Total Annihilation: Battle Tactics/ARM Short Missions

The following are the missions from the ARM Short campaign.

Zipper Attack
Mission Briefing: The Harrison Hotspot is a geothermally active region on Empyrrean. The Core have a large, weakly defended base as they have not been challenged in the area until now.

Take a force of Zippers in for a lightning strike, focusing on their energy supplies. Destroy all Geothermal Powerplants and Fusion Power Plants at any cost.

Suggestions: Do not try to destroy the Core defensive line. Just race past it, continuing your attack on their more vulnerable areas. Be careful. There are roving patrols and factories in the back lines. Do not get distracted from your mission objectives.

Battle Tactics: When the game is running, hit ENTER then type: '+shootall' on the message line if you want your units to automatically target buildings. Your Zippers are lightly armored so you don't want too many of them to be near a Fusion Power Plant when it blows up.

Can Rush
Mission Briefing: Emergency! A powerful force of Core Cans has been found by your scouts. Prevent the Cans from destroying your Fusion Reactor.

Suggestions: You have three Construction Kbots; use them wisely. If possible, create units with long range firepower.

Battle Tactics: To have your Construction Kbot build multiple structures, hold down SHIFT while placing the structure. Keep pressing SHIFT while continuing to give orders. The Construction Kbot will execute your commands in the order given.

Holding down SHIFT while a construction unit is selected will display squares on the terrain. Green squares represent structures the currently-selected unit is slated to build. Blue squares show the build orders of other construction units.

Attack on Barrack
Mission Briefing: The Core are massing a huge base assault force of Dominators. These long range units will wreak havoc on our base at Pahoehoe. We have hastily assembled a small force of highly maneuverable units, allowing you to make a surgical strike on the Core assembly point.

Take your mobile force of Fidos, Zippers, and Zeus Kbots west through Barack Ridge and destroy the Advanced Kbot Lab and all the Dominators.

Suggestions: Use your maneuverability to minimize damage from the Dominators.

Battle Tactics: When attacking the base, line up your Fidos out of range of the enemy's defenses. have one scout find targets for them. Be prepared to move them quickly if you see an incoming Dominator missile.

Cutoff in Sector 6895
Mission Briefing: Emergency It's a trap! The Core have cut you off from your main forces and are closing in for the kill. We are sending help in the form of an Atlas air transport which will land in the southeast corner of Sector 6895, but it is ten minutes away.

Survive until rescued by the air transport, then flee to the southern edge of the map.

Suggestions: Build a small base to help you survive. Watch for the air transport in the southeast. Don't allow the Atlas to be destroyed.

Battle Tactics: To load your Commander into the air transport select the transport, and click its LOAD button. Then click on the Commander.

If any transport is destroyed, all units it is carrying are also destroyed.

Encounter on the Coral Sea
Mission Briefing: The Core are building a powerful navy on the seas of Rashak IV. We have the approximate location of their major Shipyards.

Your orders are to destroy the enemy fleet and all Shipyards.

Suggestions: Keep your large ships together and ensure they keep firing. Your aircraft carrier has radar which will help you coordinate attacks.

Battle Tactics: By pressing CTRL W you will select all units with weapons (except the Commander).

To select all units of one type, select a single unit (destroyers, for example) and press CTRL Z. All destroyers will be selected.

The Wayneston Ford Engagement
Mission Briefing: The Core are attempting to expand a small base near Port Wayneston.

Cross the river at Wayneston Ford and destroy their base. Be sure to wipe out their energy production and Energy Storage facilities.

Your nanolathe is damaged and you will not be able to build units in this battle.

Suggestions: Decide on your crossing point and attack without delay. The Core forces are actively building stronger defenses. Your Disintegrator Gun can clear concentrations of enemy units.

Battle Tactics: Press CTRL C to select the Commander. Capturing Solar Collectors provides you with enough energy to frequently fire the D-gun. (The CAPTURE button is in the Commander's orders menu.)

To capture a unit, switch to the Commander's orders menu (you can press O) and click on the CAPTURE button (or C) and click on the unit you wish to capture.

You can capture any enemy unit and use it to your advantage. Be aware that your Commander is vulnerable to attacks while capturing a unit.

Ice Base Baryn
Mission Briefing: The Core assault on our base has almost overwhelmed our defenses.

We will counterattack in the far east which should relieve the pressure on your forces for a few brief hours. Survive the enemy assault if you can.

We will need advanced units quickly so expand Ice Base Baryn and build an Advanced Kbot Lab.

Suggestions: Geologists suspect that metal can be found in greater quantities to the south.

Battle Tactics: Hit ENTER to activate the message bar and type '+dither'. This cheat code will make it easier to view the extent of your line of sight. Explored terrain will appear in a darker color instead of gray. Type '+dither' again to return to the default setting.

Forest Base 129
Mission Briefing: Just south of two deep tributaries of the Yorlat River, the enemy is building a base. Expecting us to launch an air assault, the Core have invested in Cobras. We have flown in many amphibious tanks and landed them north of the rivers.

Your orders are to destroy all enemy factories in the region. Wipe out all mobile enemy fighting units.

You have twenty minutes to complete this mission.

Suggestions: The Core may or may not have had time to build Dragon's Teeth to slow ground assaults. If they have been built, use concentrated fire from several tanks to blow them up. Alternately, blasting a path through a forest may alow you to circumvent the Dragon's Teeth.

Battle Tactics: Divide your forces into two or three groups and assign each to different targets. Form your groups into squads by selecting the group and pressing CTRL (1 through 9). To select that squad later, press ALT (1 through 9). To view a unit's assigned squad number, press ~.

There is a cheat code that allows you to select the squad by pressing the # alone (1 through 9). To activate this cheat, press ENTER to bring up the message bar at the bottom of the screen. Type '+switchalt' and hit ENTER to activate this option. Simply pressing the assigned number will now select that squad. To deactivate this option and return to the default settings, type '+switchalt' again.

Rock Candy Mountains
Mission Briefing: We have three Radar Towers placed to triangulate the approximate location of the enemy Fusion Power Plant. The Core wishes to find our energy resources by the same means.

The Construction Kbot that initially built the Radar Towers was severely damaged in a fire fight. However, it is still capable of repairing friendly units in the area.

Your orders are to seek out and destroy all three enemy Radar Towers. You must also prevent the enemy from destroying any of our Radar Towers.

Suggestions: Leave a few units to defend each Radar Tower and send out the rest to scout. Whenever you see a lone enemy unit, be sure to track it down and destroy it before it can find our Radar Towers.

Battle Tactics: Watch your radar as this will give you your first warning of an enemy attack.

If you see a message stating that one of your units is under attack, you can press F3 and center the screen on that unit.

Kudzu Base
Mission Briefing: A major battle raged through the area known as the Kudzu Jungle. Our forces left a number of Core Metal Extractors and Moho Mines intact with the intent of returning to capture them. However, the Core managed to capture some Arm construction units and used our technology to build up a nearby base.

Your orders are to rush Kudzu Base and destroy all the Core Metal Extractors and Moho Mines. It is not necessary to destroy the entire base.

Suggestions: Metal Extractors are often hidden away in remote locations. Building Radar Towers is a good way to find units hidden among the trees.

Battle Tactics: Use CTRL R to select all your radar units. Use the radar map to view your range of coverage.

Yerrot Foothills
Mission Briefing: Emergency! All attempts to find ore outcroppings have failed and there are no longer enemy wrecks to reclaim for metal. The Core have built an Advanced Aircraft Plant nearby. A surprise assault succeeded in destroying our base.

Take your surviving units and capture the Advanced Aircraft Plant before the enemy's strike force overwhelms you.

Suggestions: Defenders and Flakkers have proved most effective, completely destroying the enemy airwing. Therefore it should be safe to attack for a few minutes. The Core have built many fixed defenses which are vulnerable to mass Spider assaults.

Battle Tactics: One shot from a Spider will prevent enemy units from firing back, but only for a limited time.

Remember that captured enemy units are set on Hold Fire and you must manually change their standing orders. If you plan to do a lot of capturing, you may wish to press CTRL W (which selects all of your war units) and then change every unit's orders to Return Fire. This way you will avoid destroying the factory you're trying to capture.

Island Hopping
Mission Briefing: Emergency! Our island base is under attack from a Core nava fotilla and our defense fleet is committed elsewhere. Their clear intention is to destroy our ability to fight a naval war.

Destroy the approaching fleet and preserve our Shipyards from destruction.

Note: The area around our islands is well explored. Sonar and radar should help pinpoint the enemy.

Suggestions: Use Construction Ships to reclaim as much metal as possible.

When attacking the enemy, move in with powerful groups rather than individual units.

Battle Tactics: To quickly find your factories, press CTRL F to select your factories, then track them using T.

To select all fighting units (except your Commander), press CTRL W (war units).

Mist Bombers
Mission Briefing: Take the 1075th airwing into the enemy's vulnerable area and reduce production capacity to rubble. Be sure to destroy all Kbot Labs and Aircraft Plants. If you haven't completed your mission in ten minutes, you never will.

Suggestions: Plan the direction of your bombing runs to avoid known air defenses.

Battle Tactics: Type '+clock' on the message bar to display the elapsed game time in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Type this cheat code again to hide the clock display.

A Shortage of Water
Mission Briefing: An attack in the region of Crustal XIII left an enemy Construction Kbot partially destroyed. This malfunctioning Kbot littered the region with L.L.T.s and Radar Towers. Using these units to their advantage, the Core advance in the area has been rapid.

In order to develop tertiary industries, the Core needs large quantities of the solvent H2O which are unavailable on this world. Our spies have discovered a Hydration Plant in a base to the northwest of your position.

We are expecting powerful assaults on your base. You are ordered to destroy the enemy Hydration Plant but do not allow your base to be destroyed in the process. You have twenty minutes to complete this mission.

Note: During this time of the local year you are passing through the Lambda meteor swarm. Expect meteor showers throughout the battle.

Suggestions: Badly damaged units can be sent back to your base for repairs.

Use well placed Dragon's Teeth to channel the advancing enemy forces into kill zones.

Battle Tactics: Press ~ to show how much damage your units have taken. This will also show what squads your uints belong to.

If you need to mark a screen location, press CTRL (F5 through F8). Press (F5 through F8) to recenter the screen on this location.

Raid on Vetes
Mission Briefing: The Core have established a base on the Vetes Lava Dome and built up concentric defenses. Take your fast mobile force through the forest and destroy the Core base. Attack everything but be sure you destroy all Advanced Kbot Labs and Fusion Power Plants.

Use construction units to repair your forces.

Suggestions: Whenever possible, avoid fighting the enemy until you have found your targets. Keep your units together.

Battle Tactics: Press ~ to activate the unit damage bars. These bars indicate the amount of damage each unit has taken. If a unit has been assigned to a squad, its squad number will also when the damage bars are visible. To turn off the damage bars, press ~ again.

Three Passes
Mission Briefing: We have built metal extraction facilities at the border of the Amethyst Plains. Since the metal deposits were initially well behind our lines, powerful defenses were not needed to protect these facilities at the time.

The Core have managed to build a factory behind our lines and subsequently the area is being raided by a number of light fast units.

Destroy all enemy units without losing any of your Moho Mines.

Suggestions: Move a few slower units to guard each of the Moho Mines while keeping faster units in a central reserve. Scout aggressively to try and find the enemy's major axis of attack.

Battle Tactics: Organize groups of units and order them to each GUARD a Moho Mine. Changing their standing orders to Hold Position will keep them near their posts.

Spire Sports
Mission Briefing: The Core is launching a huge series of simultaneous attacks on Crustal 12. They are sending units to the front as fast as they can build them. You must defend your base with your own forces. No reinforcements can be spared for you.

Expand your base and destroy all enemy units.

Suggestions: The Core tanks will be at a disadvantage in the spires, so engage the enemy there if you are able. You may want to build some heavy fortifications to protect your base as well.

Battle Tactics: When a construction unit is selected, use the shortcut key M to quickly bring up the Repair cursor over damaged units.