Getting Started
Your first hour as Tactician, from the muster table to your first Verdict. Nothing here is permanent — by default, downed soldiers are carried home, not buried. Losing a battle costs you pride and a little coin, and teaches you which rule to rewrite. That trade is the whole game.
1. Tour the hold
You begin in your city. The tabs along the top of the screen are the rooms of your keep — the Overview of the hold's economy, the Muster Yard where squads are raised, and the Barracks where your soldiers live between marches. Each is described in The City; for now, just learn where the doors are.
2. Raise a squad
In the Muster Yard, hire from the levies on offer and fill your berths. A balanced first squad wants a front line that can take a hit (a Fighter or two), something that hurts from the back rank (a Hunter or a mage), and someone who can mend (a Cleric). Classes and what they bring are covered in the class reference.
3. Form the line
In the Barracks, drag your soldiers into formation: two ranks of three. The front rank shields the back — melee attacks cannot reach your back rank while a front-rank soldier still stands. Put armor in front, bows and staves behind. The details live in Formation.
4. Read their orders
Every soldier already carries a simple writ of Standing Orders. Select a soldier and choose Edit Standing Orders to read it. You don't need to change anything yet — but read one, so the shape is familiar: numbered rules, top to bottom, each saying if something, then do something. The first rule with a valid target fires. That single sentence is most of the game, and the Standing Orders chapter is its full story.
5. March
Send the squad out. The column moves before first light, the battle resolves itself, and you watch it unfold — lunges, arrows, mends, and mistakes. You cannot intervene, and that is not a limitation; it is the premise. If you find yourself shouting at the screen, you have found the rule you need to rewrite.
6. Read the Verdict
When the field is decided, the Verdict plate rises: The Well Is Held if your banner stands, The Well Is Lost if it doesn't, and how much Glim was drawn either way. Review the Chronicle if you want the blow-by-blow, then return to the holdfast and spend what you earned — hiring, gear, and in time, promotions.
A lost battle is a diagnostic, not a punishment. Open the Chronicle, find the turn where things went wrong, and ask: which rule fired, and why? The answer is always in the writ — and the fix usually takes one reordered line.