[10-2-10] 10. The Gauntlet

Master 'The Gauntlet' in Total Annihilation! Learn strategies for naval assaults, air defense, and land invasions to overcome this challenging map.

Alright, so you've landed on your starting island in 'The Gauntlet,' and the good news is you've got plenty of time to get set up before the enemy even knows you're there. Don't sweat those early air attacks; they're pretty weak and easy to shoot down. You'll see some amphibious tanks pop up too, but a couple of Sharks or some Roaches strategically placed in the water will handle them. If an enemy Lurker gets bold and tries to attack your underwater Roaches, it's going to be its last mistake.

Once you've got an advanced construction unit rolling, it's time to upgrade your economy. Ditch those basic metal extractors for Moho Mines, and get a couple of Fusion Reactors online. This will let you power a bunch of Metal Makers, pushing your metal income to a solid 40+ per second. Build an advanced radar tower on your island too. Use a missile frigate to clear out any red blips you spot on the radar – this will help you identify the threats lurking near and on the Gauntlet itself.

Now, for tackling the Gauntlet, you have a couple of main approaches. For a naval assault, use large packs of Sharks to slowly whittle down the enemy ships. Once the sea is clearer, use them to scout the shoreline of the cliffs. This will reveal the enemy defenses, which you can then easily destroy with your missile frigates. Alternatively, you can go for the explosive method. Keep an advanced Kbot Lab busy churning out Roaches, and a shipyard building Envoys. Load each Envoy with 4 or 5 Roaches and drive it straight for the Gauntlet's entrance. If it gets destroyed, the resulting explosion can take out a huge chunk of enemy ships and submarines. You can also just drive them into the enemy ship packs and self-destruct – not many ships will survive that! After a few of these, you should be able to get a transport ship through the Gauntlet relatively easily.

Alternative Strategy (Yuan Liu):

Yuan Liu suggests a different approach, focusing on a strong fleet rather than swarms of smaller units. Start by building a fleet composed of 3 cruisers, 2 missile frigates, and some destroyers and searchers for escort. While this might seem like overkill, it's necessary because the enemy has a battleship waiting. Don't forget to include some Construction bots (c-bots) for battlefield repairs.

The core tactic here is to follow your main fleet with a transport ship loaded with c-bots, your commander, and some missile bots. Send the fleet out to clear the defenses on the small islands first. As you advance from south to north, set up radars on these captured islands to gradually expand your map vision until you can see the entire map. By this point, most of the roaming enemy forces should be destroyed. After taking out the defenses on the two cliffs, send your fleet through the opening for the final push. Once the dust settles, send your transport through. Be patient, as navigating through the wreckage can be quite slow.