Ben and Tao gear up to destroy everything and take no prisoners in dieselpunk real time strategy (RTS) barn stormer, Iron Harvest 1920+. Ben goes on the attack while Tao rallies to defend as they discuss RTS versus base-building, retro-futurism, parallel histories and the rising [insertgenre]punk trend, destructible environments, micro-squad management and balancing enemy AI, and Nvidia Geforce Now issues. As always, they cover the gritty questions, like: how many employees constitute a ‘small studio’? Is there such a thing as a grating language? Is everything better with legs? Was cowardice the reason Ben dodged every invite to a multiplayer game that Tao sent? (We may never know.)

Some story spoilers, warnings given in advance.

Content Warning: PEGI 12. Machines! The acrid stench of war! Casual cursing.

Clarifications:

• Turns out there really was a bear rescued by Polish soldiers, called Wojtek, who ended up going to war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twr38iHXYVw

• According to their own website, King Art Games do indeed have 70+ employees: https://kingart-games.com/page/1-about-us

• When Tao says C&C, he means Command & Conquer (1995)

• Company of Heroes is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. Company of Heroes 2 was released in 2013.

• Cossacks: European Wars is a real-time strategy game made by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, released on 24 April 2001.

• ‘Red Alert 2’ is Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, released in 2000.

Audio extracts:

• War Horse (2011)

• HBOs ‘The Pacific’

• Dawn of War 2

• Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty theme

• Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings theme

• Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos theme

• Frostpunk Theme by Piotr Musial

• Age of Empires Soundtrack - Track #1 - Conquest

• Nancy Sinatra - These boots are made for walkin’

• Tombstone feat. Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp

• Gandalf Leaving Edoras - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

• Hercules (2014)

• Miss Congeniality (2000)

• Iron Man feat. Robert Downey Jr.

• Age of Mythology OST - A Cat Named Mittens

• Rawhide by Frankie Laine

• The Simpsons - Look At All These Idiots

• Cossacks - European Wars OST

• Salutations from Subnautica OST

• Red Dead Redemption 2 - harmonica

• Telegram notification sounds

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