Engagement

Engagement is a tactical space-duel game built around the moment before the exchange. Time stops while both captains queue their next orders. Burn for speed, turn onto a bearing, bring a weapon online, brace an arc, or vent heat. Then commit. The clock runs until one plan ends first, and that captain gets the next decision. Every command takes ticks. A long weapon spin-up buys time for an opponent to react. A short manoeuvre may win the next replan. The fight is decided by what each hull can do now, what it will do next, and what the other captain has already shown. Start with a hull, then choose the argument it makes. A lance cutter bets on a clean firing line. A broadside ship asks for an angle. A seeker sloop creates pressure at range. An assault ram wants the distance gone. Each hull carries its own three hardpoints and alternate equipment. Spinal lances, prow chasers, batteries, seeker racks, point defence, flares, and smoke change the range you want, the heat you can carry, and the openings you must deny. Guns do different work. Batteries tear at shields. Lances walk through a shield arc. Seekers force a response. Point defence destroys incoming seekers, but it spends a firing window. Damage builds surge; surge can overdrive the next weapon. A heavy strike can stagger a hull and tear up its plan. Every weapon gives the other captain a read. Use that information. Break the expected bearing, force a bad arc, or make the enemy choose between defence and their own shot. Openings change the rules of the first exchange. Meet head-on across open void. Start inside knife range. Trade a crossing pass. Chase a retreating stern. Work around the rocks of The Reef, or bring a dead ship back under control in The Drift. Asteroids block gunfire and turn space into cover. Momentum persists. A burn adds velocity, and a second burn is required to take it back. Position is a resource, and a line of sight is never free. - One-on-one tactical space duels built around queued orders and alternating replans. - Eight distinct hulls: Vesper, Ossuary, Reliquary, Anvil, Wick, Cathedral, Pyre, and Warden. - Hull-specific weapon fits and alternate hardpoints. - Opening scenarios including Long Approach, Knife Range, Crossing Pass, Stern Chase, The Reef, and The Drift. - Shield arcs, heat, surge, burst movement, flares, smoke, and system damage. - Machine opponents, local same-screen duels, best-of-three series, a gauntlet mode, and saved-duel viewing.