Weapon

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Weapons are a type of module used to damage enemies. Most of them achieve this by firing some sort of projectile, though rams are also counted as weapons.

Blast Damage Weapons

Grenade

"Grenades can do a massive amount of damage at close range, especially to wooden hulls."

Grenades pack quite a punch for their price, but they can only be thrown at very close ranges. However, they can be dropped quite well vertically. The sample ship HMS Mutilatrix, essentially a grenade delivery platform, can be devastating at early tech levels as the combined damage makes quick work of wood airships & stone structures alike.

Grenades do have a vertical ceiling, one of two weapons that can't be fired against targets higher up. They are therefore a poor choice for defensive structures.

Required Research: None (Tier 0)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	30	5 seconds	3	240° forwards	12	32	1	7

Bomb Bay

"Bombs dropped from above are an effective way to destroy anything that does not move away in time."

These simple iron bombs are very inaccurate and slow firing, but when they hit, they can do decisive damage, especially against other airships. They are highly explosive and prone to exploding in the bay itself if the module takes damage. This and it's narrow firing arc makes bombs most useful for high altitude ships that can fire on low targets while trying to avoid damage.

Required Research: Explosives (Tier 1)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	45	5 seconds	3	10° downwards	40	60	2(3)	24

Aerial charge

"Aerial charges can "fix" what bombs leave alone."

A Tank of Charged Suspendium Dust Carrying aloft a bomb fuzed to explode on contact. Often deployed en masse for area denial. In practice, these are fairly slow & imprecise projectiles with extremely limited fire arc. You're better off installing rockets, or, ideally, a flak cannon or two.

Required Research: Explosives (Tier 1)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	40	3 seconds	2	10° downwards	40	80	2(3)	24

Note: This weapon is firing sort of inverted depth charges (floating instead of sinking)

Rocket

"Not accurate, or safe, but pretty devastating when they hit."

One 2x2 rocket bay takes the same space as two cannons (2 1x2 modules), but has a far broader arc-of-fire and can hit a little harder, especially against lightly armored craft. They have the nasty habit of exploding violently when damaged and are noticeably inaccurate at range, even with the guidance-fin upgrade technology. Nevertheless, these are generally the most reliable weapon to mount: no matter where it's located, there's a pretty good chance it'll have a shot, and even if it misses, "close" can still count.

Required Research: Rockets (Tier 2)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	65	2 seconds	10	180° forwards	40	80	2(3)	?

Massive Rocket

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
0	45	10	151	330	140	500	4(6)	432	Flammable	s	-

Flamethrower

"Shooting an arc of fire, this is a powerful close-range weapon against lightly armoured targets"

This is a very powerful weapon that can destroy small units and even highly armored targets: not so much by big damage but by constant fire (it's a stream, not fireballs). Flamethrowers can effectively hold off gargoyles, but it's good practice to escort the flame ship with other ships.

Required Research: Combustibles (Tier 3)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	2	0.5 seconds	200	90° forwards	30	30	1(2)	60

Giant Flamethrower

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Min. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
0	160	12	10° forwards	1600m	42m	50	120	2(3)	208	S	Slightly Flammable	-

Aerial Torpedo

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Min. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
0	160	12	10° forwards	1600m	42m	50	120	2(3)	208	S	Slightly Flammable	-

Heavy Armour Piercing Weapons

Ballista

A torsion ballista - simple but effective against lightly armored targets. Like the Grenades, ballistae have a limited vertical range, as well as being the only projectile in-game to suffer ballistic drop. As such, you're better served by swapping them out for another weapon.

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
22	0	4 seconds	3	100° forwards	50	160	1(2)	23

Cannon

"A single shot can tear through most armour. The mainstay of airship armament."

Due to their piercing damage, cannons are very useful for punching holes in everything. As they are single-shot weapons, their effective rate of fire is highly dependent on the distance to ammo storage. Their comparatively restricted fire arc makes them better suited to support rather than front-of-battle use. (Ships directly above or below can't be hit. Compare Rockets & Rifles, which can swivel to attack vertically.)

Required Research: Cannon (Tier 1)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
40	0	3 seconds	1	90° forwards	70	100	1(2)	75

Grapeshot cannon

“This Cannon fires a spray of smaller cannonballs to tear through Light armor and crew alike”

The grapeshot cannon is the earliest large weapon able to specifically target aircraft & similarly small targets. However, its restricted range and slow fire rate make it impractical against most small-craft attacks. In practice, you're better off using rifles until flak becomes available.

Piercing damage	Blast damage	Reload time	Fire arch	Weight	HP	Crew
12	0	4sc	80°	60	90	1(2)

Imperial Cannon

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
400	0	8	45	740	400	500	4(5)	830	Slightly Flammable	May Explode	-

Sponson

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
40	0	2.7	40	840	90	110	1(2)	86	Flammable	s	-

Front Turret

Dorsal

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
65	0	4 secs	100	670	100	150	2(3)	100	Flammable	May Explode	-

Ventral

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
65	0	4 secs	100	670	100	150	2(3)	100	Flammable	May Explode	-

Dorsal Turret

"A turreted medium cannon with a wide field of fire. The turret mechanism adds a lot of weight and bulk, though."

The Dorsal Turret has almost double the power of a common cannon but is fragile, both to direct damage and due to blocking any construction above or beside it. Thus, it's impossible to mount more than one per ship or building, to install catch-struts against ships crashing into the turret, or to have a Crow's Nest to help it aim. Further, the Dorsal Turret shares the cannon's weakness of being a single shot weapon, meaning reload time is highly sensitive to ammo distance.

In practice, dorsal turrets are far inferior to flak cannons for general use.

Required Research: Gyroscopes (Tier X)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
70	0	5 seconds	1	190° upwards	140	180	2(3)	120

Ventral Turret

"A ventrally turreted cannon. The gun mount is kind of tricky, but the result is a wide field of fire"

A downwards-facing dorsal turret. Like its counterpart, it's vulnerable, but due to its location a Crow's Nest remains a viable option. As one might expect, these won't work on Landships or buildings.

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
70	0	5.5 seconds	1	190° downwards	150	180	2(3)	120

Heavy Cannon

"Slow-firing but devastating. Not even the strongest armour stands a chance"

A bigger cannon, it can blast through anything and also pulverize most things with few shots. It has a more restricted fire arc, but it's slightly more accurate at long range. It has a slow reload time and is a single shot weapon.

Required Research: Heavy Cannons (Tier 3)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
100	0	7 seconds	1	60° forwards	160	240	2(3)	200

Heavy Turret

“A Heavy cannon on a turreted mount. Powerful and accurate.”

This provides substantial armour-piercing punch with reasonable vertical traversal. Despite being mounted in a Turret, the cannon cannot rotate or flip independently of its parent construction, so getting behind it remains a viable tactic.

Piercing damage	Blast Damage	Reload time	Fire arc	Max accurate range	Weight	HP	Crew	$
150	0	4 sec	70°	1900m	320	500	2 (3)	540

Required Research: Automated Loading Systems (Tier 4)

Suspendium Cannon

"A precise arrangement of suspendium crystals fires small suspendium bolts with extreme speed and accuracy"

A coal driven, steampunk variant of a railgun. It shoots very far very accurately. It also packs a good punch, sometimes piercing the first module hit and continuing to damage further modules behind the target. That said, the extremely limited fire arc limits its effective use to rear-line support fire. Needs coal in addition to ammo.

Required Research: Suspendium Cannons (Tier 4)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
55	0	3.5 seconds	10	20° forwards	200	280	3(4)	300

Note: Also uses 1 unit of coal every 10 seconds.

Light Armour Piercing

Musket

"Muskets are simple firearms that can be quite effective en masse."

These starting weapons have far less range and have a slower rate of fire than rifles. However, they do have an easier time piercing armor.

Required Research: None (Tier 0)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Def. Range	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$
8	0	2 second	16	160° forwards	42m	280m	10	40	1	7

Rifle

"Riflemen are accurate and cheap, but their weapons cannot penetrate heavy armour."

Rifles are cheap and flexible, but do a limited amount of damage. Still, persistent rifle fire has brought down even massive air-battleships. Though it is not recommended that this be a larger airship's main armament, they can be a useful addition to kill enemy sailors through armor gaps made by other weapons, or as a point-defense to kill troops attempting to invade you ship and destroy aircraft. (They are particularly good at breaching Suspendium tanks. It's a good idea to have about 2-3 on each side of a defensive building.)

Required Research: Rifling (Tier 1)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Def. Range	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$
5	0	1.3 second	16	240° forwards	57m	1100m	8	40	1	22

Light Sponson

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
25	0	2.4	45	840	60	70	1(2)	54	Flammable	May Explode	-

Deck Gun

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
30	0	2	90	670	50	40	2(3)	50		May Explode	-

Gatling Gun

"With its rapid fire rate, a gatling gun can tear apart lightly armoured targets. It's not very accurate , however"

The Gatling gun will chew through anything made of wood or brick, for most uses a single Gatling gun can easily replace a broadside of rifles. However, its significantly more restricted fire arc can be a liability: Gatling emplacements in ships & buildings cannot shoot vertically, while rifles can. As such, it's a good idea to retain some rifles to minimize gaps in fire arcs. A few Gatling guns can penetrate even medium steel armour, which cannot withstand the sheer volume of hits.

Required Research: Mechanical Parts (Tier 3)

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
7	0	96 miliseconds	40	120° forwards	20	40	1(2)	60

Flak Cannon

"An upward-facing light cannon designed to shoot down enemy airships"

Weaker than a cannon, nevertheless able to damage moderately armored airships. Its AoE blast effect works well against just about anything that gets in its fire arc; between the 6-shot magazine & quick reload time, flak cannons make life quite short for most targets that get above them.

However, flak cannons can be vulnerable to their victims crashing on top of the cannon (ram damage ensues!), so consider building struts or similar around the cannon to catch crashing ships. Similarly, it's better to have multiple buildings with 1-2 flak cannons, rather than one building with 4 or 5, so one crashing ship can't smash all the flak at once.

Conversely, remember that flak cannons can be installed on airships as well.

Piercing Damage	Blast Damage	Reload Time	Clip	Fire Arc	Weight	HP	Crew	$
0	20	1.5 seconds	6	120° upwards	40	40	1(2)	120

Suspendium Ray

Piercing Dmg.	Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
12x10	0	4	170	3300	300	480	3(4)	432	Slightly Flammable	s	-

Utility and Melee Weapons

Harpoon Gun

Piercing Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
5	5 secs	110	110	50	80	1(2)	84	Slightly Flammable	s

Saw Blade

Blast Dmg.	Reload	Fire Arc	Max. Range	Weight	HP	Crew	$	Fire	Explode
25	-	120	13	120	220	2(3)	62	Slightly Flammable	s

Ram

"A bronze ramming bow built to tear holes into enemy ships while leaving your own unharmed."

Rams don't have any special damage-dealing properties. They simply have very high HP and can hence be used to more safely ram opponents.

Weight	HP	$
500	9000	80

Cow-Catcher Ram

"A lightweight ram"

Weight	HP	$
250	5000	80

Spike Ram

"A sharp but relatively fragile ram"

Weight	HP	$
900	7000	90

Grand Ram

"A huge bronze ram's head to smash your enemies."

Weight	HP	$
3000	45000	300

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