Game News The Iron Oath now available on Early Access

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Curious Panda Games; Humble Games; The Iron Oath

There's an Early Access release of The Iron Oath over on Steam and GOG for those looking for a little of the old turn based tactical RPG. It offers your typical, and perhaps not as typical, fantasy style setting and a lot of the tropes therein. No discount on this one, so you're looking at $19.99US in order to mass murder gobs of anything in your way to total glory. Here's a trailer and a summary:

Command, endure, and prosper in The Iron Oath, a turn-based tactical RPG where the fate of your mercenary company rests on your decisions. As the leader of a band of soldiers-for-hire in the harsh realm of Caelum, you’ll need to hire recruits, manage your operations wisely, and embark on perilous missions in order to survive, thrive, and build your company's renown.

As the years progress, the world of Caelum evolves dynamically, opening up new storylines for you to discover and making each new playthrough unpredictable and unique. What fortunes await your company?​

Well, that's pretty bloody. Can't go wrong with animation blood splattering. Anyway, for those who want to know what the gameplay is like, there's also this video, which is two hours of play through on that. The guy who made the video is StefaNonsense who apparently likes CRPGs and City Builders. Can't fault him with those choices.

 

[Skdursh]

Well, that's pretty bloody. Can't go wrong with animation blood splattering. Anyway, for those who want to know what the gameplay is like, there's also this video, which is two hours of play through on that. The guy who made the video is StefaNonsense who apparently likes CRPGs and City Builders. Can't fault him with those choices.

Video is unlisted with 30 views.

Anyone else wondering if Saint Proverbius = StefaNonsense?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Anyone else wondering if Saint Proverbius = StefaNonsense?

My accent isn't nearly that European. Interesting that it's unlisted, it was the second from the top when I searched for the same title to find the trailer on YouTube. Someone in the Shoutbox was asking about the game, so I figured I'd post the Lat's Play as well so they could see what the game was like since the trailer is very trailery.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Anyone played it yet? It's been on my list for a while now.

How early is early access?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Wow, this thing is on GOG now too? I didn't see it when I first posted it.

 

[Ein Axt]

Played it for a few hours. Reached the end of the EA's main questline.

It's like Battle Brother-lite with pretty animation. You can have up to 15 mercs(after company upgrades) but you only field 4 at a time. Your 4 man party gets fatigued after a mission or a dungeon crawl. If they rest long enough they get a well-rested buff. Like BB, you pay them a salary.

The actual combat is kinda shallow but still a bit fun due to class abilities. Basically I just place all my guys behind and just pop "wait" command on all of them at round 1. By the time every enemy has done their move, most of them will be in range for all 4 of my guys who waited to attack. It basically kills the standard TB initiative. If you have fast units they will get double turns due to this tactic. If all your guys are fast enough, then all of them will get double attacking turns. The challenge comes from not having enough heals when diving through a cave or a dungeon and losing to a war of attrition. This is fixed by just upgrading your Guardian's(paladin) and your Pugilist's(monk) heal spells.

I didn't get any fancy loot but from the town's shops the itemization seems very basic with Diablo-like stats. You're going to see something like 50 ATK sword with +5% to crit, 2% to block, etc. Equipment degrade when you use them and will break sooner or later. I don't think there is a repair mechanic. Durability is pretty hefty as I didn't get a single equipment broken on my 6-7 hour playthrough.

The campaign has A LOT of text and shitty reddit-style writing. The dialogue is so bloated and I didn't care for the characters that I just skipped most of them after a while. I like that it has a real campaign, though and not just pure sandbox make your own fun like BB.

The 2D animation is amazing. Even when an attack miss there is a custom animation for every class/monster's "dodge". I'm assuming most of the big bucks when to the animator(s) and almost no bucks went to the artist and writer. Character portraits are ugly and the writing is definitely not written or at least edited by a professional.

The EA is pretty short. Missions have star(skull) ranking on them up to five and I only completed 1s and two 2s so maybe the combat depth might have some hope mid and late game.

Maybe I'm just starved of some TB game to play but I'm keeping this on my radar. If the devs polish it some more maybe it will be a good game that I'll play in a year.

 

[MicoSelva]

Kudos to you Saint_Proverbius for the shout out to Stefanonsense. He is an underappreciated (not to be confused with underrated) YouTuber with lots of love for games.

 

[Circuitbreaker313]

Played it for a few hours. Reached the end of the EA's main questline.
Missions have star(skull) ranking on them up to five and I only completed 1s and two 2s so maybe the combat depth might have some hope mid and late game.

I recently found out that I apparently backed the Kickstarter campaign and upon receiving the EA key, took it for a spin. Your description is pretty much spot on. Let me add a few things.

A one star mission will pit your squad of 4 against 4 opponents. Every star adds an additional enemy, so a three star mission will be 4 (your team) against 6 (the enemy). Also dungeon missions will be longer based on the number of stars. Since you will have multiple encounters in dungeons, this kind of forces you to use your best team members for the more difficult encounters. I would recommend to use the rookies in the random overland encounters, as those are single battles, or mix them with the experienced members in the easier dungeon quests.

The one thing that I did not like so far, were the random dungeon collapse events. Since you have limited ability to heal your party - apart from potions - and these events do pretty hefty damage, this feels pretty imbalanced. On the other hand the various penalties you get over time in the dungeons, feel realistic and they add to the difficulty in a meaningful way.