{"id":1665519,"date":"2026-08-16T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/FyUXjHtdbe8jUNfovVRzAT"},"modified":"2026-08-16T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:00:00","slug":"iron-nest-is-the-best-battleship-game-ive-played-in-years-and-it-doesnt-even-have-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/iron-nest-is-the-best-battleship-game-ive-played-in-years-and-it-doesnt-even-have-boats\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron Nest is the best ‘Battleship’ game I’ve played in years\u2014and it doesn’t even have boats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Who knew that all I needed to be interested in maths was the command of a five-thousand-tonne artillery battery? If only my secondary school teacher had known. Turns out that the ticking clock of exam pressure is a hell of a lot less motivating than the boom of artillery shells growing ever closer, as enemy gunners zero in on your position, trying to blast your colossal cannon to kingdom come before you blast them.<\/p>\n

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Play This Right Now<\/div>\n
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Welcome to Play This Right Now, the site version of our weekly newsletter in which we celebrate a new game, update, or DLC that we think is well worth checking out. You can subscribe to the newsletter<\/a> at the link if you want to get our thoughts about a new videogame happening direct to your inbox every Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But Iron Nest<\/a> is a similar test of mental endurance. You hustle and bustle around your one-man gun emplacement, triangulating degrees and distances, praying that your next shell won’t sail clear over the target, leaving you scratching your head as to which vital calculation you somehow messed up. It’s an addictive challenge, bolstered by an array of wonderfully tactile gadgets and gizmos.<\/p>\n

Sure, it’s an artillery simulator of sorts, but it’s more like one of the best versions of Battleship<\/a> you’ll ever play. It’s about employing what you know and learn through each shot, to track down enemy positions and destroy them, often before they destroy you. And it’s hard to overstate how satisfying it is when you land a shell squarely on-target, especially<\/em> when it’s the payoff for 10 minutes spent messing about with machines and the map table.<\/p>\n

So who are you shooting? Iron Nest is set in an alternate-history version of 1920s Spain in which the Kingdom of Castille somehow got their mitts on a gigantic, city-levelling artillery piece, and is using it to maintain their grip on power. That’s your job: shoot what they tell you, or don’t. As the lone denizen of the Iron Nest\u2014save for one presumably very deaf cat\u2014your job is operating the battery by yourself.<\/p>\n

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\"Iron
Dominik Latos, Nick Nieuwoudt<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Iron
Dominik Latos, Nick Nieuwoudt<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Iron
Dominik Latos, Nick Nieuwoudt<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

You have to read the teleprinter and note vital info on your clipboard. Use the map table and its elaborate array of markers, coloured pencils, and measuring devices to triangulate enemy positions. You’re inputting distance into a machine to calculate barrel elevation\u2014which prints off a cute little firing solution ticket\u2014and wheeling the gun on its axis to the correct bearing. And when all is prepared, you’re flipping switches as if arming a nuke, and pulling the handle to take your shot.<\/p>\n

There’s just so much gravity <\/em>to Iron Nest, in fiddling with its tactile machines and gadgets, but also in the methodical step-by-step that plays out before each firing. Despite its initial learning curve, before long the pre-shot preparation becomes a bit of a ritual, a process you refine through repetition and gain mastery with. It’s strangely relaxing for a game about obliterating enemies with explosive ordinance.<\/p>\n

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