Backburn

About Backburn

Explore the next six turns

Strategy Lab branches from the current map to compare keeping orders, holding ground crews, or resting once before resuming. Explore one to six turns and share the turn-by-turn differences.

• Open an active incident → Decision Desk → Strategy Lab.
• Choose a horizon from one to six turns and run strategy branches.
• Compare acres, fire cells, line added, structures, injuries and wind; return to your unchanged incident.

Each branch uses a copy of the incident and stops when it ends. Aircraft and previously placed treatments remain unchanged. Later player choices are not anticipated. This is a fictional game, not wildfire guidance.

Make the next turn count. Backburn is an offline wildfire incident-command strategy game for iPhone and iPad, with thirty authored incidents and a complete set of tools for trying, reviewing and learning from your decisions.

REHEARSE BEFORE ADVANCING
Decision Desk resolves the next turn in two separate copies: keep your current ground orders, or hold crews in place. Compare new acres burned, line completed, structure losses, injuries and remaining fire. Return to your orders without advancing the real incident or consuming its random sequence. Water, retardant and burnout already placed stay in both copies.

COMMAND THE MAP
Select and move resources, build line, place water or retardant, use burnout beside completed line and evacuate housing groups. Each Advance passes twenty minutes. Working crews gain fatigue; HOLD lets them recover. An authored weather schedule shows when winds shift, gust fronts arrive, inversions lift and spotting pressure increases.

PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF
Each scenario saves its current map, crew orders, weather, clock and random state. Resume from the main menu or incident briefing. Completed incidents can be reopened to review the report. Campaign scores, stars and settings remain local.

COMPARE YOUR ATTEMPTS
A restart keeps one previous attempt for that scenario. After completing the current attempt, compare both recorded timelines and their acres, structures lost and line completed at the same turn. Interrupted attempts are labeled separately from finished ones. Starting again replaces the older comparison.

LEARN FROM ACTUAL RESULTS
After-action reports state recorded growth, losses, injuries and score. Passing a scenario and extinguishing all fire are different outcomes. The Field Guide explains the actual tools, weather, scoring, storage and recovery behavior. Earn at least one star to progress through the campaign.

Thirty distinct incident maps, authored fuel models, changing light, seeded fire spread and spotting, resource rosters and housing groups create problems of timing and allocation. Play in landscape on iPhone or iPad. No account, advertising, subscription or in-app purchases; gameplay works offline.

Backburn is a fictional strategy game with a surface-fire model adapted for play. It is not a real-world fire forecast, emergency tool or professional training certification. There is no live weather feed or app-managed cloud synchronization. Support links open your browser.