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Match planning and assignments

Planning a Desert Storm match has two phases — building the roster (who's in?) and placing players on the battlefield (who's where?). Both happen on the match page, with separate tabs for each. The interactive demo below walks through both phases with shared state, the same way you'd do it in the app.

Two phases

A planning-state Desert Storm match has two views the officer works through:

  1. The Roster tab — pick who's playing. Pull members from the alliance pool into a starters list and optional substitutes list.
  2. The Map tab — place those starters and substitutes onto the 11 buildings on the battlefield. Each building has slots; each slot holds one player.

You don't have to do them in order — switching back and forth is fine. But typically you build the roster first, then place. The demo below mirrors exactly what you'll see in the app, with sample data.

Try it

// LIVE DEMO · SAMPLE DATA

Demo mode — every action runs against React state. Your dashboard would call the backend instead.

// SETUP PROGRESS1 / 4steps
Add starters to roster12/20
Place starters on buildings0/12 placed
Cover all buildings0/11
Add jumpers0 added
Slots 0/0Unplaced 12
Unplaced(12)
Aurora_M484MVexNova412MRookSeven398MIrisStorm376MKadeOnline354MLumi_42341MPaxBlackline322MJunoX308MOrin_HQ296MSable99284MNightHawk271MFrostByte263M

// MAP · GETTING STARTED

Ready to set up your team?

Tap any building to assign players, or use Auto Assign to fill all buildings.

Slots 0/0
The real planning page, running on demo data instead of your live alliance. Pre-filled with a 15-person roster (12 starters + 3 subs). Switch between the Roster, Map, and Requests tabs at the top, then click a building to open its picker — drag-equivalent assignment, zone editing, jumpers, and secondary buildings all work.

Phase 1: Roster

The roster is the cast of the match. Click a member in the alliance pool to add them as a starter. Click them again to move them to substitute. Click a third time to remove them entirely. Most alliances run 12 starters + 3 substitutes for a full match.

// TIP

The real app pre-fills the roster with anyone whose signup request you've approved on the Requests tab — so members can self-volunteer rather than waiting to be picked. Officers can still add directly without an approved request.

Phase 2: Battlefield assignments

Once the roster is set, you place players onto buildings. The battlefield is laid out as it appears in-game — left team buildings on the left in red, right team on the right in green, three contested center buildings in slate. Three of those (Arsenal, Nuclear Silo, Mercenary Factory) unlock 10 minutes into the match.

Click a building to open its picker. The picker shows the full roster; click a player to assign them. Click a player marked Here to unassign them. Click a player who's assigned elsewhere and they move to the new building.

// NOTE

Building point values matter. Nuclear Silo is the highest-value point earner at 4,500 points/minute. Oil Refineries are next at 3,000. Field Hospitals at 1,800. The smaller buildings sit at 600. Pair high-power frontline starters with the high-value buildings whenever possible.

Substitutes and re-assignments

A substitute is a player you've included on the roster but haven't placed on a building yet. They sit ready: if a starter no-shows on match day, an officer drops the absentee and assigns the sub to the empty building.

Substitutes who never get activated don't count for or against attendance — they had no opportunity to play. Subs who step in mid-match are treated exactly like starters from that point: their attendance counts and so does their individual score.

The readiness checklist

Above the battlefield in the live app, a small readiness checklist tracks how prepared the match is. Empty slots, missing power data, unconfirmed substitutes, and players without a building all surface as warnings — so officers know exactly what's left to do before the match starts.

Once the checklist is green you're ready. Reminders fire automatically 60 minutes before kick-off to everyone on the roster, with the building they're assigned to so nobody arrives confused.

// HEADS UP

If you forget to roster anyone for an auto-created Friday match, mark it Not played from the match menu rather than leaving it stuck in planning. The match stays in history with a muted “Not played” tag and is excluded from attendance stats — see the Desert Storm overview for the why.