Black Sun: Components

Black Sun is a custom-made hex boardgame, made earlier this year. This is one of a set of three posts about the game.

These are the components for the boardgame Black Sun. This game does not exist in a commercial form, so if you want to try playing it, you’ll need to make or jury-rig the following components. Alternatively, you could make a digital version.  I am happy for anyone to do so provided they do not commercially exploit the game, which remains copyrighted to me.

 
Hexes

The hexes in my set were made by spray painting, flecking, hand-painting and then varnishing some 90 mm custom made hexes, which were laser cut from 100 micron (1 mm) cardstock.

The game uses:

3 Suns (Yellow Sun, Red Giant, White Dwarf)

3 Gas Giants

6 Terrestrial Planets (numbered 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and13)

4 Terrestrial Binary Planets (numbered 6, 7, 14 and 15)

2 Terrestrial Trinary Planets (numbered 5 and 6)

6 Asteroids

15 Space

 

My set actually has 24 Space hexes. It’s not a bad idea to make more than you need. 

Starting Faction Cards

In my set, these are hand-written on 3.5” x 2.25” white Dutch Ivory board cards. Each card specifies:

     Name of the player’s Faction
     Names and numbers of all ships this Faction controls
     Scoring conditions for this Faction
     Special Ability, if any

Ships which are indestructible are marked with an asterisk.

Lone Smuggler Captain

1 Freighter *

Need = 1 Point
Run Blockade = 1 Point

Spend 1 Point to take a second Turn
 

Gang of Brigands

3 Raiders
1 Secret Base

Need = 1 Point
Raid Transport = 1 Point

 
Syndics of the Merchant Guild

8 Transports
1 Yacht *

Need = 1 Point

 
Medics Guild

3 Ambunauts
3 Medsats *

Crisis = 1 Point

You get 3 initial placements

 
Rebel Commander

7 Carriers
3 Destroyers

Crisis Turn = 1 Point
     (i.e. 1 point at the end of turn if there is a Rebel ship at a Crisis)
Destroy Alliance Ship = Points value

May Move Two Fleets

 
Alliance General

7 Destroyers
1 Battleship

Peaceful Turn = 1 Point
     (i.e. 1 point at the end of turn if there is an Alliance ship at each Crisis, or no Crisis)
Destroy Rebel Ship = Points value

 
Ship Cards

In my set, these are hand-written on 3.5” x 2.25” white Dutch Ivory board cards. Each card specifies:

     Name of the Ship
     Special Ability, if any
     Move
     Fight

Ships which are indestructible are marked with an asterisk.

 
Freighter

Requires 5 Moves to Locate at Planets
             or 7 Moves in Asteroids

Move 4, Fight 2 *

 
Raider

Requires 5 Moves to Locate at Planets
             or 7 Moves at Asteroids

Move 3, Fight 1

 
Secret Base

Skip Turn: Rebuild all Raiders
Requires 7 Moves to locate
           or 10 Moves in Asteroids

Move 2, Fight 3

 
Transport

If Destroyed, Place 1 Need

Move 2, Fight 1

 
Yacht

 Move 4, Fight 0 *

 
Medsat

Skip Turn: Rebuild 1 Ambunaut
May declare Amnesty

Move 0, Fight 0 *

 
Ambunaut

If Destroyed, Place 1 Crisis
May Sacrifice to negate Damage

Move 3, Fight 0

Destroyer (2 copies; one for the Alliance General, one for the Rebel Commander)

Move 2, Fight 2

 
Carrier

Move 3, Fight 1

 
Battleship

Can engage in Raids in neighbouring hexes

Move 1, Fight 6

 
Faction Cards

These cards allow players to alter their scoring conditions during the game. In my set, these are hand-written on 3.5” x 2.25” white Dutch Ivory board cards. Each card specifies:

      Name of the Faction
      Additional scoring conditions for this Faction
     Restrictions, if any

Each player needs one of each Faction cards. In my set, Rebel/Allied are on different sides of the same card, and Rogue/Hunted are on different sides of another card.

 
Rebel

Destroy Allied Ship = Points value

You cannot become Allied
You cannot Raid other Rebels

 
Allied

Destroy Rebel Ship = Points value

You cannot Raid other Allied

 
Rogue

Run Blockade = 1 Point

If any other player Destroys or Captures any of your ships, they score 1 Point

 
Hunted

Raid any Ship = 1 Point

If any other player Destroys or Captures any of your ships, they score Points value
You cannot become Rogue

 
Counters

I haven’t found my perfect set of counters yet. What I’d like is some kind of counter that can be Yellow on one side and Red on the other, so that Status changes can be affected by just flipping over the counter. I’m guessing we’ll eventually have to make something suitable.

Need Counters

You will need about a dozen (ideally yellow) Need counters.

Crisis Counters

You will need about half a dozen (ideally red) Crisis counters.

Scoring

You will need a mechanism of scoring up to 10 points per player.

Oh yes, and one more thing...

Dice

Twelve six-sided dice is recommended, although you may need up to eighteen in the most titanic of space battles.

Any questions about the components, feel free to ask! 

Comments

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[RodeoClown]

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[Chris]

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I've decided to leave this spam comment in because it's just completely bizarre and surreal! If only all spam was this amusing...

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