Take the Field

From this build forward, you can play the prologue's first tactical battle directly from the diary. No download, no save state, no campaign coupling — just three minutes on the burning quay as Theodore Laskaris, with a Varangian shield-line at your back, two non-combatant refugees you must not lose, and a green Picard knight named Sire Hugues de Quincy on the other side. Win and you reach the dromon. Lose and the field resets so you can try a different shape of fight.

I have wanted to put something playable in front of people for months and have kept finding reasons not to. The honest reason was that a battle is the smallest part of the game I actually want to make — it is not the chronicle, it is not the court, it is not Bithynia in winter. But the dock ambush is the one moment where 1204 stops being a manuscript and starts being a game you have to play with your hands, and that is the part I most need feedback on.

Two things are deliberately held back. The aftermath plate — the Laskarid lion flying over the dromon at sunrise — only appears in the full prologue, because it belongs to the journey, not the skirmish. And there is no chronicle-end view on defeat: you simply try again. This is a sparring ring, not a death screen.

What I most want to learn from this is not the win-rate. It is the shape of the fight. Did you charge with Theodore, or hold the line and wait? Did Sire Hugues feel dangerous, or fragile? Did the Varangians feel like a wall or like decoration? There is a feedback button on every page of the diary now — please use it. Long letters welcome.