Iron Harvest is a classic real-time strategy game set in the alternate reality of 1920+, the world imagined by artist Jakub Różalski, where the Great War has ended but the machines it left behind have not stopped walking. Farmers turning the soil uncover the wrecks of towering dieselpunk mechs, and a fragile European peace begins to come apart all over again.
A War Fought With Walking Machines
Europe is rebuilding. Cities are going back up, the countryside is being ploughed for the first time in years, and in the fields the era of the iron harvest has begun. Underneath that recovery a new threat is working quietly to destabilise entire countries and set the world on fire once more. You command the answer to it: dozens of unit types on foot alongside riveted, steam-belching machinery that ranges from light scouting walkers to siege platforms which flatten a farmhouse without breaking stride.
Three Campaigns and a Story Worth Following
The campaign runs for more than twenty missions across three separate arcs, told from the perspective of three factions who each believe they are the ones holding Europe together. Nine heroes lead them, every one with distinct abilities and beastly companions of their own, and the whole thing can be played side by side with a friend in co-op rather than kept as a solo experience.
Tactics Over Clicks Per Second
- Cover That Does Not Last
- Almost everything on the battlefield can be destroyed if the weapon hitting it is powerful enough. Walls, fences and entire buildings come apart under fire, so the position keeping your riflemen alive one minute is rubble the next, and the lines of sight across the field change with it.
- Weapons Picked Up in the Field
- Soldiers can equip weapons they find on the battlefield to gain special abilities and more firepower, which turns a scouting squad into a holding force or gives plain infantry an answer to an armoured walker. Composition is something you adjust mid-fight rather than lock in back at the base.
- Room to Think
- Iron Harvest gives you the time to come up with a plan and then rewards you for it. Flanking, cover, careful use of terrain and even a full stealth approach are all viable, which makes this a strategy game you can play deliberately without immediately falling behind.
Skirmish, Ranked Ladders and Challenge Maps
Outside the campaign you command three diverse factions with over forty unit types across a wide selection of skirmish and challenge maps, playable alone or in co-op. Competitive players get ranked matches, ladders and leagues, with the familiar strategy foundations underneath: conquer resource points, build and expand your base, and place fortifications to protect unit production and research. The interface and input controls can be configured to suit how you actually play, and free updates have continued to add new singleplayer challenges and multiplayer maps since release.
Whether you want a mature campaign about a continent that never quite stopped fighting, a co-op run through all three stories with a friend, or a ranked climb with three very different armies, Iron Harvest is the classic RTS that trusts you to think. Take command, and see what the fields give up.
