Ironvale

Ironvale is a 3D real-time strategy game for the browser in the classic gather-build-advance mould: villagers gather wood, food, stone and gold, your town grows through three ages, and you raise an army to break the Crimson March. It plays as a story campaign or as skirmishes against a computer opponent.

Made from 21 plain-language requests

Every line was written by Claude Fable 5.2 in Claude Code. The author's PROMPTS.md lists the requests in order. The first was a one-page spec for "an original 3D real-time strategy game in one HTML file"; most later ones were a sentence long ("Food should auto collect", "Graphics look a little unreal now, make it better", "What updates are required?" then "Do all"). No game engine and no hand-written code.

What's in it

• Three campaigns, 10 chapters: The Shattering of Ironvale (Azure Kingdom), Riders of the Long Wind (Windrider Clans) and The Stoneholt Oath (Stoneholt Clans), with chapter intros, objectives and outros. A Chronicle on the main menu records the world's history and each ending you reach.
• Five realms, each with its own bonuses, look, unique unit and unique building: Azure Kingdom, Crimson March, Windrider Clans, Stoneholt Clans, Amber League.
• Skirmish on five map types (Green Vale, Iron Highlands, Corsair Coast, Primeval Wilds, Hollow Marsh) in four sizes, from Small (96²) to Huge (200²).
• A living map: wildlife that flees, fights back or hunts you, hostile camps guarding treasure (wolf dens, pirate coves, raptor nests with the Tyrant, haunted graveyards), a 12-minute day/night cycle, and rain, storms, snow and fog.
• Graphics: ambient occlusion, bloom, colour grading, drifting cloud shadows and soft shadows, with automatic quality reduction below 26 fps.

All story, names and factions are original. The 3D models are openly licensed (CC0 and CC-BY 3.0) and credited in the game. There's also a portable, offline Windows build on the author's releases page.

The three ages

Age	How to advance	Unlocks
Settlement Age	(start)	Villagers, houses, lumber camp, mining camp, mill
Feudal Age	400 food, 55 s. Requires 2 of: Lumber Camp, Mining Camp, Mill	Military buildings, towers, walls, Level 2 building upgrades
Iron Age	600 food + 150 gold, 80 s. Requires 2 of: Barracks, Archery Range, Stable, Blacksmith	Siege, Knights, Crossbowmen, Castle, Wonder, Level 3 upgrades

Ways to win

• Destroy the enemy. A computer player with no Town Center and fewer than 3 soldiers surrenders after 45 seconds.
• Build a Wonder (Iron Age, 1,000 wood + 1,000 stone + 1,000 gold) and defend it for 5 minutes after it's finished.

Opening tips

• Turn on AUTO-WORK in the top bar: idle villagers gather what you need most and build farms and houses on their own. Villagers you give orders to are left alone.
• Research Loom early (50 gold): villagers get +15 HP and extra armour.
• Press . (period) to find idle villagers. The top bar shows income per minute and how many gatherers are on each resource.
• Hunters carry meat home on their own. Clearing wildlife camps pays gold bounties.
• Growth boost (top right, Off / 2× / 4×) speeds up your gathering, building, training and research if you just want to see the late game.

Realm-unique units and buildings

Realm	Unique unit	Unique building
Azure Kingdom	Vale Warden, an armoured shield-bearer	Bell Tower: long range, 2 arrows (max 3)
Crimson March	March Lancer, Feudal-age heavy cavalry	War Hall: +10 population, shoots, trains cavalry (max 1)
Windrider Clans	Wind Archer, a mounted archer	Yurt: cheap +6 population home and food drop-off
Stoneholt Clans	Ironbreaker, a building and siege smasher	Clan Hall: +10 population, stone and gold drop-off (max 1)
Amber League	League Sharpshooter, very long range	Trade Post: passive gold income (max 3)

The realm building is the last button in a villager's build grid.

Controls

Input	Action
Left click / drag	Select, box-select (Shift adds); double-click selects all of that type on screen
Right click	Move, gather, attack, build, repair, garrison, set rally point
WASD / arrows, Q / E	Pan, rotate camera
Wheel, PageUp / PageDown	Zoom, tilt
M	Whole-map overview
R T Y U I O / F G H J K L / Z X C V B N	Command grid hotkeys (the letter is on each button)
Ctrl+1–9, 1–9	Assign, recall control group
. / ,	Next idle villager / all military
Space, Home	Centre on selection, jump to Town Center
⚔ ATTACK	All idle soldiers charge the nearest known enemy building
Esc / P	Cancel / pause menu (save, load, surrender)

The game autosaves every 2 minutes, and the pause menu has three save slots.