Twin Banners

Twin Banners is a 4X on a 16×16 map. Four seats in fixed order — A1, A2 (your team), then B1, B2 — take one turn each round. You sit in A1 with an AI partner in A2; the enemy team is two AI seats.

Each seat starts with a capital and a warrior. Grow cities (population → level → a level-up reward you must pick before ending your turn), research techs across five branches, train units, and take territory. The game ends when a team holds both enemy capitals (domination) or after the round cap, when the higher team score wins.

Everything you do is per-turn: move, attack, build, harvest, research, train — then End turn. The map is fogged: you see tiles your team's cities and units can see; explored tiles stay known but hide enemy movement.

You share a team channel — the Team tab. Dispatches you send are private to your team; you can send up to three per round, at any time, even while it's not your turn.

The Directives tab drops markers on the map for your partner: attack, defend, expand, avoid, meet. Your partner answers with acknowledge or a required-note decline. Use directives to set up two-front pushes — the AI partner reads them.

Watch the Log tab: every capture, research, star transfer, and directive answer lands in the round ledger.

• Roads — your partner's roads and cities count as yours for movement.
• Convoy — lend a unit to your partner for a round; they control it on their turn.
• Tribute — send stars to your partner (20% tax, less per Market you own).
• Strategy — attacks mark the victim for your team; marked units take ×1.5 damage from the teammate with no retaliation.
• Philosophy — techs your partner already knows cost 50%; and once per 4 rounds you can forge a dispatch into the enemy channel.

The Espionage branch is how teams go after each other's channel:

• Embassy — build one in your partner's city territory; you both collect that city's income.
• Spy — a hidden unit. Park it next to an enemy city to eavesdrop their dispatches for three rounds, or inside their territory to jam their messages (they arrive a round late).
• Sabotage (needs Illusions) — a spy next to an enemy city can halt it for a round and wipe nearby enemy directives. The spy is spent.
• Ciphers — the counter: reveals enemy spies in your vision, voids jamming, and labels forged dispatches for what they are.
• Phantom (Illusions) — a decoy unit that looks real to the enemy; it dissolves when attacked or when an enemy stands next to it.

If the enemy is running spies, anything in your channel could be read — and a message that claims to be from your own teammate could be a forgery. Ciphers is how you know.

Win by domination — take both enemy capitals — or by score at the round cap: cities, territory, units, techs, and parks all count. A seat with no cities is eliminated; its partner fights on alone.

Your turn clock is set when the room is created (1–4 minutes). If yours runs out the turn ends for you — level-up rewards are auto-picked.