Sand Cannons

Sand Cannons is artillery on a plateau of sandstone columns standing in water. Everyone aims at once, every shell flies at once, and the ground is chewed away volley by volley until the water has most of it. Two things decide it: how well you read the wind, and where you are standing when the shooting starts.

A volley

Each volley gives you 20 seconds. For the first 10 you can walk, slowly, and hop up to three times with Space. Then everyone is rooted where they stand for the last 10. A three-second warning comes before the guns go, and once every human player has locked in, the wait drops to a second and a half.

Hold a weapon key to charge (about 1.4 seconds to full) and release to lock the shot, which roots you at once, even in the walking half. F cancels: it drops a charge you are winding up, or unlocks a locked shot, giving your feet back if the walking half is still running. On a phone, slide the holding thumb onto the Cancel target that appears, and let go. Still holding a key when time runs out fires whatever you have charged. Never pressing one fires nothing.

Then the shells fly and your camera rides yours down.

Aiming

The mouse turns you and raises the barrel, from 5 to 85 degrees. Once a click has locked the pointer, the left button fires the Cannon. The arrow keys aim too. While you charge, a line of dots shows the arc, ending in a landing ring with a beacon over it that only you can see. The ring turns red when someone is standing in the blast.

The arc is drawn with no wind. The arrow over everyone's head points the way the wind will push your shell and grows with its strength, and the status line gives the number. About one volley in seven is calm. In the rest, you aim off the ring by judgement.

Three shells

• Q, Cannon. 40 on a direct hit, and splash up to 32 within 3.2 metres.
• E, Digger. Only 15 on a direct hit and 12 splash, but its crater is nearly 10 metres across and up to 2.8 metres deep. A column dug to nothing becomes water.
• R, Cluster. Splits into three bomblets in the air, a second after launch at the latest, fanning out slightly. Each is worth up to 18.

Everyone has 100 health. A hit knocks you away from the blast, harder the more it hurt, and the water is instant elimination. Fall in within eight seconds of a hit and the kill goes to whoever hit you. Your own splash hurts you too.

Winning volleys

• Locking fixes only the power. Your turn and barrel angle stay live until the shells go, so lock a power you trust and keep fine-tuning the aim.
• The wind's push grows with the square of the time in the air. A high lob hangs in it far longer than a flatter shot over the same distance, so in a strong wind, shoot flatter.
• At 45 degrees on flat ground, half power carries about 18 metres and full power about 41.
• Dig rather than shoot at anyone on a low column by the water. The Digger takes the floor from under them.
• The Cluster forgives a poor wind read, and two rivals standing close together are its best target.
• Use the walking half to climb. Tall columns outlast craters and rising water.

Sudden death

From 1:30, or from 1:00 with 12 or more players, the water rises a metre after every volley and takes every column it reaches, and the wind blows about a third harder. The round runs 2:30 at most. If more than one player is left at the buzzer, damage dealt decides their order.

Plateau size

The plateau grows by 3 metres a side per player: 34 metres at 2 players, 52 at 8 and 76 at 16. Everyone starts on a tall column, no two closer than 8 metres. At 16 players a full-power shot falls short of the far side, so pick targets near you.