IRON NEST Shell Types

Authorization beats matchup theory

Community iron nest ammo guides rank HE as S-tier on soft clusters, but a STAR-only order fails if you "know" HE would look better on the aerial photo. Treat unauthorized shells like wrong powder charges — fixable only before the lever, not after impact.

Field reports may update target class mid-mission. Re-read both printers when a second fire order arrives; swapping from HE to AP without a new teleprinter line wastes an AP credit on a soft grid cell.

Once authorization is clear, the nine tracked shell codes are the vocabulary every loader station uses — next section lists them with blast and cost notes.

HE vs HCHE vs AP at a glance

HE carries a tight blast band in community extracts (~0.25 km) — enough for one grid cell of infantry or an exposed artillery piece without paying HCHE prices. HCHE is the larger soft-target blast (~0.55 km in the same sources) for massed spotter reports; overshoot still damages infrastructure you were told to preserve.

AP trades blast for penetration: higher damage with a smaller radius in those extracts makes it the bunker and Fire Direction Center round. Firing AP at open infantry works when ordered, but you overpay in blast coverage — HE clears the same token cheaper.

Specialty gases and smoke show wider radius bands in community data but change mission scoring through suppression, illumination, or morality systems rather than raw damage digits.

*Blast / damage / cost columns above are community extracts — confirm against your loader and requisition UI.

Choosing among HE, HCHE, and AP is the everyday decision — blast-vs-cost tradeoffs come next.

Soft enemy artillery vs hardened emplacements

Database extracts list Hostile Artillery tokens as soft — a well-placed HE round destroys the piece. Players still search what shell vs artillery because counter-battery missions mix FDC (armored, AP) with open gun lines (soft, HE). Read the target row, not the mission name.

When counter-battery timers run, fire the fastest authorized solution: HE on soft batteries, AP on bunkers housing FDC gear. Swapping shells costs loader time you may not have.

When HCHE is worth five credits

HCHE's ~5 requisition cost (community samples) buys the largest standard blast. Use it when triangulation places three or more kill tokens under one aim point — Fire-and-Light style multi-infantry missions are the textbook case.

Do not default to HCHE on single calibration targets; HE at ~3 credits clears the same objective with credits left for powder charges.

Credits and radius numbers tie together on the next table — plan buys before you crank elevation.

Blast is not the same as searchlight reach

Community guides cite STAR "reach" figures near ~12 km for illumination coverage — separate from the ~0.2 km impact-radius field in database extracts. For iron nest shell types planning, treat STAR as a cheap (~1 credit) spotting round with zero damage, not a wide-area killer.

SMK and TGAS show ~1.0 km blast fields — wide on the tactical grid — but mission success may require presence of smoke or gas, not elimination counts.

Restock rhythm with ballistics

Powder charges and shells both spend requisition credits. A long counter-battery chain burning AP at ~3 credits plus two charge bands per shot drains the console faster than demo calibration HE at ~3 credits with two charges.

Buy one row of AP and a HE stack before multi-target missions; specialty gases unlock later campaign bands — keep TBA costs noted until your save confirms prices.

Support rounds that change the battlefield without deleting tokens are covered next — STAR, SMK, PGAS, and the rest.

STAR missions without kill objectives

Illumination orders fail if you drop HE on the grid — aerial feedback expects a starburst pattern, not craters. Load STAR, match ballistics as usual, and adjust burst height from photo feedback when the teleprinter gives approximate coordinates only.

STAR pairs with triangulation on night missions where spotter bearings arrive before you can see tokens — light first, damage later on a follow-up order.

Chemical and smoke collateral

PGAS (~0.75 km blast in extracts) kills personnel while leaving structures standing — use when High Command cares about preservation. TGAS spreads wider (~1.0 km) for suppression; both may interact with newspaper consequence systems.

SMK (~1.86 km in some community notes, ~1.0 km in DB extracts) buys concealment during counter-battery repositioning — not a substitute for destroying FDC nodes.

Hand-off to targets database

This table is the ammo-side view; targets lists the same classes from the target token perspective — infantry triangulation, AP neutralization lines, and counter-battery priority.

When both pages agree — soft artillery + HE, bunker + AP — you should load without reopening guides mid-mission.

Pre-lever shell read-back

At the breech: shell code matches teleprinter, target class matches table row, powder count still matches calculator. Ten seconds here beats a second 800 mm shot at the wrong armor class.

When iron nest shell types feel automatic, open targets for FDC timing and counter-battery for what to destroy first under timer pressure.