Anyone remember 'Iron Wolves?'

[lolballz]

It was multiplayer-only and rather arcade-like (not a true simulation by any stretch), but it had a convincing naval atmosphere [especially given its graphics' limitations] and one hell of a community...as I remember. There were two rival nations ('Red' and 'Blue') and you had seven generic (i.e. they looked and performed the same for each side) vessels to choose from (see descriptions at end***).

There was one particular occasion in that game where two long-time players (myself a noob at the time) became involved in a very agitated battle in the forums, which very much expressed itself in the game. Their names were Popeye and Bousch and, while I don't know exactly how their tiff started, it was war (Bousch went so far as to create numerous player accounts just to mock Popeye, playing as characters with names such as 'Gay Popeye' etc.). It came to pass that there I was one day, scanning through my periscope for an escort I'd been trying to bypass, when Bousch spawns right in front of me (you spawned, randomly, almost anywhere on the map). Surprised at first, he being so close in the periscope that I could not see his nametag (too high/out of screen...it's color would have denoted he spawned on my team), I launch a torpedo thinking he's the escort I'd been scanning for. Just as I do, I cut my engines... making myself invisible to his passive sonar. Off in the distance is Popeye, shooting at something else. My torpedo hits Bousch, who rapidly concludes that the explosion of my torpedo was Popeye shooting at him. He immediately sails over and sinks Popeye with a torpedo salvo...in spite of Popeye ALSO being on our team. The two proceed to cuss at each other non-stop for the next few hours...both thinking the other had shot first. LoL...!!!

In all, however, Iron Wolves had a great concept where a simple yet reasonably strategic and community-based, naval-themed game was concerned. Does anyone happen to remember why it dried up? The men who developed 'Enigma: Rising Tide' I had thought tried to buy it, but its owners wouldn't sell.


***IRON WOLVES' VESSELS
...available to ALL players:

SUBMARINE
The basic submarine was considerably slower on the surface, but more agile (especially submerged) and faster diving than the 'heavy' submarine. It had four forward torpedo tubes. Paying players had access to this vessel in unlimited supply, while non-paying players earned one (or a corvette) from completed tanker missions. Given its relatively weak durability, lack of a deck gun, slow surface speed, but quick diving time and tight turn radius, I likened this submarine to a Type II U-boat.

TANKER
Slow and unarmed, most of these were AI-controlled. Non-paying players, however, could sail them to earn either a corvette or a submarine for every set of coordinates reached. Paying players sailing them would earn either a destroyer or a 'heavy' submarine for the same (paying players had an unlimited supply of the corvette, 'improved' corvette, and basic submarine). These were the 'Liberty Ships' of the game (although called tankers, their 3D model more closely resembled the Liberty Ship/Patrick Henry class).

CORVETTE
Slow but highly agile, the corvette was armed with a single turreted gun and depth charges. For paying players, sinking a submarine with a corvette (or any vessel) earned a destroyer. There were no kill-based rewards for non-paying players - a corvette or a basic submarine was earned by completing tanker missions. I likened this vessel to the Flower class. While slow and suffering from limited armament, it was the savior of many a tanker...forcing surfaced subs to dive and break pursuit [the deck gun of a 'heavy' submarine had equal strength to the corvette's gun, but the heavy submarine would not win a durability contest].

...exclusive to paying players:

'HEAVY' SUBMARINE
Larger, slower diving, more sluggish in maneuvering, but faster on the surface and more formidably armed that its smaller cousin, the 'heavy' submarine had four forward torpedo tubes, a deck gun (equal in power to a corvette's gun), and two aft torpedo tubes. It's greater durability made it able to endure greater depths for longer periods. I likened this submarine to the Type IX U-boat, as it did not have the 'agile' feel you'd expect of the Type VII (the basic in-game submarine, meanwhile, being too slow).

'IMPROVED' CORVETTE
Like the basic corvette, but with improved speed and, in addition to its armament of a single turreted gun and depth charges, it had hedgehogs (exclusive to this vessel, hedgehogs were the only forward-firing ranged weapon in the game that was effective against submerged subs). While called the 'improved' corvette, I likened this vessel to the Black Swan class sloop as, with its greater speed and ranged forward anti-submarine capability, it was truly capable of being an independent sub HUNTER (whereas the basic corvette pretty much had to act as a tanker escort).

DESTROYER
The destroyer was the fastest vessel in the game, and combined two turreted guns with four torpedo tubes (port/starboard) and depth charges. It's guns combined with its durability made a number of them a match for shore batteries. A well-placed torpedo salvo, meanwhile, could see it better the light cruiser in a duel. Paying players earned a destroyer by sinking a submarine (either variety). Sinking a destroyer with a submarine (""), meanwhile, earned them a 'heavy' submarine.

LIGHT CRUISER
With four turreted guns and six torpedo tubes (port/starboard), the light cruiser was the only vessel in the game with the power and durability to knock out a shore battery solo. This, however, also tended to make it the enemy's highest priority target. Paying players earned one by destroying a shore battery, while sinking one earned them either a destroyer or a heavy submarine (depending on whether it was sunk by a surface vessel or a submarine respectively).

[Onkel Neal]

Awesome, thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was von Krieg, I played occasionally. It was a fun game, I think it became dated by the time SH3 came out. Like you said, pretty much an arcade game. Tesseraction did try to revive the spirit of Iron Wolves with Enigma, but they never completed the MP.

I got an email from 1baddude not too long ago!

[woo67]

oh god now i feel old. i loved that game. lol still remember some of the players names too

[woo67]

That is the game that got me started on gaming and sub/ship sims back in the Windows 98 days. lol

[Onkel Neal]

Lol, people been asking that question since 2002

and Hey... Any Victims Of Mine From Iron Wolves Floating...

[woo67]

we called him vanishing Popeye. he would leave the game before you sank him or park over you and your game would freeze . I remeber names like wolfstrike...Drifter i was SooWhat and my buddy was NooWay.

Originally Posted by lolballz

It was multiplayer-only and rather arcade-like (not a true simulation by any stretch), but it had a convincing naval atmosphere [especially given its graphics' limitations] and one hell of a community...as I remember. There were two rival nations ('Red' and 'Blue') and you had seven generic (i.e. they looked and performed the same for each side) vessels to choose from (see descriptions at end***).

There was one particular occasion in that game where two long-time players (myself a noob at the time) became involved in a very agitated battle in the forums, which very much expressed itself in the game. Their names were Popeye and Bousch and, while I don't know exactly how their tiff started, it was war (Bousch went so far as to create numerous player accounts just to mock Popeye, playing as characters with names such as 'Gay Popeye' etc.). It came to pass that there I was one day, scanning through my periscope for an escort I'd been trying to bypass, when Bousch spawns right in front of me (you spawned, randomly, almost anywhere on the map). Surprised at first, he being so close in the periscope that I could not see his nametag (too high/out of screen...it's color would have denoted he spawned on my team), I launch a torpedo thinking he's the escort I'd been scanning for. Just as I do, I cut my engines... making myself invisible to his passive sonar. Off in the distance is Popeye, shooting at something else. My torpedo hits Bousch, who rapidly concludes that the explosion of my torpedo was Popeye shooting at him. He immediately sails over and sinks Popeye with a torpedo salvo...in spite of Popeye ALSO being on our team. The two proceed to cuss at each other non-stop for the next few hours...both thinking the other had shot first. LoL...!!!

In all, however, Iron Wolves had a great concept where a simple yet reasonably strategic and community-based, naval-themed game was concerned. Does anyone happen to remember why it dried up? The men who developed 'Enigma: Rising Tide' I had thought tried to buy it, but its owners wouldn't sell.


***IRON WOLVES' VESSELS
...available to ALL players:

SUBMARINE
The basic submarine was considerably slower on the surface, but more agile (especially submerged) and faster diving than the 'heavy' submarine. It had four forward torpedo tubes. Paying players had access to this vessel in unlimited supply, while non-paying players earned one (or a corvette) from completed tanker missions. Given its relatively weak durability, lack of a deck gun, slow surface speed, but quick diving time and tight turn radius, I likened this submarine to a Type II U-boat.

TANKER
Slow and unarmed, most of these were AI-controlled. Non-paying players, however, could sail them to earn either a corvette or a submarine for every set of coordinates reached. Paying players sailing them would earn either a destroyer or a 'heavy' submarine for the same (paying players had an unlimited supply of the corvette, 'improved' corvette, and basic submarine). These were the 'Liberty Ships' of the game (although called tankers, their 3D model more closely resembled the Liberty Ship/Patrick Henry class).

CORVETTE
Slow but highly agile, the corvette was armed with a single turreted gun and depth charges. For paying players, sinking a submarine with a corvette (or any vessel) earned a destroyer. There were no kill-based rewards for non-paying players - a corvette or a basic submarine was earned by completing tanker missions. I likened this vessel to the Flower class. While slow and suffering from limited armament, it was the savior of many a tanker...forcing surfaced subs to dive and break pursuit [the deck gun of a 'heavy' submarine had equal strength to the corvette's gun, but the heavy submarine would not win a durability contest].

...exclusive to paying players:

'HEAVY' SUBMARINE
Larger, slower diving, more sluggish in maneuvering, but faster on the surface and more formidably armed that its smaller cousin, the 'heavy' submarine had four forward torpedo tubes, a deck gun (equal in power to a corvette's gun), and two aft torpedo tubes. It's greater durability made it able to endure greater depths for longer periods. I likened this submarine to the Type IX U-boat, as it did not have the 'agile' feel you'd expect of the Type VII (the basic in-game submarine, meanwhile, being too slow).

'IMPROVED' CORVETTE
Like the basic corvette, but with improved speed and, in addition to its armament of a single turreted gun and depth charges, it had hedgehogs (exclusive to this vessel, hedgehogs were the only forward-firing ranged weapon in the game that was effective against submerged subs). While called the 'improved' corvette, I likened this vessel to the Black Swan class sloop as, with its greater speed and ranged forward anti-submarine capability, it was truly capable of being an independent sub HUNTER (whereas the basic corvette pretty much had to act as a tanker escort).

DESTROYER
The destroyer was the fastest vessel in the game, and combined two turreted guns with four torpedo tubes (port/starboard) and depth charges. It's guns combined with its durability made a number of them a match for shore batteries. A well-placed torpedo salvo, meanwhile, could see it better the light cruiser in a duel. Paying players earned a destroyer by sinking a submarine (either variety). Sinking a destroyer with a submarine (""), meanwhile, earned them a 'heavy' submarine.

LIGHT CRUISER
With four turreted guns and six torpedo tubes (port/starboard), the light cruiser was the only vessel in the game with the power and durability to knock out a shore battery solo. This, however, also tended to make it the enemy's highest priority target. Paying players earned one by destroying a shore battery, while sinking one earned them either a destroyer or a heavy submarine (depending on whether it was sunk by a surface vessel or a submarine respectively).

[Wulfgar]

Ahoy mates Wulfgar here, been a very very long time. I recognize so many names, some of which were runnin buddies in combat, some formidable opponents. Bousch, baddude, Bux, Iceman, Von Krieg, TBar, Cap't JD; the list goes on and on. Popeye was a scourge of the game, very skilled but we all suspected at the end he was using cheats. He would enter the game and sail directly at you across the map and when found would "disappear" etc. This is all mentioned quite colorfully by Swab in his thorough post. Seriously I still dream of this game sometimes, and for the life of me could never understand why someone never picked it up, or designed a clone from scratch with the basic elements. Stopping by to say hello to any who are hanging around the Captains Lounge!

[Aktungbby]

Wulfgar! good of U 2 check in after 16 years!!??

[Onkel Neal]

SUBSIM review: https://www.subsim.com/ssr/ironwolf.html

Iron Wolves high scores

[Wulfgar]

I wanted to send to you, a younger, current player in the genre, and former IW captain, my observations on Iron Wolves looking back and hoping forward. If we start a conversation in various forums besides this one, it will be important to me because new development/programming could be inspired and this concept further perfected. I have a designer/programmer friend in England who might entertain a clone of the first game with some more modern visual/graphic enhancements.
My background briefly prior to playing IW involved 50 years as a child with AH UBoat, and all the board military wargame simulations land and sea until the 1990's. The naval part with exceptions of original UBoat Bismarck, Midway, and strategic naval warfare development etc. etc. This was valuable and wonderful but I always wanted to captain a submarine which cannot be done on a board. IW was a miracle of elegant design, very realistic combats, simple but not simplistic mechanics(an art in game development) e.g. you don't have to tell crew members to fire a a torpedo, send a message, etc. etc.). As the captain you controlled everything, instantaneously by performing the action. The torpedo and ranged fire combats were extremely tight and elegant, with definite judgments of range, movement direction, and speed done by your ability as an archer, or thrower. This is distinct and much less cumbersome, time consuming and micro managed ala calculations you actually perform to arm, direct, depth, etc. the overall calculus of fire. This is tedious once you are exposed to real players who are using their optics, judgment and wiles to sink a great Corvette captain firing his Hedgehogs with the same judgment calls. True mano mano tests. You attacked convoys as teams, so cool, and this attracted the opposite faction(I was Red we fought Blue--some of the readers may have been misguided if they were Blue in my time). and those combats with the responding ships and mates who were opponents was a blast. You really got to respect dangerous opponents. I personally captained Heavy Submarine, (my pal in Hvy Subs was Bosche we were a team; and I was (gulp) an Admiral for Red, which shows you the ineptitude of promotions. Regarding expertise with boats, the creativity was widespread, as certain Captains who commanded Covettes, Destroyers; beside subs; were forces to be reckoned with. These were subtle skills which others could not perform so well. Folks like Mako and many others, ran standard subs with their advantages/disadvantages like maestros(see summary of all ships on this IW Link) This appeared to be a beer and pretzel game because the mechanics were so intuitive and smooth, (however you did control a great many things like depth, speed, direction firing ranges and direction and of course luck to survive and the order of these was critical).

I must say, hitting a charging Destroyer with a torpedo you fired slightly beforehand, at the critical time, as it is literally charging over you with a barrage of Depth Charges; you at 20m their DC setting 50m, and watching the basteed blow up visually through your telescope is a moment in time you will not forget. Those moments are the essence of the games we play, we dream about them, and they are made possible by the meticulous arrangement of game play mechanics and the minimalist attention to logistics and side actions. You had limitless torpedoes. You needed them. The constant action assumed you did everything else you did not actually command. Last but not least the Islands, which you shelled, took terrible losses at times but bombed to submission and now became your color, your faction. This helped in the consequent battles as you sometimes dragged a pursuer into your own guns and their demise. Just an example. The sinking of convoys, who were constantly sailing in this game, and opponents ships; and the Island batteries gives you points to buy Destroyers, Light Cruisers, many other ships. This introduces an infinity of possibilities and combinations as these ships are recruited and fight another faction etc. I apologize for the length of this but I got going and I am a staggering old man.