Ironclad Tactics: Bringing Zachtronics’ Card-Based Strategy to PS4

Ironclad Tactics PS4, a card-based strategy game by Zachtronics, ported by Sickhead Games

Title: Ironclad Tactics
Release Date: 2015
Developer: Zachtronics
Publisher: Zachtronics
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Engine: Proprietary C#

Ironclad Tactics is a card-based tactics game from Zachtronics set in an alternate-history Civil War where both sides field steam-powered robots. You build decks from cards earned through play, then deploy units across a lane-based battlefield in real-time simultaneous turns, with a clock constantly running down. Sickhead handled the PS4 port, which launched in January 2015 and included both expansion campaigns — Rise of Dmitry and Blood and Ironclads. The main technical challenge was the engine. Zachtronics built Ironclad Tactics on a proprietary C# codebase rather than a commercial engine, which means there’s no existing console backend to build from. Getting that running correctly on PS4 hardware, with online co-op intact and both expansions shipping alongside the base game, fell entirely on Sickhead to work out from the ground up.


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