Burned Horizons

Burned Horizons is a turn-based tactical sandbox set in Ukraine in 2002. You serve as NAFOSEC’s operational lead, staging from a forward bivouac while managing contractors and leading your team through unscripted operations across open sectors. Persistent operator health, realistic ballistics and consequences that carry across the campaign shape each deployment.

Lead your squad

Combat uses action points, suppression, overwatch and interrupts. You can call in CASEVAC and reinforcements from the field, and switch between top-down, isometric and third-person perspectives. The default rules allow no health regeneration or easy exits, but Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) let you adjust threat levels, mechanical friction and campaign persistence, from an Iron Man baseline to a tailored mandate.

Your standing within NAFOSEC, other operators’ trust and your capacity for leadership are tracked through UCD, S-Grade and Cohesion (COHD). These systems affect one another: low S-Grade can make operators hesitate over your callouts, while strong COHD gives you tools to try to keep a squad together under fire. None guarantees success, and each can shift as the team responds to setbacks.

Wounds and SCARs

Wounds model physical trauma and physiological breakdown rather than a depleting health bar. Hits can damage tissue, sever arteries or break bones; a leg wound affects movement, while an arm wound affects a shooter’s ability to steady a rifle. You treat injuries with tourniquets and trauma stabilization, then call CASEVAC before an operator bleeds out. There is no automatic healing.

Combat can also leave lasting psychological effects called SCARs. They may build gradually over weeks or form after a single event, and their effects vary: an operator might become more capable, freeze during a room clear, fire before a stack is ready or return with anger that undermines the team’s trust. SCARs can combine unpredictably, so operators do not all carry the same experience of the war.

Equip your operators

Gear affects protection, handling and stamina. Armor plates protect only the areas they cover, chest rigs affect how quickly you can draw magazines, and heavy rucksacks drain stamina. You can customize weapons with components such as slings, mounts, optics and attachments that change ergonomics, muzzle rise and handling, then outfit the squad for the operation ahead.

Operators develop through what they do in the field and what experienced teammates pass on between operations. Core Attributes reflect their capacity to learn, while their actions shape their Pathways and Specializations over time. A designated marksman sent on repeated point-duty drops learns from that work rather than automatically improving their cold-bore shots. Operators gain proficiency through field execution rather than banked experience-point trees, and starting roles do not restrict what they can learn.

Persistent theaters

Your squad deploys across persistent theaters rather than isolated missions. The initial theater is RDC-TRIDENT, set in Ukraine at the start of a brutal Russian invasion. Victories shift front lines, failures ripple outward, and other theaters open as the campaign expands.

Key features

• Tactical combat with action points, suppression, overwatch and interrupts
• Physical wounding, without health bars or automatic healing
• Field calls for CASEVAC and reinforcements
• Armor and loadout systems covering plate carriers, rigs and rucksacks
• Weapon customization with real components, attachments and slings
• Pathway Specializations shaped by operators’ actions
• Squad trust and cohesion affected by shared experience
• Top-down, isometric and third-person perspectives
• Customizable SOP settings
• Modding support with sliders, toggles and more
• Persistent squads and campaign consequences