sand-stage

name	sand-stage
description	Use Sand Stage when the best move is to change the board into slow, absorbent terrain that eats momentum instead of carrying it. Sand Stage is for bogging the field down: reducing clean repositioning, making extraction costly, and forcing both sides to respect how hard it is to cross or abandon the wrong patch once the ground starts swallowing motion.

Sand Stage

Turn the field soft and dragging so movement bogs down, escapes take effort, and committed positions get harder to leave cleanly.

Overview

Use Sand Stage when the best move is to change the board into slow, absorbent terrain that eats momentum instead of carrying it. Sand Stage is for bogging the field down: reducing clean repositioning, making extraction costly, and forcing both sides to respect how hard it is to cross or abandon the wrong patch once the ground starts swallowing motion.

This is the secondary Codex compatibility rendering of a hybrid battle-chip pattern with a shipping-now execution model.

Canonical chip family: Sand Stage Codex shelf: Control and Terrain Provider target: Codex compatibility surface.

When To Use

• The problem is too much easy movement, cheap repositioning, or repeated retries from the same comfortable ground.
• You want the field to resist motion and trap overcommitment by making exits, pivots, and rescues slower.
• The right move is to create drag and stickiness, not slippery speed, fertile recovery, or direct environmental damage.

Workflow

1. Name the lane, zone, or operating surface that should become slower and harder to cross cleanly.
2. Define what kind of movement the sand should tax: rushing in, backing out, lateral repositioning, repeated context switching, or extracting from a bad decision.
3. Convert the field, then explain which positions become sticky, which routes remain viable, and how Hermes should exploit the slowed escape window.

Deliverables

• A terrain change that makes a defined part of the board absorb momentum, slow traversal, or increase the cost of leaving a position.
• A short note identifying what behavior now gets bogged down, where the target is likely to get stuck, and which deliberate route still works.

Guardrails

• Do not describe Sand Stage as direct damage if the real effect is drag, delay, or entrapment pressure.
• Do not sand the field so broadly that Hermes loses its own ability to maneuver or finish the follow-up.
• If the goal is ownership transfer, use Panel Grab or Area Grab; if the goal is active hazard, use Lava Stage; if the goal is slippery carry, use Ice Stage.

Default Invocation

Use Sand Stage to turn the current field into drag-heavy terrain: make movement slower, exits harder, and overcommitment stickier, then explain what gets bogged down and which stable lane Hermes should exploit next.