Oak & Iron Online Campaign

By Mitch Reed

As the crowds head back to their local gaming stores the folks from Firelock Games have released an excellent online campaign for Oak & Iron that adds so much to a player’s experience and it is a free download on their website, firelockgames.com.Oak & Iron is a miniature game that has some of the most iconic ships from the age of sail during fighting on the seas during the early colonial period in North America. In Oak & Iron, players select a faction and then build a squadron to play based on a set number of points. The game tests your sea legs as you throw broadsides at your opponent’s ships or get close-in enough to board them.

The online campaign uses the ships in the core box, which means anyone who has the starter pack can quickly get into this game. The campaign starts when you select one of the many factions in the game and then you build your squadron which will be based in your home port. Faction selection and squadron building are one of the most fun aspects of the game. Gamers spend almost as much time building and tinkering with lists as they spend playing the game.

Once this is done the game proceeds and the players have four seasonal phases in which they will vie for control of the seas by fighting battles and gaining control points which help them out when they issue challenges and select a mission to play.

It is crucial to get more control points so you can dictate the setting of the games you play. This is where the unique missions really add some flavor to the campaign. You can play the missions listed in the core book, however, missions such as port blockade, port capture, and pirate hunting really give the campaign a different feel.

Each game in the campaign is fought at the 50-point limit, which means that you only need a handful of ships to play in the online campaign. Even if you do not have the ships for a game, you can head into battle with what you have on hand based on some new rules that are featured in the campaign.

The players fight their battles in the Spring, Summer, and Autumn seasons and during the Winter they repair their ships or purchase new ones with their accumulated control points for the upcoming year. In the Winter they can also purchase new ports and in the case of a team game, can transfer ships to a teammates squadron.

The online campaign also features new missions that will challenge the players and adds to the narrative flavor of the campaign. The campaign PDF also gives you unique damage cards not found elsewhere in Oak & Iron and helps you to do things such as gain experience and help repair the ships in your squadron.

The new online campaign focuses on organized play at your local gaming store with the other players who also are into Oak & Iron. Since the core box is all, you need to play, it becomes easy to grow the game as you can bring new players into the campaign as you play. The campaign also gives you the opportunity to not only grow Oak & Iron at your store but all the other games from Firelock as well.

The narrative aspect of this campaign is also something that players will just love. Playing one game of Oak & Iron is fun, imagine taking that force through a campaign where they must keep fighting as you try to rule the seas of your local gaming store. The fact that as you play deeper into the campaign you will earn experience to upgrade your ships and crews and you can even put the ships you captured into the fight against their former owners.

I know long-time Oak & Iron players will love the online campaign; it adds a lot to an already great game that they play. The new rules and missions will also be something that players will like. Perhaps the best aspect of the campaign is to grow the local Oak & Iron community as players vie for the top admiral over the long and bloody campaign.