Rushing and Raiding

Perhaps the greatest thing about Total Annihilation that helps it stand out from other Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games is its depth of tactical diversity. Because of the wide selection of units, innovative features and the engine's true physics model, there's an almost infinite number of strategies that you can use on your enemy. As a result, you'll see questions and discussions devoted to which method of winning is the "best," and whether or not there's any way to stop it. Opinions vary, and almost any TA veteran will tell you that the best approach depends on what map you're playing. However, I'd like to talk about two particular tactics -- the Rush and the Raid. I'll discuss how despite looking similar, they're actually very different.

One common complaint about many RTS games is that victory tends to be simply a question of which side manages to produce the most of one particular unit. "Rushing" is the term that you'll see used to describe this concept, and in TA the unit that tends to get used the most for Rushing is Arm's Flash tank. "Flash Rushing" is one of the simplest tactics in TA, and it can be one of the most effective. When you look at the stats, the Flash is Arm's best overall unit. It's fast, it's inexpensive, it's much tougher than a PeeWee,and the EMG is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. To Flash Rush, all you have to do is build Vehicle Plants and Flashes, and when you have a lot of tanks, rush them into your enemy's base.

Raiding looks very similar to Rushing, but Raiding is a more advanced tactic that's also much more dangerous. What's the difference? While Rushing is an attempt to overwhelm an opponent by sheer force of numbers, a Raider concentrates on destroying his or her enemy's economy.

Think about it for a moment … what's the most important unit in TA? Is it the Flash, the Goliath, the Big Bertha or even the Commander? Nope. It's the lowly Metal Extractor. Without metal, you can't build factories, defenses and mobile units. Without factories, defenses and mobile units, you can't win.

If you look at an average game's stats, you'll see that the player who won is almost always the one who produced the most metal. If Metal Extractors are the most important units in the game, that makes them very important targets. Of course you need energy, too, but Solar Collectors are more durable. Metal Extractors are much more vulnerable.

So the focus of Raiding is the destruction of your enemy's metal production, preventing your enemy from building his military. And while Rushing uses a lot of units, effective Raiding only needs one or two at a time.

I did not develop Raid (also called "Rush/Raid") tactics. I learned what I know from discussions with some of the most skilled and experienced players on Cavedog's forums, most notably Wolfshund and Guener. The credit for perfecting this awesome tactic goes to them (and others), not to me.

Rushing

Compared to Raiding, Rushing is easy, and attacking with hordes of one unit will sometimes mark you as a newbie. You can win games by Flash Rushing (also called "Flushing"), though, and it's a perfectly legitimate way to play. What's the best way to Rush? The mechanics are simple:

• Build as many Vehicle Plants as your resources will support.
• Build as many Flashes you think you'll need.
• Send them on their way.
• Repeat until you win or lose.

If you're playing Arm, the best unit is the Flash, of course, so don't worry about Kbots. PeeWees are fun, but they're much weaker than Flash tanks and won't get the job done nearly as well. Rushing is even easier if you play with lots of starting resources (especially 10000 metal and 10000 energy, or "10K/10K"), and Rushing is very easy if you play with lots of starting resources on a small metal map like Metal Heck. Be warned that playing 10K/10K games on Metal Heck will really mark you as a newbie. Many people will avoid that type of game in favor of something more interesting.

If you're playing Core, can you Rush effectively? Sure, but don't try doing the same thing with the Instigator. Compared to the Flash, the Instigator isn't very impressive. The Instigator's laser weapon isn't as powerful as the EMG, and the tank moves more slowly. Worst of all, the laser aims more slowly and is more precise than the EMG, so an Instigator has to stop and concentrate on a target that Flash tanks could destroy without even slowing down. If you're going to try Rushing with Core, use Slashers instead. Slasher Rushing is sometimes called "Slushing," and it's very effective, although a little more difficult than Flushing.

Slashers have several advantages -- they're inexpensive, mobile and actually a little tougher than Flashes. One Slasher missile doesn't inflict a lot of damage against targets on the ground, but Slasher missiles have two big plusses:

• Range: Slashers can hit a target from three times as far away as Flashes, and once they start firing on an enemy they'll keep firing even if the enemy gets outside your Line-Of-Sight (LOS).
• Accuracy: Slasher missiles are intended to destroy aircraft, so they're fast and they track their targets. As a result, it's almost impossible for a Slasher to miss a ground-based target on relatively level terrain, such as on the map, Greenhaven.

One of the tricks to Slushing is to drive away from enemy units as they attack you; your Slashers will keep shooting while the enemy closes to use its weapons. Notice that this is completely different from Flash Rushing, where you want to run right up to your target. With Slushing, keep the pressure on. If your enemy retreats, harass him some more. Keep attacking with your Slasher groups until there's nothing left.

Are Flashes and Slashers the only units that you can use to Rush effectively? Absolutely not.

• Orion is the master of the "Rapier Rush," which he uses on larger maps where he can build Geothermal Plants to support Commander-assisted Rapier production. Eight to 10 highly durable Rapiers can attack from nearly any direction and can destroy a Commander in seconds. Rapier Rushing isn't easy, though -- if you try it on the wrong map, you'll likely get overwhelmed by Flashes or Slashers.
• On island maps like Gods of War, Flashes and Slashers can't cross the ocean; you'll want to use a unit like the Arm Pelican, the game's best amphibious unit.
• Hawk swarms can be absolutely devastating because of their ability to strike without warning and inflict massive damage on a single target.

Raiding

Believe it or not, on a small-to-medium sized non-metal land map (like Dark Side, Great Divide, Full Moon, Sherwood, and others), the most important unit isn't the Flash, the Storm, or the Slasher -- it's the Jeffy.

• In a Raiding or Raid/Rush game, immediately begin energy production. If you're on a windy map, a Wind Generator is your best choice (note that some maps like Full Moon have no atmosphere and thus no wind at all). Otherwise, build a Solar Collector.
• Build a Vehicle Plant and queue up a couple of Jeffies. As soon as the first Jeffy is done, send it out to find the enemy base. As soon as the second Jeffy is done, send it as well.
• Start queueing up Flashes. As soon as you've got a couple of Flashes built, they should be on their way.

The most skilled Raiders will have a Jeffy in your base in less than two minutes, and if you don't have one in their base, too, you've already lost the game.

The most important part of Raiding is finding and destroying your enemy's metal extractors. Use the +SHOOTALL command, and have your units zap Solar Collectors that they're driving by. Remember that while closed, Solar Collectors don't produce energy, cutting off your enemy's supply and rendering his factories and D-Gun useless.

But don't stop to destroy Solar Collectors. In fact, don't stop at all, unless you find a Metal Extractor. When you do, destroy it and move on. Jeffies are too weak to go after important targets such as factories. However, if you see a Radar Tower, it's worth stopping for a few seconds to destroy it. Radar Towers are easy to break, and if your enemy has no radar he won't know where your next attack is coming from until your units are already in his base.

Once your Flashes start arriving (and you should be sending them in small groups of two, then three, then five, and so on), you can start attacking more important targets if there's no Metal Extractors around. Flashes are powerful enough to go after Solar Collectors and factories. If you manage to destroy one of your enemy's factories, that's a crippling blow because he can't produce more mobile units to attack your base or to defend his own.

-- Brave Sir Robin

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