Sunburn Preview

I was hoping to have a Dark Horizon battle report for you last week, but unfortunately I have come down with COVID and have been isolating. So instead, lets take a look at our upcoming science fiction skirmish miniatures game; Sunburn.

Sunburn is a completely deterministic game; which is to say it doesn’t use randomisers of any kind to resolve attacks (though you might find the odd random table for generating inspiration outside of the game itself). Instead what happens to the target generally depends on their cover state and visibility. With no randomness involved games of Sunburn play out a little bit like Chess. You have to try and develop a position of advantage from your initial deployment and use your pieces’ abilities to out-think and outmanoeuvre your opponent.

The game fits in a small space (2′ x 2′ or thereabouts) and requires only 4 figures per player, making it ideal for fitting into club nights at a local game shop for example, or for fitting easily onto a regular dining table. Miniature figures from any manufacturer can be used, though we also hope to have a small range of miniatures for you eventually. Characters are defined by the actions that they can take in the game, and will each have four to choose from. Let’s take an example character, Six Gun, and have a look at them:

Six Gun – Advance, Hose, Sprint, Sneak.

This means that on any one turn, Six Gun can perform one of the actions listed above.

Advance will allow them to move and fire relatively inaccurately. If the target is in cover it will merely pin them (meaning they cannot activate this turn if they haven’t already), and if they are in the open the target will be wounded (out of the fight but might be able to recover if someone with the right skill can get to them).

Hose does not allow Six Gun to move, but it does allow them to fire inaccurately at two different targets with the same effects as above.

Sprint allows Six Gun to take two moves, so they can reposition themselves quickly.

Sneak only allows Six Gun to move once and without shooting, but the movement does not trigger Snapshot reactions. Snapshot is an action that allows you to break the normal flow of gameplay to take a shot at targets that move within your line of sight and is handy for keeping sections of the board covered.

Within a month or so there will be a free taster version of the game available for download; which will provide you with the rules of gameplay, a handful of sample characters and a limited set of actions. This should be enough for you to try the game out and see if you like it. We will also have sets of tokens and some basic terrain available for sale at the same time. The full version of the game will follow as soon as art has been finalised and a print run established.

We look forward to getting this great game into your hands as soon as we can!