I wanted to start a thread discussing torpedos. So I created a rambling word salad of disjointed thoughts typical of my style. Strap in Mr. Campos, what follows is a grammatical Mandalay Bay to the English language.

As I was saying... torpedo-torpado.

I had been thinking I'd do it once I had an ingenious modification to the rules to test out, but as time passed, I never found a formula that I felt had enough merit to present as an apt substitute. I scoured Full-Thrust, articles on TMP, and many other rulesets looking to nick ideas in order to cobble together "One Ordinance Rule to Rule Them All". My game design Sauron being rather weak in this case.

I've got a confession: I've had a love/hate relationship with torpedos in Silent Death for a long time. It started before I even cracked the 1st edition Silent Death Rulebook with "drone races" in Starfleet Battles.

On the one hand, the tactical game of cat and mouse movement and countermeasures played out on the board can only be done justice with the system as designed. On the other, it can bog down at times, get confusing tracking fiddly counters belonging to several players, stacks of cardboard chits that can at times accomplish very little, and at others give the impression that the hidden subtext to the game could read- "Silent Death: Torp Tactics".

There's more variation in SD: The Next Millennium ruleset for how to run torpedos than any other weapon system -to its benefit I suppose, as there is probably a broad spectrum of preferences as to how to play them.  Several pages (5) of the Fighter's Tactics Manual (1997)  discuss most things torp, though I'm not sure if that entire section is what the table of contents is referring to as the "Torpedo Essay" credited to Bob Mohney or not.

For my table these days, which is more or less just a pair of novice players having a scrap very occasionally, I've thought I could "fix" or homebrew a considerably more abstract variant that will lend itself better for our goals for a snappy and quick game by bringing a touch of modernity to this phase of the game.  The goal being maybe to get them off the table entirely (!) -sacrificing the above mentioned granular tactical area deterrent metagame torpedos bring to the table in exchange for streamlined simplicity, a.k.a. dumbing down, modernizing, etc. but that's a whole other topic/can of worms.

After a long time of tinkering and late-night epiphanies of replacement system ideas to test, to borrow the concept from the guru-kid at the Oracle's pad in the Matrix: "There is no spoon" (the spoon being any sort of de facto torp rule problem) I've learned to try and bend the spoon (change the rules) in a different light - "then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself". So all this time I've been kind of oblivious to the obvious-- In trying to make a skirmish game into a fleet game by putting too many ships on the table, I've forgotten for far too long what the essence of Silent Death really is: a dogfighting skirmish game.


It's an easy trap to fall into, and I've seen tabletop grognards like myself slog games down with too many pretty painted models from Napoleonics to you name it for the sake of epicness. Or maybe since I've been playing more video games than tabletop games for decades, I've lost touch with what feels right for a game, spoiled from computer-assisted math crunching. But if our game is a catholic school teacher with a penchant for the KISS principle, then the torpedo phase is the ruler in her hands ready to crack our knuckles the moment we get eyes for too many BPV. 


The fast flow present in a round of Astro/House Smash is what the system does best. The lore (and my die-hard habits) are why I chose to get back into it over newer games. I just lost sight somewhere along the way in approaching it in too much of a  Babylon 5: A Call to Arms/Starfleet Battles mindset a bit too much, which is funny, because I intrinsically knew it was the antithesis to those rulesets for years-- at conventions back in the day you could walk by a fleet game and again an hour later and see only a mild progression of the board position, whereas a Silent Death session has wildly progressed (if not into a second go-around by hour two even). I've been a zealot to this model of space action over the sometimes molasses-crawl pace of most other large class vessel systems since. (Disclaimer: I've not played modern takes like Armada, so maybe it's improved?) And just to add this point in fairness to StarFleet- It CAN be played at a reasonable pace with an appropriate set-up, but for some reason in my area at least, it's always too many players and too many ships. I have fun playing it still, but it doesn't scratch my itch for a good cinematic space clash.

Not to be entirely mistaken though, I still want to homebrew a separate Silent Death variant where the torpedo rules scale with larger points values without taking 5-6 hours to play (1-3 Warhounds + fighter escorts taking 1-3 hours, nothing too crazy). That should be something that might not cause a grub flare-up as long as it's sporadic and in an area of space that has been cleared of the Brood menace fairly adequately (though it's always a risk that makes captains uneasy). I've just figured out most of the "problem" I was seeing was of my design. I am also trying out some homebrew rules I've made out of personal preference that I'll post soon. I wanted to split this torp thing into a separate thread.
 
I've been playing variable speed out of habit forever but starting to want to mix things up with other types, or likely just the integrated list more and more lately. What about you? What is your favorite method for representing boom-sticks of the homing variety? Does the thought of a Lillith's entire Mk.50 magazine dumping all at once make you do the Alpha Strike Jig?

  +

"M'lord Grand Admiral, Sir?!"

Yes? What is it now?!"

"This just in from Intel Branch, M'lord! Assets report a heavy freighter, Narwhal class jumped out of the Dallas-Fort Worth system. Analyses of their vector places the ship on a direct course for our system, with an ETA of about 36 hours! Assets also reported that a short transmission was made in the clear just before the ship entered hyperspace. The transcript provided by Intel says that the message was 'As three is to one.' Intel chief told me that you would understand it's meaning... Shall I alert the defense grid?"

"Yes! Make sure that our fighter patrols are doubled, and that they know not to open fire on this ship, but to assume a prompt close escort around it and bring it here directly!"

"M'lord?"

"You heard me! Now get moving, Leftenant! Get those instructions out by a secure channel, and fast so some trigger-happy glory-seeker doesn't blast that ship into isotopes! We need what it is carrying, and we need it yesterday! Now MOVE!"

"Aye-aye, Sir!"

I was just dusting off the rules:

SPACs do 1d12
TPACs do 3d12
MPACs do 5d12

Is it right to think that Corvettes do 7d12, Frigates do 9d12 and Destroyers 11d12?

Note limited by the number of hit boxes a ship has got when ramming another.

I was thinking of a nice big armoured plate where larger ships just bounce smaller ships off and laugh.

Ram Plate

• Doubles Front DR for the purpose of Rams and Torpedo hits
  
• When ramming/rammed roll two pilot dice and pick one for outcome
  
• Ram plates fall off after the first critical to the front (leave debris marker)
  

Yep, you cannot make this one up.

Just bought 6 boxes of various ships for £50.  May 50+ minis.

I liked their 'transports' but the fun bit is is they are good size.

The problem is I saw the kickstarter advert, checked about etc, but I cannot find any catalogue listings.

IT’S A SALE!!! IT’S THE 2019 PRE TURKEY TURKEY SHOOT!!!


PLUS: THIS JUST IN!! NEWS AND UPDATES REGARDING
THE 3 TO 1 SCALE SHIP MODELS!!!

That’s right, Space Possums! It’s that time of year again! So we begin our update today with the start of our 2019 Pre Turkey Turkey Shoot Sale!! 

Starting TODAY all ships minis metal and plastic are 20% OFF from now until Midnight PST December 31st! 

So now is the time to reenforce your existing galaxy conquering squadrons, of start that space pirate swarm you’ve been itching to put together!!

Just use the code: turk2019 when you checkout of the Metal Express webstore, and remember, always watch for the Colosian diving on your from out of a wormhole!

NEWS AND UPDATES:

So we were very much excited about the idea of releasing the classic 3 to 1 scale resin models and funding that effort via Kickstarter. But as in all things new, there is a learning curve involved here. So we ran into a number of roadblocks we simply must address before we can even hope to proceed with anything quite so ambitious. So, we go to Plan B.

Plan B is in its own way a bit more ambitious. We’ve never been particularly happy with the metal Warhound models for two reasons. Firstly, the size. The metal Warhound miniatures next to our regular fighter miniatures are just too confounded dinky. Being so small by comparison, they frankly lack presence, the presence a bunch of fighter pilots being confronted with a lumbering 10,000 ton destroyer should experience fear and loathing over upon sighting. The other issues is the clumsiness of having a model precariously perched on two separate flight stands.

Now for those of you who have played with Warhounds on your board, you know what we’re talking about. So we aim to fix this state of affairs, starting with a larger Fletcher model, a beast cast in resin that sits on a two hex flight stand arrangement that makes the fighter minis look, well, rather mini by comparison. 

We’ll have more details next week as to how precisely we’re going to proceed with this project, but for now, let’s be clear on this: the masters have already begun to be cut, and they look just yummy!

Cheers!

The Metal Express Team

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALL CREWS TO YOUR FIGHTERS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL CREWS TO YOUR FIGHTERS! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!
 November 19, 2019 Edit
Metal Express — https://silent-death.mx
Press Release – for Immediate Distribution
Dateline: 19 November 2019

New Silent Death Miniatures to Be Released

Kickstarter campaign seeks to put extremely rare oversized spaceship minis back into production.

Metal Express is planning a Kickstarter campaign to resume production of large resin-cast versions of the miniatures from the popular tabletop science fiction space combat game, Silent Death. Originally developed by Iron Crown Enterprises, these ships were part of an effort to enhance the game by offering ships that were three times the size of the original minis. Unfortunately, only a few ships were ever produced, and in very small numbers. Today they are nearly impossible to find.
Now, Metal Express, which has continued selling Silent Death since the bankruptcy of Iron Crown, is turning to crowd-funding to make these ships available once again, including many that never saw production. “We discovered the masters during a recent move of our operations to Oregon,” says Leland Erickson, one of the partners running Metal Express. “If we can pull the funding together, we can offer these beautiful ships alongside our regular line of minis.” Erickson adds, “our funding campaign has an advantage because we don’t need to cover the expense of creating the masters. We have those in hand, right now. The funding will go towards creating molds and setting up production.”

Veteran mini sculptor and producer Chris Lynch has agreed to lend his expertise for making the molds and taking on production once the molds are complete. 
Erickson is excited about what’s to come; “This campaign is just the beginning, something to get us started. We have literally dozens of ships, most of which were never produced, that we hope to get out there for Silent Death fans who haven’t been able to buy them in almost two decades.”

Metal Express has not yet finalized the date or the terms of the Kickstarter campaign, but will make an announcement soon.  

All inquiries should be directed to Mr. Erickson at the contact information given below:

Email:                      blackwidowpilot@mac.com

Facebook:            https://www.facebook.com/SilentDeathTNM/
[url=https://www.facebook.com/SilentDeathTNM/][/url]
Instagram:           #Silent_Death_Metal_Express

###

If anyone happens to be in NYC the Compleat Strategist still sells Silent Death books. I came across them today and picked up a few. I know you can can everything online but its nice to have physical books now and then.

Harking way back to August, I received my correct order that was placed in July. No issues, right? Well, yesterday I received a familiar package. Turns out this package was an exact duplicate of the correct order. How is it a problem? Well, I only placed two orders and I got a third.  I'm pretty sure there is not a, "place two orders and get a third, free!" deal going on.

What's even more odd, is that it has a different invoice number than the previous order. So it's definitely not a re-print. I don't know what's going on in Canada; but something, some where, is in need of fixing. Or, at least, a through investigation.

Heya,

So here's the thing - I love Silent Death (own every pdf rule sourcebook - back when they were sold as a great big bundle - Looooong ago) and I also love 3d printing. I've noticed that there has been some companies beginning to experiment with releasing their mini's as stl's for people to print up their own mini's (just look at Fat Dragon Games over at DriveThru, but their are others - the KS edition of Star Eagles was arule set + both resin cast or STL releases for their minis) 

I'm wondering if there has ever been thought given to making "official" stl's of the Silent Death range and selling the files via a place like DriveThru? I's probably put myself down as a "lifer" at anywhere between $5-8 per ship released this way as it would be AWESOME to consider having the whole range to print up. 

I know that it could ding the bottom line for your cast models, but I do wonder if it would perhaps bring an even bigger following INTO the game as 3d printers are out there and folks are going nuts with them especially in the wargaming / miniatures space.  I've got a print cue a MILE long of files I've purchase that are just begging to find time to make it to my build plate

If the thought were to be not wanting to hurt the existing models range, what about the creation of something almost like "official" releases carrying the Silent Death moniker (built using the builder rules from the books) and maybe even test the idea for releases that would combine a "ship pack" of a print file + stat/fluff card record sheet and see?

Curious if the thought has ever been / might ever be on the "burner?" 

Weirdly enough (and frankly this may just be a glimpse into my own dysfunctions) but I've always wanted to own the entire range  of mini's but likely will never be able to self justify doing so (if nothing else the storage space involved especially when you CANNOT own just one of most anything - I mean you need wing men right?) and so likely will never attempt to do so... but I could absolutely see myself buying stl's over time or in a great big (Kickstarter release??) pack and dropping on the whole line and not even bat an eye - it's not necessarily the having the physical model, it's about the "ability" to create a flight to mix into a campaign squadron... 
dysfunctional, probably... but an insight into a guy that now owns close to 280GB of stl's for printing and likely doesn't have enough lifetime to print everything I'd like to...