The hand may stand at the board's left (preference)

A player asked for cards down the side instead of along the bottom.
With the new pref on (wide screens only), the hand claims a sticky,
scrolling column at the left while the hint strips and action buttons
stay beneath the board — the table-edge dissolves into the grid so its
children place themselves. The strip moves inside the .game grid to
make that possible; the default bottom layout spans the full row as
before, and phones keep their one-column flow.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015RCWSTnb1KYTPyL4GmhGnF

packages/web/src/App.svelte

@@ -1497,6 +1497,11 @@
             onchange={(e) => setPref("instantReplay", e.currentTarget.checked)} />
           <span>Instant replay: notable chronicle lines offer a 👁 that relives the turn</span>
         </label>
+        <label class="pref-row pref-check">
+          <input type="checkbox" checked={prefs.handLeft}
+            onchange={(e) => setPref("handLeft", e.currentTarget.checked)} />
+          <span>Hand at the left: your cards stand in a column beside the board (wide screens)</span>
+        </label>
         <label class="pref-row pref-check">
           <input type="checkbox" checked={prefs.cautions}
             onchange={(e) => setPref("cautions", e.currentTarget.checked)} />
@@ -1986,7 +1991,7 @@
       </div>
     </section>
   {:else if view}
-    <div class="game">
+    <div class="game" class:hand-left={prefs.handLeft}>
       <section class="board-zone">
         <div class="table-stack" class:fpv-primary={prefs.liveFp && !!view.you && !net.spectating}>
         {#if prefs.liveFp && view.you && !net.spectating}
@@ -2249,7 +2254,6 @@
           </form>
         {/if}
       </aside>
-    </div>
 
     <div class="table-edge">
       {#if ambushVia}
@@ -2558,6 +2562,7 @@
         {/each}
       </div>
     </div>
+    </div>
   {/if}
 </div>
 {/if}
@@ -3036,6 +3041,32 @@
     min-height: 0;
   }
   .board-zone { display: flex; align-items: flex-start; justify-content: center; min-width: 0; }
+  /* Hand at the left: the cards stand in their own column beside the
+   * board while the hint strips and action buttons stay beneath it —
+   * the strip dissolves into the grid so its children place themselves.
+   * Phones keep the bottom hand; the one-column flow re-orders anyway. */
+  @media (min-width: 901px) {
+    .game.hand-left {
+      grid-template-columns: minmax(9.6rem, 10.4rem) minmax(340px, 1fr) minmax(250px, 330px);
+    }
+    .game.hand-left .table-edge { display: contents; }
+    .game.hand-left .table-edge > * { grid-column: 2; min-width: 0; }
+    .game.hand-left .table-edge > .hand {
+      grid-column: 1;
+      grid-row: 1 / span 6;
+      flex-direction: column;
+      align-items: center;
+      align-self: start;
+      position: sticky;
+      top: 0.5rem;
+      max-height: calc(100dvh - 5rem);
+      overflow-y: auto;
+      overflow-x: visible;
+      padding: 0.3rem 0.3rem 0.9rem;
+    }
+    .game.hand-left .board-zone { grid-column: 2; grid-row: 1; }
+    .game.hand-left .paper-rail { grid-column: 3; grid-row: 1; }
+  }
   /* The first-person pane wears exactly the board's width, right above
    * it: the stack shrink-wraps to the board, and width:0 + min-width
    * keeps the pane out of the intrinsic sizing so the BOARD alone
@@ -3220,6 +3251,7 @@
   .moment-eye:hover { opacity: 1; }
 
   .table-edge {
+    grid-column: 1 / -1;
     margin-top: 0.9rem;
     display: flex;
     flex-direction: column;

packages/web/src/prefs.svelte.ts

@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ export interface Prefs {
   instantReplay: boolean;
   /** The live first-person pane above the board during play. */
   liveFp: boolean;
+  /** The hand of cards stands in a column at the board's left instead of
+   * lying along the bottom (wide screens only). */
+  handLeft: boolean;
 }
 
 const KEY = "wizwar-prefs";
@@ -29,7 +32,7 @@ const KEY = "wizwar-prefs";
 function load(): Prefs {
   const fallback: Prefs = {
     art: "photo", autoGrab: false, flourishes: true, wizardName: "", color: null,
-    cautions: true, botTier: "adept", instantReplay: true, liveFp: false,
+    cautions: true, botTier: "adept", instantReplay: true, liveFp: false, handLeft: false,
   };
   try {
     const raw = localStorage.getItem(KEY);
@@ -45,6 +48,7 @@ function load(): Prefs {
       botTier: p.botTier === "apprentice" || p.botTier === "archmage" ? p.botTier : "adept",
       instantReplay: p.instantReplay !== false,
       liveFp: p.liveFp === true,
+      handLeft: p.handLeft === true,
     };
   } catch {
     return fallback;