Total Annihilation/Empyrrean's Final Stand

Mission Briefing

Intell-tap The final mission. Arm has been pushed into the hills for one last stand. The Arm Commander will be with his units. Destroy him as well.

Destroy Arm

DO SO NOW

Details

Map for Core Campaign, mission 25: Empyrrean's Final Stand

Starting units: Commander, 2 Thuds, 2 Pyros, Can

Pull back to the southwest corner and find some metal deposits to start resource collection. Once resources are coming in, build a KBot Lab, Vehicle Plant, and Aircraft Plant right away. Each plant should immediately build a Construction unit, followed by KBots, tanks, and fighters. Build Crashers and Slashers first for anti-air capabilities. Start building the Advanced Plants while these units are coming online.

Crank out Cans, Pyros, Mobile Artillery, Reapers, Diplomats, Vamps, Rapiers, and Hurricanes. Put the level 1 units up at the front of your lines, and back them up with the higher level units. Spread east along the southern edge of the map and maintain troop levels while gaining new sources of metal and bringing more energy collectors/generators online.

Once you've spread across the southern edge of the map and built up enough units for an assault, start moving slowly north. Keep the Diplomats at the back of the force, with Deleters and Informers mixed into the group to keep targets available and the force hidden from Arm radar. Plenty of KBots and Vehicles should be held back to odefend the weapons, with the frontal force drawing Arm out from their base. As you get within range of the pass, send a couple of KBots ahead to identify targets, there should be some defensive structures near the pass that would be best taken out as soon as possible.

Slam the whole line of the pass and the surrounding area with fire from the Diplomats before moving in. With some luck you may even take down the Arm Commander (though you still have to remove the rest of the Arm troops). As you move into the hills, make sure you have a strong air force to cover your ground forces in the approach. Bring forward some construction units to place defensive structures along the hills to prevent Arm forces from pushing back through the line or slipping past to attack the base.

Make sure the factories have a deep queue of units in production and send your air units in to clear the path northward once the hills open up. Keep units moving to the front line and keep up heavy bombardment just ahead of your units. A Bertha on the ridge will cause trouble at this point, and you'll have to take it down quickly with bombers and Diplomats. This is where the advance slows to a crawl, but long-range weapons and bombers will win out if you can maintain production. If you have a lot of extra tanks moving to the front, push them forward into the frey. Eventually anything that isn't long-range or a bomber becomes extra scrap to throw against the enemy in hopes of reducing their numbers and pinning them down. It could take a while, but as long as the units keep coming from the Core factories, this is where Arm is annihilated.