Iron Vanguard

About Iron Vanguard

Iron Vanguard is armoured warfare with a garage attached. Twelve career missions run across three maps — desert, emerald and frostline — and the credits they pay go into armour, cannon and engine, each capped so that an upgraded tank is better rather than untouchable.

Three hulls set the starting terms. Vanguard is balanced at 120 HP and a 105 mm gun, Spectre trades armour for speed at 85 HP, Bulwark takes 180 HP and a 120 mm gun and accepts being slow about it.

More than the campaign

Battle royale, tournament and waves sit beside the career, and they ask for different driving. Waves in particular punishes the Spectre build that makes the campaign comfortable.

The upgrades are deliberately small

Five levels each on armour, cannon and engine, at 250 credits a step. A fully built tank is meaningfully better and still loses to a careless approach, which is the right side of the line for a game you want to replay.

Controls

WASD to drive, mouse to aim and fire, Space for a smoke screen and Escape to pause.

How to play Iron Vanguard

1. From the Command Center, open Select Your Tank and choose one of the three classes: Vanguard, Spectre or Bulwark.
2. Pick a mode. Career missions are deployed with Deploy to Mission; Operation Red Dust, the Emerald Isle battle royale and the Vanguard World Cup sit alongside it.
3. Drive with WASD and turn the turret with the mouse. Click or hold the mouse button to fire, and watch the reload bar fill before your next shot.
4. Press Space to lay smoke when you are caught in the open. It disrupts enemy targeting long enough to reverse into cover or close the distance.
5. Destroy the enemy tanks to clear the mission and collect the credits it pays.
6. Spend those credits in the garage on armour, cannon or engine, then deploy to the next mission.

Iron Vanguard tips and strategy

• Know what each upgrade buys. Each armour level adds 15 maximum HP, each cannon level adds 8 per cent damage and each engine level adds 6 per cent top speed. Maxed out, that is 75 extra HP, 40 per cent more damage and 30 per cent more speed.
• Match the upgrades to the hull. A Spectre at 85 HP gains proportionally more from armour than a Bulwark at 180, while the slow Bulwark gets the most out of engine levels. Spending against a hull’s weakness usually pays more than doubling its strength.
• Fire, then move. The gap between shots is when you are most vulnerable. Use the reload time to change position rather than sitting still waiting for the bar.
• Save smoke for bad moments. Smoke on a cooldown is no help when you are suddenly flanked. Keep it for the times you are caught reloading or stuck without cover.
• Pick field upgrades for the next wave. In Red Dust your armour is repaired by 35 per cent between waves and you choose a field upgrade, such as Hardened Shells for 20 per cent more cannon damage or Reinforced Hull for 30 more maximum armour. If the last wave nearly finished you, take the armour.
• Respect the safe zone. On Emerald Isle the safe zone shrinks as the match goes on. Pick up repair caches on the way in rather than waiting at the edge of the zone with a damaged tank.

Modes beyond the career

Operation Red Dust is the original five-wave defence. The computer reinforcements escalate each wave, and the repair and field upgrade between waves turn it into a small run-based challenge where the order of your choices matters.

Emerald Isle is a solo battle royale for twenty tanks with one survivor. Villages, palm groves and industrial buildings provide cover, and with nineteen other tanks on the island, choosing when to commit to a fight is as important as winning it.

The Vanguard World Cup is a tournament of eight commanders split into two groups of four. A duel win is worth 3 points, the top two in each group reach the semifinals, and the winners of those meet in the championship final.