I don't think I've ever seen a Total Annhilation report on this site, and I know I've only seen one TA:K report, and it was done very poorly. That and the fact that I've been playing TA a lot more recently brought me to make a report on a TA game. Ok, and also the fact that when I went into Nohunters HilbsTheZealot had somehow gotten ops and banned me. Little putz monkey. So I went onto Boneyards (Battle.net for TA) and originally started asking if there were any games I could watch. Nobody answered me, but somebody asked me if I wanted to play a Galatic War game. This is one thing I like about TA. Galatic War. Before I continue I will remind you that there are two "races" in TA: The Arm and The Core.

Imagine this: A sector is in dispute. There are about 30 planets in this sector. Each one has "gates" to the next. Over the course of a day, battles are waged on the "disputed" planets (the ones that have at least one gate to each side). Which ever side won more "battle points" gains control of that planet. When the "capital" planet of one side has fallen, that side loses, and the game is reset, making a new sector with new planets. If you want to play Galatic War, you have to choose which side you will fight for. You cannot change it until the next sector reset. When you play a GW game you MUST play against somebody on the opposite side. I have elected to be Core during this "season".

I responded to the person, "Sure, I'll play". And he responded back "You create". And I told him, "Game name is 'id'." I created the game and waited for him to join. 15 seconds later he still hadn't joined. I did a +locate on him and he had gone off-line. I was about to close the game when somebody else joined. MarkIV. No, not Mark4, MarkIV. (Somebody's been stealing your name, Mark :-) Since I wanted a game to report on (that was the whole purpose of me getting on TA) I decided I wasn't about to throw the opportunity away. Especially once I realized that this could be a sort of vicarious revenge against Mark4 for beating my ass in the COA game all those many months ago. I asked him if he minded me recording the game, and he said "Go ahead". I turned on the recorder and started.

Now before I begin the actual report, let me get a few things out of the way. The "recorder" is a third-party product, and is little more than a hack. A very good hack, and one that doesn't "cheat", but nonetheless a hack. Since I was using the recorder I concentrated completely on the game and decided to watch the game later in order to write the report. (I took screenshots during playback too) Another thing to mention real quickly is the economy of TA. You have two resources: Metal, and Energy. Energy, at least once you get past the first five minutes or so, is probably not going to be much of a concern, as there are plenty of ways to create it. Solar Collectors, Wind Generators, Geothermal Plants, harvesting "biomass", Fusion plants, et multiple cetera. Metal, however, is not nearly so easy to come by. In order to gain metal you must build Metal Extractors (henceforth simply "ME"s) on top of metal deposits which are scattered across the map. The resources never run out, at least map wise, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Metal doesn't come in that fast and 90% of the time the person who wins a game is the one who manages to produce the most metal. MEs are also VERY easy to kill. Most of the lighter troops can annihilate them in about two shots and all of the higher troops can blow them to smithereens before you can blink.

Finally, some small details about the tech tree. All contruction begins with the "Commander", which is THE unit in the game. In many games if he dies you die. He has the most powerful gun in the game, and is the fastest builder. However he can only BEGIN basic structures. He can, however, (just like any other unit that builds) HELP with any structure (or unit, for that matter) that is already underway. Now that I have helped you understand somewhat the workings of TA, on with the report!

Ioti

vs

MarkIV

(again, NOT Mark4!)

Map: Red Hot Lava

I started out with my standard build, build a ME, three Solar Collectors (henceforth called "SC"s), and a Kbot Lab (produces Kbots; "infantry"). After the KBot lab is completed I build two AKs, which are very light KBots, very fast, very cheap. I use them to scout around the map, since I'm not familiar with it.

My beginning build

After finding several metal deposits and building some MEs on top of them, I began producing Storm Kbots. They are medium-speed, high-armor KBots that pack dumbfire rocket launchers. In my opinion they are the most powerful light KBot in the game, as far as ground targets are concerned. I continued scouting the map with my AKs, looking for more metal deposits to fuel the war machine.

Since I still didn't know where my opponent was located, I decided that I'd take a Storm and have him go to the most likely spots on the map, deduced from my own starting location of half-way down the map on the right side. First he traveled north, and he found nothing. Then he traveled west, and saw an Arm Vehicle plant and an Arm ME. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to kill the VP before he managed to get a troop or two up to kill my Storm, I re-directed fire at the ME in order to slow down his economy slightly. I killed the ME and got a few shots off at the VP before two flashes blasted the crap out of my Storm. Of course. Typical Arm commander. Flash rusher, most likely. Flashes are small tanks with a rapid-fire pulse gun, very irritating but not too tough unless either supported or in swarms. I'd had good recent experience using Storms against Flashes so I didn't have any worries.

The opponent

During this time I also built a second Kbot lab. While I was building it my opponent decided to try his luck with a couple of fighter jets. This is yet another thing that I like about TA. Air units actually BEHAVE LIKE AIR UNITS. In SC they are little more than ground units that can interpenetrate and move over terrain. This means, for example, that if you attack a target with some fighter jets, they swoop down, fire a missile or two at it, swoop up, go past, turn around, swoop down, fire, repeat until dead. Another thing is that just because a unit fires at a unit doesn't mean it hits. (Another realism issue that TA has all over SC) This means that fast moving fighter jets aren't exactly easy to hit with dumbfire rockets. However, all was not lost. Firstly there were only two or three of them and fighter jets take a long time to kill anything on the ground (after all, they're fighters, designed to take out other planes), second, my other CK was available to build some missile towers, and third, the second KBot lab was finished and I could start producing Crashers from it. Crashers are KBots that are slower than storms and not as thickly armored, but they fire seeking missiles, ideal for shooting down errant planes. The fighter jets got a couple more pot shots off on my troops before my Crashers and Pulverizers (missile towers) punked their asses out of the sky.

He gives my base a poke

All was calm for a little while, I built a Vehicle Plant of my own and started building Slashers (Crashers on wheels, essentially) and some Raiders (medium-size tanks). Then I decided to give HIS base a poke, with three Storms and a Crasher. I managed to take out an ME and two missile towers before my pimp squad was annihilated. At this point I decided teching up a bit might be a good idea, and I told one of my CKs to build an Advanced Kbot Lab. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it yet but I knew that I probably couldn't win with low-level troops if this guy was any good at all. All was calm for a couple of minutes while we both built up, me building some more SCs in the north, and also taking a couple more metal deposits. Right after the SCs finished a small horde of Flashes and Samsons came in from the north, and managed to take out two MEs, a SC, a couple of immolator turrets, and a missile tower before my Storm horde is able to kill them. One nice thing about SCs is that, when under attack, they fold up into a shell. They don't provide energy while in the shell, but they only take 20% of the damage they would have taken. That's what one of them is doing in this shot.

Part of his first major offensive

Almost immediately after this he attacks my base from the north with, unarguably, the most IRRITATING unit in the whole game. The Arm Brawler. It's a fighter jet, but it's got a strange attack. What it does is hover near it's target, swaying back and forth in the air (don't ask me how the physics are supposed to work) and firing the same gun that Flashes do. I silently throw curses at my opponent. So far he's pulled every Arm cheese move in the book.

So far he's been the one owning this game and I'm starting to get worried

He takes out two more SCs and a ME, and then suddenly I see the worst lag I've EVER seen in a TA game. TA handles lag much differently than SC. If somebody is lagging in TA their units seem to freeze, while yours keep going. I'm not sure at this point if that gives anybody an advantage or what, but I know it was strange seeing his brawlers sitting in mid-air for five seconds while my Storms and Crashers shot at them. After the lag ended he foolishly left the brawlers over my horde of troops and they were ripped apart.

Everybody makes mistakes and this was a big one on his part

Around this time I produced an Advanced Construction KBot and built a couple of Advanced Radar Towers, which to many SCs players are cheating (because what they do resembles map-hacking) by giving you a large view of your opponents units on the mini-map. It doesn't tell you what they are, it doesn't give you the ENTIRE map, but it lets you know that they're there and if they are moving or not. I also built a couple more basic KBot labs in the south, and started producing Storms and Crashers from them.

Almost right after the Brawlers died I had about 120 units by the unit counter (similar to the food counter in SC) and I knew most of them were attack troops, either Storms, Crashers, Slashers, or Raiders, and I decided that my horde, if it didn't kill him, was gonna do a lot of damage. I directly my entire army (courtest of the Ctrl-W hotkey, which selects ALL attack troops) into the west part of his base, where he started and his commander was most likely to be found. First thing I see, and the thing that makes the bile rise in my throat, is lines of dragon's teeth covering the chokes to his base. I threw more silent curses at my opponent but did not hold up on the attack. This is something to never do my friends. If you try to run over a DT line with low-level troops you'd better hope you've got a lot of them because you'll lose a lot trying. Not because the DTs do damage, but because they are INCREDIBLY tough to destroy. Don't even THINK of trying this at home, kids...

This was MY mistake

Notice how the vast majority of the explosion are directly ON the DT. That means my shots aren't getting through.

If he had completely plugged the choke points I would have never gotten through at all, as it stood, I still lost a lot of troops for the damage I did

To give you a vague idea of the absolute chaos that occured during this period of total war, and to give you an idea of what kind of damage was done here's four shots of the minimap (taken during playback). Blue dots are me, red dots are him, and tiny yellow dots are any projectile being fired.

Something I didn't know at the time, but made me scream in my room later, while watching the playback, is that one of my units passed within spitting distance of his commander. Had I seen it I would have won right then and there, because I had enough troops to kill the damn thing, and in GW games, it's ALWAYS set to "Commander Death = You Die".

That's my storm about to get creamed by a missile (hidden under a unit wreckage, the demo playback sometimes gives weird graphical glitches), and that's his commander not more then 8 steps away from it. ARG!!!

During this time he managed to get a few flashes into my base, blowing up a kbot lab and my vehicle plant. Then he gets sneaky and tries to hide the flashes in my base, but I have a radar tower that tells me (via minimap) that there's still units in my base. I take my commander over and use the D-Gun on them. The D-Gun (or Disintegrator Gun) is the ultimate weapon in TA. It kills ANYTHING in one shot, and does line damage like a lurker, but only the commander possesses it. Three flashes vs D-Gun = D-Gun, by a whole damn lot.

The D-Gun is a thing of beauty, my friends

I decide to give his base another poke with 8 storms, this time on his southwest flank. I spot a Hovercraft platform, and manage to kill a missile tower and an Anaconda (Hovertank) before the many missile towers the few Anacondas in the area chew my Storms to bits. Almost at exactly the same time that I'm doing this he sends about 8 flashes and a samson at my base, killing three MEs and an IT before my Commander D-Guns them into scrap metal. (Actually, not even scrap metal. They're just GONE. :-)

Also at this time my Advanced Construction Kbot starts work on a Krogoth Gantry, the factory that builds the ultimate unit in the game, the Krogoth. This, my friends, is what makes Core so fun. If you can manage to build one of these things (and it takes a DAMN long time too) you have most likely won the game. The problem is, of course, keeping it hidden for long enough to give you a chance to build it. The thing is damn expensive too. And of course it's not INVINCIBLE, but it's damn hard to kill.

The harbringer of death, the outline of a Krogoth Gantry

For a few minutes there are minor skirmishes while my forces grow back to their former glory (I lost just about all my troops in the attack):

Then something that I won't get over for quite a while happened. Remember what I said about Brawlers? He decided to attack with them again. He took out my one remaining SC in the north (sitting all by itself). And then flew along the east side of my base where I had almost nothing. But then... he flew by my Krogoth Gantry. And none of my units were around. I'd say something... but... why? Pictures tell it all....

He also managed to take out my advanced KBot Lab, my Advanced Construction KBot, several turrets, my other Advanced Radar Tower, and a bunch of MEs. I was slightly angry at this guy. Things were calm for about 30 seconds, and then I decided to again try to attack his base. Below is a shot of about a half of the army I currently had.

I hit the Ctrl-W key to select all my troops and directed them into the base. And then I heard it. The worst sound you can possibly hear. (Well, almost, as I'll explain in just a bit) The sound of a Big Bertha shell smashing into your troops. I almost wet my pants. For those of you who don't know, I'll explain. A Big Bertha is a large cannon. Very, VERY long range. Can shoot about... oh.... 5 miles. You think siege tanks are annoying? Try something that can shoot across about 20 screenlenghts. And this thing was firing into my troop movement. Every shot was creaming about 3-5 storms. I knew it was either do or die, because the only way I could stop this thing from firing was to go find it and kill it. (There are other ways to prevent it from hurting you but they require advanced construction facilities which I had none of.) The only thing more annoying than a Big Bertha is a Vulcan, Bertha's big sister. Works like a Big Bertha but fires about 4 times every second. Luckily Vulcans A) Take FOREVER to build B) Are INSANELY expensive C) Take an ASTRONOMICAL amount of energy to operate. But I digress. This Bertha was taking chunks (albiet fairly small) out of my troops, but I was already blasting the crap out of his base. I entered in a completely different route than the last time, and he hadn't protected it with Dragon's teeth, much to my joy. My troops were slowly marching towards the Bertha, which I surmised it's location (incorrectly, I discovered later) from by the direction the shells were coming from. However, on the way I saw something much more valuable than the Big Bertha.

The quarry appears!

This was it! My heart was racing! My stomach tightening! The enemy commander was visible! My mission objective! I promptly selected all my troops again and directed fire onto the enemy commander.

Yes, that's him at the center of all those explosions :-)

He attempted buy himself some time by slowing the game down (unlike SC, in TA multiplayer the speed is not set at the beginning) but it was too late. A final rocket burst through his armor and opened up the antimatter packs on his back into the open air. Now, when a commander dies, the resulting explosion basically levels anything on the same screen. So it took out a fair chunk of my troops. But it didn't matter, I had won! My first GW in months and I had won! After his commander exploded, I said "gg" and the victory screen showed up. On the score screen I noticed that he had produced about 20% more metal than I had, had killed the same amount of troops, but we had the same score. Back in the boneyards chat room I messaged him "gg" again and he responded "gg". Then he logged off. My vicarious revenge had happened. I was in the best mood I'd been in for a long time.

Lessons learned:

1. Having better tech doesn't always win you games. He had about five advanced construction facilities, I had two the entire game, one of which I lost. I simply had a HORDE of low-tech troops.

2. Immolators are designed to be surrounded by dragon's teeth.

3. Protect your commander! He, in all likelyhood, would have won had I not spotted his commander.

4. Getting owned the whole game does not mean you are going to lose.

Here's four more minimap shots of the final battle, up until right before I spotted his commander.

Thank you for taking the time to read my report. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to do more in the future. :-)