Iron Brigade

Iron Brigade is a top-down tank battle for 1 to 4 NABUs. Every tank for itself: each player has a base in a corner of the field.

Bail out and fight on

Lose your tank and you're not out: you jump out as a little pilot. Run back to your base and you get a brand new tank. But on foot you're fair game. Whoever shoots your pilot, or runs them over, wins the round. Every round is a scramble to knock out tanks, then hunt down the pilots before they make it home.

The battlefield

Every round is a new map, the same from every corner so it's fair:

• A river down the middle with two wide bridges. Tanks can't cross water, but pilots can swim (slowly).
• Wide roads and bridges are fastest, grass is slower, and dirt is slowest.
• Trees and buildings stop tanks and shells. Shoot them down: trees fall, buildings crumble to rubble you can drive over.
• Drive into the end of a bridge or a gap a little off line and your tank slips sideways onto it.

Players

Playing alone? A computer tank takes you on. With two or more players it's people only: no computer tanks. Players can drop in any time and leave whenever they like.

Controls

• Joystick or arrow keys: drive, 8 ways.
• FIRE or SPACE: shoot (one shell at a time).
• ESC: leave.

Scoring

The top row shows every tank's round wins in its colour. Knocking out a tank is worth 1 kill, a pilot 3. Your kills show in the bottom row and go on the nabu.ca leaderboard when you leave.

Network play

Your tank moves on your NABU with no delay. The NABU that owns a tank decides what hits it, so what you see is what counts for you. Shots and knocked-down trees and buildings go out reliably, so every NABU sees the same battlefield, and a player joining mid-round gets the damage done so far. If the host leaves, another player takes over. Needs an Internet Adapter with multiplayer support.