Iron Nest Mission 12 Guide: Blind fire

Iron Nest Mission 12 Blind fire lives up to its name: anti-aircraft batteries over the Turia deny every reconnaissance aircraft the sky, which means no imagery at all — including shell impact photography — while any battery remains active. You are firing blind by design, and the mission replaces your eyes with two things: chained reference fixes, and artillery observers who phone in corrections by teleprinter.

Quick Answer: Mission 12 Blind fire

• Verified on build/version: Source-checked 2026-09-12. The cited mission record does not publish a game build number, so no version is claimed here.
• Fixed rules: No reconnaissance imagery — including impact photography — while any AA battery is active; artillery observers report impact corrections via field teleprinter instead; the four AA batteries are located through chained reference points; destroying all identified batteries completes the primary objective and restores recon; every target is soft — HE alone clears the board; forward observers can be requisitioned for additional intel.
• Random or run-specific data: All grids, bearings, distances, and correction values come from the current operation.
• Starting resources: 300 requisition and 10 powder charges are listed in the mission record; the roster lists 10 entities with no armored targets.
• Gold conditions confirmed by the mission record: Austere Service Medal (requisition spent ≤ 50), Unbroken Volley Medal (kill streak ≥ 6), No Quarter Cross (kills ≥ 20), Unaided Fire Distinction (no aerial recon, kills > 18).

1. Accept the Blindness and Use the Chain

The initial intelligence states what you do not have (gyros, shell-impact and scout-plane imagery) and what you do: reference points and battery fixes delivered as a chain — Alpha from two spotters, then the first two batteries off Alpha and a third spotter, then Bravo off the first battery, then the remaining batteries off Bravo and each other. Plot the entire chain from the current run’s values before firing anything; with no photographs, the plotted chain is your only map of the far bank.

2. Walk the Teleprinter Corrections

Once you fire, the observers take over. Impact reports arrive by field teleprinter with the structure that replaces impact photography: the impact’s region, then the nearest enemy with a bearing and distance from the impact. Read each correction as “from where my shell landed, the target is this far in this direction,” adjust, and fire again. This is the mission’s core skill — the same correction-reading discipline pays off in every later mission, and it is the only targeting feedback you get here.

One caution the transcript makes vivid: friendly-fire reports appear in the same teleprinter stream (“Another HCHE on Friendlies…”). Corrections cut both ways — a report near friendlies means stop and re-plot, not adjust and fire faster.

3. Four Batteries, Then the Sky Opens

The primary objective is the identified anti-aircraft batteries: when all are destroyed, the record confirms the sector clear, and the restriction on reconnaissance lifts with the threat. Remaining enemy elements are optional at that point, engaged at your discretion. Every target is soft — the record recommends HE and nothing else.

Mission 12 Medal Conditions

• Austere Service Medal: Gold with requisition points spent ≤ 50.
• Unbroken Volley Medal: Gold with longest kill streak ≥ 6.
• No Quarter Cross: Gold with enemy kills ≥ 20.
• Unaided Fire Distinction: Gold with no aerial recon used and kills > 18.

Common Failures

• Firing before the chain is plotted. Without imagery, an unplotted guess is just noise with a powder charge.
• Misreading the correction format. The bearing and distance are from your impact point to the nearest enemy — not from Iron Nest and not from a spotter.
• Ignoring friendly-fire reports in the stream. The transcript shows repeated HCHE-on-friendlies entries; stop and re-plot when one appears.
• Waiting for photography that never comes. No imagery exists until every battery is down.
• Bringing AP or specialty shells. All targets are soft; HE is the documented answer.

Sources / References

• Iron Nest DB — Blind fire mission record — Operation 12 resources, roster, recon-denial rule, observer teleprinter corrections, chained battery fixes, and medal thresholds.

Update Log

• 2026-09-12: Published the source-checked Mission 12 walkthrough. All fix and correction values remain run-specific; the correction-reading method is the reusable part.

Previous: Mission 11 — High Tide. Next: Mission 13 — Phantom Battery, where the counter-battery timer returns against a moving armored target.