Iron War

How a game goes

Your engineers build derricks on the oil fields. Tankers drive the crude oil to a refinery, which turns it into the oil you spend on everything else; a refinery built right beside a derrick gets its oil through a pipeline instead. Civilians from your housing work shifts in the derricks and the refinery and make them faster. Solar panels and wind turbines give the power your base runs on.

With the oil coming in you build barracks and a vehicle factory, and later a drone hangar and a helipad. Every unit has its counter, so the mix of your army matters more than its size: anti-tank soldiers stop tanks, anti-air brings down drones and the gunship, snipers pick off soldiers from far away, and artillery and missile launchers shell bunkers from beyond their reach. Scout what your opponent builds and answer it.

• InfantryRiflemen, anti-tank soldiers, medics who patch up the wounded, snipers, and a commander who spurs on the troops around him and can call in an airstrike.
• VehiclesJeeps, tanks, artillery, missile launchers, anti-air vehicles and satellite uplinks that guide artillery fire onto a target.
• AirRecon drones, kamikaze drones and attack drones from the hangar, and a gunship helicopter from the helipad.
• BaseDerricks, a refinery, housing, solar panels and wind turbines, bunkers, walls with gates, tank traps, and minefields laid by your engineers.

More than the battle

The maps hold landmarks worth taking. Your soldiers search them for finds such as a fuel cache, volunteers or an abandoned jeep, and they can hold a lookout post to see far around it, an oil well for extra oil, a watermill for power or a weather station that shows enemy movement on your radar. On the polder a bridge keeper's house raises the drawbridge for whoever holds it, and engineers can patch up a tank wreck into a tank of your own.

Build a secret service for reports on an enemy's army and aerial photos of their base, and send spies who pass for the enemy's own civilians to steal oil, take their plans or sabotage a building. And when it really counts, your commander calls in an airstrike: jets come in low and carpet a strip of the field.

Six maps

Two players face each other across the map; three or four play on a larger one with a base in every corner.

Ways to play

Play now drops you straight into a game against one normal computer opponent on a random map; your first game walks you through the first steps. Against the computer you pick the map, one to three opponents and how good they are: easy, normal or hard. Or practise alone. Online you start a game and send the code or the link to your friends; two to four people play together, and the host can add computer players to the free seats.

After every game you can watch your best fight again as a film, save it and share it. The finest ones from players are on the highlights page.

Questions

Is Iron War free?

Yes. Iron War is free to play, without ads or purchases in the game.

Do I need to download anything or make an account?

No. The game runs in your browser at playironwar.com. Open the page and press Play now.

Does Iron War work on a phone or tablet?

Yes. On a touch screen you tap to select and to give orders, with buttons for the rest, and the game works both upright and on its side. Add it to your home screen and it opens full screen like an app.

How do I play with friends?

Choose New online game, then send your friends the four-letter code or the invitation link. Up to four players fit in a game, and the host can fill free seats with computer players.

Which languages does it speak?

English and Dutch. The game picks your browser's language, and you can switch on the start screen.

What does my computer need?

A recent browser with 3D graphics (WebGL): Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. On the start screen you can choose a lighter or a richer picture.

Does the game store data about me?

There are no accounts and no cookies. The game counts visits and games anonymously, without names, so its maker can see how much it is played. It also keeps an anonymous record of each game (the orders given in it, without names), to see how it is played and make the game better.