What if Napoleon's last great trick was not a battle but a doorway to the stars? That is the hook behind Colonial Suns, a new Victorian science-fiction project just revealed by Wargames Atlantic. In their telling, Napoleon and his Old Guard summoned the first "Sky Whale" to Egypt in 1815 and found themselves on the alien world of Haarkuun weeks later. By 1866, humanity has had over 40 years to come to terms with a much bigger universe, and the nations of Earth are scrambling to plant flags across a dozen or more worlds.
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Find events near youIf you have ever bounced off steampunk, this one is pitched at you. Wargames Atlantic describes Colonial Suns as deliberately hard science: no aether, no breathable Mars or Venus, no brass goggles bolted on for flavour. The draw is alternate history played straight, with Realpolitik and the Great Game stretched across a stellar network, and shifting allegiances between Earth's powers and the native peoples they meet.
The miniatures are where it gets practical. The human factions will arrive as standard hard-plastic "Imperial Conquests" sets, which means the historical ranges get sci-fi opponents too. Alien races include the Haarkuunians, reworked from Oshiro Models' Martians into hard plastic, and the crab-like Krukari, mercenaries who hire out to humans and Haarkuunians alike and land first as digital files. According to OnTableTop, the first plastic kits and a three-faction game-in-a-box are targeted for 2027.
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Set up your group for freeThis is a long-term build rather than a campaign you can back tomorrow, with the first sets only now in tooling. Still, a grounded sci-fi setting with a proper plastic range behind it is a rare thing. Time to start planning a skirmish night for when it lands, and to find some opponents near you.
Sources: Wargames Atlantic | OnTableTop
