Total Annihilation - Tutorial?

[gduncan]

I am a complete newb to this game, wanting to give it a go, but don't know where to start. There does not appear to be an in-game tutorial. How do i lwearn about mining and managing resources etc?

[Voo]

Start with campaign.

[Magna0pera]

That is the joy of this game. Your resources are infinite. Your metal mines will never run dry. The sun will never stop beating down upon your solar collectors. And the wind, while variable, will never stop breezing over your wind farms.

It is the flow of each that matters. The only way to increase your flow of resources is to seize more territory on the battlefield. The only way to reduce your enemies flow is by taking military action against him. So you must always balance your hunger for new resources with the military assets needed to defend them.

Turtling is not an option. You need to be on the offensive from the moment the first Flash rolls of the production line, the intensity of the conflict increasing exponentially until one player makes a breakthrough. Damn I love this game.

[Docktor Dicking]

That is so treu Magna0pera..

[Agamemnon]

I once recorded some Arm campaign missions from the game-play perspective of an online player, but then after like 8 videos lost my voice to a flu. I might upload those to YouTube at some point, since apparently apart from the "speed-play" videos, which are not actual TA gameplay as much as "tricks to beat a game campaign", there are few videos that actually instruct people, apart from TADR recordings which do not include voice or mouse movements like a video does.

But for game recordings, there are plenty of great games and builds from great players to watch. But just starting to grind them Campaigns will get you going. Then skip the Skirmish and go Online at GameRanger.com

[Angel]

With the early campagin mission your options are limited, that way you can learn easy how to balance the flow of metal/ energy with production. And wel it's a way of play and try.

[Chesty Monroe]

One thing that helps is build order. Once you're allowed to build a base in the campaign, start with two solars, then a vehicle plant or kbot lab. Then build as many metal extractors as you can. More solars will let you avoid energy shortages. Work in a radar tower as well. Keep an eye on metal flow and current amount, as that determines whether you can build more units or structures without stalling.

Later you will gain access to water, which means tidal generators, which are almost always better than solars. Later still you will gain aircraft, which require a lot more energy but less metal to build. It's possible to go air first but you will need more energy and have less defensive capability.

Wind can occasionally be better than solar if output is high, but is usually isn't.

[-=EDF=- Kouta Seto]

Single player campaign is sort of the tutorial. Yet some parts have to be learned the hard way. Especiel how to properly manage your economy. Oh and one more thing: Addon units and buildings are not available in the regular campaings so one can not have it easy as Core over the arm rebellion and Arm still being the easyest set of last missions ever duo to infinite metal