The Troop Triangle & Counters

Quick answers

Is Iron Realms free to play?

Yes. Iron Realms is free to play in any browser with no download and no account required. Every building, troop tier and Seat of Power is reachable without spending money — purchases buy speed and cosmetics, never a higher ceiling.

Does spending money make you stronger in Iron Realms?

No. Nothing purchasable raises your power ceiling. A charter audit runs on every build and fails it if any offer would sell power. During the pre-alpha nothing is for sale at all — better than that, the store gives its goods away: everything in it is free to take, once a day per item, while the realm is being built. When payments do open, spending will compress time only: it clears timers, it never raises the summit.

How long does it take to max a keep in Iron Realms?

Keeps cap at level 45 and troops at tier 13 — the same summit for everyone, and it is a campaign: about seven months of steady play at half an hour a day, counting keep 45 and the nineteen plots that gate it. The Fair Play ledger inside the game reads that figure straight out of the shipped constants, so it is never a month behind the build.

Numbers lose battles they should win when the composition is wrong. Master the triangle and you will beat larger armies with the right counter.

The core triangle

Type	Beats	Loses to	Role
Infantry	Cavalry	Ranged	Front line, holds the wall
Cavalry	Ranged	Infantry	Shock, flanks, speed
Ranged	Infantry	Cavalry	Damage from the back rank
Siege	Walls	Everything, unprotected	Break defenses only

Reading the enemy before you commit

The counter is worth ±25%. Strike a type you beat and you hit for 125%; strike a type that beats you and you hit for 75%. That is a 67% swing between the right lead and the wrong one — which is why a smaller army with the correct composition routinely beats a bigger one that brought whatever it had.

Siege sits outside the triangle and takes the same numbers from the other direction: siege striking troops does 55% — a 45% penalty, deeper than the triangle's 25% on purpose, so an engine train needs its escort — and troops striking siege do 125%. Unescorted siege does not merely underperform — it is the softest target on the field.

One detail worth knowing: the multiplier is weighted by the enemy's whole composition, not by their largest stack. Against an army that is half cavalry and half ranged, your infantry gets the bonus on half of it and eats the penalty on the other half, netting roughly 1.0. Mixed defences are mixed on purpose — they deny you a clean counter, and the answer is to bring a mix of your own rather than to over-commit to one type.

Scout first, always. A scout report tells you the defender's composition so you can lead with the counter. Bring siege only against walls, and screen it with line troops — unescorted siege evaporates.

When the triangle breaks

Terrain, seat-defender bonuses, commander skills, and dragon breath all bend the math. A defender on high terrain or holding a starred seat can beat the "correct" counter, so weigh the whole stack — bonuses, terrain, and turnout — not just the arrows-and-shields chart.