to take the riskier route around the top of the peninsula.

Aircraft don't play a big part in this level since Core is so heavily dug in with flak guns and anti-air hovercraft, they are more for scouting and defence against bombers. However if you can capture the Advanced Aircraft Plant, you should build an Advanced Construction Aircraft. This allows you to build Moho mines and an Advanced Radar Tower at an early stage.

The radar tower is particularly important, as the stars of this level are a handful of Wombat missile hovercraft. They are the best units for safely destroying the Gaat heavy lasers on the shoreline of the island (although the D-gun can take care of the odd one if necessary) and the Doomsday Machine. They will need the protection of a much greater number of hovertanks, which will need active management - if the Wombat comes under attack from missiles or long-range artillery the tanks won't respond unless they can see an enemy unit, so you need to send them in the direction of incoming fire. A Guardian plasma cannon on the east shore of the 6 o'clock peninsula makes a useful addition to your armoury - it works best if it is right on the water's edge and ideally up on the northern tip of the peninsula for best coverage of the centre of the island, but it can be a real battle to keep the enemy away whilst it is being built, particularly up in the north.

You could try hitting Core's resource base by sending a taskforce up the left side of the map, and then along the northern edge to hit the Fusion Plant in the top-left corner, followed by attacks on the solar collectors on the island.