Turn-based tactical shooter on a chessboard
Every piece moves like chess. Every piece fights like a soldier.
No hit points: a hit removes the piece. And the rule every chess player already knows — never leave your king in check — now covers gunfire, including the miss. That one law turns a squad shooter into a game of position and tempo.
How it plays Field Manual Windows · in development · store page to follow
Movement is chess. Combat is not. #
Chess geometry
Pawns advance, rooks slide, knights jump. Castling, promotion, checkmate and stalemate all work as in chess. Melee captures are chess captures.
Weapon geometry
A rook is a sniper — certain at five squares and beyond, desperate up close. A bishop's rail gun is the reverse. Knights lob grenades over cover. Every shot shows its odds before you commit: 100 % or 40 %.
CheckFire
No order may leave your commander under threat — capture or fire, and both outcomes of a chance shot. Pinned pieces still threaten. It is checked for you, so what is left on the board is always legal.
Four ways to play #
Checkfire Match
One board, full armies. Win by checkmate, by eliminating every escort — the commander cannot win alone — or when the opponent has no legal order. You vs AI, AI vs AI, hot-seat, or online by room code. Rulesets: Core, Special Abilities, Classic Chess.
Operation Broken Crown
A roguelite campaign in one run. Requisition a squad, recover three intel caches across a sector map, find the landing zone, break the command patrol, extract. Twelve sector objectives. No unlocks, no grind — every run is complete in itself.
Operation Last Pawn Standing
Endless. No map, no intel, no way out: every board cleared is replaced by the next engagement until the commander falls. The roster grows every fourth board; units are earned by speed and by kills.
Classic Chess
Full chess on the same board with the same soldiers, engine-verified. A built-in engine at four strengths, and an optional Grand Marshal tier that runs Stockfish at full strength.
Daily Operation #
One shared eight-sector map a day, a fixed seven-piece squad, one attempt. Results file to a leaderboard under a callsign — no account, no sign-in. Today's standings.
Your own army #
The Army Wizard turns your images into a faction: a front and a back per class is enough, the wizard mirrors the rest. Visuals only — a pack can never touch the rules. PC.



