I am starting new account in Ironfell at the time I am writing this and taking real pictures from in-game to show you. This guide is current as of: June 28th, 2013
How it all started[]
Beautiful Home Valley
All you need to know right now is that you have been cast back in time for reasons that you will find out later. You are an explorer, when you look around you see a beautiful valley.
How do I play this game?[]
First you need to know, Ironfell as no explicit goals, players must set their own as they interact with other players. There are superweapons in the game and many people make it their goal to control these. But as a new player, you will want to start with smaller goals, like: Getting out of this valley for instance. (You will get a choice later of what 'goals' you'd like to see me demonstrate, but please be patient now.
It's dangerous to go alone[]
The world of Ironfell is a dangerous one, you will need an army to conquer it. Luckily you can build one within minutes and command every unit individually or many units at once.
Now, just take five minutes to get a small resource income before you spend all your money on troops. (I promise it literally takes three minutes)
- Minute 1: Find your Wood Shack, right click on it and then click Miner and finally left click near the Wood Shack. As you might imagine this guy will build iron mines. You should one odd looking mountain in your home realm, this odd looking mountain has iron in it. Left clicking it will tell you it is an iron deposit. Left click the miner and then click on a hex in the grey area to tell him to move there. Move him beside the iron deposit and right click him. Left click the Small Mine and then left click on the iron deposit.
- Minute 2: Again find your Wood Shack, right click and click Woodcutter this time. Move tge woodcutter near some trees, righy click him and select auto-gather. He will gather from trees within his grey move range (8 hexes)
- Minute 3: Back to your Wood Shack, build a farmer this time. Move the farmer to an open area of grass and right click him. Now click Farmlet and then build 3 of them. They must be built on grass.
Now you have a resource income in its basic stages. Ready to fight? Good. First go back to your Wood Shack, right click, now build a carpenter. Move your carpenter near your Miner, right click the carpenter and then build a Barracks on the grass. Only build one because they are relatively expensive early on.
Combat[]
Combat in Ironfell is graphically simple. There are no projectiles or unit animations. All you will see is that a unit will blink red when it is being hit. 99% of the time you can tell what is hitting it and why at a glance.
Also, most units in Ironfell will not automatically attack, HOWEVER some will. It is a good idea to learn which units have this setting and which do not. Here is a short list of the ones that do:
-Armed Tower (95% of the time, it is turned on)
-Ironclad
-Catapult
-T-Rex
-Ankylosaurs
-Velociraptor
-Pterodactyl
-Stone Trap (Again, turned on 95% of the time)
-Steam Tank
-Naval Cog
These units will attack anything in their range. If a unit does not have auto attack or the auto attack is not turned on, the unit will do nothing even if approached. When any unit is attacked, it attempts to kill its attacker. A unit that is attacked will also issue a call for help to any adjacent units owned by the same player. These units will also attempt to kill the attacker.