Overview
This is a guide reviewing the weapons from the Vanilla Airships and how they perform in multiplayer. Ranking the weapons in tiers and what they strengths and weaknesses are. This guide is to help you design a better fleet with weapons that fit your playstyle.*Added Note. This guide is out of date and the rating systems may not be as accurate as they once were. Many weapons and new modules are not listed. I apologize for this and I will work on updating the guide. I still believe it is a viable guide with useful information to any admirals looking to better their fleet.
Intro, weapons and ratings
–Rating System
So I will be rating the weapons from tier 1 to tier 5
Tier 1-great, super cost efficient and effective.
Tier 2-good, has a solid place in battle.
Tier 3-decent, mediocre or too situational.
Tier 4-bad, costs too much or doesn’t do enough
Tier 5-awful, people use this?
*This rating is based on the weapons being used properly and on battles costing 2,000-10,000, battles outside of these ranges have different tactics and weapons usefullness varies.
I will be giving each weapon two ratings. One for a primary weapon role, and One for a supportive weapon role. Example this bunker’s primary weapons are the deckguns, it is doing most of the damage, it is the bunkers main victory condition. The cannon, flak gun, and rifle are supportive weapons. The cannon is there to keep the bunker viable if all the deckguns are destroyed, the flak gun and rifle are there to stop/deter flankers.
Primary Weapon-ships/fleets victory condition.
Supportive Weapon-ships/fleets defensive/backup/counter weapons.
Weapons Tier rankings.
P=Primary weapon role
S=Supportive weapon role
Boarders
Grenadiers P-2 S-2
Arachnids P-4 S-3
Mech Spiders P-3 S-2
Mech Spiders w/Grenadiers P-1 S-2
or Arachnids
Marines P-4 S-3
Guards- P-N/A S-3
Soldiers P-N/A S-1
Small Weapons
Bomb Bay P-1 S-2 *recent update, buffed damage slightly, nerfed ammo efficiency heavily
Rifle P-4 S-1
Grenades P-4 S-2
Medium weapons
Cannon P-3 S-2
Flamethrower P-5 S-4
Deck Gun P-2 S-1
Flak Cannon P-5 S-3
Gatling Gun P-5 S-3
Rockets P-5 S-4
Large Weapons
Dorsal/Ventral Turret P-4 S-3
Heavy Cannon P-3 S-2
Suspendium Cannon P-5 S-3
Aerial Torpedo P-5 S-3
Abstract Weapons
Grand Ram/Ram P-5 S-5
Strut ram P-5 S-3
Harpoon gun P-5 S-3
Saw Blade P-4 S-4
Kamikaze Ship P-4 S-1
Weapons rating, Boarder details
Boarder ratings, pro’s and con’s
General pro’s and con’s
Pro’s- cost efficient, quickly disables enemies and usually gives you command of another ship, chain capturing, hard to counter.
Con’s- command demanding, short range, feels cheesy after some time.
Boarders
Grenadiers– Primary Rating-2 Supportive Rating-2
Pro’s- Great at taking Landships and Airships, very mobile, tough, good at chain boarding, decent boarder vs bunkers, great with spiders, badasses.
Con’s- Costly, close range, command demanding, becomes useless if cockpit/bridge in ship or captured enemy is destroyed/non existent, ship loses most usefullness once they leave, poor for occupying and using enemy ships/buildings.
Grenadiers are the strongest of the human boarders, very mobile and good fighters, they do lack the numbers to properly occupy and use enemy vessels. They are expensive but they are worth it, they are the most versatile boarders and can work well in small, mid, or larger sized ships. They work very well with spiders, especially when clearing bunkers.
Arachnids Primary Rating-4 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s-Cheap, Very mobile, good at taking light airships, decent at chain boarding, has numbers to occupy and use enemy vessels, good in swarms, works well with spiders.
Con’s-Weak in a firefight, likely to be overwelmed if boarding large ships. Weak vs bunkers, becomes useless if cockpit/bridge in ship or captured enemy is destroyed/non existent, ship loses most usefullness once they leave.
They work well in light ships and can counter enemy bombers and flankers quite effectivley. In numbers they can chain capture a lot of lightly armed or unarmed ships. Shouldn’t be relied on solely but effective tools for aircombat.
Mech Spiders Primary Rating-3 Supportive Rating-2
Pro’s-Deadly and hard to kill, somewhat mobile, good vs bunkers/enemy soldiers, works well with Grenadiers or Arachnids.
Con’s-Expensive, can’t capture ships, needs infantry to chain capture, command demanding, becomes useless if cockpit/bridge in ship or captured enemy is destroyed/non existent, ship loses most usefullness once they leave.
Mech spiders are amazing bunker destroyers, they do need infantry support to be most effective and lack grappling hook mobility, so they aren’t as good vs airships. Need decent vessels to transport them.
Mech Spiders w/ Arachnids or Grenadiers Primary Rating-1 Supportive Rating-2
Pro’s- Deadly combo, good vs armed ships/bunkers, can chain capture, good vs cluster of bunkers.
Con’s- pricey combo needs a lot of resources to do right, mediocre vs lots of small ships, command demanding, becomes useless if cockpit/bridge in ship or captured enemy is destroyed/non existent, ship loses most usefullness once they leave.
This is the ultimate 1,2 punch. It’s a incredibly cost effective way to clear heavy bunkers/landships. Needs a good vessel for proper transportation, need to prioritize the right vehicles quickly or things can go downhill quickly.
Marines Primary Role-4 Supportive Role-3
Pro’s-Reasonable price, good attackers and defenders, has numbers to occupy and use enemy vessels.
Con’s-Low Mobility, more expensive than guards, command demanding, becomes useless if cockpit/bridge in ship or captured enemy is destroyed/non existent, ship loses most usefullness once they leave.
Marines are good at defending and attacking ships, although they are more expensive than guards and arachnids and lack the mobility of other boarders. They are okay hybrids but are somewhat situational.
Guards-Primary Role-N/A Supportive Role-3
Pro’s-Cheap, good defenders, if building is abandoned can capture lightly armed ground vessels.
Con’s-Low versatility, directs money away from weapons for a situational threat, in small numbers won’t stop any decent group of boarders, in large numbers more expensive than they are usually worth..
Guards are decent if you are very worried about being boarded, best used on more foward units. Cost effectiveness isn’t very good.
Soldiers-Primary Role-N/A Supportive Role-1
Pro’s- Free, decent defenders, makes bunkers viable, works well in groups, makes large bunkers difficult to take without spending any extra, if abandoned can take lightly armed ground vessels.
Con’s- Low mobility, only available for bunkers.
Soldiers are from barracks, default living quarters for bunkers. Makes bunkers much less appealing to board. Can turn a damaged bunker force into a militia boarding party. Makes bunkers viable to use largely.
Weapons Rating, Small Weapons Details
Weapons Rating and details of Small Weapons.
General Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s- Cost effective, good ammo efficiency, good on cheap ships
Con’s- Limited Range and specific uses, varying usefullness vs armor, mediocre or bad on larger ships.
Bomb Bay- Primary Role-1 Supportive Role-2
*update has brought primary rating from 1 to a 2
Pro’s- Cheap, armor piercing, at high altitude fairly safe, good in mass or alone.
Con’s-Bad on landships or bunkers, mediocre on low/mid flying airships, shots can be dodged by agile vessels, somewhat command demanding, awkward to fight other bombers with, small firing arc, burns through ammo quickly.
Bomb bays are one of the most cost effective weapons on the game, in a cheap high flying ship they can blast apart heavy stone bunkers, steel landships, and armored airships all the same. They work well as a mass of bombers or in small numbers to simply support another force. They have a solid place in most strategys if used correctly.
Rifle- Primary Role-4 Supportive Role-1
Pro’s- Cheap, fast firing, incredibly ammo efficient, large firing arc, useful in almost any type of ship or bunker.
Con’s- weak vs heavy armor, short/mid range.
Rifles are one of my favorite weapons and used to be the primary weapon of my whole fleet. Now with armor being more popular rifles are still very good but take on a more supportive role. They work on large or small bunkers, landships, and airships. They are good to fight light flankers and to provide consistent fire. Rifle bunkers are great at drawing enemy fire and can often win stalemate battles due to their ammo efficiency. I think 1 or 2 rifles are a solid addition to almost any vessel and although they won’t do a ton of damage they may be the small factor that brings you a victory.
Grenades- Primary Role-4 Supportive Role-2
Pro’s- Cheapest weapon in game, anti armor, ammo efficient, super underrated, great weapon for kamikaze ships.
Con’s- Very short range, usually only viable on light airships, kind of awkward to use.
Grenades are probably one of the most underrated weapons in the game. For $5 you get something very ammo efficient that can trash light ships quickly and can do good damage to heavy armor. They are a little awkard to use though due to their poor range. They work well on light boarders, bombers (allows a bomber to fight enemy bombers), and kamikaze ships. A 300 dollar airship can hurl grenades at a larger vessel until it gets blasted out of the sky. I think it’s a very useful weapon but kind of unreliable and difficult to use on a large scale.
Weapons Rating, Medium Weapons Details
Medium weapons general pro’s and con’s
Pro’s- Wide range of uses, fits decently well on most ships, good armor piercing options.
Con’s- mediocre cost efficency and ammo efficiency, some uselss or almost useless weapons.
Cannon- Primary Rating-3 Supportive Rating-2
Pro’s-armor piercing, decent accuracy, good fire rate
Con’s-mediocre overall, low ammo to damage ratio, small firing radius
So the cannon, kind of setup to be seen as the primary weapon of your fleet. It has okay damage, good fire rate, uses ammo very quickly, decent accuracy/range. It isn’t bad as a main weapon, just not good. It tends to do better as a supportive weapon on bunkers or landships in small numbers.
Flamethrower- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-4
Pro’s- Good vs wooden/unarmored ships, ammo efficient.
Con’s- terrible vs heavy armor, short range, very situational
So flamethrowers, decent in low cost battles but generally uneffective in larger battles. One unit with a flamethrower designated as a anti bomber or light ship may be effective but they are just bad overall weapons. Use for very situational roles, otherwise ignore.
Deckgun- Primary Rating-2 Supportive Rating-1
Pro’s- Armor Piercing, 2 shots per ammo used, very fast firing rate, large firing arc, best current anti air gun.
Con’s- vulnerable, hard to use in numbers, awkward to design ship around.
Deckguns are one of my favorite weapons. They are ammo efficient and have great DPS. Best anti air option available.They are a little weird to design a ship/bunker around as they are so vulnerable. Highly recommend as a supportive weapon and to expiriment using them over cannons.
Flak Gun- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s- decently ammo efficient
Con’s- expensive, mediocre accuracy, underwelming damage, not very good anti air.
The Flak gun is a situational weapon that sucks at the 1 situation it is supposed to work in. The Flak Gun is the only vertical anti air gun available and it is rather poor at it’s job. Poor in nearly every category the only reason its supportive rating is a 3 is because it has no competition. You don’t have many options if you need some anti air for a bunker/landship; so use them in that situation, but only when neccessary.
Gatling Gun- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s- Massive DPS, fastest rate of fire in game, good vs light armor
Con’s- burns up ammo, pricey, weak vs armor, short range, lags up computers
The Gatling gun is a fun weapons. Shooting a bunch of machine guns is pretty entertaining. In combat at lower priced battles it is pretty good. In more expensive fights where there is more armor it loses its effectiveness. Good as a counter to light ships/bombers but it is more of a situational weapon than anything. Also it lags up people with slow computers so spamming them is a bad idea.
Rockets- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-4
Pro’s- Cost efficient, large firing arc, armor piercing
Con’s- short range, horrible accuracy, 2×2 module takes up a lot of space
Rockets, they are fairly cost effective weapons on paper, but their horrible accuracy makes it hard to justify their use. They take up too much room to use as a primary weapon and they don’t really counter anything particulary well. Use for fun, not to be competitive.
Grapeshot Cannon- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3*
*New weapon, need to test more
Pro’s-Good DPS, cheap, effective vs crews?(tests didn’t agree), good vs light/no armor
Con’s- Short range, damage is spread out, weak against armor
So I have little experience with the Grapeshot Cannon but so far I am not impressed. It’s supposed to be effective vs crews but after a few tests my crews suffered more casualties from regular cannons. Probably good for balloons and light ships but so far I am not impressed.
Grapeshot Cannon P-5 S-3*low expirience
Weapons Ratings, Heavy Weapons Details
Heavy Weapons Details
General Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s-Lots of damage, good damage to ammunition ratio, long range
Con’s- Expensive, Heavy, Large, poor on airships, mediocre on landships, small firing arc.
Dorsal/Ventral Turret-Primary Rating-4 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s-Decent Damage, Good firing arc, good range
Con’s-Draws fire, awkward placing requirements, large
So the Dorsal/Ventral turrents are kinda cool setups, with a awesome firing arc they aren’t too bad. They tend to draw a lot of fire and get destroyed kind of quickly and their overall effectiveness is mediocre. Not a bad addition to give a landship/bunker some anti air, but it’s quite situational.
Heavy Cannon-Primary Rating-3 Supportive Rating-2
Pro’s-Great Damage, Ammo Efficient, Long Range
Con’s-small firing arc, slow fire rate, expensive, bad on airships, large
Heavy Cannons, often misused but actually are quite powerful for fighting bunkers and heavy ships. They make great weapons for backline units, they do massive damage and use ammo very efficiently. They are very good for a defensive slug fight force if used properly.
Suspendium Cannon-Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s-Good damage, very accurate, decent fire rate
Con’s-Very large, less damage than heavy cannon, needs coal, limited firing arc, expensive
Suspedium Cannons are the snipers of the battlefield, they are great at long distance. They work well in backline units like the heavy cannon, but they do much less damage and require coal to operate. I think Heavy Cannons are better in most circumstances but having 1 or 2 of these sniping specific units can be quite effective.
Aerial Torpedo-Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-4
Pro’s-Massive Damage, long range
Con’s-Expensive, Misfires a lot, uses 2 ammo per shot, easy to dodge, very limited firing arc
Aerial Torpedos are fun weapons, cool to see the shots fly across the sky and blow a enemy apart. They just don’t do as much damage as you need them to. They are quite limited in their capabilities and really don’t have a good place on the battlefield.
Weapons Ratings, Abstract weapons details
Abstract Weapons Rating and Details
General Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s- Unique purpose, close range specialty
Con’s-varying degrees of success, poor to base a fleet around
Grand Ram/Ram Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-5
Pro’s-fun, pins enemies, can break strut wall
Con’s-unreliable damage, hard to hit, incredibly underwelming
The Ram is one of the most useless weapons/tools in the game, it really has no effective place in a combat fleet. The only thing I would use the ram for it to counter enemy strut walls. Otherwise retire that ship and leave it until this thing gets a buff.
Strut Ram Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s-pins enemies, can break strut wall, cheap, lightweight
Con’s-unreliable damage, hard to hit, incredibly underwelming
The Strut Ram is just a slightly better version of the actual ram. It can be used to pin or slow certain enemies or to break a strut wall. Incredibly situational has little place on the battlefield.
Harpoon Gun- Primary Rating-5 Supportive Rating-3
Pro’s-Gap closer, way to bring bombers down, can slow larger ships, decent utility tool.
Con’s- no real damage, purely supportive weapon, little awkward to use
I don’t have much experience with the harpoon gun, but the little I have I see it has some decent potential. A good addition to a boarder fleet or a fleet that needs help bringing down bombers. Situational but you can make it work with the right fleet.
Saw Blade- Primary Rating-4 Supportive Rating-4
Pro’s- Armor Piercing, good dps, like a more reliable ram
Con’s-resource heavy, awkward to use, close range
The saw blade is another weapon I have little experience with. I have seen it do decently well in certain circumstances but generally is outclassed by out weapon types. Worth expirimenting with but has a very limited place in a competitive fleet.
Kamikaze Ship- Primary Rating-4 Supportive Rating-1
Pro’s- Massive potential damage, making best out of situation, works well with smaller throwaway ships.
Con’s- Awkward to hit mobile targets, damage isn’t reliable, lost ship
The Kamikaze ship is a ridiculously powerful tool, it can allow a small ship to cripple a ship many times its size. It is one of the best things a commander can do with a heavily damaged airship. It does take a little practice and is a little difficult to hit. Essential to a effective small ship fleet and something every commander should take advantage of in rough circumstances.
Overview
Things to consider
-Pick weapons that fit your playstyle
-Build efficient
-Expiriment and try new ideas and ships, pitch them against your best designs
-Test them in multi vs real players
-Have fun
So that is it, a overview of all weapons, general uses and effectiveness in combat and the like. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about the weapons. I am open to suggestions or ideas. If you also need help with ship designs or ideas, check out my PRA Line of Combat ships, those are some effective ship designs that can pack a punch.
Good luck out there and get to the skies my friends!
