Pre-alpha · deterministic foundation

Command the campaign.

Sandtable is a digital adaptation of The Campaign for North Africa. You choose intent and issue orders. The computer checks the rules, handles uncertainty, protects hidden information, and keeps the complete record.

See the player loop Run the foundation

First scenario: 6 turns
Each game turn: 3 stages
Long campaign: 111 turns

Maproom concept planned player experience

North Africa Operation stage I

Legal actions come from the player’s side-safe observation—not from hidden state.

Chronicle feed state v9

WeatherNormal
Reserve I2 candidates
Movementroute accepted
Replayverified

Umpire accepted · event history is replayable

The eventual game

A commander’s week, without the paperwork.

One game turn represents one campaign week. Initiative determines who chooses the acting order; three Operation Stages then repeat movement and combat obligations.

1.0

Read the theater.

Inspect known formations, supply routes, reports, weather, and the limits of what your side is allowed to know.
2.0

Set commander intent.

Decide what matters: hold a port, preserve armour, threaten a route, or trade time for supply.
3.0

Confirm exact orders.

Staff turns intent into a concrete plan. Maproom exposes current legal actions; you review the order before it reaches the Umpire.
4.0

Let the campaign answer.

The Umpire resolves rules, seeded uncertainty, expenditure, breakdowns, contact, combat, and enemy reactions as those systems arrive.
5.0

Study the dispatches.

Chronicle records machine truth. Maproom reveals only the reports your side should receive; War Diary can later turn those events into human history.

Authority before intelligence

The model may advise. It never moves the pieces.

Sandtable keeps adjudication deterministic and treats every model response as an untrusted, versioned proposal. Hidden opposing state never leaves the authoritative plane.

Command decides intent

Staff builds a plan

Umpire adjudicates truth

Chronicle records events

Maproom shows your side

Boundary	Owns	Must never
Cna.Core / Umpire	Rules, legal actions, seeded RNG, fog, events, replay	Depend on remote inference
Orleans + Decision Worker	Campaign activation and pending decisions	Hold a grain turn open on a model
Intelligence Gateway	Routing, personas, validation, narrative, evaluation	See hidden state or adjudicate rules
Signals contracts	Versioned protobuf transport	Drop decision, state, or ruleset identity

Repository status · 20 September 2026

A real simulation foundation. Not a playable adaptation yet.

Implemented today

Versioned rules, content, snapshots, observations, and legal actions
Initiative, weather, stage-entry obligations, and Reserve Designation
Public Movement, bounded Reaction, and Breakdown paths through Combat entry
Byte-identical replay, inherited-history restore, and checked Exercise/Maneuver evidence
Combat internals reviewed through orders, costs, results, losses, retreat, custody, and round closure
Isolated Reserve Release base validation reviewed; execution remains pending
Custody handling accepted after three fresh independent reviews

Combat internals run in engine tests. Public Combat play is not yet activated.

On the road to Maproom

Implement Reserve Release and cycle repeat/finish
Activate side-safe Combat actions and prove the complete loop through Runner
Add source-verified first-scenario content and victory rules
Build local hot-seat Maproom, saves, fog, and replay

Follow the delivery roadmap

Developer workbench

Run the evidence, not a remote dependency.

The repository is a .NET 10 solution. Today, local development launches the service scaffold and Aspire dashboard; deterministic Exercises exercise the actual legal-action and replay path.

Read the contribution workflow

Local foundation check

$ git clone https://github.com/dills122/sandtable.git
$ cd sandtable
$ just setup
$ just check
$ just run

Build, format, and deterministic tests form the local gate.

Command the campaign.

Read the theater.

Set commander intent.

Confirm exact orders.

Let the campaign answer.

Study the dispatches.

Implemented today

On the road to Maproom