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Total Annihilation/Tactics and strategies: Difference between revisions
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===Search and Destroy=== | ===Search and Destroy=== | ||
Roaming around the map searching for hostile targets to kill with little or no defense puts pressure on the opponent and often destroys useful things such as radar posts. This is especially useful if the enemy is using a distributed strategy/layout. | Roaming around the map searching for hostile targets to kill with little or no defense puts pressure on the opponent and often destroys useful things such as radar posts. This is especially useful if the enemy is using a distributed strategy/layout. | ||
This is also important to do prior to a large scale attack, i.e. roam the map, destroy every unguarded (or lightly guarded) scout, radar post, etc. so that the enemy will be as unaware as possible of the fact that an attack is coming at all, and not knowing from which direction. A pattern of hunting for scouts and radars prior to the attack will though of course quickly be obvious to more aware players. For this reason it might be wise to not hunt for radar posts and simply rely on radar jamming to hide the advancing force (radar jamming should be utilized in all cases), however there is no way to hide a large force from patroling scouts, these should be avoided (difficult to almost impossible, but might be possible if very few in numbers) or destroyed. | |||
===Base Construction and Maintenance=== | ===Base Construction and Maintenance=== | ||
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The following steps illustrate a construction | The following steps illustrate a construction set of solar arrays using the former early-game method: | ||
1) Select | 1) Select the helpers <br /> | ||
2) Order the helpers to guard the constructor <br /> | 2) Order the helpers to guard the constructor <br /> | ||
3) Select the constructor <br /> | 3) Select the constructor <br /> | ||
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5) Hold down shift and left-click a spot to place the first solar array <br /> | 5) Hold down shift and left-click a spot to place the first solar array <br /> | ||
6) Continue holding shift while left-clicking other areas to place as many solar arrays as necessary <br /> | 6) Continue holding shift while left-clicking other areas to place as many solar arrays as necessary <br /> | ||
===The Commander=== | |||
The Commander is a very special unit in the game, in addition to having strong armour and having special features like the very powerful weapon called the "D-gun", being cloakable and being able to capture enemy units the Commander is also the unit that can construct buildings the fastest of all and also houses almost all of the energy and metal resources of the player, and most importantly the game can be set to end if the Commander is killed. | |||
Even if the game is not set to end if the Commander is lost this is critical to be avoided at all costs until post mid-game (unless the player can gain an extreme advantage somehow which is mentioned in later sections). Post mid-game the player has enough resource storage facilities and resources in general that losing the commander is not as important, however another "feature" of the Commander is the powerful explosion it makes when destroyed, this has to be carefully taken into account as it can be an advantage in some cases and a disadvantage in others (elaborated in later sections). | |||
The Commander should be heavily utilized during the game to construct buildings and aid in construction of buildings the Commander cannot initiate itself. The Commander should only engage in battles where it is certain it will not be destroyed; e.g. the Commander can help deal with an early rush attack but should not be a unit part of a large defence or attack force as it can easily be destroyed despite its heavy armour, this is especially true if the opposing player recognizes the commander is engaged in the battle and then targets all units to directly attack the Commander. | |||
It is possible to build decoy commanders, however the usefulness of this is questionable as the opposing player can easily discover if an arbitrary unit is a decoy-Commander or the real Commander by holding the cursor over the unit and the label will reveal which is the case. Post mid-game simply continuously cloaking the real Commander to preserve it for possible later use can be an option. | |||
==Strategy== | ==Strategy== | ||
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===Distributed Base Layout=== | ===Distributed Base Layout=== | ||
One way to organize | 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 disadvante being that mid-game and beyond the player will be mostly unable to effectively defend every structure scattered across the map, offering the enemy easy targets to destroy. | ||
===The Porcupine Strategy=== | ===The Porcupine Strategy=== | ||
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Cloaked units: | 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 | 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: | 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. | 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=== | ===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. | 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. | ||
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===Codes=== | ===Codes=== | ||
These are useful codes that are not considered cheats. Type these strings in the chat text-field for the desired effect: | These are useful codes that are not considered cheats. Type these strings in the chat text-field for the desired effect: | ||
*"+shootall" will make units automatically attack any enemy structures, normally units will only attack dangerous structures and units even if set at "fire at will", this can sometimes be a disadvantage as sometimes it is desired to focus on units that are a direct threat instead of structures that can do no direct damage to the player's forces. | *"+shootall" will make units automatically attack any enemy structures, normally units will only attack dangerous structures and units even if set at "fire at will", note that using this code can sometimes (or perhaps often) be a disadvantage as sometimes it is desired to focus on units that are a direct threat instead of structures that can do no direct damage to the player's forces. | ||
*"+bps" will display transfer rates. | *"+bps" will display transfer rates. | ||
*"+noshake" will make the screen not shake when large explosions occur. | *"+noshake" will make the screen not shake when large explosions occur. | ||
*"+showranges" will make the selected unit's various ranges (such as visual contact, weapon ranges, etc) show on the mini-map. This clutters the screen if multiple units are selected, so it's best toggled on and off as needed. | |||
===Using D-gun=== | ===Using D-gun=== | ||
