diff --git a/suramadu/web/javascript/nls/en/msg.json b/suramadu/web/javascript/nls/en/msg.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6603e99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/suramadu/web/javascript/nls/en/msg.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "dialog.startingDialog": "Loading combat simulation"
+}
diff --git a/suramadu/web/lang.js b/suramadu/web/lang.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c7516cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/suramadu/web/lang.js
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/*
+ * Pin the frontend's language to English, before Suramadu's loader reads it.
+ *
+ * The boot screen's status line is not in this repo's markup - the client
+ * builds that dialog itself and fills it from a message table compiled into
+ * the bundle. The supported way to change a string is to serve a translation
+ * file the client merges over that table, per key:
+ *
+ *   javascript/nls/en/msg.json
+ *
+ * which is what suramadu/web/javascript/nls/en/msg.json is. No config change
+ * is needed for the server to find it. PrimaryUrlHandler routes anything under
+ * /javascript/nls to the app's langFolder first; that is unset here, so the
+ * lookup returns nothing and falls through to the web folder with the path
+ * intact - and the web folder is ours.
+ *
+ * The catch is which file the client asks for. It reads
+ * localStorage.webswingLang, falls back to navigator.language, and tries the
+ * result with the tag progressively shortened: en-US, then en, then it gives
+ * up. There is no locale-independent fallback. So a player on a de-DE browser
+ * asks for de, gets a 404, and sees upstream's "Starting your application"
+ * while everyone on an English browser sees ours - the kind of split nobody
+ * finds until a screenshot arrives from the wrong continent.
+ *
+ * Pinning the tag costs nothing to lose: the war ships no javascript/nls
+ * directory at all, so no locale resolves to a translation today, and every
+ * string in the bundle is English already. This only makes the file we do ship
+ * apply to everyone.
+ *
+ * Load order matters and is the one thing that can silently undo this: it must
+ * run before webswing-loader-stub.js, which is why index.html puts it directly
+ * above that tag rather than beside perf.js and flare.js at the end of the
+ * body. tests/shell/test-boot-screen.sh checks the order holds.
+ */
+(function () {
+  "use strict";
+  try {
+    if (window.localStorage.getItem("webswingLang") !== "en") {
+      window.localStorage.setItem("webswingLang", "en");
+    }
+  } catch (e) {
+    // Storage disabled or partitioned away. The client then falls back to
+    // navigator.language on its own, which is where it started; an English
+    // browser still gets our string, and any other sees upstream's default.
+    // Not worth failing the boot over.
+  }
+})();