Page "Total Annihilation" Paragraph 3

Normally, the player begins with the unique Commander unit, a mech with the ability to create structures to form a base and, by extension, a military force comprising a range of mobile units.

The Commander, in addition to being a powerful combat unit, is vital to the player because of its ability to quickly construct units.

This makes the loss of a Commander a critical event in any game.

Construction is governed by the possession of the game's two unlimited resources, Metal and Energy, and can be undertaken by factories or mobile construction units.

Every unit belongs to a level of technology ( tech level ); the higher the level, the more advanced the unit and the more resources and thus time required to construct it.

A feature of the game is the ability to easily " queue " the many commands for a unit or group of units, with types of commands including patrolling a route, constructing a defensive group of structures and attacking enemy units.

Once given its commands, the unit will go about them automatically thus minimizing the need for the player's attention to small, repetitive tasks.

The victory conditions of a multiplayer game generally involve the elimination of all enemy units, but the aim of single player campaign missions can be more specialized. An in-game screenshot of a Core base.

Near the bottom-right corner the Commander ( with the yellow backpack ) is visible assisting a factory in construction.