IRON NEST Beginner Guide

Two machines, two jobs

The High Command teleprinter carries TOP-PRIORITY directives: what to destroy, which ammunition is authorized, and sometimes propaganda-facing language that still hides a grid square. Field reports relay frontline radio traffic — spotter bearings, damage assessments, and urgent corrections.

New Operators skim one and miss the other. A starburst mission that says "STAR shell only" on the teleprinter will fail if you load HE because the field report looked more urgent.

Your quarters vs the turret floor

Below deck you have your bed, ration station, mission selector, and challenge scoreboards. Up the ladder is the working turret: map table, ballistic calculator, loading station, traverse wheels, and the viewports over both barrels.

Learn that split early. Coffee and mission picks happen downstairs; every shot happens upstairs. The free demo guide runs the same layout if you want a shorter mission set first.

Once the orders make sense, the next bottleneck is almost always map work — not gunnery.

Single coordinate targets

Calibration missions and simple strikes give you two grid squares: IRON NEST at H355 and target at Q442, for example. Select the red pencil, click your turret token, drag to the target cell, and read range (~8.9 km) plus bearing on the clipboard.

You do not need triangulation when High Command names both points. You still must draw the line — the clipboard only updates from map measurements, not from the teleprinter text.

Two spotter bearings (triangulation)

Later missions give bearings from two observers: "Spotter One, bearing 90°" and "Spotter Alpha, bearing 271°." Place tokens, draw yellow bearing lines from each spotter, mark the intersection, then a red line from your turret token to that mark for clipboard range.

Full step-by-step with common mission layouts lives on triangulation. For your first hours, remember: two lines, one intersection, then measure range from the turret to that mark.

Range and bearing in hand, the calculator becomes the next stop — not the loading lever.

Enter range, pick charges, read elevation

Type the clipboard range (e.g. 8.92 km). Select powder charge count before hitting calculate — the demo calibration target at ~9 km uses two charges. The machine outputs elevation (e.g. 32.7°) and copies values to your firing card.

More charges mean lower elevation for the same range because the shell exits faster. Using six charges with an elevation computed for two sends the round long — a common first-mission failure.

Bearing is traverse, elevation is barrel angle

Players often confuse bearing with elevation. Bearing (85°, 271°, etc.) is turret rotation on the horizontal plane. Elevation is how high the barrel climbs. Calculator output is elevation only; bearing came from the map line.

Detailed charge tables and edge cases are on ballistics. Next: translate numbers into hands-on loading and gunlaying.

Loading before laying

The turret locks elevation while unloaded. Sequence is always load → traverse → fine elevation → fire. Skipping straight to the wheels without a shell loaded wastes time and breaks the hydraulic sync.

Quick-slot racks hold six ready rounds; deeper magazines pull from external supply. Early missions only issue a handful of types — HE and STAR appear before AP and chemical rounds unlock.

Coarse vs fine controls

The large traverse lever swings the entire 5,000-ton structure; the small wheel dials in the exact bearing on your clipboard. Elevation uses a similar split: get close, then fine-adjust to the decimal the calculator gave you.

After impact, High Command or field reports tell you short/long and left/right. Adjust range input or bearing line on the map, recalculate if range shifted, and repeat. First-shot perfection is rare; predictable correction is the skill.

Shell choice changes damage more than aim tweaks on some targets — which is why the next section covers ammo before you leave the tutorial arc.

HE is your default learning round

Calibration firing tests ask for HE at a grid target. Anti-infantry strikes in the campaign continuation use HE or HCHE depending on density. Until the teleprinter names another type, HE is the correct load.

When the order says STAR only

Fire-and-Light style demo missions include a royal palace starburst: load STAR, arc to the grid, and adjust until High Command confirms satisfactory burst. Loading HE here fails the objective even on a perfect grid hit.

Full radius and cost numbers live on shell types and targets. Internalize the loop first; optimize matchup tables second.

One habit that fixes most of them

Before you touch the firing lever, read the clipboard card back against the teleprinter: correct shell type, charge count matches calculator, bearing and elevation within a half-degree of target. Ten seconds there prevents most wasted shots.

When the loop feels automatic, move to triangulation for two-spotter missions — that is where campaign difficulty actually starts.