Total Annihilation/Strategies

Resources

Early in the game the player should seek out metal located on the map and build metal extractors in these locations. Locations close by should be built using either construction vehicles or kbots, while locations further away should be built using construction aircraft. Once the battle has escalated into a longer game (i.e. rush-period is over), the main way of gaining resources is by using Fusion Reactors and Moho Metal Makers to convert excess energy into metal. This technique is highly superior at this stage in the game. Normal metal extractors produce too little metal and must be scattered across the map in order to function - making them difficult to protect. Moho mines produce more metal, but suffer from the same (the latter) problem as the normal metal extractors. The player should however not limit the metal production to merely metal makers: a combination of the two can be utilized to some degree. On metal [CORE Prime] maps, e.g. "Seven Islands" metal extractors (either normal or moho) is the technique of choice. They can be built anywhere and still extract maximum metal, thus making them able to be grouped tightly together so they become easier to build and protect.

Rushing

One of the most effective ways to win a game is by rushing the enemy. After the start of the game the player will use all resources on building cheap, fast attack units (like the Level 1 "Flash" tank) by having the Commander guard the vehicle plant and help constructing. Once the player has a few units (or perhaps even after the first unit is completed) he sends them to the enemy base and starts attacking whatever structures and units are there. Any consecutive units are swiftly (or perhaps by even using waypoints) sent to the enemy base to help the first attack wave. The player will continue doing this while expanding his own base at a slow rate. Although the player expands his base slowly (relative to the rate it would be expanding without either player rushing) his base will most certainly expand faster than the player rushed even if his attacks are only somewhat successful. The player will simply keep this up until the enemy is destroyed. This usually leads to a very boring game, so it is frowned on by most TA players. However, it is a legitimate strategy when a campaign mission is simply too difficult to beat any other way.

Distributed Base Layout

One way to organize the structure of the base is to have all buildings scattered across the map with no central core of it all. The most obvious advantage is the player can very easily expand and control large parts of the map and has no huge attractive spots to attack like the Porcupine base will have - the player can scatter valuable structures like Fusion Reactors around the map and have heavy defences for each. The disadvantage is that mid-game and beyond the player will be unable to effectively defend every structure scattered across the map, offering the enemy easy targets to destroy.

The Porcupine Strategy

This is another way to structure and organize your base. The basic idea is to build it small and with extreme protection - keeping all your most valuable structures in the middle of the protection, e.g. your fusion reactors, moho metal makers, targeting facility and missile protection system(s). The protection being large numbers of fixed weapons organized in several circles around the base and in some cases several layers of walls. Such a base is difficult and in some cases almost impossible to destroy with conventional tactics. Sending waves upon waves of normal units against it will be slaughtered by large numbers of weapons such as the Vulcan or Big Bertha even before they are in range to return fire, the few units that might make it all the way will be swiftly dealt with by other fixed weapons which can easily be built in extreme numbers. The same problem will arise if the enemy attempts a normal air-strike - anti-air weapons can also be constructed in vast numbers and the Flakker is especially dangerous to large swarms of aircraft. The Porcupine base will not last in the long run if used on a smaller maps where long range plasma weapons can hit any target on the map. If both players adopt this strategy on larger maps where long range plasma weapons are not a direct threat, the game can seem to be never-ending as neither player is able to really harm the other.

Dealing with the Porcupine Base

Despite the porcupine base seeming difficult to harm on first sight there are several ways to deal with this strategy.

Long range weapons

The first thing the opposing player should do is gain dominance in terms of mobile units, once the opposing player controls the map he can travel across the map with construction units and start building long range weapons within range of the enemy but remove the enemy's ability to retaliate with radar jammers. One or more Big Bertha (together with advanced radars) set at "fire at will" (utilizing the "Targeting Facility") can do a lot of damage if not completely destroy the Porcupine base. The Porcupine base will most definitely have long range weapons to return fire and the player needs to assume he will sooner or later be spotted (by scouts) even though radar jamming is being used. Thus the distance of the Porcupine's defences should be measured and the opposing player's artillery should be built outside the range of the Porcupine bases' defences. The downside is of course not being able to strike at any point in the enemy base, but a lot of damage will surely take place in any event if the attacking artillery is not destroyed. The long range weapons of the player should have a high wall around them as this will stop most types of units from being able to effectively strike at them without being an obstacle for the player's own artillery to hit targets far away. A high wall will also allow a direct hit (and in some cases several) to be taken from the enemy artillery's return-fire without destroying the player's artillery.

Defeating the anti-missile system

This tactic is to simply destroy the anti missile system(s) at all costs and then launch several nukes at the Porcupine base, as the Porcupine base is so tightly constructed it will usually be completely destroyed by such an attack. The anti-missile system can also be "beaten" by carefully timing when to fire the next missile, there is a small window which will allow a missile to slip past the defence system.

Cloaked units

A group of cloaked units can (if possible) sneak into the enemy base and attack the most valuable structures which are usually tightly grouped in a Porcupine base, as the cloaked units of the player disable the cloak-feature and engage this will make all hostile base defences instantly retaliate and quickly make them succumb. However some of the shells from the base's defences will almost certainly strike the buildings the cloakable units are standing next to — most likely destroying them in the process, this is especially true if they survive long enough for super-weapons such as a group of Vulcans to suppress fire.

Commander Bomb

The idea here is to make a hole in the Porcupine base which your forces can advance through, this can be done by cloaking your Commander, walking all the way across the map to the enemy base and continue all the way until the Commander is as close as possible to the outer defense perimeter (and if possible sneak even deeper if there are no walls or if there are openings), once close enough or actually inside the Commander will start attacking with the D-gun and be sacrificed, once the commander explodes its powerful explosion will really harm the Porcupine base. The player thus sends in his several waiting attack forces the instant (or perhaps even before) the Commander explodes. Obviously, this doesn't work in games set to end when the commander is destroyed.

Dealing with Artillery

The most simple way of dealing with long range weapons attacking is to return fire with the players own long range weapons. If the source of the attack is unknown - i.e. radar jamming is utilized the player needs to scout for the source of the attack, this is easily done by tracing the bullet as it files across the screen to see which direction is comes from and then sending a wave of scout aircraft in that direction. After sending the scouts off the player selects his artillery and follows the planes as they travel, once they obtain visual contact with the enemy artillery the player orders his own weapons to return fire by selecting the opposing artillery. Once selected the player's defences will continue to fire at the target even if not visible nor on radar. If the player has no artillery to return fire, cannot return fire due to lack of power, cannot target the source of the attack or cannot strike at the target because it is out of range:

1. Destroy the artillery with ground or sea forces. Artillery built outside the enemy base is an easy target for cloaked units (e.g. the "Shooter"). In the event no cloaked units are available conventional attack units and tactics should be utilized.
2. Use an airstrike to destroy the artillery. However if the player does not have air dominance the opposing player will have his air force patroling over (or close by) the area where the long range weapon(s) are located.
3. As an end-game tactic the player can destroy the opponent's energy sources. Artillery cannons need two thousand units of energy to fire each shot and will thus be unable to operate with little or no power. Mobilizing such an attack is however time consuming and should thus only be used as a tactic if a large battle is already talking place around or within the enemy base.