Iron Nest is a dieselpunk heavy artillery simulator with one twist that defines everything else: you operate the entire war machine alone. Every mission runs on the same loop — read orders, locate the target, calculate, load, aim, fire, assess — and this Iron Nest guide walks you through each stage of it.
None of it is a reflex test. It is a checklist: learn what each station does, run the steps in order, and the whole turret starts to make sense.
Learn the Controls and Your Turret
Iron Nest plays in first person. WASD moves you, SPACE jumps, Left Shift sprints, CTRL crouches, and E starts interacting with any station. Hold Left Click to move objects, pull levers, rotate valves, or draw lines; Right Click removes things like Clipboard notes or drawn lines. Caps Lock toggles the Clipboard, TAB brings it into full focus, G equips the gasmask, and Escape opens the menu or exits an interaction.
Below deck, the living quarters hold your bed — where you sleep to end a mission when told to stand down — a mission selection screen, high score boards, a coffee maker, and a pet cat you can name. Upstairs is the working deck: the High Command and Field Reports typewriters, the tactical map, the Ballistic Calculator, the loading platform, the rotation and elevation consoles, the Requisition Console, and the Trigger Station. Small clipboards near each station explain how it works; read them before you pull anything.
The Core Gameplay Loop
Every fire mission boils down to six steps:
- Read orders and target data from the High Command machine and the Field Reports typewriter.
- Take measurements on the war table to turn that data into target locations.
- Feed range, shell type, and powder charges into the Ballistic Calculator to get your elevation.
- Load the correct shell and the calculated number of charges.
- Rotate the turret to the target bearing and set the calculated elevation.
- Confirm the procedure at the Trigger Station, arm the gun, and fire.
Then check the result, watch for new orders, resupply, and move to the next target.
Read Orders and Work the Clipboard
The High Command typewriter is your first stop every mission. Its brief gives you the objective, the ordnance to use, target information, your own position, map data such as observation assets, and any extra notes. The Field Reports typewriter to its left carries the recon detail: target types like infantry, armored vehicles, or bunkers, plus bearing or distance readings from individual spotters.
The Clipboard ties it together. Click any line of text on either machine and it is copied over; right-click a note to delete it. Keep it visible with Caps Lock; having your position, spotter coordinates, and target data pinned on screen saves constant trips back to the typewriters. Copy your position first, then the spotters, then one target at a time.
Find Targets on the Tactical Map
The war table map is a 20x10 grid: columns lettered A through T, rows numbered 1 to 10 from the bottom, so cells read like K5 or R8. Each cell splits into its own 10x10 grid numbered from 0, producing full coordinates such as F10 8:0. Mark what you know in order: the Iron Nest token at your position, blue number tokens (1-4) on spotters, green letter tokens (A-C) on reference points. Red number tokens (1-8) mark confirmed targets, and Skull tokens appear after impacts — red for a kill, blue if you hit a friendly.
Your tools are three pencils and a compass. White draws a plain line, yellow shows live bearing and distance as you draw, and red does the same while writing the values to your Clipboard — use red for firing data. The compass handles distance-only reports.
Locating a target is a puzzle of intersections. Given bearings from two spotters, draw a long line from each at the exact reported angle; where they cross is the target. Given distances, draw a circle around each observer at the reported range — and two circles can cross twice, so mark both candidates and confirm with recon. Once located, draw a red line from the Iron Nest to the target: the displayed bearing and range are your firing values (our triangulation guide has worked examples). Players report measurements can carry up to roughly half a degree of error, so recon confirmation is cheap insurance.
Engage targets one at a time so the map stays readable. The exception is enemy artillery — your first shot starts the counter-battery timer, so identify every gun before you fire.
Calculate, Load, Aim, and Fire
At the Ballistic Calculator, dial in the Distance to Target, enter the bearing (large wheel for coarse, small wheel for fine), select the shell type, set the powder charges from the range chart — roughly one charge per 5 km of range — pick the target classification (Infantry, Recon, Artillery, Mechanized, Fire Director, or Supply Cache), then calculate. The machine pins a ticket to your Clipboard: elevation in the lower-left corner, rotation in the upper-right.
The loading platform works left to right: pull the selector lever until the correct shell sits at the front, ram it into the breech, dispense exactly the calculated number of powder charges (six levers, one charge each), and ram the charges home. One warning above all: a loaded shell cannot be unloaded — your only way out is to fire it. Double-check range, charge count, and shell type before anything goes into the gun.
For rotation, drag the heavy lever to traverse, easing it back to center near the mark — rough handling can damage the mechanism and force valve repairs — then fine-tune with the wheel until the counter matches your bearing exactly. The elevation console stays locked until the gun is loaded and resets to zero after every shot: move its lever to the rough angle, wait, then fine-tune with the wheel. Never touch the wheel while the gun is still moving, or you can jam the machinery. To save time, start the turret rotating while the shell loads.
At the Trigger Station, arm the gun with the lever on the left side, flip all five switches, and pull the central cord. Later missions add a second gun, and each must be loaded, aimed, and armed separately.
After the Shot
Watch the shell’s path on the map and read the result — hit or miss, lethal or not. Every impact reveals the surrounding area, and kills drop Skull tokens. Then check High Command — a successful strike can bring new intelligence, objectives, or instructions. If you missed, correct one value at a time — short means add range, long means take it off, left or right means nudge the bearing — and treat the first shot as a reference, not a failure.
The Requisition Console spends Requisition Credits on shells and support actions like Scout Planes, Forward Observers, and Emergency Moves. You start each mission with a set budget and earn more from high-value targets and objectives. A Scout Plane flies a line you give it and photographs everything below; a star shell illuminates an area and reports direction and distance to targets. The Iron Nest itself can relocate: plot a bearing and distance on the move card and the machine walks, shaking too hard to plot while High Command briefly loses track of you.
Finally, learn the blast radius tool: it overlays each shell type’s danger area on the map — tight for Armor Piercing, enormous for High Capacity High Explosive. Against clustered enemies, aim an HCHE round between the targets and let the blast work; around friendlies and civilians, that same radius is a liability. The shell types guide covers what each round is for.
Beginner Habits That Save Missions
- Take it slow. Read every instruction before touching a control; know what you are shooting, where it is, and which shell it needs.
- Verify the solution before loading, because loaded shells only leave through the barrel.
- Match ammunition to the target: High Explosive for general targets, Armor Piercing for armored and underground positions, HCHE for clusters.
- When a shot misses, change one value and fire again. Small corrections beat full recalculations.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find targets in Iron Nest?
Combine the bearings and distances reported by spotters on the tactical map. Draw bearing lines or distance circles from the observers, and the intersection is your target. Then draw a line from the Iron Nest to that point to get the bearing and range for your firing solution.
What is the Clipboard used for in Iron Nest?
It stores lines you copy from the High Command brief and field reports. Click any line of text to add it to the Clipboard, and right-click a note to remove it, so the numbers you need stay on screen while you measure and calculate.
What do the Skull tokens mean in Iron Nest?
A red Skull token confirms your target has been eliminated. A blue Skull token means your fire also took out a friendly unit.
What does the counter-battery timer do in Iron Nest?
When enemy artillery is on the map, your first fired shell reveals your position and starts the counter-battery timer, which is how long you have before enemy guns hit you. Destroying artillery units and certain other actions add time to it.