How to play & controls Sandfront
Sandfront is a browser RTS that borrows specific mechanics from three classics: sidebar production, a power grid, regrowing crystal and engineer captures from Command & Conquer; refinery harvesters and a sandworm from Dune 2000; asymmetric factions, high ground, cloaking and control groups from StarCraft. It drops the chores: supply is fixed at 200 with no depots, selection is unlimited, and new harvesters find crystal themselves.
The economies differ. The Coalition Expedition and Desert Nomads need power, and their harvesters carry 700 and 550 crystal per trip. The Swarm has neither: an Absorption Nest beside any crystal field you can currently see draws 6 crystal a second, and the Hive trains every unit type.
1v1 maps are 96×96 tiles and point-symmetric; 2v2 maps are 128×128 with four identical corners. Main bases sit on cliff-ringed plateaus with two ramps, invisible from low ground, though any unit that fires is exposed to its target for 2 seconds.
Goal
Mine crystal, build a base and an army, and destroy every enemy building to win.
How it works
- Place a refinery: a harvester comes with it and mines crystal (your money) on its own.
- Destroy all enemy buildings to win. Low power halves production and defense speed.
Modes
Tutorial
About five minutes in 11 steps, as the Coalition: place three buildings, train and move five infantry, then lead four Walker Tanks against an outpost. Steps advance when you act; there is no worm.
Play against the computer
1 vs 1, or 2 vs 2 with a computer ally, at Easy, Normal or Hard. It runs in your browser, can be paused, and shows a seven-step objectives card from your first building to the enemy base destroyed.
Short match
A Duration option for practice and rooms: starting buildings, 8,000 crystal, 1.5× production, no superweapons, the worm at 1:30, and a score decision at 6:00.
Watch
Computers fight at ×1–×8 without fog while the camera follows the action.
Quick match (ranked)
Instant 1v1 under standard rules against whoever is waiting. Elo ratings start at 1000.
1 vs 1 room · 2 vs 2 room
Private rooms with a 4-character code and invite link. In 2v2, computers fill empty seats when the host starts, and teammates share vision.
Watch · Replays
Live matches 30 seconds behind, plus replays of online matches and saved practice files at ×1–×16 with rewind.
Controls
| Action | Mouse & keyboard | Touch | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Select | Click or drag a box; Shift adds; double-click picks the same type | Tap; long-press, then drag for a box | Left stick + A |
| Move, attack, harvest | Right-click; Shift queues | Tap ground or an enemy | X |
| Attack-move | A, then click | Attack button, then the ground | — |
| Stop, hold, deploy, repair, burrow | S · H · D · R · B | Buttons at the bottom | — |
| Control groups | Ctrl+0–9 assigns, 0–9 selects, twice jumps there | — | — |
| Army, harvesters, alert, base | F2 · F3 · Space · Home | All above the minimap | — |
| Produce and place | Click a card (Shift ×5), right-click cancels; click it when done, then rock near your base | Tap a card, long-press cancels; tap Place!, then rock | A on a card |
| Superweapon | Click the charged slot, then the target; Esc cancels | Tap the slot, then the target | B cancels |
| Camera, zoom, pause | Arrows, screen edge or middle-drag · wheel · P vs. computer | Drag · pinch · ⏸ | D-pad |
Tips
- From 2:30 the sandworm hunts anything moving on sand. Rock is safe.
- In a short match (6 min), when time runs out the side with more building and unit value plus crystal wins. In 2v2, teammates share vision.
Strategy tips
Match weapon to armor
Bullets do full damage to infantry but 20% to heavy armor and buildings; rockets 115% to heavy armor, 30% to infantry; cannons 35% to infantry; artillery half to heavy armor. A 250-crystal Missile Infantry hits an 800-crystal Walker Tank for about 34, a Power-Armor Infantry for 1.8.
Know who can shoot up
Walker Tanks, Rail Turrets, Sand Ghosts, Bladebugs, Carapace Bugs, Spine Tentacles and all Nomad vehicles cannot hit aircraft, nor can artillery splash. Answer air with rifle and rocket infantry, Acid Bugs, Interceptors, Gliders, Flyers or anti-air defenses.
Stack producers, keep power
A second building of a kind speeds its queue 1.4×, a third 1.8×, four or more 2.2×; construction yards count for buildings. Low power halves production, doubles defense reload time and stops superweapon charging.
Read the worm
Each second the worm checks 13 tiles for units on sand that moved in the last 2 seconds or harvesters mining; aircraft, burrowed Swarm and Nomad infantry are ignored. It hunts at 2.6 tiles a second for up to 20 seconds: a Hover Bike outruns it, no harvester can. When the sand heaves, move more than two tiles or onto rock. Fed, it rests 40 seconds.
Plant Thumpers in their field
A Thumper Trooper deploys (D) into a post on sand that calls the worm from anywhere for 20 seconds, even before it normally appears; it surfaces there and eats ground units on the surrounding sand. The post has 150 HP, so destroying it wastes the trip.
Ghosts show when they shoot
A Sand Ghost is hidden unless an enemy is within about 2 tiles, a detector covers it (Comm Tower 8 tiles, Watchtower 9, Spore Tentacle and Queen Bug 7), or it fired within 2 seconds. Reloading every 2.25 seconds, a Ghost that keeps firing stays mostly visible.
Capture, repair, sell
Engineers take enemy buildings at half health or less; captured barracks or yards unlock that faction's units or buildings. Sent into a friendly building, one restores it fully. Repair (R) costs 40% of the price over 25 seconds; selling refunds half, scaled by health.
Swarm builds where it sees crystal
An Absorption Nest needs only a visible spot with four or more crystal tiles around it, no nearby building. Since other buildings go within 3 tiles of any non-wall building, each nest opens a new build area.
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