📋 Board & Setup 4×6 grid. Each player starts with only pawns and their King on the back row. All other pieces begin in your reserve sidebar.

🏗 Deploy Phases Instead of moving, spend your turn deploying a piece from the sidebar onto your back row. Skirmish → Advance → Endgame unlocks stronger pieces over time.

🚫 No Retreating Pieces cannot move backward until they reach the opponent's back row — becoming Awakened ★ with full directional freedom.

⚔ Pawn Clash Pawns that face head-on stack into a Contested Square (orange). Each can push forward to survive. If neither moves within one full turn — both vanish.

🧬 Capture Evolution Capturing a piece absorbs its movement abilities permanently. A Rook that takes a Knight gains the knight's leap!

⏭ Skip & Momentum Skipping gives your opponent a Momentum Charge — spend it to move twice or reveal all enemy legal moves for one turn.