Turn-Based Tactics

What it is. Grid combat where the enemy shows you their whole plan, then you act. No hidden rolls, no fog — the fun is rewriting a telegraphed future with positioning: push an enemy so its attack hits another enemy, block a spawn, bump a unit off a ledge. Each fight is a solvable puzzle, not a dice game.

Player fantasy / why it’s fun. “I saw the disaster coming and turned it against them.” Perfect information makes you feel like a chess master: the win is found, not rolled, and a clean multi-enemy redirect is pure satisfaction.

Pillars

Rewrite the telegraph. Store telegraphs as directions on units, not target tiles — so pushing a unit re-resolves what it hits. The telegraph is a live plan you edit, which is the entire game.
Perfect information, perfect honesty. What’s shown is exactly what resolves. No hidden variance. The genre’s trust is that the display is the truth (law 6).
Both proofs, every scenario. A scenario needs a winning line AND a losing do-nothing. If passivity survives, there’s no threat; if no line exists, it’s unfair. The first cut’s bug is usually “can’t even reach the objective.”

The loop stack

Scale	The beat
Moment	Read a telegraph → move/push a unit → watch the future re-resolve in your favor.
Encounter	A scenario: protect an objective from telegraphed threats over N turns using positioning.
Session	A mission chain / island: escalating scenarios, limited resources carried between them.
Meta	Unlock squads, mechs, and mechanics; learn the redirect vocabulary.

Essential systems

System	Why it’s load-bearing
`system-telegraphs`	The whole loop. Stored as directions, resolved after your move — the editable future.
`system-enemy-archetypes`	The threat roles whose telegraphs you redirect — melee, artillery, spawner, boss.
`system-encounter-design`	Composing archetypes + objectives into a scenario with a findable line and a losing null.
`system-combat-model`	Push, bump, redirect resolution — the deterministic rules a scenario is built on.
`system-difficulty-and-dda`	Threat density and turn count as the ramp; harder = tighter lines, not hidden rolls.

Content & difficulty model

Content is scenarios, not stats. A scenario is a board + objective + a telegraphed threat sequence with a provable solution. Hand-authored or generated, each must pass the two proofs.
Difficulty = tighter solution space. More threats, fewer turns, harder objectives — the line still exists but demands more precision. Never add hidden variance to raise difficulty.
Every mechanic proven in isolation. Push, bump, redirect, spawn-block each get a unit test before they combine (law 3 / derive-don’t-vibe).
Bots are real defenders. A 1-ply greedy planner over structuredClone scoring is a genuine baseline — it should perfect-clear a solvable scenario and the do-nothing bot should lose everything.

Signature-mechanic seeds

Tactics but you command the enemies too (perspective) — set both sides’ telegraphs, then a rival edits yours; a duel of redirects.
Tactics but the grid is a deck you draft (structure) — Into-the-Breach meets Slay-the-Spire; your moves are cards. Bridges genre-deckbuilder.
Tactics but one push ripples through a chain (mechanic-swap) — dominoes: every shove can cascade, turning the board into a physics puzzle.
Tactics but you protect a city that remembers (theme + structure) — a town rebuilt between missions; buildings saved persist as bonuses.
Tactics but the future is shown only for one turn (constraint) — a memory variant; you plan several moves against a telegraph you can no longer see.

Common pitfalls

Telegraphs stored as tiles. If a tell targets a tile, pushing the attacker doesn’t rewrite it — and the core verb (redirect) silently breaks. Store directions on units.
Hidden variance. Any concealed roll violates the perfect-information trust; a “miss” the player couldn’t foresee feels like a betrayal.
Passive survives. A scenario a do-nothing bot lives through has no threat. Always assert the losing null.
No line exists. An unsolvable scenario is unfair. Prove the winning line before shipping (greedy bot perfect-clears).
Objective unreachable. The classic first-cut bug — the plan can’t even touch the goal. Test reachability.

Anchors

anchor-into-the-breach — the definitive reference: perfect information, telegraphed grid, redirect-the-future. Steal the whole model.
genre-deckbuilder — a natural blend (moves-as-cards); shares the telegraph-honesty and skill-delta discipline.

Verify

Prove it in FUN.md §12 · Turn-based tactics: the greedy bot perfect-clears, the do-nothing bot loses everything, each mechanic (push/bump/redirect) is proven in isolation, and a golden end-state replays.

Composes with

system-telegraphs — the editable future that IS the loop.
system-enemy-archetypes — the threat roles you redirect.
system-encounter-design — scenarios with a findable line and a losing null.