Ironbridge

Population

960,000

Runs the streets

Iron Kings

Land prices

30% off

Special service

Foundry Fight Club

History

Ironbridge built the Nation. Its mills rolled the steel for every crane in Port Marlow and every casino frame on the Neon Bay Strip. Its bridge, a black iron truss over the river that gives the city its name, has stood for a hundred and twelve years and been blown up twice.

The Iron Kings began as a union. They're still a union, technically, and Local 14 still holds elections. It's just that the elections tend to go one way, and the people who vote the other way tend to find their cars at the scrapyard, compressed into a neat cube. Under the Concord, the Kings got the factories, the rail yards and the trucking routes north.

When the Chairman vanished and Ace Holdings collapsed, the rest of the Nation panicked. Ironbridge didn't. Mack Dunleavy walked onto the floor of the biggest mill in town the next morning and told the night shift to keep working. They did. Ironbridge was the only city whose factories never stopped during the Clearance, and Dunleavy has been reminding everyone of it ever since.

Now, with no Chairman's table to settle disputes, the families send their grudges to Ironbridge, where a man named Tito has a cage, a microphone and a very reasonable commission.

Neighborhoods and landmarks

Foundry Fight Club

Cage fights in an old foundry, under hooks that once carried molten steel. Promoter "Big" Tito Barragán books anyone willing to pay the entry fee, which climbs with your level. Win and you take home a purse worth more than double your stake, and sometimes walk out a little stronger than you went in. Fighters can step back into the cage every fifteen minutes.

Foundry Row

Brick mills and smokestacks along the river. The factories here run three shifts under union rules, with a few lines that never appear on any inspection report.

The Rail Yards

Warehouses, freight cars and loading bays. In Ironbridge, warehouses earn more than in any other city, and nobody asks what's inside.

The Pits

The scrapyards at the edge of town, where cars go in whole and come out as cubes. Some of them still had owners.

Downtown

Ironbridge PD Headquarters, Ironbridge City Hall, St. Mercy, the Golden Ace and the rest of the downtown services sit in the shadow of the bridge. The Iron Temple Gym here is never empty.

Who runs it

Mack Dunleavy, President of Local 14, is the hardest man in the rust belt. He doesn't like casinos, doesn't trust banks and thinks the Chairman's throne should go to the city that kept the Nation running when everyone else ran. He means Ironbridge. He means himself.

Tito Barragán doesn't run anything, officially. But every boss in the Nation owes him a favor or a fight, and in Ironbridge that's the same thing.

Faces of Ironbridge

• Mack DunleavyHead of the Iron KingsThe mills ran when the money stopped. So did I.
• "Big" Tito BarragánFight promoterEverybody's a fighter till the bell rings, baby!

Life on each side

Criminals

Ironbridge rewards fighters, and criminals hit harder than anyone. The Fight Club is a way to earn on your strength without raising heat, and every strength point you win in the cage makes your next mugging more likely to land.

Police

The cage only tests your attack, so an officer's defense bonus doesn't help in there: bring a weapon. Ironbridge is still a good city to train up between patrols: the gym bonus means gyms here are worth owning, and the Fight Club keeps your strength climbing.

Civilians

Civilians are the weakest fighters, so the cage is a gamble for you. Your edge here is the land. At 30% off, with big industrial bonuses, Ironbridge is one of the best cities in the Nation to build a portfolio of warehouses and, later, factories.

Specialty buildings and perks

• Opens at level 5.
• Cheap land: 30% off every lot.
• Industry: warehouses +30%, factories and scrapyards +25%, auto garages +20% and gyms +15%.
• Only in Ironbridge: the Factory and the Scrapyard. Auto garages and the Stadium can also go up here.
• Foundry Fight Club: cage fights for prize money and a shot at extra strength.

Tips for Ironbridge

• Warehouses are the city's best value early on: cheap land plus the biggest warehouse bonus in the Nation.
• Only fight in the cage when your health is good. Health scales your fighting power, so heal at St. Mercy first.
• Combine the free bench press at the gym with Fight Club bouts to grow strength faster than training alone.
• Scrapyards take a 2×2 footprint. Plan the block before you buy the first lot so you have room.
• Ironbridge sits in the north. Havenbrook ($51 by bus) and Port Marlow ($61) are the closest hops.

Getting here

Fares from Ironbridge, nearest first. The bus also costs 15 energy; a flight costs none. A Sports Car halves flights and a Private Jet makes them free. Ironbridge opens at level 5; once you have been, it stays open to you.