All Stations Explained — Every Console in the Turret — Iron Nest Wiki

Launch Version / Updated: August 11, 2026

IRON NEST is a one-operator machine: you, alone, walk between the physical stations bolted into the turret. There is no crew menu, no skill tree of officers — the "crew" is the work you do at each station, in sequence, every single engagement. This guide goes station by station: what each console does, the exact workflow at it, and the mistakes that cost operators time and missions.

For the big picture first, read the beginner guide. Here we go deep on each station.

Station Map — The Nine Stations

#	Station	Function	Visit Every…
1	High Command Teleprinter	Mission briefs, orders, dictated ordnance	Mission start
2	Field Report Typewriter	Spotter intel, corrections, threat warnings	Mission start + on new intel
3	Tactical Map Table	Plotting, triangulation, firing solutions	Every target
4	Ballistic Calculator	Range/bearing/shell/charges → firing card	Every target
5	Requisition Station	Buy shells, charges, recon, upgrades	Between missions / under fire
6	Gun Loading Platform	Select, ram shell + powder charges	Every shot
7	Elevation Controls	Set the gun's firing angle	Every shot
8	Bearing / Rotation Controls	Traverse the 360° turret	Every shot
9	Main Trigger Station	Arm, confirm, fire	Every shot

Also on the desk: the clipboard (your portable memory — see the controls guide), the weather station module (from Chapter 3 on — see the recon guide), a coffee machine and a warhorn. Use all three; the warhorn is genuinely fully operational and is the correct response to a confirmed kill.

Station 1 & 2 — The Teleprinters (High Command + Field Reports)

The High Command teleprinter receives orders; the field-report typewriter receives front-line intelligence. Check every channel of both — secondary channels carry threat warnings, and a missed warning is how operators get counter-battered by artillery they knew was there.

Workflow:

Read the High Command brief first: objective, dictated shell type, your own position.
Click every useful line onto the clipboard as you read — coordinates, bearings, distances, target descriptions.
Read the field reports next: spotter positions, target bearings, reference points.
Re-check both machines after every radio update — corrections like "Impact 100 m short, 50 m left" arrive mid-engagement.

Common mistake: reading the brief but not the field channel before the first shot, then discovering an unreported artillery battery the hard way.

Station 3 — Tactical Map Table

The map table is your only window on the battlefield. A full deep-dive lives in the map & measurements guide and the target-spotting guide; the essentials:

20×10 grid, columns A–T, rows 1–10, with 10×10 sub-grids (a full cell is 1 km, a sub-cell 100 m).
Tokens: Iron Nest token (place FIRST), blue spotter tokens, green reference tokens, red enemy tokens, red/blue skull tokens for kill confirmation.
Pencils: red (firing solution, auto-copies bearing/range to clipboard), yellow (planning lines), white (notes). Plus the drafting compass for distance circles and the Iris tool for visualizing blast radii when choosing shells.

Common mistake: placing the Iron Nest token late or accidentally nudging it mid-mission — every firing solution on the board silently shifts with it.

Station 4 — Ballistic Calculator

The machine that turns map measurements into gun settings. Five inputs — distance, bearing, shell type, powder charges, target classification — and one lever pull produce the firing card: gun elevation (lower-left) and gun rotation (upper-right), attached to your clipboard automatically.

The full input-by-input breakdown is in the ballistic calculator guide. The discipline that matters here:

Feed it only numbers from your own clipboard and map — never spotter-to-target range for the Iron Nest-to-target range.
The charge count you enter must equal what you load. The calculator trusts you; it does not check the gun.

Station 5 — Requisition Station

The card-based shop of the Iron Nest: shells, powder charges, recon planes, forward observers, emergency moves and permanent upgrades. Economy details are in the requisition & upgrade guide.

Powder charges are never a waste — a shell without charges is a paperweight.
Credits do not carry over between sessions — spend before major operations, but keep a small reserve for dictated ordnance you do not own yet.

Station 6 — Gun Loading Platform

The most mistake-prone station in the machine. Working left to right:

Select the shell — pull the lever beneath the Shell Selector System Pressure gauge until the right shell is at the front. Verify visually: HE and AP look different in the tray.
Ram the shell — pull the handle below the Shell Rammer System Pressure gauge.
Dispense powder charges — six levers, one charge each; the total must match the firing card exactly.
Ram the charges home.

You cannot unload. A rammed shell stays in the gun until fired. Verify every load before you commit — the machine will not check for you.

With the twin guns (2 × 800 mm barrels), you can keep one barrel loaded with AP for the bunker while the other carries HE for the infantry screen. See the loading & aiming guide for the twin-gun workflow.

Stations 7 & 8 — Elevation & Rotation Controls

Aiming is two stations, one order: rotate first, elevate second.

Rotation: heavy lever for fast traverse (return it smoothly — slamming it damages machinery), fine wheel for precision. Match the rotation counter to the firing card's bearing digit for digit.
Elevation: the console locks until loading is finished and resets to zero after every shot. Lever for approximate angle, wait for the gun to stop, wheel for the exact value. Never touch the wheel while the gun is still moving.

A one-degree bearing error at 5 km is roughly a 90-meter miss — double-check the counter, not just the calculation.

Station 9 — Main Trigger Station

The payoff. Each gun arms separately:

Arm the gun — pull the lever on the left side of the station.
Confirm systems — every readiness indicator must be green.
Flip all five switches.
Pull the large central cord.

The machine shudders, the barrel heats, and the wait begins — shells can take a long time in flight at extreme range, so confirmation arrives via radio, map skull tokens and objective updates, never by eye. A red skull is a kill; a blue skull is a friendly hit.

The Operator's Station Rotation — One Target, End to End

Phase	Station	What Happens
1	Teleprinters	Orders + intel → clipboard
2	Map table	Plot Iron Nest, spotters, target; draw red firing line
3	Calculator	Five inputs → firing card
4	Loading platform	Shell + charges rammed (verified twice)
5	Rotation + elevation	Bearing set, elevation set from card
6	Trigger station	Arm, confirm, five switches, fire
7	Map table	Mark result, clean lines, next target

One target at a time — except enemy artillery, which you mark ALL of before the first shot (see the counter-battery guide).

Station Mistakes Cheat-Sheet

Mistake	Station	Cost
Skipping the field-report channel	Teleprinters	Missed threat warning
Nudging the Iron Nest token	Map table	Every solution shifts
Entering spotter range as nest range	Calculator	Systematic overshoot/undershoot
Wrong charge count vs. what's loaded	Loading platform	Short or overflight — cannot unload
Bearing 180° off	Rotation	Clean miss, possibly friendly fire
Touching the elevation wheel mid-move	Elevation	Mechanism jam
Firing without confirming systems	Trigger	Misfire or damaged machinery

Next steps: Ballistic Calculator Guide — Loading & Aiming Guide — Tactical Map & Measurements