The Ultimate Iron Fist Guide

The Ultimate Iron Fist Guide

In this guide I will explain to you every applicable tactics that you need to know in order to play iron fist properly and efficiently. The first section will cover the basics of using IF such as, choosing the right countries, the right income zones, expanding to the right places in order to acquire a high income and using the proper units at the proper time.

Section 1 - The Basics

Picking the right countries

Depending on the starting funds, it is always best to choose a country that will allow you to expand quickly and acquire a good income in return. This is why 10k spain isn't the best choice for IF since naval transports can't reach Italy forcing you to use air transports for both Italy and France depending on the game type. In the following examples, I will describe different tricks on how to limit your use of air transports and maximize your income.

The top countries available that have always been good for me are France, United Kingdom and Turkey in 10k games.

United Kingdom: First off, United Kingdom has a great income, is located in a rich zone of Western Europe, and is filled with infantry in week one that you can include in your first turn attack forces. Also, with the UK, there is no need for air transports in the first week of your expansion which is another great plus++ for your funds.

Tip

- Make a three or four man wall around London (three is preferred)
- Use the seven infantry from Birmingham and the remaining infantry from London (and your general) and place them in a naval transport since it's much more expendable and has a max capacity of 15 units (if you don't have the transport capacity upgrade, get it!) and finally, send the units to Paris.
Why Paris?

- 6 reinforcements
- Great income
- Gateway to Spain and Italy who both have 8 reinforcements and great income
- Important to have nearby forces near your capital

Furthermost, with the infantry you used to capture Paris, three of those infantry can also be used to make a three man wall as you capture Paris. In my opinion, this is highly recommended. Why? Because it only costs an extra 3 infantry, protects your big/important stack for the next turn from either a large attack force or a turnblock, and lastly, it will allow you to expand freely and induce more pressure on your opponent.

A last tip, since you've used only your starting infantry to capture Paris, you still lots of reinforcements!! So you use them wisely. I recommend only infantry for the first turn since it's more expendable and use that infantry to expand to other countries such as; Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands > (sending a large amount to the Netherlands will allow you to build a naval transport for the next turn and send units to Scandinavia.)

Now you must be asking yourself, "Why only infantry?" Because infantry are cheaper, very strong units in iron fist (can capture militia cities with equal amount) and since they cost less you can mass up large amounts.

France: In addition, 10k France is also a great country. I won't explain further since there are more important things to discuss and I've also explained the use of the United Kingdom so you should be able to make a correlation between the two. So the next time you're in a 10k game pick France and try it out for yourselves!

Turkey: I will be short and sweet with Turkey only giving you a point-form format. For starters, it is a great 10k country because you're given lots of infantry in the first week. On the other hand, 10k Turkey can be a very dangerous choice because it's in a poor income zone of Easter Europe so you must be very careful.

- Do not buy too many units
- Only buy units if necessary in the first week
- It is better to use the infantry you already have in your cities
- From Izmir you can capture Athens with 9 infantry using a naval transport
- Don't simply put 9 infantry in your naval transport, make sure it is filled and is used to its maximum potential. The other six infantry can be used to capture Bulgaria's capital
- From Istanbul, use the 8 infantry to capture Romania
- From Istanbul, buy a naval transport and 5 tanks to capture Ukraine
- So that pretty much makes up your turn, you can add additional detail if you like but just make sure to remain within certain boundaries and not go overboard your spending funds.

Your goal as Turkey is to rush to places with high income. Here are more quick tips;

- Get Italy in week two from Greece
- Get Moscow from Ukraine
- Expand at a decent pace through the Balkans using mainly infantry
- The units you have in Moscow can be used to capture Russia Northwest, Finland and so forth (Scandinavia has great income)

In conclusion, Europe is really the only good zone for iron fist since the cities and countries are close together. In Asia it can be done (though I wouldn't try) but it requires highly advanced precision and technical thought. North Eastern America is also a great zone to play with using iron fist since the cities and countries are close together and will give you good income. Another thing to add, iron fist in a Eurasia or world game isn't the greatest unless you're playing a team game where you have teammates that will accomplish those long distance missions for you. All in all, IF is best when played in Europe, Europe +, Europe ++ and North America.

This section covered the basics of choosing a country, the best income zones and tactics required to be powerful in 10k games. The next section will cover all the advanced options you can use to maximize your IF skills. In addition, you will learn general and depicted iron fist tactics, options, strategies, a list of great 5k countries, upgrades and the importance for iron fist units.

>Iron Fist thread (and generally a good one at that)
>DOESN'T MENTION USING AUSTRIA
WTF MAN? HOW CAN YOU NEVER HAVE USED AUSTRIA WITH IF?!?!

I have, i am currently working on part two. it is mentionned.

Section 2 - Advanced

The importance of units

Alrighty, let's immediately move on to the importance of iron fist units. In the following, I will dictate certain information that you need to know about militia, infantry, tanks and bombers.

Militia: As you may already know, the militia in iron fist can't move because of the -2 movement range deduction. Additionally, this will limit you from making walls around every capital. Because of this negative side of IF, it is best to only make walls around your most important cities such as; your capital, the location of your largest stack, or any other city that you find important for either income or reinforcements. Though militia may only have a maximum attack of 3, they are still very powerful units because of the extra +3HP given to them in iron fist. So whenever you're missing extra units to conquer that last city don't be afraid to fill that air transport with militia. (Also, militia will have +6HP with your general if you have the Militia HP upgrade. Keep that in mind it can be very helpful)

Also, for defence, sometimes you won't always have the funds to fill your cities with infantry. So sometimes it's better to buy out on militia instead, or prioritize your buys evenly with both militia and infantry. Here's a mathematical formula I made myself to explain this further;

Let's say you have 430 funds left and you're in need of protecting your capital London for an upcoming attack force. London has 8 reinforcements which means you cannot max out on infantry since you only have 430 funds.
- 6 infantry (70 cost each) = 420 cost leaving you with 10 funds and a max. Defence of 36
- BUT, 5 infantry and 2 militia = 410 cost leaving you with 20 funds and a max, defence of 38

From this example you can easily see that it cost you less cash for more defence. This formula can also be applied in other scenarios.

Infantry:
- Use infantry for earlier and nearby expansion in order to get more income to contrary of using tanks
- Use them to protect certain and important cities
- Use them to make walls defend valuable stacks from attack forces or turnblocks
- Stack large amounts of them when a city is suspected to be attacked
I won't go one further since I've already explained the most important criteria of using the week one infantry for early expansion.

Tanks:
- They are your strongest offensive units
- Use them with your general for the making of a powerful attack force (general: tank attack)
- Make sure not to build too many of them in 5k/10k Europe games since they can cause a dramatic effect to your economy
- Use them to forge medium stacks and have them scattered evenly amongst your cities
- Make sure your tanks are traveling for city to city in a forward manner. This gives you an offensive advantage and always gives you a stack to attack with. This is an important cycle that you can perform to be an aggressive and relentless attacker.
- Finally, every unit in iron fist are powerful in their own standing because of the extra +3HP that they are given. It is up to you to prioritize your buy outs, categorized your attacks, and use your reinforcements wisely.

Here's a quick list of tank usage for minimized expansion;

- A city with 2 militia = 2 tanks to capture
- 3 militia = 2 tanks
- 4 militia = 3 tanks
- 5 militia = 3 tanks
- 6 militia = 4 tanks
- 7 militia = 5 tanks (also 4 but bad rolls can present themselves)
- 8 militia = 5 tanks

Bombers:

- Use bombers to break walls, turnblock possible attack forces and to block enemy expansion with well known 1 infantry and several bombers.

Tactics:

Blocking enemy expansion: This term doesn't mean turnblocking, it means expanding to a city/country in which you're positive your enemy will expand to and you send a larger amount to surpass your enemy's and conquer the neutral city/country. This allows you to capture the city your enemy wanted to capture which will give you extra reinforcements and your enemy ends up losing all his units. Here's a link to Aristosseur's victory against philipho in the 1v1 tournament this summer. Watch how Aristosseur blocks philipho's expansion in Hungary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeyiVlqXYT8

Double Fronting: Double fronting means expanding to countries that will force your enemy to fight on multiple frontiers. Ex; you're fighting against France as Ukraine and as the game goes along the main frontier is of course the Germany/Poland area. Although, expanding to Scandinavia will put your enemy in a "double-fronted" situation. What are the advantages of double fronting?
- Your enemy must fight two frontiers or more.
- Your enemy must prioritize and categorize his attacks in a more defined and arduous manner
- Gives him more attack forces to worry about
- Gives him more turnblocking sources to worry about

Offensive spamming: This is when you attack your enemy's biggest stack with full force. This is a tactic most of us tend to avoid so we just end up sending one bomber to turnblock instead. But with iron fist your units are stronger so in this case it is a great tactic to catch your enemy off guard.

Defensive spamming: This is when you're expecting an enemy attack on a certain city and you reinforce that city with a load of defensive units such as; infantry and milita (possibly bombers from further sources) Use this tactic to take down large enemy stacks and degrade his offensive strength.

A list of great 5k iron fist countries

- Austria
- Belgium
- Poland
- Ireland
- Portugal

Austria

- Expanding too quickly isn't always the best choice. It is best to remain strong and compact
- Expanding to Romania against Ukraine 1 on 1 works well
- Normally you will expand to Hungary, Slovakia with minimum amount, and send everything else to Czech republic to capture Germany the next turn
- When fighting Greece, capture Italy before your opponent does
- There are other great Tips/Tricks that other players can often use, don't be afraid to ask around.

Upgrade list (Upgrades that best suits IF)

- Transport capacity
- Air transport capacity 1 and 2
- Safer transportation
- Cheaper transportation
- General: Tank attack
- General: infantry attack
- General: Militia HP
- General: Bomber attack
- Faster infantry
- Expendable infantry
- Lucky infantry

Thx now I can use this info to own more rank 8 players with the better country.

Thx tophats u tot me how 2 use IF thx

Why isn't the Afterwind Wiki developed at all ;___;
This would be amazing information to include in it, a shame the community only gives a toss about the forums. Maybe if Ivan placed a link on the front page...

Excellent guide, worked well when played exactly as told,
tried IF in asia, maybe a bit too slow-moving, especially during expansion and takes alot of accuracy because 1 bad or slow move could kill the game

Great guide!!!

Thanks for your input TopHats!!!

Yes, Asia is definitely a death trap for iron fist. In a high cash game its possible because u can easily use air transports to expand. But in low funded games its nearly impossible.

Thanks Glenn and MajorKill

This is pretty helpful even thought it is severely outdated, any way to update it?

Általa írva The Tactician, 17.01.2014 at 06:23

This is pretty helpful even thought it is severely outdated, any way to update it?

Same goes for the GC guide tophats wrote.

Tophats wrote a gc guide :O LINK NOW

http://atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=6756&topicsearch=&page=2

This guide has not been added to Cthulhu's list because it is now severely out of date because of 2 changes to the stats.
subtle hint asking for update

Thx ends, ya i see it is a bit outdated

Általa írva The Tactician, 17.01.2014 at 13:21

Thx ends, ya i see it is a bit outdated

V wrote one based on Tophats' original guide. I think it is fairly up to date:
http://fr.atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=9261

Ya thats on my favorites list, i mean for IF, if this is updated it will be great

IF = Rush.
Otherwise, you haz no chance. Of course, it's good in lategames specially at west, but imo east PD would rape, with IF it's harder to put pressure on others.

Általa írva Guest, 24.02.2014 at 10:40

IF = Rush.
Otherwise, you haz no chance. Of course, it's good in lategames specially at west, but imo east PD would rape, with IF it's harder to put pressure on others.

Noted.

Általa írva Guest, 24.02.2014 at 10:40

IF = Rush.
Otherwise, you haz no chance. Of course, it's good in lategames specially at west, but imo east PD would rape, with IF it's harder to put pressure on others.

IF rush is indeed OP, but late game i believe its very strong too imagine you have money to put OP IF tanks into ATs and travel with extra range. Also you don't need the range that much you can just push your way forward with brute force of the strong IF troops.

Általa írva The Tactician, 24.02.2014 at 22:58

Általa írva Guest, 24.02.2014 at 10:40

IF = Rush.
Otherwise, you haz no chance. Of course, it's good in lategames specially at west, but imo east PD would rape, with IF it's harder to put pressure on others.

IF rush is indeed OP, but late game i believe its very strong too imagine you have money to put OP IF tanks into ATs and travel with extra range. Also you don't need the range that much you can just push your way forward with brute force of the strong IF troops.

With IF it's harder to "recycle" or "reuse" ATs/transports, because of low range.
East has more reinfs and can simply pressure easier/faster. And east IF is pretty bad, you don't get the money, range and ports you need.

What I'm saying is, lategame is about pushing and taking undefended cities. IF is hard to push and stack with due to small range.

ps y u spam IF tankz, they take your money away for nothing xD

IF isnt hard to push forward, yes you may get less numbers but the power compensates. You know IF units are extremely powerful, if you merge and use maybe one or two ATs late game it isnt that hard to get where you want.

Általa írva The Tactician, 25.02.2014 at 23:18

IF isnt hard to push forward, yes you may get less numbers but the power compensates. You know IF units are extremely powerful, if you merge and use maybe one or two ATs late game it isnt that hard to get where you want.

Imagine having full UK France Spain and Germany, and scandinavia, against east. East would rape :/ Just try it.

Általa írva The Tactician, 25.02.2014 at 23:18

IF isnt hard to push forward, yes you may get less numbers but the power compensates. You know IF units are extremely powerful, if you merge and use maybe one or two ATs late game it isnt that hard to get where you want.

Actually IF units individually are not that OP. What they are OP is in stacks... But the whole problem with IF is militia can't be used to make walls. So you have to wall with inf which makes it expensive. This is why IF is rarely used in 3 v 3. With IF you can defend cap and even rush but you will lose cities/countries with low reinforcements as you can't possible hope to wall them all with inf, they make it very expensive operation. Apart from a few scenarios (like the great war for which it is tailor-made) IF is not that useful especially in 3 v 3 or world games.

Általa írva minusSeven, 09.03.2014 at 15:50

Általa írva The Tactician, 25.02.2014 at 23:18

IF isnt hard to push forward, yes you may get less numbers but the power compensates. You know IF units are extremely powerful, if you merge and use maybe one or two ATs late game it isnt that hard to get where you want.

Actually IF units individually are not that OP. What they are OP is in stacks... But the whole problem with IF is militia can't be used to make walls. So you have to wall with inf which makes it expensive. This is why IF is rarely used in 3 v 3. With IF you can defend cap and even rush but you will lose cities/countries with low reinforcements as you can't possible hope to wall them all with inf, they make it very expensive operation. Apart from a few scenarios (like the great war for which it is tailor-made) IF is not that useful especially in 3 v 3 or world games.

Kinda disagree on some of your points. I play IF France and wall everything, while still defending effectively. In a cw i got double rushed with UK gen stack and about 15 troops from Germany and still survived with cities walled and full France. IF units are stronger indeed in big numbers but they are also strong in small numbers, in defending especially. Lets say you are IF Germany and want to defend your cities, UK might try to send 5 inf to Frank/Cologne and you spawn like 2 militia and send one inf to each is probably enough most of the time. Holding your cities/countries isn't that hard even without walls since your defense is boosted. 6 militia in Austria and spawn a couple of infs is more than enough to defend unless full Austria rush, in which he suicides lots of units and you simply retake Austria in the upcoming turns. Yes, its more expensive, but yes its stronger. Since I'm in SM and people around me uses IF constantly, i won't even argue the "IF isn't played in 3v3s part" : ) . Summary: IF is OP indeed in big numbers, IF is strong enough to defend cities, IF is more expensive than say PD, IF can attack and defend efficiently.

Bumping for my own bookmark; please ignore otherwise.