Iron Harvest (opens in new tab) is essentially a World War 1 RTS, except that instead of developing primitive, unreliable tanks, the powers involved developed clunky, steam-powered battlemechs. It’s a great concept and, happily, the execution lives up to it: We called it “a spectacular and rock-solid RTS” in our 82% review (opens in new tab), and a “worthy spiritual successor” to Relic’s great Company of Heroes.
Developer King Art has expanded the game since then with new modes of play, a re-imagining of the Russian Revolution, and—appropriately late—the addition of American forces.
Today the studio announced that another major update (opens in new tab) is on the way that will add a new “World Map Campaign mode” for singleplayer combat against the AI. It’s not campaign in the story-driven sense, but more like a game of Risk or Axis and Allies: Beginning from a particular starting point, players will square off against AI enemies in a straight-ahead war for world domination. Along with the premade starting conditions, custom scenario creation is also available.
“Entering each province will expose you to new battles and skirmish set-ups,” King Art said. “There’ll be a lot of replayability in this game mode.”
The update will be free for all players. More details will be released as the update gets closer to release, but at this point there’s no indication as to when that will be. And if you happen to be a Kickstarter backer—Iron Harvest began as a Kickstarter project (opens in new tab) back in 2018—you’ll be happy to know that King Art said the long-awaited campaign rewards have also begun shipping, “and hopefully they will arrive on your doorstep within the next weeks.”
