One of my favourite things about The Iron Oath is how its classes are so distinct from the usual generic RPG ones. The character classes in particular are elevating it. It's an interesting middle ground between dispassionate army drilling and a typical party of adventure palz. They're not as precious and irreplaceable as those of Wildermyth, but death does sting far more, and life is less cheap, than in the much more businesslike world of Battle Brothers. Each recruit comes with a handful of personality traits that affect their abilities, or possible dialogue options and courses of action. Individuals don't (currently) have much personality, but the structures are there for it. It helps you develop a capable bench in fact, rather than just bringing everyone and relying on a dream team.Īll this puts The Iron Oath in slightly different territory to its peers. It sounds a bit off, but soon becomes comfortable as you shrug and accept its parameters. However big your gang becomes (and it must grow over time, as wounded and exhausted fighters drop in and out of the frequent and painful fights needed to keep your profits above rising costs), you're limited to four stablads per fight. The focus is less on stories and memorable characters than Wildermyth, but they share an obvious influence in Dungarees & Dingoes when it comes to combat. They also have relationship scores with each other, although at present this doesn't seem to do much. Wildermyth players should already be savvy enough to know that this necessitates planning ahead, and using your best gear and experienced older warriors to prop up the younger, weaker hands until they're up to speed. That story is a personal one of avenging yourself on a group of traitors, but its skippable nature makes some sense considering that time affects your mercenaries too, as even those who live will tire and slow with age, and ultimately retire. Time management is as important as penny pinching as you fit as much work along your routes as possible, or even, in an option reminiscent of Star Traders: Frontiers, let the main story quests pass you by altogether while you're busy doing other things. The kingdoms whose people and nobles you butter up can rebel or wage war on each other, and every few decades a terrible dragon appears to blast a city, spreading chaos and weird plagues. The Iron Oath distinguishes itself in a few ways, with the first being its emphasis on the long term. They also make your members more skilled, and thus more expensive to keep on.Īlthough the mercenary management subgenre is still pretty small, this is all fairly standard within it. Over time, your efforts at stabbing bandits and kicking wildlife in the face give you a reputation that you can leverage for better prices and more lucrative jobs from more influential people. You run a mercenary company in a fantasy world, and must travel about it finding and fulfilling contracts that keep your fighters fed, equipped, and paid. The premise is familiar, but not oversaturated. Think of these complaints, for the most part, as a pre-flight checklist done long before the pilot has even sat down if the game were not in early access, these would be big disappointments rather than exactly the kind of annoying details that early access is meant to iron out. Not because it's bad, but because I'm really enjoying it, and I think it has the potential to really take off. I'm going to complain about The Iron Oath a lot. If the developers can flesh this out and lean into the differences it could really stand out. The Iron Oath is a tactical RPG with distinct classes, good combat and fun missions.
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