Leader

Each player commands a single hero unit — the Leader. The Leader is the only piece under direct moment-to-moment control, free of the path/flow system. They aren't the main attacker; they're the swing piece that buffs the army, taxes enemy logistics, and turns flashpoint fights.

Spawn

• Leader does not exist at match start.
• Becomes available at T = 2 minutes; the player picks any owned tile as the spawn point, which becomes the new home base via the one-time base-relocation swap.
• The pre-leader window is the planning phase: no leader presence means no offensive incursions yet, so it's safe to set up your supply chain and pick a forward base location.

Movement & Control

• Leader is directly controlled by the player. Interaction details TBD — likely tile-by-tile under direct command, free of paths.
• Movement is independent of the path/flow system used by units.

Buff Aura

All friendly units within 2 tiles of the leader receive buffs. The aura affects every unit type — but the buff content is tailored per type so the leader genuinely supports whatever's nearby, not just the army:

Specific values per leader kit at M16. Implementation: aura is a TInstancedStruct<FAxonAuraSpec> carrying a per-unit-type buff map so per-leader kits can emphasize different unit types.

Leveling

The leader gains XP from:

• Combat — kills, claim assists, ability use.
• First-time tile visits — small XP trickle for stepping on a tile the leader has never been on before. Makes solo leader scouting tactically and progressively rewarding.
• Defeating special tiles — significant XP boost.

At an XP threshold the leader must return to the home base to apply the level-up. Positional commitment — you can't level up in the field.

Vulnerability Matrix

A leader is near-immortal in friendly and generic territory but vulnerable at flashpoints. Leaders being mutually vulnerable everywhere creates a cross-map hunting meta.

Leader as Supply-Line Tax

A leader parked on a passthrough tile of an enemy path damages transiting enemy units, but per-type pass-through rules apply:

• Army / Defender — take leader-source damage like any other pass-through hazard, continue walking. The classic supply-line tax.
• Gather / Engineer — take pass-through damage; cargo drops on death as a loose pile. Their flee-once mechanic only fires at path-leaf engagement, so a leader on an intermediate tile still chips them down.
• Scout — dies instantly on leader contact. The leader counts as a combat unit for the scout death rule, even though scouts are damage-immune to ordinary pass-through DoT.

A hero tax on enemy logistics is still a strong harassment role that doesn't require a full army diversion — and against enemy scouts, a tile-camping leader is an absolute scout-killer.

Combat Presence

• On a combat tile, the leader does not slow time.
• The player has a hot-bar of active abilities that can be triggered on top of the underlying combat ticks.
• Cooldowns and resource costs TBD per leader.
• Default ability scope: AoE on the leader's tile and adjacent tiles, with per-leader variance once kits are designed.

Death and Respawn

• Leader respawns at the home base after a timer.
• Timer escalates with each death in the match (MOBA-style).
• Specific formula TBD playtest.

Required Claim Role

The leader's presence is a major bonus to claiming enemy or special tiles, but is not strictly required. Units alone can grind through, slower and more costly. On generic tiles, the leader provides no claim bonus.

Roster

The full launch roster is 12 leaders with distinct ability kits and identities. The MVP ships 3 leaders; the remaining 9 land across Phase 3.

• Leader kits, abilities, identities — TBD
• Default leader↔army pairings — TBD