Absolute Annihilation/Units

Some basic hints and tips for various units:

Resource Structures

Resource structures produce resources - metal and energy - for you to use to build other things. Quite often, but not always, the winner of a game is whoever builds and successfully protects the most resource-generating structures.

Metal Extractor

The basic metal-producing structure. These are fairly cheap, but require energy to operate. They work a little differently from metal extractors in the original Total Annihilation. They have a range, represented by the red circle around the extractor when you go to place it, over which they extract metal. The extractor's income is determined by the amount of metal within its range. On maps without well-defined metal patches, space out your extractors and avoid overlapping their ranges!

Wind Generator

A cheap, fast-building energy producing structure. Wind generators can be built anywhere on the map, but their output varies randomly based on wind strength. They also need to be space out, as they explode fairly violently and don't have much health. Always be sure to check the wind strength before going into a game, so you know whether or not to build wind generators!

Solar Generator

More expensive than a wind generator, solars are also a lot tougher. They give you +20 energy. They close up into a more armored form when attacked. This lets them take a fair amount of punishment from level 1 units, but they don't produce any energy when closed.

Defensive Structures

Defensive structures are buildings with guns. Most don't do anything else, and are fairly well-armored. However, don't expect them to win you the game alone! At best, defensive structures will stop minor attacks and slow down major attacks until you can get your own combat units into position to respond.

Radar Tower

Though unarmed, the humble Radar Tower is possibly the most important defensive structure, and one that less experienced players can easily underestimate. It shows enemy units within range and unobstructed by terrain as radar dots. This means that instead of noticing your opponent is trying to attack the back of your base when the back of your base starts blowing up, you notice when a bunch of dots head that way. You can then move your mobile defensive units - and I hope you have some - to intercept the attack, and start beefing up your fortifications. Even more importantly, they let you watch the general pattern of enemy movement, giving you a rough idea of what your foe's up to and where he's massing units and defences, which can be invaluable when placing defences of your own or planning an attack.

Longer range units will fire at enemy units shown on radar before they can see them. The accuracy of a unit is reduced when firing at a target that's only visible as a radar dot, so these shots will often miss. Radar towers can see furher than other units, so building them right next to other defensive structures may improve these structures' line of sight, allowing them to fire more accurately at units a little further away. Radar towers are cheap and fragile and often an early casualty of an enemy attack, so it doesn't hurt to build spares.

In the early game on spread out maps, consider building radar towers to 'protect' your expansion. Instead of trying to build defensive structures everywhere, build good radar tower coverage and position your mobile forces to easily intercept attacking forces.

Radar is not infallible. In addition to being blocked by terrain, it can be countered by radar jamming towers and units, which prevent radar detection of any units within their area of effect. There are also specialized late-game long-range weapons that quickly, cheaply, and efficiently destroy any radar towers within their area of effect. Finally, some units (such as the Arm Gremlin tank or Core Vamp fighter) are "Stealthy", and cannot be detected by radar.

Light Laser Tower

Very cheap defensive structure that you should build early and often. Will stop those pesky players who like to send small squads a minute or two in the game from doing damage to your economy that you may never require from. This unit is good against light fast ground forces, but is outranged by anything heavier. It is weak against air, but does hit sometimes. Often refered to abbreviated as LLT. They're good for covering mostly-blocked approaches to your base (like hills), as they can kill most light raiding forces.

Defender/Pulveriser

Very cheap defensive structure. It can provide protection against early air rushes. Does not need to be built as early as llts, as building an air force is slower. Will take out level 1 fighters and level 1 gunships easily. Effective against level 1 bombers, but several are needed if the opponent attacks in nubers. Not an effective defence against level 2 air, and quite easy to destroy. Will not shoot at land units. Often abbreviated as MT.

Sentinel/Gaat Gun Heavy Laser Tower

Moderately expensive defensive structure. Longer range and harder hitting than a light laser tower, can do serious damage to even level 2 attackers. Effective against land but not air. Can be outranged by longer-ranged level 2 ground units. Often abbreviated HLT.

Guardian

Expensive plasma cannons. Quite a long range and pack a fair bit of punch. Many games begin with an expansion phase with players marking out territory. Once the territories start to clash meet in the middle, you can almost guarantee that one or both players will start building plasma cannons. These can then kill all the llts and hlts in the opponents front line. Once a cannon is completed it will start shelling the opposing position if within range and from safely outside the range of their lasers.

The normal reaction is then for the enemy to rush at the guardian with all available nearby units. An inexperienced player may find he has not adequately protected his guardian with LLTs, HLTs, or mobile forces, and will then lose a unit that cost a large amount of resources to build. More experienced players learn to build adequate protection, or place their Guardian in an established position. This allows them to to devastate the enemy's fixed defences and kill many of the units sent to take out the Guardian, yielding a net metal gain. In some circumstances it may be better to retreat from the enemy's Guardian position and build up your forces, rather than losing units in a futile counter attack.

Flakker/Cobra

Late-game anti-aircraft defence, flak cannons are one of the two replacements for MTs. They're relatively short-ranged, but do a lot of damage, fire quickly, and have a massive area of effect. They're excellent against gunships, which tend to cluster, allowing the flak cannon to damage or destroy several with a single shot. Put these near vital late-game structures to prevent your enemy from swarming and destroying them with gunships. The ARM Phalanx and CORE Copperhead are mobile flak cannons. Flak cannons cannot attack ground units.

Mercury/Screamer

These upgraded MTs provide late-game anti-aircraft defence. Their guided missiles have a much longer range than regular MT missiles, do more damage, and have an impressive blast radius. Very good against level 2 bombers and fighters. Cannot attack ground units.

Annihilator/Doomsday Machine

The big brother of the HLT, these structures fill the same role in the late game. Their weapon, affectionately referred to as the "Blue Laser of Death", is slow-firing but capable of destroying most units in a single shot. They have an impressive range, but are still outranged by several kinds of artillery, so don't expect them to create an unbreakable defence!

Toaster/Ambusher

The big brother of the guardian. But only just. They have a bit more range, and a bit more firepower. When not in use they fold away into a mini concrete bunker. This allows them to survive much larger amounts of damage.

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