Total Annihilation is the 1997 real-time strategy game from Cavedog Entertainment in which two machine armies, the Arm and the Core, fight across the galaxy. This guide covers the original game and both of its expansions, The Core Contingency and Battle Tactics.
A first Total Annihilation skirmish from the first click: what to build in the first ten minutes, how to keep metal and energy flowing, the keys that matter and the usual mistakes.
A printable Total Annihilation card with the essential keys, orders, standing orders, income and build-speed figures and the main Arm and Core units by role.
How the game works and what it did first, its expansions and the people who made it.
All 175 missions of the Arm and Core campaigns, Core Contingency and Battle Tactics, with their maps.
Every Arm and Core unit, with its costs, weapons and the missions it appears in.
Damage and range for every weapon, who carries it and what it is strong or weak against, plus the Range Estimator.
The exact rules for income, stalls, building, reclaiming, wrecks, veterancy and aim, worked out from the game's own code.
What builds what, from the Commander to the last unit.
The cheat codes and other + commands, checked against the game itself, and how Open Annihilation differs.
Box art from around the world and the game's own pictures.
Every skirmish and multiplayer map, with its start positions for each number of players and its metal deposits.
Compare two to four Total Annihilation units: their figures side by side, how long each takes to destroy the others, who wins one on one, and who does better for the same metal or energy.
Plan a Total Annihilation opening and see when each extractor, factory and unit is finished, worked out tick by tick with the game's own economy rules.
Place any Total Annihilation unit on any campaign or skirmish map and see the range of each of its weapons, its sight and its radar, to scale.