Author: TheAleosha

Completed Operation Eagle. The final unit of US is “Samson”, a flying aircraft carrier, similar to protoss carriers from Starcraft. Slow, but with huge range and effective against most units. The final mission is still tricky. First you need to capture a very well defended fortress, full of anti-air guns. Then you need to withstand a counterattack, but without any AA, which is slightly annoying, as Saxonians sport a huge flotilla of airships.
The only bit I regret is that you don’t get to play with the Admiral’s airship much. It looked like a fun unit.

After Operation Eagle, Rusviet Revolution DLC feels stale. You get to put those Gulya Gorod to good use, that’s true, as most missions are strategic, and not hero based. And there are a few fun ideas, like a mission having three different paths represented by three different rail tracks with different challenges. But there are no new units whatsoever, and in the end, the game pulls W40K on you. The entire story starts with Saxony, Rusviet and Polania being at war, and ends with Saxony being controlled by a mad prince and Rusviet being controlled by Rasputin/Fenris. So, the next game, if it ever comes, will start again where it all ended, all the three factions at war with each other.

Although sometimes I grow tired of a particular game by the time I reach the DLC content, I decided to give the Usonian (USA) campaign a go.
The biggest change is the introduction of aerial units. You can see though, that it’s a DLC, because most of the units are similar for all factions. But US has a few unique ones.

Usonians themselves feel faster than other factions. And their mech infantry doubles up as engineers.

Storytelling continues to be amazing. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, with US first “protecting its assets” (oil refineries) on Alaska, at the outbreak of the Revolution in Russia. Then cosplaying Lawrence of Arabia.

Arabia has just two unique units. Hashashins are close-combat ninjas, effective at countering enemy infantry, most of which weak in close combat. And war camels, as funny as they sound, are able to outrange and supress any infantry, and escape any enemy mech. In a game where all the units are slow, a fast unit is a game-changer.

Completed Iron Harvest.
Third campaign is dedicated to Saxony. As I mentioned, the storytelling is surprisingly good, so we jump back and forth in the timeline of events.
Saxony has the most interesting unique mech in the game, Brunhilde. Not because it looks like WW1 version of AT-AT, but because it’s the only mech more powerful while facing enemies with its side, due to a broadside row of cannons it has.
Eisenhans are fantastic as well. While mech infantry units of other factions are focused on hand-to-hand combat, Eisenhans are equipped with mortars.
The final mission reminded me of Dawn of War 3, which was a brilliant strategy game… until it wasn’t. Last mission, you end up chasing a triffid out of the War of the Worlds with all six of your heroes. At least this mission is not annoying.
So I consider the penultimate mission to be the best one, seeing how huge mechs duke it out.

I’m actually amazed that they implemented an armored train in the game. It moves on tracks, and you need to switch the tracks with infantry, and it also can carry infantry and has a Long Berta like artillery cannon, so it’s actually very useful.
After a few intense campaigns for Polania (Poland), we switch to playing with Rusviet (Russian Empire) forces. But those missions are mostly hero-based, which after you’ve already experienced the more strategical missions is slightly disappointing.
You do get to play one strategy-scale mission with Rusviet, at least. It’s a bit annoying, because there are Tesla Towers (sic) that only one hero can disable, and that destroy everyone else in a couple of shots. So there’s still plenty of micromanagement. But at least you get to experience the Rusviet heaviest mech, Gulyay-Gorod, which is an absolute blast. As well as their version of Katyusha.

After failure with Scythe, set in the same universe, I’m surprised how good Iron Harvest is. It resembles Company of Heroes, with it’s squads and cover. But in a fictional World War I setting with mechs.
The visuals are frankly amazing. While trails in deep snow aren’t new, I think it’s the first time I see them in what’s basically an RTS.

Infantry can hide in buildings, and capture heavy equipment, such as machine guns and howitzers.

What’s interesting, they can also switch classes by picking up weapons from the fallen enemies. Kill a squad of machinegunners, and become a squad of machinegunners yourself!