Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Game
Game2023
The Iron Oath
Developer Curious Panda Games
The Iron Oath is a 2023 tactical role-playing video game developed by Curious Panda Games and published by Humble Games. Players manage a mercenary company, complete quests, engage in turn-based combat, and can optionally follow a revenge-themed main story. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
206 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 3, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
63
Fresh
121 positive · 71 negative
95% range 56–70%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 121 | 71 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 6 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
584 of 774 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
63% recommend · 118 yes, 69 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 187 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (714 of 932 positive).
Players compare it to Battle Brothers with a fantasy twist. [1][2][3] Many praise the pixel art and combat but note repetitive content. [4][5][6] Some feel the game is unfinished or lacks promised updates. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [15]
This is not going to be a very positive review. While the gameplay has entertaining elements, they are horrendously overshadowed by so many things the game does poorly. - Loot does not feel rewarding, even when you equip something new it doesn't show, your character just looks the exact same so there's no visual progression. Medium armor is also entirely pointless as trying to find a balance between defense at the …
- [6]
I really wanted to like this game, but it just feels too repetitive. There's not much content - loot system is underwhelming (just 4 weapons per class, for example), there are very few enchantments per item type, not many classes to try, only a few tilesets, even the cities look exactly the same. But most importantly, there are no unique missions - they all are just randomly spawned groups of enemies. The only …
- [1]
I like this game, and you might too, but it's hard for me to fully "recommend" it Things I like the gameplay loop is nice. it's magic and fantasy version of battle bros, with some darkest dungeons type dungeon crawling added, it's nice the animations are decent, the sprites all look great the dev is responsive on the steam forums to talk about the game it's never boring when I say it runs great on steam deck, I mean …
- [4]
The Iron Oath proves that gameplay trumps graphics. Every *beeping* Time Don't get me wrong, the pixel-style artwork is really well done. Everything visually meshes together in a sublime way, but it's no XCOM. And perhaps that's what makes this game so good - it's not trying to measure itself against anything else. It stubbornly follows its own path, and what a glorious path it is. The meat of the game, its …
- [2]
Veteran of Battle Brothers here. The game plays very similarly, with the difference that your mercenaries are more magical and have predetermined classes - this can be both a bad and a good thing. Another con and pro at the same time - there is an overall plot that guides you to do something, making it less free than BB. Last but not least - unfortunately, the map is not generated, which means replayability is …
Summarised from 34 of the 201 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
The Iron Oath sits at 63% positive across 192 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed The Iron Oath and said that it had the potential to be a great tactical role-playing game. However, they had many issues with the early access build they tried in April 2022. They felt dungeon exploration was a bit complex and difficult to understand, and that dungeons themselves were made arbitrarily difficult because of the penalties and time limits. They also felt important information was not readily available, and they criticized how some of it was presented. Polygon also reviewed The Iron Oath during its first month in early access. They enjoyed having to make difficult decisions and praised the combat. However, they disliked the user interface and hoped…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 206 · most liked firstThis is not going to be a very positive review. While the gameplay has entertaining elements, they are horrendously overshadowed by so many things the game does poorly. - Loot does not feel rewarding, even when you equip something new it doesn't show, your character just looks the exact same so there's no visual progression. Medium armor is also entirely pointless as trying to find a balance between defense at the cost of speed ends up being a moot point since your frontliners will rarely…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game, and you might too, but it's hard for me to fully "recommend" it Things I like the gameplay loop is nice. it's magic and fantasy version of battle bros, with some darkest dungeons type dungeon crawling added, it's nice the animations are decent, the sprites all look great the dev is responsive on the steam forums to talk about the game it's never boring when I say it runs great on steam deck, I mean the battery lasts FOREVER on this game Things I don't love there…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →2024: promises of full controller support, new class, new enemies, some other new stuff. Well, it is currently April of 2026 and none of that happened and no announcements were made in the past years. I haven't touched the game since it went into 1.0 because I was holding off for the new stuff that was being mentioned, unfortunately I waited for nothing this entire time. Disappointing.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This one's not for me, but if might be for you. I really wanted to like it! Here's what's good: - Charming pixelart style, everything is crafted with care and the sprites feel alive - Cool music that goes with the vibe - Neat plot involving demon-esque invasions - Great roster of monsters with good AI and abilities - Similarly great roster of heroes and abilities So, why the no recommendation? - There are a lot of "systems" that stress me out. Item durability is a constant nag, with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had the opposite of adaptive difficulty: the more you win, the easier winning gets, but if you fall behind a cascade of failures makes it very hard to salvage the game. I found no difficulty which was not way too easy or way too hard. Also the strict time limits during exploration were an unfun mechanic.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game, but it just feels too repetitive. There's not much content - loot system is underwhelming (just 4 weapons per class, for example), there are very few enchantments per item type, not many classes to try, only a few tilesets, even the cities look exactly the same. But most importantly, there are no unique missions - they all are just randomly spawned groups of enemies. The only really great thing about the game is pixel art.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Abandoned by devs. Unfinished product.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game had potential, waited for the updates, but now it's dead... It's playable but not finished.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Veteran of Battle Brothers here. The game plays very similarly, with the difference that your mercenaries are more magical and have predetermined classes - this can be both a bad and a good thing. Another con and pro at the same time - there is an overall plot that guides you to do something, making it less free than BB. Last but not least - unfortunately, the map is not generated, which means replayability is actually not that big. Pros: - Very nice pixel graphics, and the general…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like many have said. The game is such waisted potential. The hexagon attack field is so dumb. Why, oh why did you do that?? 60% of the time you cant use your attacks because a monster is not aligned perfectly. Then when you do use one -- they are like slapping someone with a wet noodle. Then there's lots of little things that dont make sense, and are clunky. You just guess your way through. Quests that will take you way otu of your way, and countdowns to big events that you are in no way…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So close to an awesome game. I saw a dev say they had plans for 21 classes but felt the skills were to "samey". But that is my major gripe with the game. You have so few playable classes that they all feel samey due to that exact fact. The player having the choice of options is always better than having too few options to choose from. The game felt like it was so close to putting out a quality game but fell a few dev cycles short. All the bones are there for a battle brothers esque game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been in this game for more than 30h and i choose to write my first ever review just because of the emptiness after finishing the campain. - The mechanic was fun at the beginning, makes me think of similar hexagon tactical combat like Heroes Might and Magic, which i played a lot since i was a child. But unfortunately, it becomes repeative real quick after a few hour. - There 're not so many classes to choose either, and all the talent tree upgrade are pretty useless cause instead of CC or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Medieval Fantasy Turn-based combat Manage your band of brothers Personality traits Classes and skills to select Attributes to improve 40-45 hours from start to finish. Perfect. Free to roam the world after the end game. Loved it. Better than some similar hyped games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Darkest Dungeon meets Wartales (or Battle Brothers if you can tolerate its blatant table top nature) sounds like a great idea. Beyond that The Iron Oath seems to offer a lot of complexity on the first glance. Unfortunately it does nothing with the turn-based formula that hasn't been done better in other games. For instance: Wartales has a valor mechanic that lets the player use many skills in the same turn during combat. In The Iron Oath all one can do during a turn is either run and use a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a fan of battle brothers so the bar is really high here. So I'd give this a thumbs up to support the devs but in reality, I can't even bring myself to finish the game. Some feedback if the devs are reading reviews. 1) The pace of the game feel ... clunky. To be honest. Sometimes I felt rushed, but the other times, it's like the same thing again and again and again. 2) Dungeons are repetitive and uninspiring. 3) Just ... use DnD or classic classes ... 4) more customization and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game, but I can't recommend it. Not when there is Battle Brothers you could be playing instead. BB just does everything better than this. You would think with no resources being put into their graphics budget that they would have plenty of time for all the quests, stories, interesting gear, meaningful choices, tactics, and all that yummy stuff to keep you hooked... but it doesn't. It's bare where it should be in-depth. Sad that they made this game for the lowest…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A wide sandbox about an inch deep. Combat has a lot bells and whistles, none of which are impactful enough to feel fun or dynamic. There are too few classes, too few enemy types, progression is not impactful. But I will say one thing for this game; whoever does the pixel art is NOT being paid enough. The animations are GORGEOUS. Not enough to make up for a boring game of course, but it's still very worth noting.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool ideas very present in this game, but this game isn't something that seems ready yet. Which is crazy since I first played it a year ago. Basically it presents as battle bros with cooler graphics and more exciting fights, but it lacks the refinement/balance of it's parent that gives it the replayability. Loyalty doesn't seem to do anything, repairing/maintaining equipment is just a button you need to remember to click occasionally. Some scrolls and loot types are pointless and you just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Iron Oath proves that gameplay trumps graphics. Every *beeping* Time Don't get me wrong, the pixel-style artwork is really well done. Everything visually meshes together in a sublime way, but it's no XCOM. And perhaps that's what makes this game so good - it's not trying to measure itself against anything else. It stubbornly follows its own path, and what a glorious path it is. The meat of the game, its turn-based combat, is both simple and intricate at the same time. Your crew…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →IMHO better than Battle Brothers, but don't expect any further updates, the roadmap is a lie and devs seem to have hit the eject button. Pretty good as it is tho.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pronoun using woke slop.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Story rich tag is a flagrant lie, your merry troupe never gets to the bottom of why anything is happening in this world aside from resolving your personal squabble tied to the campaign. No opportunity to confront the interdimensional dragon either. The game feels really unfinished which is a shame because the turn based combat and tactics on offer were very compelling. In the end i was left hungering for more character classes, more challenging enemies, more weapons and armor and more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is clearly inspired by Battle Brothers and other mercenary company games, and it does a pretty good job of accomplishing that. They have a decent number of classes for all of your companions and for the first half of the game I felt like that was enough. By the second half of the game, you quickly get to the point of having two of most classes and while they can have different skills between them they felt very samey. I was wishing there were more types of equipment to distinguish the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pronouns in a medieval fantasy setting. There is no escape from modern brain rot.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was a coin-flip decision to not recommend, given that I played 30+ hours. Thus some context: I enjoyed sevceral hours of the game, and it was obviously intruiging enough to finish. Creating an effective party, discovering builds and the looting experience is all fine. The campaign story also is good, as is the art style. But while none of the systems are really great, what made me leave a negative review is the constant feeling of unfinished game elements. Scouting in dungeons, several…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was holding off on buying The Iron Oath for a long time due to some reviews commenting on its shallowness/lack of replayability, and I wish I had listened to them. The game is almost great, but instead its just good, and that "good" has to be compared to Battle Brother's "masterpiece". It doesn't take long for its flaws to start shining through, and those flaws make it hard to recommend without caveats. -It only has 8 classes, each with 6 abilities (4 of which you can access at a time).…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Extremely mid at launch, and abandoned with a lot of improvements still needed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looks good, great game on paper, story is okay, but the whole gameplay loop becomes tired fast and fights become chores. Me sad. :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Calling all tile game fanatics! The Tactical Triumph bundle is here with strategic satisfaction! - The Iron Oath - Abalon - Siralim Ultimate - and more! Supports buildOn | bit.ly/3FVI2fB
neutral · AI labelView post →I purchased this thinking it would draw me in like Battle Brothers, but ended up disappointed. I just largely felt the classes were boring and found the gender locked nature of them to be odd, (only female tanks?) the itemization is uninteresting, the world map events are very limited. most of the town features seem tacked on as well, the character fatigue system, the Darkest Dungeon style exploration with provisions, the game seems all over the place.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boring, repeating gameplay. Absolutely worst choice of classes (why not re-use D&D ones? Why re-invent the wheel but worse?) with poor selection of skills. Towns are exactly the same with the same quests. Dungeons crawling (which is kinda the main goal of this game) feels empty, like some mini-game. Overall this game looks like it suppose to be something bigger but devs thought "Meh, good enough - release it".
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game and then I learned you can choose pronouns. KEEP POLITICAL BS OUT OF GAMES!!! STOP VIRTUE SIGNALLING FOR MINORITIES!!! IT DOES NOT IMPROVE GAMES, IT MAKES THEM WORSE, WAY WORSE!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Iron Oath is a mercenary group management sim, mixed in with tactical turn-based combat system and a story of revenge. After being betrayed by a trusted ally, you and your crew set off to grow your group's numbers, take on contracts in cities all over the land, get stronger, and prepare yourself to find the traitor and serve a hefty slice of justice. Although there is a story, it rarely ever wrestles freedom away from us. In fact, for the first hour or two, the game might feel a bit too…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would love to recommend this game, I had fun playing it and would check in during the development cycle waiting for the next update, but it looks like all the future promises have been abandoned as the last update is over a year past due. Only purchase this on a steep discount 75%+ off.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game. If you like battle brothers, this is kind of like that, just less freedom in where you move and the combat is easier. It's not as good as battle brothers obviously, but it does decent. After a while I could care less about the random missions from the towns. The visuals aren't that great honestly and the diversity of the characters is pretty low with only 7 classes. The combat is decent though. It is worth, just get on sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has a solid base to work from. The main classes are fairly diverse and the different abilities offer many possible ways to approach a fight tactically. The dungeon crawling is simplistic, but it works. In combat, there's enough environmental hazards to make it more interesting. Contrary to a few of the niche "Mercenary Management" games, this one has an actual central story, with a main quest that you follow, and with character arcs and what have you, for some of the starting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like turn based combat games, party based, you might like this. It is not great, but a 7 out of 10. Enemies, fights, missions, dungeons are a bit repatative. The pixel art looks dated and the game usually is in drab, shady colors. Spells and effects are not very spectaculair to watch. The gear is mostly a passive bonus to stats. But the good things are that it is challenging. Classes (8) do differ. There is a lot of levelling up, and especially the tech trees for abilities and spells…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Iron oath is a squad based tactical RPG. You build a company of mercenaries out of classes found throughout the world and level up their abilities and find gear. This is all pretty standard. Classes have a decent array of skills and you can choose which to use for each class before heading into a dungeon. There is a collection of aoe, single target and support/healing abilities to make sure every class can have a purpose in every possible class combination. Class skill leveling is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Iron Oath is a mediocre game, a solid 6/10. Its not bad but what is there feels unfinished or without polish and depth. The pixel-art is nice but the soundtrack is forgettable. The story is supposed to be the driving factor for the player, problem is that its a revenge story for a dead tutorial team and a villain who the player has no reason to care or hate. The most noteworthy thing going for it in the gameplay department is the fixed max time limit for any given campaign (that can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the genre, and made several conscious attempts to enjoy this game, to no avail. The vivid plethora of bad design choices is rampant here. First few missions spectacularly fail to introduce the player to the: - game world; - party characters; - combat mechanics; - dungeon exploration; - party management. The tutorial in itself is most irritating and vague in every aspect imaginable. I had no idea what I was doing even after the third attempt to push myself through it, and eventually had…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you use your action before you move, you do not get to move. Unplayable. This ruleset kills the enjoyment of any tactical game for me, and if you feel the same, you won't like this game either.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the combat system is decent, the game ultimately tries to wring too much proceduraly generated gameplay out of a thin source. The meat of the game is a turn-based hex-tile combat system. There is strong incentive to flank enemies, which in this game means having your troops on either side of them. This combined with the range of abilities makes for a simple but fun combat system. Maps often have some basic hazards you can push enemies into for extra damage or terrain that modifies stats,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mechanics: You travel the world map from location to location (Fallout 1&2) The battle system is turn based and uses hexes (HoMM3 / Bannerlord) In towns you recruit characters to your band, heal them, buy gear Your characters level up and you get to upgrade your governing skills from time to time as well While wandering around the map sometimes you go straight into battle but sometimes you go to a dungeon where different events occur (which is in a way the true essence of the game) The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great indie Turn-Based Strategy game; well worth the price, packing a lengthy play-time, from an active dev team of just two people. At a micro level you're - controlling unit movement, placement and actions, while making optimal usage of your limited skills. Then you have another layer, consisting of dungeon navigation with other factors like Time & Morale, item-management and Events to make your journey more challenging and/or rewarding. At the macro level, you have three main things to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enemies deal too much damage you cannot heal enough. Also you have to repair your equipment which is super tedious. What's worse there isn't even WeMod support so we cannot bypass stupid game mechanics. Immediately uninstalled.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I did try to give this game a chance, but it is just boring. It tries to be so many things at once while not doing any of them right. Also, interface is clunky as hell.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute little game, a few things are holding it back. Quite a few poorly implemented features: *Years are 120 days, yet on Day 500 my mercenaries have aged 12 years. *Amassing wealth as a merchant is manageable with proper planning, but there's much reward to doing so. *Equipment is underwhelming *The attribute system is underwhelming *There are tons of "events" happening that make the world feel alive, but they are generally inconsequential and frankly I find myself ignoring them because…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a under rated tactical RPG masterpiece. Everything about it is perfect, its rough around the edges but the game play, story line, mechanics are amazing, its fun, tons of quests, lore, characters and towns and dungeons to explore.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I should probably post more of my work on here. My game The Iron Oath came out last year so check it out. #pixelart #gamedev
positive · AI labelView post →Very enjoyable game where Battle Brothers meets Darkest Dungeon. Crowd Control is King.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't want to blame this game, but for some reason I don't really liked it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to love this game, but the bugs are brutal. Everything from abilities that don't work (Rain of Arrows), world map freezing after a mission, and I got looped in combat because my one remaining unit was repeatedly put to sleep and then charmed when he woke up, and that repeated for about 6-8 turns.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tedious Game, combat mechanics are just bad, skills are just fine, visually very good, combat is Tedious. They try to pick a lot of different styles from different games and put them together. This have several problems, first, its not original, second, they lack the ability to implement them good, so you end with tedious mechanics that make you almost spent entire time just avoiding them, being most of them just random or inevitable, giving you the only tedious possible action to try to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall I like this game. It is a fun little turn based swords and sorcery game. The story line gives you basic goals and keeps you directed. Story is not super complicated (like a RPG) but does have some twists and set backs. Also the occasional funny/unexpected bit of dialogue pops up. So far overall game progression and quests/jobs have felt well paced and kept me engaged. I enjoy the dungeon exploration system. it is based on character skills rather than you needing to solve puzzles.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a game you are going to want to really like. If I could give a "meh" instead of a negative or positive recommendation I would. Pros: scratches the itch for turn based dungeon crawler/merc band. classes play different with a modest amount of build craft. has an economy system for you entrepreneurs (nothing too in depth but enough) graphics are pretty cool Cons: combat becomes a slog and far too repetitive game seems half finished - lots of reused and unchanged assets.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is good. Darkest Dungeon-style progression and character party setup played on a hex grid in a Game of Thrones world. Legitimately feels like controlling a war band. 8-bit graphic while still remaining serious in tone. The interface could use a little work, and they did screw with the standard industry WoW item rarity color progression for no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reason, don't love that. There's a lot of extra clicks while managing you party due to non-optimal screen usage, but the game is good…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Perfect game. Turn-based with intelligent IA of enemies. It's similar to Wartales but in a fantasy world and with a better story. The combat is very nice and roster management is great. Very pollished game. Tons of hours of fun gaming ahead. Nice gameplay in steamdeack btw.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To players who like to play SRPG or rather tactical RPG game, this is the one you dont want to miss out. The game at the start need to follow the story script for players to understand more about the basics and the flow of battle features. While it is pretty similar to battle brothers and war tales, iron oath offers a simple way to play tactical RPG at the same time players immerse with the rich lore on the lands pf Caelum. The battle is pretty good, players need to plan, train and build your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has beautiful everything, graphics, mechanics, sound, strategies, and writing. If it had cut scenes instead of long winded dialogue then it would be so good, it suffers from the opposite of show don't tell. It's like reading a good adventure book mostly instead of gaming. If you play it on a lazy Sunday, It's charming. If you want to play a great adventure book, that is turn based with amazingly great combat and you like to read, then this game is for you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I 100%'d this game around December 2024 though i did not write a review until now for really no good reason at all. This game is really fun though it can be a bit annoying at times from my experience. Certain enemy types like to almost cheese a lot imo (those flipping bandits with falcons- yes i have a personal vendetta against those lol) but in general this game is well balanced and fun to play, even if one were to spend essentially 5000 ingame days doing sidequests and occassionally the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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