About Ironstride
Ironstride is a free 3D artillery game in the turn-based tradition of tank duels: set your angle and power, read the wind, and fire. The difference is what you fire from. Both sides crew a giant walking fortress, an iron hull on two pairs of legs with three gun towers on its deck, and the fortress is the battlefield. Every part of it can be shot away.
The twist: a deck that tilts
Your guns aim relative to your own deck. Shoot off the enemy's fore legs and its hull drops onto the stumps and pitches forward by about 20 degrees, so every gun aboard throws its shots low. Take the aft legs instead and it tips back and overshoots. Lose a leg yourself and the shot you had dialled in is suddenly wrong. Bring down a tower and its gunner tumbles to the sand and that gun is out of the fight. A Repair Crew can rebuild a leg and stand the walker back up, if you have one left.
Game Modes
- Campaign, Chapter 1: The Ashen March. Six duels against named walkers, each with its own crew skill, range, wind and sky, ending with the boss, the Ironmonger. Wins earn stars and scrap for the workshop.
- Quick battle. One duel against a random walker on a random sky.
- 2 players, one device. Take turns on the same screen, with a card between turns so neither player sees the other aim.
How to Play Ironstride
- Pick a tower: the Bow Gun (1), the Keep Tower (2) or the Stern Mortar (3).
- Set the elevation with Up and Down (or W and S) and the power with Left and Right. Hold Shift for fine steps. On a phone or tablet, use the buttons or drag on the battlefield. On an upright phone the view stays close on the walker whose turn it is, with a marker pointing to the other one; tap BOTH to see the whole field.
- Choose a weapon with Q and E or the weapon arrows.
- If you have steam, stride one step with A or D before you fire, to get closer or back off.
- Fire with Space, Enter or the FIRE button, and watch where it lands. The wind changes every turn.
The Weapons
- Shell: unlimited, 14 damage.
- Heavy Shell: 30 damage in a wide blast. Two per battle.
- Leg Cutter: a spinning chain shot that does 2.3 times its damage to a leg, 46 from a direct hit before upgrades, and half damage to anything else. Two per battle.
- Cluster: splits into 5 bomblets at the top of its arc. Two per battle.
- Repair Crew: fires nothing. It heals your most damaged leg or core by 35, and rebuilds a broken leg. One per battle.
The Workshop
Scrap from the campaign buys five kinds of refit, and each one is bolted onto your fortress where you can see it: Leg Plating (iron greaves on the shins), Core Armour (bands around the hull), Gun Calibre (longer, heavier barrels), Steam Boiler (extra smokestacks and more strides) and the Spotter Nest (a crow's nest on the keep that lengthens your aim line).
Tips
- The legs are the soft target early on. A tilted enemy throws its shots off line: green crews hardly allow for their own tilt, and even the best do not allow for all of it. It can no longer walk, either.
- The Keep Tower fires from high up, so it clears the enemy's bow and can drop shells onto the deck.
- A tilted fortress of your own is not lost: re-aim by the tilt shown under the HUD, or use a Repair Crew.
- Watch the wind number before every shot. At 8 or more, the Mortar's high arcs drift a long way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does aiming work in Ironstride?
Each tower's gun has an elevation, measured from your own deck, and a power from 10 to 100. A shell leaves the muzzle at half a metre a second per point of power, gravity pulls at 20 metres a second squared, and the wind pushes every shell sideways by 0.32 metres a second squared per point. The wind can shift by up to 4 points every turn. The dotted aim line shows the first part of the arc, and the Spotter Nest upgrade makes it longer.
What happens when a leg is shot off?
A walking fortress stands on a fore pair and an aft pair of legs. When one pair is destroyed, the lower legs fall away and the hull drops onto the stumps, so the whole deck tilts by about 20 degrees. Because every gun aims relative to the deck, every shot that fortress fires now goes lower or higher than its angle says. A walker with a broken leg cannot stride. Lose both and it crashes down onto its stumps, taking 20 damage to its core. A Repair Crew rebuilds a broken leg and the walker stands up again.
How do I win a battle?
Wreck the enemy core, which sits inside the hull, or silence all of its guns. Every tower you bring down takes its gun out of the fight and its gunner falls to the sand. A battle that runs past 60 rounds goes to the walker with more of its core left.
What do the three towers do?
The Bow Gun sits low at the front and aims from minus 10 to 70 degrees, good for flat shots at the legs. The Keep Tower is the tall one in the middle: it aims from minus 25 to 80 degrees and can fire down from height, with power up to 92. The Stern Mortar only fires high arcs, from 40 to 88 degrees, and does 35% more damage. Press 1, 2 or 3, or tap BOW, KEEP or MORTAR, to choose.
What weapons are there?
Every battle you carry unlimited Shells (14 damage), 2 Heavy Shells (30 damage in a wide blast), 2 Leg Cutters (chain shot that does 2.3 times its damage to a leg, 46 from a direct hit before upgrades, and half damage to anything else), 2 Clusters (split into 5 bomblets of 9 damage at the top of the arc) and 1 Repair Crew, which fires nothing and heals your most damaged leg or core by 35. Damage falls off with distance from the blast.
How do the campaign and the workshop work?
Chapter 1, The Ashen March, is six duels against named walkers, from the scavenger Rustmaw to the boss, the Ironmonger, and each one has its own crew skill, range, wind and sky. A win earns stars (for winning, for keeping half your core, and for never losing a leg) and scrap, and the first win pays the most. Scrap buys workshop parts: Leg Plating, Core Armour, Gun Calibre, Steam Boiler and the Spotter Nest, and each one appears on your fortress. Your campaign score is the sum of your best score in each battle.
Can two people play on one device?
Yes. Choose 2 players, one device, name the two walkers and take turns. A card between turns asks the next player to take the controls. Duels do not post to the leaderboard.
Does Ironstride save a battle in progress?
Yes. The battle is saved in your browser at the start of every turn, with both walkers' damage, positions, tilt, weapons, wind and the round. Continue on the title screen picks up at that turn. Your campaign, stars, scrap and workshop are saved too. Clearing your browser's site data erases them.
