Guns of Icarus is a potent mix of FPS and tower defense elements. You're the captain of a freight zeppelin in an apocalyptic steampunk future. Your mission is to protect your airship, the titular Icarus, from hordes of pirate aircraft with the six weapon placements onboard and by repairing damaged structures.

All structures have their own role. If you allow the rigging and zeppelin to be completely destroyed, you lose. Once damage to the cargo bay reaches a certain limit, you start losing cargo at an increasing rate. Damage to the engines causes loss in speed, until finally you won't move at all, meaning you won't finish the level until you've repaired at least one of the engines.

Your amount of cargo left, and the difficulty of the route you chose will determine your reward. At least 40% cargo saved will merit you one of one to two minor rewards, while with over 80% cargo you're entitled one of one to two better rewards, depending on the level.

Rewards consist of weapons: gatling guns, cannons, rocket launchers and tesla bolt blasters and armor upgrades. Each weapon is unique and has an upgraded harder-to-get super version (in the case of the rocket, called multirocket), with firepower roughly double that of the normal counterpart.

The game is made by a small company (sufficiently indie for those so inclined), it's cheap, and was featured in the indie flight pack that was cheap over the holidays. So if you bought it only for DogFighter, do give Guns of Icarus a try as well.

It also has multiplayer, but people are rarely online. That's one of the prime reasons I posted this thread. I'm Archlurps on steam as well, see you there sometime.

The following are useful information for starting, or even more experienced players of the game:

Enemies summary:
Pirate Duster: cannon fodder, quite literally, as they drop in a single cannon shot. Slow-moving and surprisingly large targets from above or below. Usually present in vast swarms. The gatling gun is the best weapon to deal with them, since they're not dangerous from afar and always come in close to shoot. (I personally find sacrificing cannons for gatling guns not worth the loss for increased efficiency against dusters)
Pirate Gunship: A more elusive and probably powerful foe. they have a larger side profile and move faster. They also tend to fly in more complex patterns and stay farther, where they still can damage the Icarus. They're downed in two cannon shots.
Pirate Ace: Something of a super version of the gunship, aces fly even further, make even crazier maneuvres and seem to take a bit more damage. By the time you encounter them (when you have the multirocket), though, most of the time they will have taken enough stray damage to be dropped with two cannon shots. Beware, they can make 180 turns and often fly far under or above the usual plane of attack, sometimes hidden by clouds, rain, sandstorms or snow. If you manage to catch one making a 180 in sight, it'll be an easy target, though.
Pirate Frigate: A small zeppelin with a devastating cannon. It takes 24 cannon rounds (or something like two full blasts from a tesla) to down one of these. The cannon can bounce a the damage meter of a structure halfway to the yellow in a single shot (with little armor). Priority targets whenever they're in the sky.

Weapons summary:
Gatling: an automatic weapon that fires two rounds at a time. A real crapshot at any formidable range, but drops dusters like flies at close range. Super gatling fires four rounds each shot at roughly double the rpm. 100 round magazine, fast reload.
Cannon: A long-range weapon with very limited ammo. Drops a duster in a single shot and gunships and aces in two. Super cannon has doubled magazine size. 4 round magazine, slower reload
Rocket: A long-range weapon with even more limited ammo. The rockets seem to be slightly more destructive than cannon rounds. They home on closeby enemies automatically. You still have to shoot in advance of the target though, since the rockets move slowly. 3 round magazine, slow reload
Multirocket: Although the icon suggests the multirocket is simply an upgrade of the rocket, it is quite a different weapon. With a tenfold increased clip size, automatic fire and drastic reduction in firepower of individual rounds, the multirocket calls for somewhat different tactics. The individual rockets do somewhat less damage than cannon rounds. Coupled with the fact that the rockets never go straight for a target, the weapon is best used in burst against groups. Even when fired into a duster swarm, some tend to survive only with partial damage. The smaller rockets seem to be somewhat faster than the bigger ones. Even with it's shortcomings, the multirocket is easily the most destructive and useful weapon in the game. 30 round magazine, slow reload
Tesla: A powerful ultra-long-range weapon. It fires bolts of lightning, that can arc to several enemies inside it's circular crosshair. It has to be reloaded after each shot, and warmed up before shooting. Reload time depends on how long it is fired for. Super tesla is simply more powerful.

Tips & Hints:
Weapons placements: the front side weapons can fire in front of the ship, while their movement backwards is impaired. the front weapon can't fire straight backwards. Almost the opposite is true in the rear: rear side guns can cover almost all of the side, but can't shoot straight back because the cabin, engines and cargo bay are in the way. The rear gun, however, can shoot straight past the front, almost straight ahead, while aiming down is impaired by it's placement in the centre of the bulky rear structure. In addition, cannons tend to turn less than teslas, teslas less than gatling guns and gatling guns slightly less than rocket launchers. Use this to your advantage: a rarely-used tesla can be mounted in the front while you cover most of the front defence with more conventional cannons. Also, cannon fire can be sustained on a frigate passing in front of the Icarus even with normal cannons. A multirocket in the rear can be fired with some efficiency towards a flock closing in from the front. It is often more practical to go straight to the rear side weapons when anticipating a flock to pass by your side.
Repairing: At first glance it would seem that the zeppeling and rigging were first priority to keep in condition. In fact it's on the contrary. It's most efficient to allow the zeppelin and rigging to go as close to destruction as possible while still fixing them before you lose. The cargo bay is first priority as it determines what you'll get for the level. Engines tend to need repairs less often than the vital structures, but in a case when you can repair one of the engines before one of the vital structures bursts, go for the engine.
Rockets: If you're going to repair a structure soon, but it's not yet in the red, fire your rockets in the air to make the most of your time. Even though rockets home on targets, it is necessary to take some aim. Shooting all your rockets into one area of a swarm will result in too many of them following the same plane and detonating uselessly once it's been destroyed. If a rocket never comes close enough to an enemy, it will continue along a straight path and detonate.
Engines: You can reach the engines quicker by dropping right behind the rear side weapons. Don't drop too far behind, though, or you'll drop off the ship. Use this to your advantage when fixing them. Even though you can survive without your engines when finishing off a swarm of enemies, it's in your best interests to fix them nevertheless, since the flames and smoke obstruct your view when firing the rear side weapons.
Cargo bay: You start losing cargo as soon as the cargo bay is damaged about halfway into the yellow. Fix it often. The cargo bay is on the same plane as the rear (and front) side weapons, so you may want to get a shot or two in if the chance arises, before fixing your cargo bay if it's not yet in the red.


TL; DR: Great game, have you played it? It'd be great to get some more MultiPlayer going

are there spoiler tags on these forums?