A field manual for FrontWars

Private lobbies: every option, and the button that waits

A private lobby is the only place the whole rulebook is exposed: seventeen options, a lobby code, and a start button that will not fire until a second human joins.

TESTEDthe Create Lobby panel and its Rules tab, read 2026-11-03
IN-GAMEevery option name and value, quoted from the panel
OFFICIAL ONLYSteam advertises private lobbies and a map editor without listing options
NEEDS CHECKwhether a host alone can ever start, and how far each slider goes

The Create Lobby panel on 2026-11-03: an eight-character Code, the note that a public game requires signing in, and Players 1 / 200 with the Start button greyed. — **What this shows** that the lobby code is generated for you and that the start button is disabled with one player, which is where our own testing stopped.Captured 2026-11-03Client v42.5Plate 1

The code

Eight characters, mixed case, generated per lobby. Two lobbies in a row gave FYRKdiua and pgQNEJXK. There is no field to type your own. A public game needs an account — the panel says so in plain words: Public game — Sign in to make your game public.

Rules & Options, in the order the panel prints them

Every option in a private lobby, 2026-11-03
Option	Values or default
Difficulty	Relaxed / Balanced / Intense / Impossible
Mode	Free for All / Teams
Economy mode	Classic / Fast
Bots	400
Nations	61 (Map default) — a slider, not a text field
Max players	200
Instant build	off
Infinite gold	off
Infinite troops	off
Mini map	off
Water nukes	off
Random spawn	off
Disable alliances	off
Starting gold (millions)	0
Gold multiplier	1×
Game length (minutes)	—
Enable settings	City, Defense Post, Port, Warship, Boat, Missile Silo, SAM, Atom, Hydrogen, MIRV, Factory

Three of those are sliders rather than switches — bots, nations and max players — which is how a host moves a 97-nation map towards a duel. The last row is the most consequential and the least discussed: every building and every warhead can be switched off for a lobby. Turning MIRV off removes a 35,000,000-gold option from everyone's build menu at once.

The button that will not fire

With one player in the lobby the start control reads Waiting for players… and is disabled. It is not a countdown and there is no override: a private lobby needs a second human, which is why the options above are documented here as names and values rather than as effects. We never ran one.

Where the nation counts come from

The NATIONS field is the only place in the whole client that prints a map's default nation count, and it only exists in this panel. That is the entire methodology behind the register on the maps page: open a private lobby, switch to Rules, pick a map, read seventeen numbers.

Last checked against the client: 2026-11-03 · client v42.5