Scramline: free turn-based squad tactics in your browser

Scramline (Heatsink Tactics) is a turn-based squad tactics game on a 3D board. You command a squad of Wardens holding Sink Nine, a geothermal plant on the volcanic moon Calder, against the Rime, a cold hive that hunts heat. It is free and plays in your browser, on a phone or a desktop.

What you do

Every weapon builds heat, heat draws the hive, and a hot gun can backfire in your hands. You move soldiers one by one, line up shots, and keep your squad cool enough to stay hidden while you burn out the Rime’s nests. Every number you are gambling on is shown before you commit.

Game modes

• Campaign. Four Wardens against the Rime, sector after sector. Sectors have one of three objectives (Purge, Retrieve or Beacon), and a Sovereign guards every fourth.
• Co-op campaign. Two players share the campaign on one device, two soldiers each, taking turns. A cover screen hides the board between turns.
• Skirmish: squad vs squad. Each side human or CPU, so you can play a friend on the same device (hotseat) or the computer. An optional hive interference adds Rime nests that attack both squads.
• Skirmish: squad vs hive. Pick the objective and a threat level. Either side can be the human one, so you can play the Rime yourself: you choose what each ripe nest births and where.

How a turn works

Each soldier has 4 action points (AP). Tap a soldier, then a highlighted tile to move: a step costs 1 AP, in eight directions, and the highlight shows what each tile costs. Tap an enemy to preview the shot, with the hit chance, damage and backfire risk, then fire. Vent, Patch, Jump and Overwatch spend AP too, and unspent AP is lost when you end the turn. Undo takes back moves and turns within your turn (not on Ironman).

Fog of war is on by default: you see only what your squad sees, teammates share their view, and a grey ghost marks where you last saw an enemy.

Heat and backfire

Every shot adds 1 heat. Each weapon is cool for a set number of shots, and the gauge shows the limit. Past it, every shot risks a backfire: 20% plus 20% for each extra point of heat, up to 90%. A backfire loses the shot, drops your heat to 0, jams the weapon for 2 turns and hurts you for 3. Vent spends 1 AP to shed 2 heat. Overcharge multiplies damage by 1.5 for 2 heat and a higher risk. Seven weapons and seven pieces of gear change how you play it; the field manual has every number.

The Rime

The Rime senses every soldier with heat above 0, anywhere on the map. A cold soldier is seen only the usual way, by a creature with a line of sight. Bloom nests and the Sovereign birth new creatures every few rounds: Skitters, Spitters, Brutes, Husks and Bulwarks. A creature never hits on its own turn. It moves, then marks a frosted tile with the damage it will deal, and every mark lands at the start of the Rime turn, so you can step out of the way, kill the striker, or let something sturdy stand there.

The campaign and salvage

Twelve sectors lead to the Core Well; win sector 12 and the campaign is won. Eight more sectors lead down to the Taproot at sector 20, and the deep sectors go on after it, as far as your squad can last. Plant integrity is the campaign’s lives: 4 on Easy, 3 on Standard, 2 on Ironman. A sector lost on time costs 1 and is fought again on a new map. Lose the whole squad and the campaign ends.

Survivors keep their rank, perks and kills into the next sector, and each rank brings a new perk. New weapons and gear open as you go deeper. Campaign kit costs salvage: a sector won pays 4, each nest burned pays 1 more, and a large sector pays 2 more. Spend it at the briefing on weapons and gear; a fallen soldier’s kit is lost with them. Skirmish has everything from the start, free.

Phones and desktops

Scramline runs in any recent browser with WebGL 2, on a phone, a tablet or a computer. On touch screens you tap, drag to orbit the camera and pinch to zoom; with a mouse you click, drag, scroll to zoom, and Q and E rotate the view in quarter turns. A Graphics quality setting (Low, Medium, High) and a Reduced motion option are in Settings. Sound is synthesized in the browser, so there is nothing extra to download.

Questions

Is Scramline free?

Yes. It is free to play, with no ads and no account.

Do I need to download anything?

No. Open scramline.com and play. There are no apps yet; phone apps may follow later.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes, in a modern phone browser. Controls are built for touch, and the battle panel can be shrunk in portrait.

Are my saves kept?

Your campaign and any battle in progress are saved automatically in your browser, on this device. Clearing the site’s data in your browser deletes them. There is no cloud save and no sign-in, so progress does not move between devices.

Is there online multiplayer?

Not yet. Co-op and squad vs squad share one device. Online play is planned, not available.

Who makes it?

Scramline is published by Halfsky Publishing. See the privacy policy for how statistics work.