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Copyright © 1997 byIron Crown Enterprises.All rights reserved.No reproductions withoutthe express writtenconsent of Iron CrownEnterprises. Produced anddistributed by Iron CrownEnterprises, Inc.,P.O. Box 1605,Charlottesville, VA 22902.Phone: (804) 295-4280.Fax: (804) 977-4811.Internet e-mail:askice@aol.comwalsfeo@aol.com

Fighter Tactics

CreditsICE Staff:CEO: Bruce Neidlinger;President: Pete Fenlon;Managing Editor: Coleman Charlton;Sales Manager: Deane Begiebing;Sales, Customer Service and Operations:

Becky Blanton, Arthur Brill, Steve Hardy,Olivia Johnston, Dave Platnick,Karina Swanberg, Monica Wilson;

Print Buying and Rights Director:Kurt Fischer;

Editing, Production, and Development:John Curtis, Donald G. Dennis,Wendy Frazer, Jason Hawkins,Bob Mohney, Nick Morawitz,Jessica Ney-Grimm, Michael Reynolds;

Shipping and Receiving: Dave Morris,Daniel Williams, Chad McCully.

Original System Design: Kevin BarrettFighter Tactics Authors: Sheldon Greaves,

Ph.D & Leland EricksonTorpedo Essay: Bob MohneyCover Illustration: Quinton HooverInterior Illustrations: Glenn AngusMiniatures Sculptor: Bob NaismithSeries Editor: Donald G. DennisManaging Art Direction: Jessica Ney-GrimmArt Direction: Jason O. HawkinsAssisting Art Direction: Donald G. DennisPagemaking: Steven Arensberg,

Sherry RobinsonCover Graphics: Wendy FrazerProduction Assistants: Ben Dooley,

John McMullenProofreading: Steven Arensberg,

Craig O’BrienShip Display Illustrations: Dan Cruger

™Manual

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Table of Contents

Playtesters:Castle Archon:

Jim Eisert, AndrewThompson;

Ottawa Redshirts:Richard Dufault,Glen Simpson, ScottMacGregor, GeorgeMacLure, Brad Hector,Michael Smith.

Starbase 1: PaulWaite, Ian Deeks, OllieDeacon, Trevor Jones,Phil Trott.

APC: Alex ArmstrongMike ZebrowskiJesse BeckerScott Crandall

Introduction. ...................................................... 3Four Basic Tactical Concepts. ....................... 4

Basic Concept 1: Superior Force Wins ............. 4Buying Good Pilots and Gunners .......................... 5Establishing “Local Superiority” ........................... 5

Basic Concept 2: Teamwork BeatsIndividual Heroics ........................................... 6The Wingman System ............................................ 6The Diamond Formation ....................................... 6The Finger Four ..................................................... 7Other Formations .................................................. 8Disrupting Formations .......................................... 9

Basic Concept 3: Have a Plan .......................... 10Planning for Disaster ........................................... 10Planning for Lucky Breaks .................................. 11

Basic Concept 4: Know Your Enemy! ............. 12Understanding Fighter Types .............................. 13Gunboats .............................................................. 14Learning by Experimentation .............................. 14

Basic Tactical Concept Exercises .................... 14Weaponry. ......................................................... 15

Warheads - Missiles ......................................... 15Warheads - Torpedoes ...................................... 15

Evading Torpedoes ............................................... 15Evading Torpedoes Without Disrupting

Your Formation ................................................. 17Attacking With Torpedoes .................................... 18Coordinating a Multiple-Ship Torpedo Attack .... 19Using Torpedo Spreads to Disrupt

Enemy Formations ........................................... 20Hiding Behind Your Torpedoes ............................ 20

Cannon Fire ..................................................... 22Scoring a Hit, or, a Discrete

Dissertation on Dice ......................................... 22Combined Arms - Using a Mix of Weapons ......... 25Don’t Forget Your Tailgunner! ............................ 26

Weaponry Exercises ......................................... 27Situational Tactics. ......................................... 28

Loss of Initiative .............................................. 28Coping With Battle Damage............................ 29Using Attrition Fighters .................................. 29Fun With Gunboats ......................................... 30

Using Gunboats .................................................... 30Attacking Gunboats ............................................. 30

Fighting With Inferior Numbers .................... 31Using Elite Forces ........................................... 31Diversions, Traps, and Feigned Retreats ......... 32Situational Tactics Exercises ........................... 32

Campaign Tactics. ........................................... 33Assembling Your Flight Crews ........................ 34Building Squadrons That Work Together ....... 35

Choose Your Weapons .......................................... 35Keeping the Mission in Mind .......................... 36Intelligence Gathering .................................... 36Campaign Tactics Exercises ............................ 37

Squadron Profiles. .......................................... 38Sadroos Star Riders ......................................... 38

Kali’s Children ...................................................... 38The King’s Messengers .................................... 39The Lynch Mob ................................................ 40

Scenarios. ......................................................... 42Scenario 1: The Piranha Gambit ..................... 42Scenario 2: Catch As Catch Can! ..................... 43Scenario 3: Space Billiards! ............................. 45

Answers to Exercises. .................................... 46 Basic Tactical Concepts ....................................... 46 Weaponry ............................................................. 46 Situational Tactics ............................................... 46 Campaign Tactics ................................................ 47

For Further Reading. ..................................... 48Worksheets. ...................................................... 50

Helpful Aids Summary Chart ......................... 50Fighter Designs. ............................................. 51

Bat ........................................................................ 51Algol Systems A-117 “Stinger” ............................ 51Herrera Consortium A-97 “Chupacabra” ............ 52Dionysia Dynamics P-401 “Shark” ...................... 52Grivas Armaments EX-198 “Black Widow” ......... 53Homme Industries GBX-1 “Nemesis” ................. 53

Costs for Maneuverable andVariable Speed Torps ...................................... 54

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Introduction“Nothing so comforts the militarymind as the maxim of a great but deadgeneral.”

—Barbara W. TuchmanThis manual discusses some principles

and techniques designed to improve yourplay at the gaming table. In researchingwhat you are about to read, we drew a lotof inspiration from the experience of real-life fighter pilots, and history’s great stra-tegic thinkers. Many of the same factorsthat contributed to victory in historic airbattles can strengthen your play on thegaming table.

If you’ve played Silent Death before, thisbook is for you. Whether you’re a newcomeror a seasoned veteran, especially if you’vebeen soundly thrashed a few times, chancesare you will learn something from this book.If nothing else, this book can help cut yourlosses or salvage a situation on those dayswhen Lady Luck turns out to be AWOL.

Except where we note otherwise, thismanual will assume that only the basicrules are in play. If you use optional rules,you will have to allow for the resultingchanges in the tactics of the game. Someof the things we suggest will not work inthe same way. If you are new to SilentDeath, or if you do not have a workingknowledge of the basic rules, purchase andreview a copy of the Silent Death: The NextMillennium rulebook until you are thor-oughly familiar with it. Play a few solitairegames to make sure you understand thedifferent phases in a turn and know therules well enough that you do not have tolook something up every other minute. Justknowing the rules can improve your playby reducing confusion and distractions.

We do not guarantee that you will alwayswin if you study this book, but you willprobably win more often, and when youlose, you will not lose as badly. Most im-

Fools Do NotLast Long

Warrant OfficerSoohas Shah, 1134thInterceptor Wing,Kashmiri Common-wealth, rolled hisHellbender violentlyto port as he dodged aColosian torpedo thatwas closing fast on hisship. The Colosians inthis sector were traderivals of the Common-wealth for the lucra-tive Icegem trade.What had been apeaceful, if mutuallywary and tense, tradecompetition for nearlya year had turnedviolent within the last25 Standard Hours. AColosian attack group,attempting to passthemselves off as

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pirates, attacked whatthey thought was alightly defendedCommonwealthfreighter only todiscover that they hadpicked a fight with aCommonwealth Q-ship carrier. Aftersome persuasion thesurviving Colosianshad become verytalkative indeed.

Now, it was theCommonwealth’s turnto employ a little“hard sell” of theirown, which was whySoohas and hissquadronmates wereengaged in a swirlingbrawl around a criticalColosian refuelingstation.

Soohas spotted Raji,one of his squadronmates in a damaged

portantly, you will learn to understand whyyou goofed, and avoid those mistakes nexttime.

You will notice that we have scatteredsome favorite quotations from some ofhistory’s most profound military thinkersthroughout this book. We do not expect youto memorize them as you would the rules ofthis game. We intentionally included somequotes that disagree with each other. We didthis in order to get you to think about strat-

egy and tactics, and develop your own ideas.Remember, no school of tactical thinkingwill have all the answers, and tacticians whoclaim to have them eventually get a rudeawakening. It’s just a matter of time. If youuse what we present here to create a unique,effective style of play, then this book will haveserved its purpose.

Good Hunting!Sheldon GreavesLeland Erickson

Four Basic TacticalConcepts

Fas est et ab hoste doceri.(“It is right to be taught, even by anenemy.”)

—Ovid, Metamorphoses, iv, 8 ADSilent Death is a fast-paced, action-filled

game where a lot can happen in a few turns.The game is designed to reward aggressiveplay. Newcomers soon learn, however, thatthere is a fine line between “aggressive” and“reckless. “Fighting hard is no substitutefor aggression directed by careful planningand skillful execution. Throughout eachgame you need to constantly examine theadvantages and disadvantages, thestrengths and weaknesses of the forces inplay. When you’re sizing up the situation,here are some things to ask yourself:• Who has better formation integrity?• Who has the higher levels of pilot and/

or gunnery skill?• Who is faster?• Who is easier to hit?• Who can take more punishment?• Which side has weapons that reach

further?• Which side can do more damage per hit?• What positional advantages exist, and

who has them?As you ponder these questions during a

game, you will see opportunities and prob-lems. The basic tactical concepts that fol-low will help you make the best use of yourforces. These concepts are:

• Superior force wins.• Teamwork beats individual heroics.• Planning pays.• Know your enemy.

The next sections explain these conceptsin greater detail.

Basic Concept 1:Superior Force

Wins“The more you sweat in peace, the lessyou bleed in war.”

—Chinese proverbSound combat tactics make the differ-

ence between victory and defeat. Most win-ning tactics involve attacking youropponent’s weaknesses with yourstrengths. Ultimately, most successful tac-tics come down to three simple words: su-perior force wins.

“Superiority” comes in many forms.“Superior force” is not just numerical su-periority; one fully-loaded Salamander is agood match for three or four Pit Vipers. Agunner with a skill level of 9 is likely toscore more hits than two gunners with skilllevels of 2. A small group of fighters work-ing as a team can outfight a similar or evena larger group that tries to dogfight as in-dividuals.

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Lance Electra attempt-ing to disengage fromthe fight. Raji had justadded a new dockingport to the refuelingstation by planting aspread of protoboltsinto one of the sta-tions storage fuel cells.“Very colorful!”thought Soohas.

The Lance Electrawas in trouble; dam-aged, her power curveflattening, and out ofeverything but a PulseLaser, having lost hiswingman. Now Rajihad gained the unwel-come attention of alone Colosian ThunderBird. Soohas signaledhis wingman, Sadroo,the two Common-wealth Hell Bendersturned hard over and

Buying Good Pilotsand Gunners

“To lead an untrained people to war isto throw them away.”

—Confucius, Analects, xiii, c. 500 BCOne quick way to improve your chances

of success is to use high-quality pilots andgunners. Do not skimp on skill. If you havethe option to do so, spend the points andget the very best! Since gunners fire beforepilots, if you have to cut corners, spendmore on gunners than on pilot gunneryskill, and keep the piloting skill as high aspossible. How good is “good enough”? Ifyou’re worried about dodging torpedoes,piloting skill should be as high as you canafford. If you’re more concerned about tightturn costs or getting the highest possibleAttack Die Bonus, a piloting skill of 7 isenough for a D4 on tight turns. A gunneryskill of 9 is the minimum necessary to geta D10 ADB.

Establishing “LocalSuperiority”

“A general-in-chief should ask himselffrequently in the day, ‘What would Ido if the enemy’s army appeared nowin my front, or on my right, or my left?’

If he has any difficulty in answer-ing these questions, his position is bad,and he should seek to remedy it.”

—Napoleon Bonaparte,Maxims of War, 1831

History is filled with examples wheresuperior tactics and training allowedsmaller fighting forces overcome largerones. During the Battle of Britain inWorld War II the smaller Royal Air Forceused radar and intercepted Germancommuniqués to concentrate their fewerplanes where they could do the most dam-age to the Luftwaffe. The British createdsmall zones where they held “local superi-ority,” inflicting losses that gradually addedup. Likewise, the tiny Finnish Air Forceachieved startling kill ratios as high as 32

to 1 against their larger, better equippedSoviet adversaries. The Finns, however, hada strong advantage in smart combat tac-tics and incomparable pilot training.

Establishing zones where you have localsuperiority is key to dominating the game.There are many, many different ways toaccomplish this, some of which are listedbelow. The rest of this manual will developthese and other ideas in greater detail, ex-plain ways to use them, and give you achance to experiment with how they work.A few ways to gain local superiority are:• Superior pilot/gunner vs. inferior pilot/

gunner• Firepower directed at a target frontage

with no return-fire capability• Attacking so as to avoid enemy support-

ing fire• Using long-range fire if it exceeds the

longest range weapons of your opponent• Splitting or scattering a fighter group,

or separating a gunboat or frigate fromits escorts

• Ganging up on stray craft• Deploying your forces so that any craft

that gets attacked will be set upon by an-other ship

• Winning initiative in an otherwise evenfight

• An ambush (if the rules in use allow forit)

• Timing torpedoes from multiple fight-ers so they impact a common target atthe same time getting maximum effectfor minimum effortThe common thread in most of these

ideas is that you do everything you can tooverwhelm the defenses that are directlyunder attack. If two fighters gang up onone fighter instead of going one-on-onewith two other fighters, one enemy fighterwill be unscathed, but chances are it willhave to face 1:2 odds next turn. Find theweakness, hit it as hard as you can, and youwill gain an advantage. Remember: Supe-rior Force Wins!

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FORMATION EXAMPLES

raced in to the aid oftheir damaged com-rade, Soohas mentallycalculated the relativevelocities and dis-tances between theColosian and Com-monwealth fighters.

Soohas and Sadrooclosed the gap rapidlyas Soohas gave thepilot damaged Electravery specific coursechange instructions.The Colosian pilot waskeenly intent on hisintended prey.

As the Colosian pilotwas about to fire on aseemingly helplessElectra the woundedprey turned away fromthe head-on confronta-tion and the dumb-founded Colosianfound himself face to

Basic Concept 2:Teamwork Beats

Individual Heroics“Weigh the situation, then move.”

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War, vii

The Wingman System“He who advances is sure of Heaven,But he who retreats will suffer Hell.”

—common slogan of Ikko Ikkibanners Japan. circa

1480-1580 ADFighter pilots in World War I began by

dueling each other in single combat, likeHomeric warriors or feudal knights. But asthe war progressed, pilots discovered thatthey were more effective when they foughtas a group. As a result of these experiencessome air forces divided their squadrons intopairs, a “leader” and his “wingman.” Aleader/wingman pair is called an “element.”The wingman keeps enemy fighters fromgetting a clear shot at the leader while theleader attacks. If an enemy plane tries todraw a bead on the leader, the wingmanchases it off. Ideally, fighters are arrangedso that anyone who attacks one ship willcome under fire by another ship. As youevaluate each move, you should plan for“mutual support.”If a vulnerable side of oneof your fighters is in the firing arc of an-other one of your fighters, that fighter hasmutual support. An enemy that tries to hitthat vulnerability will get shot at.

We recommend two main formationstyles in this manual, although there arecertainly others worth trying. Both consistof four fighters. Formations with more thanfour tend to be harder to maneuversmoothly. These two formations are theDiamond (left) and the Finger Four (right).

The Diamond Formation“The Romans are sure of victory... fortheir exercises are battles withoutbloodshed, and their battles bloodyexercises.”

—Flavius Josephus, 37-100 ADThis formation consists of four fighters,

two in tandem, with one on either side ofthe central pair. This formation keeps itsintegrity quite well, even when you haveto change hex facings. You cannot alwayskeep the same fighter in the lead, but thisshould not matter much. In fact, it mayactually work to your advantage. Since leadfighters tend to be damaged first, alternat-ing the lead position spreads the damagearound. A little damage on several ships isbetter than all the damage on one.

If you want to move your formationthrough one or two standard turns, youneed to make sure you have enough drivepoints to see the maneuvers through. Hereis a method to help you estimate how faryou can push your formation. If the shipon the outside of the turn can make it toyour designated goal, the formation as awhole can make it as well.

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DIAMOND FORMATION FIRE CONCENTRATION

FINGER FOUR FIRE CONCENTRATION

face with a pair ofundamaged HellBenders. “Ooh, Thankyou!!” shouted Soohasas he thumbed the firecontrol stud andwatched the Colosianship go to pieces in aflash of fire and debris.

As Soohas and hiswingman turned backto assist their squad-ron mates, Soohasreflected on some-thing an old guru hadonce said to him; “Afool and his life aresoon parted...”

The ship on the inside of the turn will re-quire two points less than the outside ship.

Of course, this assumes all the ships inthe formation have the same drive. Shipsthat are slower than the others in the for-mation, whether by damage or design, canmove to the inside position if you are plan-ing a turn in a particular direction.

In most situations, the Diamond maneuversmore easily than the Finger Four. As you cansee from the diagram below, it also providesthe best concentration of cannon fire to the for-ward arcs and rearward arcs where applicable.This formation is less satisfactory for evadingcertain kinds of torpedo attacks, which we willdiscuss below in the section on torpedoes.

The Finger Four“Untutored courage is useless in theface of educated bullets.”

—George S. Patton, Jr. in CavalryJournal, April 1922

The Finger Four is simply a row of fourfighters side by side and facing the same di-rection. This formation does not corner very

well, but you can change direction slightlyby sideslipping if you use the optional side-slipping rule. The Finger Four also tends tospread the firepower more than the Diamond.Although this formation is less efficient atconcentrating fire in close attacks againstspecific targets, it is better for evading grouptorpedo attacks, especially if the sideslipping

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ChildhoodFantasies

Ilmarii snapped hisKosmos in a lastsecond maneuverdesigned to take himand his wingman,Haaviko, out of thefiring arc of a ColosianNighthawk that hadvectored in on them.

“Nighthawks!Whythe Hell did it have tobe Nighthawks?!”snarled Ilmarii. Thatwas the third one in asmany seconds that hadtried to swat the pairof desperately maneu-vering. It wouldn’t beso bat if they were notout of ammo and lowon fuel.

“One more bandit atpointzero-six-niner!”shouted Haaviko inwarning, “It’s a Hell-bender!”

LUFBERY CIRCLE FIRING ARCS

rule is in play. The Finger Four is also a goodformation if you are lying in wait for enemyships heading into your field of fire.

Despite the slightly wider collective fieldof fire, the Finger Four is very intimidat-ing. One interesting feature of the FingerFour’s “kill zone” (see diagram) is that themaximum concentration of firepower startson the third hex away from the formation.Keep this in mind when you use this for-mation in an attack.

Other Formations“It is better to lose a province than splitthe forces with which one seeks vic-tory.”

—Frederick The GreatDuring World War I allied aircraft would

sometimes adopt a defensive formation thatcame to be known as the “Lufbery Circle,”named for Raoul Lufbery, an American vol-unteer pilot who flew with the LafayetteEscadrille. Essentially, the Lufbery Circleis a formation in which fighters fly in acircle so that each fighter can cover the rearquarter of the fighter ahead of him, mak-ing it harder for an enemy to attack anyone fighter from behind. Fighters in thisformation could hold position until helparrived, or they could gradually circle to-wards their own lines.

This tactic is also useful in a Silent Deathconflict, especially as a way to deal withlarger numbers of fighters. The diagrambelow shows a simple Lufbery Circle madewith three fighters. To illustrate how themutually supporting fields of fire work, theforward firing arcs for the top and bottomfighters only are shown in gray and lightgray respectively.

Notice that there is a “free zone” off theLeft Front arc of the topmost fighter. Ob-viously, the Lufbery Circle isn’t an airtightdefense, but your opponent may not lookfor the positions from which to take a freeshot. This formation is far less dangerouswith more than three fighters. Six fightersin the circle lets you achieve a tighter de-fense with overlapping fields of fire. An-other way to stiffen this formation wouldbe to put a ship in the center of the circlethat had a weapon or weapons with a 360˚field of fire, or point the ship so that itsweapons covered vulnerable zones.

One of the reasons for using formationsin the early days of air combat was the factthat most fighters had their armamentsfacing forward only. You could only coveryour buddy if you happened to be facingthe right direction. But several ships inSilent Death have weapons that cover a full360˚. You might think that you can openthe formation up a bit, or dispense with itentirely!

Not so fast, Cadet! Take the Lance Electraas an example. These ships carry missilelaunchers that can fire 360˚. Missiles havean effective range of ten hexes, so you mightthink that as long as each ship stays withinten hexes of another ship, you’re covered.So you string out three Electras in a longerline, the first one seven hexes from the sec-ond, and the second one seven hexes fromthe third.The ships are well within the mis-sile ranges of each other, so it seemseverybody’s covered.

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“Turn two-zero-two!Now!” shouted Ilmarii.

The two beleagueredKarelian pilots ex-ecuted a sudden snaproll maneuver worthyof any acrobatic team,leaving a frustratedColosian pilot to spitout his opinion of theKarelians and theirtactics.The twoKosmos streakedtoward the safety oftheir own space.

“Seven-Seven-niner!Two Blizzards and theyaren’t ours!” cameHaaviko’s warning.

“We’re in for itnow!” Growled Ilmari.“We’re going to haveto do some head-butting with thesetwo!”

360 MISSILE COVERAGE EXAMPLE

Suppose someone manages to knock outthat middle ship? Suddenly ships One andThree are fourteen hexes apart! Their mis-siles will not cover each other. Chances are,their protobolt projectors are pointed thewrong direction. The best you can do is tospend a turn getting your ships back where

they can support each other. If your oppo-nent moves quickly, he can gang up on oneof them, and have it over a slow fire beforeyou can say “barbecue sauce.” Remember:Never leave your ships without mutual sup-port.

Disrupting Formations“Move upon your enemy in one masson one line so that when brought tobattle you shall outnumber him, andfrom such a direction that you com-promise him.”

—Napoleon BonaparteWhen you and your opponent are alter-

nating moves, sometimes you will get theopportunity to break up your opponent’sformation by simply getting in the way.When an enemy formation is moving shipby ship, put one of your ships (a small for-mation is even better) in a spot where anenemy ship would want to be to maintainformation. Not every situation lends itselfto this kind of tactic. The idea situation isif you have a formation of slow ships try-ing to move a long distance over severalturns. A few point spent to move around afew fighters would be far less costly to aTeal Hawl than a Betafortress.

Attrition fighters are wonderful for thisbecause they usually have the numericaladvantage needed to bring this offsmoothly. They also have fairly high defen-

sive values, which is important because theship that first drives the wedge is likely toget hit from at least two sides. Another goodchoice is any fighter with a tail gunner. Thislets you take shots at the ship you are pry-ing out of the formation, and its closestsquadron mate. By “driving a wedge” ofmore and more of your ships between op-posing ships, the enemy ships gradually getswept apart, and thus become vulnerableto isolation and piecemeal dismember-ment. Meanwhile your wedge remainsmore or less cohesive, able to direct its fireat either the solitary ship or the weakenedenemy formation. Doing this against regu-lar fighters is less effective than againstslow gunboats, as they have an easier timegetting around a wedge. Unless you havemassive numerical superiority, it will beeasier to pry one ship from the enemy for-mation at a time. Isolate, close, then de-stroy. We call this maneuver “The GreavesWedgie.”

˚

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The two Karelianpilots punched theirthrusters and rocketedhead on at theirtormentors, Ilmarithought to himself, “Inever would haveguessed when I was akid that being agrown-up could be somuch fun!”

Basic Concept 3:Have a Plan

“If the trumpet give an uncertainsound, who shall prepare himself tobattle?”

—I Corinthians 14:8Old soldiers are fond of saying “No battle

plan survives first contact with the enemy.”You might think that you should not puttoo much planning into how you will playyour next game, but you should. The bestway to plan your approach to a situation isnot to have a foolproof plan. Instead, al-ways have contingency plans.

Planning for Disaster“The art of war is divided between forceand stratagem. What cannot be doneby force must be done by stratagem.”

—Frederick the Great, Instructionsfor His Generals, xii, 1747

What makes a good battle plan? Simplic-ity helps. If your play depends on too manychance factors or too many die rolls goingyour way, the plan will not work. Your plandepends on your mission. What exactly areyou trying to do? Block a convoy? Inter-cept a courier ship? Clear a minefield? Cre-ate a diversion? Destroy as many enemyships as possible? Escape with somethingresembling a whole skin? Lay your plansaccordingly. In some scenarios, the victoryconditions may allow more than one op-tion for completing the mission. Your or-ders might be to destroy the cargo ships inthe convoy, but if you manage to capturethem, the Brass upstairs will be happier. Incases where there are optional victory con-ditions, pick the easiest one and do not payany attention to accusations of cowardicefrom those yahoos across the table. The ideais to win.

If there’s an easier way to win, take it. Ifyou are creating scenarios for other play-ers, keep this in mind. Do not give themtoo many optional victory conditions, anddo not make the “easy” solution too easy—or too obvious.

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Many of the points in this manual willhelp you decide how to carry out your goals.One question you may have is, “Who do Iattack first?” As a general rule, direct asmuch force as possible against whateverposes the greatest threat to the completionof your mission. Larger, heavier ships de-serve close attention early on, because theirheavier weapons can knock down the dam-age reduction (and a lot of other things!)of any lighter ship they hit. Once damagereduction has been taken down, a ship ismore vulnerable to lighter weapons thatotherwise might not get much damagethrough. A ship’s speed is another crucialfactor. If you can bring the drive of anyfighter below 10, that ship can no longerdodge torpedoes. Hit the target withenough missiles or massed cannon fire toslow it down, throw a bunch of torpedoesat it to give it a hobby, and move on.

Sometimes the primary enemy threat isnot any one or two major ships, but a for-mation of smaller ships. Ships almost al-ways fight better in groups, so you shouldgive some consideration to breaking up theenemy formations. Torpedoes are a goodway to do this, as are feints and diversions.One danger is that if you try to outflankyour opponent or dangle an inviting diver-sionary target as bait, you must often breakor loosen your own formation.

If you do this, be careful. Make sure yourplan includes a provision for reassemblingyour forces, preferably at a critical momentwhere they can concentrate their firepowerwhere it’s needed most.

Seeing the greatest threat depends inpart on your own forces. If you are flyingTeal Hawks, an Ion Ram is not a problemuntil your drive gets reduced. Think interms of what can hurt you the most at thepresent moment. In addition there is thequestion of mission completion. If you onlyneed to destroy a specific target and with-draw, this will affect the amount of timeyou spend in contact with the enemy. If youonly need three turns to complete yourobjective, and the really dangerous weap-onry needs four turns to catch you, it’s nota serious threat.

How and when do you adjust your plan?Minor adjustments will be needed through-out as ships get hit or your opponent makesunexpected changes and responses to yourmoves. In other words, you have to makeadjustments to match the flow of the game.Ironically, serious changes in your planmay be needed when you are very close tovictory or defeat.

A change or adjustment in a plan canbreak an impasse and swing momentumin your direction. If you see your opponent’sforces wavering, adjust your plan to strikehard right then at the weak point. If you’rein trouble, you need to shore up your posi-tion in whatever way best serves the needsof your mission. Be careful not to over-com-mit your forces. Try to retain some extraassets to commit at the pivotal moment.Many of history’s great commanders kepttheir very best forces in reserve until thecrucial moment, then unleashed them ontheir harried, disordered opponents for thebreakthrough.

Not every opportunity to take the advan-tage will be obvious. Sometimes you haveto nudge opportunity a little, sometimesyou have to kick its door down.Look foropportunities. During each move, ask your-self:• Am I attacking the enemy’s weak spot?• Does this move help me concentrate fire-

power on the target?• Can my ships support each other?• Can an enemy attack me without taking

return fire?• Are any torpedoes tracking this ship? If

so, where are they?• Does this move improve or degrade my

previous position?

Planning forLucky Breaks

“In planning, never a useless move; instrategy, no step taken in vain.”

—Ch’ên Hao, 8th century ADWhen most tacticians plan a move, they

do so with an eye towards what can go wrong.That’s just being realistic. But sometimes it’sa good idea to plan for lucky breaks. In other

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ATTACK VECTOR EXAMPLE

IMPROVED ATTACK VECTOR

words, set up your moves so that you can takeadvantage if you get very lucky, or your op-ponent gets very unlucky, depending on yourpoint of view. Consider the situation below:

Gray is still concentrating firepower fromboth ships on a single enemy fighter. Again,both gray ships are outside the reach ofreturn fire from the forward arc. But thistime, if the first gray ship hits the targethard enough to destroy it or render itmeaningless, there is still an alternate tar-get for the second gray fighter. Getting thiskind of luck is an unusual and welcomething. No player should rely on this kind ofthing happening very often, but a goodplayer knows how to maximize those rarestreaks of extraordinary good luck. Oncein awhile, even you will get really lucky.Plan for it.

Basic Concept 4:Know Your Enemy!

“’Tis best to weigh The Enemy moremighty than he seems.”

—Shakespeare, King Henry V, ii, 4.1598When you aren’t gaming, go through the

rules and look carefully at the ships. Youwill find it to be a very good investment ofyour time. Look at obvious things like drive,how many weapons and what kinds of weap-ons are available, the presence or absenceof a gunner, and so on. But do not forget topay attention to things like frontages with-out a weapon, or a critical hit early in thedamage track. Carefully examine the criti-cal hit options for each ship. Is it possibleto kill or merely daze the gunner? Howmany damage points do you have to inflictbefore the fighter is too slow to dodge tor-pedoes? How many before all of the ship’sweapons are destroyed? All of these thingsshould be part of your thinking as you pre-pare your short and long-term battle plans.

The gray fighters are on an excellent at-tack vector against white. Their fire is con-centrated on a single ship. Unless the whiteships have weapons that can cover the sidearcs, the gray shipswill not take return fire.But suppose the dice give Gray a realpresent: suppose that the first shot comesup big enough to score a critical hit on thetarget. Further suppose that the crit resultsin a dead pilot or a blown reactor core. Thegood news is that Gray is up by one ship.The bad news is that the second Gray shipno longer has a meaningful target in range.

Here is an improved variation on Gray’sattack:

13

The LastDebriefing

Flight OfficerGhengis Wilson Kemp,999th Luches UtopianAssault Group, steppedup to the PoliticalOfficers debriefingdesk and gave a pa-rade-ground-perfectLuches military salute;right arm extendedstraight out at a 45degree angle, palm ofthe hand down, and allfingers togetherpointing forward. ThePolitical Officer lookedup from his monitorand returned Kemp’ssalute in the sametextbook fashion. ThePolitical Officer thensummoned his aide tothe office to takeKemps statement for

UnderstandingFighter Types

“A general is not easily overcome whocan form a true judgement of his ownand the enemy’s forces.”

—Vegetius, De Re Militari,378, Weaponry

This is a good a time to talk about howfighters are designed. There is no suchthing as a truly all-purpose fighter. Whatis remarkably successful in one role can bedismal in another. This is why there aredifferent kinds of ships. They are set up todeal with different situations, commanddispositions, and goals. Understanding thevarious classes of fighters will help youchose the right ship for a particular mis-sion. It also helps you see when your oppo-nent makes a bad choice and thereby planfor his upcoming defeat.

There are five basic types of fighter inthe Silent Death universe: Attrition, Strike,Superiority, Multi-mission, and Heavy.Some individual designs overlap and canbe used in more than one role. Gunboatsare not fighters. Their role is different, andwe consider them separately.Attrition — These are small, fast, cheap

fighters best used in large numbers.Their advantage is that they are usuallyharder to hit. Their disadvantage is thata roll that’s high enough to hit is alsohigh enough to hurt. They lose much oftheir effectiveness after taking a moder-ate swat. Attrition fighters work by in-flicting a lot of small hits that graduallyadd up. At the same time, attrition fight-ers usually take higher losses than othertypes. The object is to spend a few cheapfighters and crews in order to destroymore expensive, harder-to-replace tar-gets. Examples of attrition fighters in-clude the Pit Viper, Dart, Talon, Blizzard,or Spirit Rider.

Strike — This class consists of ships thatare designed to hit hard and get out fast.Many of these use expendable ammuni-tion, so they are less effective in extendedengagements with attrition or superior-

ity fighters. Strike fighters are a goodchoice for attacking larger ships or inhit-and-run scenarios. Strike fightersinclude the Lance Electra, Thunderbird,Kosmos, and Hellbender. The Blizzardand the Spirit Rider are both usable asstrike fighters because of their torp loads.The Revenge is clearly built as a strikefighter, although it has the bulk, speed,and armor of a heavy fighter.

Superiority — These fighters have one pur-pose in life, and that is to dogfight. Theyare designed to directly engage and shootdown other fighters. They tend not torely on expendable ammunition, and fea-ture heavy armaments up front. Ex-amples include the Night Hawk and theTeal Hawk.

Multi-mission — A multi-mission fighteris a good choice when you do not knowwhat you’re going to face. They try to doa little bit of everything, although theywill not do a given task as well as morespecialized craft. These fighters tend tobe medium two seaters, with fairly goodspeed and toughness, as well as good toexcellent offensive capability. They func-tion well in both strike and superiorityroles, but are usually too expensive touse as attrition fighters. The Salamander,Death Wind, and the Sorenson III areexamples of multi-mission fighters.

Heavy — A heavy fighter is designed to goone-on-one with other heavy fighters, ortake on several smaller fighters at once.They are also a good choice for engag-ing gunboats. Heavy fighters are not veryquick, so be careful not to deploy themin such a way as to slow down the rest ofyour force. They can provide good coverfor lighter craft, especially if you havesome damaged fighters. Your woundedships can find at least some safety underthe guns of their bigger relations: theGlaive, Pharsi II, Sentry, and Seraph.

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Gunboats“The commander must decide how hewill fight the battle before it begins. Hemust then decide how he will use themilitary effort at his disposal to forcethe battle to swing the way he wishesit to go; he must make the enemydance to his tune from the beginning,and never vice versa.”

— Montgomery of Alamein,Memoirs, vi, 1958

These behemoths feature multiple dam-age tracks. They are slow, plodding mon-sters with little subtlety. A gunboat is de-signed to deliver a lot of firepower in a shortspace of time, and can absorb frustratingamounts of punishment. Some, like theBetafortress and its variants, can destroysmaller fighters with almost casual dis-patch. Others, like the Drakar, have theirheavier firepower committed to weaponsthat do not track smaller ships well enoughto hit them. Without proper escort theseships become easy targets for more nimbleclasses of ships. Used properly, gunboatscan wreck other gunboats or heavy fight-ers, and seriously disrupt formations oflighter craft. Other gunboats include theEpping and the Star Raven.

Learning byExperimentation

“Employment of troopsmust be in accord withdetermination of theenemy’s strong andweak points, afterwhich you speedily at-tack his critical posi-tions.”

—Wu Ch’i, 430-381BC, The Art of

War, iiWhen real armies want

to experiment with newbattle tactics or weaponswithout the benefit of areal war, they hold exer-cises and wargames. Youshould do the same. Inaddition to studying theships in the Silent Death universe, play afew games solitaire. Set up simple scenarios

to help you with a particular area where youhave trouble during games. Test out yourideas. Are a pair of Thunderbirds really aneffective defense against a Night Hawk? Donot be afraid to question the accepted tacti-cal ideas, including the ones in this book!Taking notes and exploring problems on pa-per helps you to understand the game. Wehave included special note pages in thismanual that you can photocopy and use formaking your own notes. Keep records ofwhat works and what does not. If you comeup with something brilliant, write it downso you can remember how you did it andimprove on it. After you play a regular game,write down what went well and what did not.You may find yourself muttering, “Well I willnot ever try that again!” Do more than justmutter it, write it! It may sound tedious, butother than actual game experience, this isthe most efficient way to develop sound tac-tical doctrines.

Basic TacticalConcept Exercises1. You want to swing your diamond forma-

tion of Night Hawks from position A toposition B. They have a drive of 15. Is itpossible to perform this maneuver andmaintain formation?

2. True or False: Dividing your forces willmake them harder to attack.

the record. As soon asthe NCO had enteredthe room and activatedhis recorder thePolitical Officer—whom Kemp detestedas a martinet of theworst kind—spokewithout preamble,“This is the missiondebriefing of the solesurvivor of the failedmission to interceptthe Karelian convoydesignated RXB-433.State your name, rank,and service numberfor the record.”

Kemp compliedwith all the prelimi-nary questions put tohim for the recordwith a feeling ofimpending disaster;there had been threeother pilots who had

B

A

EXERCISE EXAMPLE 1

15

3. True or False: If you and your opponenthave about the same number of ships, withabout the same fighting ability, then it ismore efficient to pair two of your shipsagainst one of his, even if it means you willnot engage all his group on any given turn.

4. Your opponent is attacking you with aforce consisting of two Glaives and fourLance Electras. Your force has differentships but is comparable in strength.Where should you direct the bulk of yourfirepower, and why?

5. Your attacks have reduced the speed ofan enemy heavy fighter to 7. Other op-posing ships are approaching, and muchof your ammo is expended. However, youstill have several torpedoes left. Shouldyou stick around and finish the heavyfighter off?

6. True or False: a three-ship Lufbery Circleprevents all attacking ships from gettingclose enough to strike without gettingshot at themselves.

Weaponry“The unresting progress of mankindcauses continual change in the weap-ons; and with that must come a con-tinual change in the manner of fight-ing.”

—Mahan, 1840-1914

Warheads - Missiles“There is only one tactical principlewhich is not subject to change. It is: touse the means at hand to inflict themaximum amount of wounds, deathand destruction on the enemy in theminimum of time.”

—George S. Patton, Jr.,War as I Knew It, 1947

Missiles are excellent for hit-and-runcombat. You do not have to deal with thesame range limitations as other cannon orprojector weapons. A distance of ten hexesis as good as one hex as far as hitting yourtarget is concerned. Once your gunner ac-quires a lock, firing a salvo of ten missileswill do damage at the end of the turn. Thereis no waiting around while torpedoes closewith their uncooperative targets. Best of all,the movement phase comes after the war-head phase and before the cannon-firephase. Unless your target also launchesmissiles, you can usually slip out of reachbefore your target can return fire. You canalso close for a quick burst and let the mis-sile results administer the coup de grace.If you retreat, your opponent must decidewhether or not to pursue. A quick, sharpmissile strike followed by an organized re-

treat is a nice way to create a diversion orbait a trap. It is also a good way to get youropponent to break formation in order topursue. Further, the maximum missilerange of ten hexes is enough to be safe fromtorpedo attacks for at least one turn, if youmake your moves right. We will demon-strate this in the section below on torpe-does.

Warheads -Torpedoes

“Battles are won by superiority of fire.”—Frederick The Great, Military

Testament, 1768.aa

Evading Torpedoes“With many calculations, one can win;with few one cannot. How much lesschance of victory has one who makesnone at all! By this means I examinethe situation and the outcome will beclearly apparent.”

—Sun Tzu, 400-320 BC,The Art of War, i

Many players do not really pay attentionto torpedoes until they are being tracked byone, so let’s discuss defensive measures first.You already know there are several ways toget rid of torpedoes, such as jamming, at-tacking, and dodging them when they closein. You can shoot them down if you like,but we recommend you avoid that when-ever possible. Surely there are more impor-

returned with himfrom the failed attackon that convoy. “Solesurvivor” meant onlyone thing.

The Political Officerquestioned Kempmercilessly for over anhour, nitpicking ateverything Kemp said.Kemp wished he couldleap over the desk andthrottle the pompouslittle rodent. Theexplosive collar aroundKemp’s neck,worn byeveryone in the armedforces of the LuchesUtopia, kept him incheck. He was begin-ning to wish he haddied with most of therest of his squadronattacking that damned

16

STANDARD RULES TORPEDO KILL ZONE

17

tant targets demanding your attention. Thissection covers what we call “evading” tor-pedoes, which is not the same as “dodging.“Briefly put, evading is the art of never let-ting the pesky devils get close enough torequire dodging in the first place.

How do we accomplish this miracle? Thekey lies in knowing exactly what the torpedocan and cannot do. In the basic rules torpe-does have a drive of twelve. They spend threedrive points to turn one hex face; they donot execute “tight turns”. When you map outall the possible hexes a torpedo can reach inone turn, you get a map of the torpedo’s “killzone.” The kill zone of a torpedo is shown inthe diagram below. The figure of the torpedoshows the starting point and direction at thebeginning of its move.

Find it surprising? If you ask most be-ginning (and quite a few advanced) playersto describe a torp’s kill zone, they wouldlikely tell you that it is roughly circular orovoid. The diagram above demonstratesotherwise. Once you know where that tor-pedo can and cannot go, you can use thisknowledge to your advantage.

Suppose your opponent launches a tor-pedo at a range of ten hexes, dead ahead.Well within range, one might think. So howmany hexes do you need to move to evadeit? One! Move one hex forward, either tothe left or the right, and watch uncon-cernedly as Mr. Torpedo just falls short.Now, for style points, blow a raspberry atthe opposing player.

Of course, the fastest way to lose bothstyle points and your ship is to forget aboutthe torpedoes tracking your ship. It can beso easy to get caught up in the hurly-burlyof a rousing dogfight and forget those tor-pedo counters homing in on your fighters.If your opponent has torpedoes in play,never contemplate a move without firstthinking about where those torpedoes areand who they are tracking. Pouncing onthat fat, juicy target may—or may not—leave you open to a torpedo strike. Be alert.All the torpedo-evading sophistry in theworldwill not help if you forget to use it.

Important Safety Tip: Remember, ifyou fly through a hex with a torpedoin it, and that torpedo is tracking you,it immediately hits you, and you donot get to attempt a dodge!

Take another look at the torpedo rangechart above. Notice that if you can get fourhexes directly behind a torpedo, or into itsadjacent right rear, rear, or left rear quar-ter, that torpedo cannot touch you! A goodrule of thumb for doubling back on a tor-pedo is that if you can get four or morehexes beyond the torpedo, you’re safe. If youplay with a careful awareness of a torpedo’skill zone, you can bob out of reach longenough to give conventional countermea-sures more time to work. It is also a greatway to mess with your opponent’s mind.

To summarize, there are usually two op-tions for evading a torpedo: (1) get out ofthe direct line of fire if the torpedo is farenough away, causing it to fall short; or (2)if the torp is too close for that, get severalhexes past the torp’s rear, right rear, or leftrear quarters, either by some tight maneu-vering or overshooting it while headingopposite its flight path.

Remember, if you change to optional tor-pedo rules the shape of the torpedo’s killzone will change. Do your homework! Itwill pay off later.

Evading TorpedoesWithout Disrupting

Your Formation“Let no one imagine that it is sufficientmerely to move an army about, tomake the enemy regulate himself ac-cording to your movements. A generalwho has too presumptuous confidencein his skill runs the risk of being grosslyduped.War is not an affair of chance.”

—Frederick the Great, Instructionsfor His Generals, xi, 1747

A head-on torpedo assault need not dis-rupt your fighter formation. If you use theoptional rule to allow sideslipping for fight-ers, they can easily switch positions, side-slipping past oncoming torpedoes and over-shooting them. Remember, you need to getat least three hexes past a torpedo, head-ing in the opposite direction. If you do itcarefully, your fighters may not be in thesame relative positions they were before,but your formation will be intact. Gener-ally, a Finger Four formation is more effi-

convoy! It was thePolitical Officers finalquestion, though, thatcaused him to lose histemper.

“So, Pilot, what Istill fail to grasp iswhether or not you infact pressed yourattack on the convoy’sescorting fightercontingent. Could youpossibly enlighten meon this, hmm?”

Kemp thought ofthe convoy, escortedby a dozen Sentryclass fighters, and howupon detectingKemp’s squadronclosing to attack, theSentries executed amanuver Kemp andhis now deceasedfellow pilots hadneither seen beforenor been trained to

18

cient at evading oncoming torpedoes thana Diamond, because the Diamond requiresan extra hex of range to make up for theextra hex of depth in the formation. If tor-pedoes are inbound at an angle to yourheading, the Diamond evades more easilywhile maintaining formation integrity.

Attacking WithTorpedoes

“A superiority of fire, and therefore asuperiority in directing and deliveringfire and in making use of fire, will be-come the main factors upon which theefficiency of a force will depend.”

—Ferdinand Foch, Precepts, 1919Now that you know more about the ca-

pabilities of your weapons, you can incor-porate that knowledge into your tacticaldecisions. Attacking with torpedoes istrickier than getting away from them. Inthe Silent Death universe, torpedoes havefour primary roles:• Attacking fighters• Scattering fighter formations• Attacking torpedoes• Attacking heavy vessels preparatory to

or in place of fighter attacksOnce you’ve established your target pri-

orities, you must decide how many torpe-does to use. If you are attacking other tor-pedoes, one torpedo per torpedo is a fairlysafe bet. However, be advised that torps canattempt to dodge incoming torps, and willdodge successfully on a roll of 7 or better.That translates to a 40% chance of success.

Attacking ships is a lot trickier thanplinking at other torpedoes. Do not attacka ship with a single torpedo if you expectto do it any harm. Single torpedoes areeasier to dodge and jam than multiple tor-pedoes. Do the math. In a single turn, youhave a 25% chance of jamming the torpedo.The probability of dodging a single torpedofor an average pilot are roughly 20% to30%. All told, a single torpedo has nearly a50% chance of missing with just conven-tional countermeasures over two turns, tosay nothing of attacking a ship that usestorpedoes, missiles or cannon fire to de-

fend itself. If your target manages to stayout of reach for three or more turns, theodds of jamming successfully are evenhigher. Single torpedo attacks are only goodfor encouraging ships to break formation,delaying reinforcements from joining up,or just keeping someone distracted. Ofcourse, you may get lucky, or your oppo-nent may miscalculate, and a “pest” torpedowill connect. In that case, think of it as anunexpected bonus.

When to release torpedoes is a trickyquestion. Largely, it depends on what youwant to accomplish, and what you’re upagainst. If your target is too big and nastyto close with, you may choose to launchyour torpedoes from further away. If yourelease from, say, 5 or 6 hexes away, theonly option your opponent has for evasionis to either outrun if the torpedoes are head-ing for a rearward quarter, or overshootthem if they are coming in from the front.Knowing this, you can use torpedoes to“flush” your quarry, and deploy your forcesto where your opponent must go to escapethe torpedoes.

The number of torpedoes you decide tocommit to a target depends on several fac-tors. Perhaps the most important thing toconsider is the skill of the enemy pilot. Ifyou want to know the maximum numberof torpedoes a pilot can dodge, divide thepiloting skill by 2 and round off the remain-der. This is how many torpedoes that pilotcan dodge if he rolls 10 on a D10 duringthe dodge attempt. If a Pit Viper is about toget hit by eight torpedoes, even if the pilothas a skill level of nine, realize that it mightdodge a few, but it will get well and trulyclobbered. Of course, if someone is willingto waste eight torpedoes on a Pit Viper, ei-ther they aren’t very smart about conserv-ing ammo, or the Pit Viper in question is -was - the last opposing ship on the board.

That being said, if you want to make cer-tain that a target takes a hit, attack it withmore torpedoes than it can handle. Sincethe heaviest torpedoes are dodged last, put-ting at least one or two heavy torpedoes intothe spread is good insurance. Friendly Re-minder: gunboats cannot dodge torpedoes.

deal with. The Sentrieshad begun to fly in acircle around thefreighters, while thefreighters flew in acounter-rotating circleinside of the fighters.

Kemp recalled thatevery attempt he andhis squadron mateshad made to cross theouter ring of fightershad ended in disasteras the combined fire ofmultiple SentRyfighters would imme-diately concentrate onthe lead fighter, tear itto pieces, and thenimmediately shift toanother. It hadn’t evenbeen a real dogfight atall, rather a systematicbutchering of Kemp’ssquadron.The freight-ers were hardlyscratched.

19

MULTIPLE SHIP TORPEDO ATTACK

Coordinating a Multiple-Ship Torpedo Attack

“All movements on the battlefield havebut one end in view, the developmentof fire in greater volume and more ef-fectively than that of the opposingforce.”

—T. Miller Maguire, The Develop-ment of Tactics, 1904

If you mean to overwhelm selected tar-gets with large numbers of torpedoes, thosetorpedoes are probably going to come fromtwo or more ships. Launching a successfultorpedo strike with more than one ship re-quires coordination and timing. Few fight-ers carry enough torpedoes to swarm a skilllevel 10 pilot, so you usually have to launchyour attacks from separate ships. If yourtorpedoes are going to have maximum ef-fect, they need to arrive on target at thesame time. In naval parlance, firing so thatall the ordinance arrives at once is called“time on target.” If they straggle in by one’sor two’s over a period of several turns, areally crack (or lucky) pilot can dodge many,if not all of them. A pilot with a skill level often only needs to roll a 2 or better to dodgea single torpedo. That’s a 90% chance ofsuccess. Dodging a pair of torpedoes can bedone with a four or better (70%chance). It might be a waste of timeeven to try and evade them. Instead,the pilot can close with a target, lineup good shots at your ships, torpe-does be damned, and dodge them asthey arrive at the end of the move-ment phase. A risky operation, butstill quite feasible. Pilots with aver-age or lower piloting skills are notadvised to take such a cavalier atti-tude toward inbound torps.

Another thing to consider whendealing with multiple torps is that,your damage reduction applies toboth torps if they hit separately. Ifthey all hit at once, the damage re-duction is only applied once. For ex-ample, suppose you get hit twice bytwo Mk. 10 torps on two separateturns. The damage of the first one is7, and the second one is 9.

If your original damage reductionis 4, that would apply to the first hit,reducing it to 3. If your ship is fairly

robust, that would not be enough to loweryour damage reduction, and the secondtorpedo would only do 5 points damage fora total of 8. If they both hit at once, dam-age reduction would only be applied once,and the total damage would be 12 instead.On several fighters, that can be enough toget a critical hit, lower the damage reduc-tion or lower the drive.

Here are some basic rules to help putyour torpedoes where and when you wantthem.

First, ships launching against a singletarget should all be about the same rangefrom the target, or far enough inside tor-pedo range that all torpedoes can impacton that turn. Second, the angle formed bythe attack vector of any ship’s torpedospread and the target’s line of flight shouldbe fairly shallow.

You want the torpedoes to come in closeto the right and left sides of the enemy ship.This gives the torpedoes time to form onelarge cluster prior to impact, even if thetarget breaks to one side. If the angle is toosteep, and the individual spreads consist ofno more than two torpedoes, a competentpilot can purposely close with the firstgroup, attempt a dodge, and if the ship isstill in one piece, he can try the same with

Recalling all thosegood pilots dead withnothing to show fortheir sacrifice, Kemp’stemper finallysnapped. “So! thePolitical Officer wishesto know whether ornot I and my pilotspressed the attack onthe enemy convoyescorts?” snarledKemp.

“That is correct,Pilot,” hissed thepolitical officer, “Donot become insubordi-nate!”

“I’ll ask you some-thing, my dear Politi-cal Officer: have youever tried to Frenchkiss a Sea Urchin?!”

Stunned silencereigned supreme inthe room...

20

the second spread. In the diagram above,two coordinated attacks against a gray shipare shown. The black ships are using toosteep of an angle. Their torpedoes cannotjoin up prior to impact, and they can beengaged and hopefully dodged piecemeal.Contrariwise, the white ships launchedtheir torpedoes in such a way that the tor-pedoes will join up even if the target breaksleft or right in an effort to evade. When theyfinally reach the target, dodging will be amuch lower-percentage proposition.

Allowing your opponent an extra torpedododge may not seem like such a big disad-vantage. However if you are attacking afighter with spreads from two ships (assum-ing each spread is small enough to allow achance of dodging), and give the enemy twochances to dodge instead of one, you cutyour odds of a hit in half. By the same to-ken, the enemy’s chances of dodging suc-cessfully are doubled.

Using TorpedoSpreads to DisruptEnemy Formations

“To pin an opponent is the vital pre-lude to a decisive maneuver; this dualact gives a double meaning to the oldmaxim— ‘divide and conquer.’”

—B. H. Liddell HartA torpedo does not actually have to make

contact to make life interesting. If your at-tention is directed on getting away from atorpedo, things like shooting at the enemyor maintaining formation lose priority.Besides, if your opponent gets confused orunlucky, some of those torpedoes may evenconnect. Anything they do then is gravy.

When you set up a torpedo spread withformation-breaking in mind, you would dowell to take a page from the tactics manualof medieval Mongol armies. They purposelyleft their enemies a way out, so they knewin advance which way the pursuit wouldgo and could follow up accordingly. TheMongols understood that if hard-pressedtroops who feel surrounded see a directionthey can run, they will most likely run. Menthat ran were too busy running to fight,and the Mongols mowed them down attheir leisure. The point is, do not com-pletely box your enemy in. Strike hard, andleave one direction to run. If each ship getsattacked by a torpedo spread from a differ-ent direction, each target will perceive adifferent “safe area.” If the targets make abreak for their respective safe areas, youwill have succeeded in scattering the for-mation. Although they will be movingapart, your ships will most likely be con-verging. Converge on one or two solitaryships, destroy them, and move on to somenew stragglers. Another technique is todeploy your torpedoes to scatter part, butnot all of the enemy formation, and thenconcentrate your attacks on what’s left.

Hiding BehindYour Torpedoes

“It is not so much the mode of forma-tion as the proper combined use of thedifferent arms which will insure victory.”

—Jomini, Précis de l’Artde la Guerre, 1838

If you have torpedoes tracking most ofthe nearby enemy vessels, you can use yourown torpedoes’ kill zones both to force theenemy ships into a weaker position andprotect your ships.

HIDING BEHIND TORPEDOS

21

Suppose you command a squadron offour Spirit Riders squared off in a diamondagainst a pair of Hell Benders at a range ofroughly 9 hexes. You launch torpedoesagainst the Hell Benders, spreading thetorpedoes so as to box in the heavier fight-ers. You hope to maneuver your ships inorder to get a group shot at the Front Leftor Right Quarter of at least one Hell Bender,since Hell Benders can only fire forward. Ifyou win the initiative, that might be pos-

sible during the next movement phase. Butsuppose you lose initiative?

One solution is to intentionally over-shoot the Hell Benders so that your forma-tion is just behind them facing the otherway. This would be about 10 or 11 hexesahead, depending on the position of eachfighter in your formation (you are still information, right?). It may also be a goodidea to switch from the Diamond to theFinger Four.

The ExperimentCaptain Toini

Smith, Squadroncommander of the 1stKarelian Experimen-tal Fighter Group’s“Ice Witch” flight,looked across thehanger bay at the fourstrange, baroque-looking craft thatconstituted hersquadron. Her shipcrews had beenallowed just threedays to familiarizethemselves with thesenew and as yet un-tried warcraft, andnow they were beingsent into battle for thefirst time due to thedesperate nature ofKarelia’s brutal warwith the LuchesUtopia. Toini, ever theskeptic, had been anaccountant before her

This creates an interesting situation. Ifthe Hell Benders come about for a shot atyour exposed Rear Quarter, they are stillinside the kill zone of your torpedo spread.If they turn around and try to beat the tor-pedo, which isn’t too difficult given therange, they could very well end up right infront of the guns of your four Spirit Rid-ers, with their guns pointing the wrongway! If you switched to a Finger Four for-mation, you have widened your field of fireslightly, which may be just enough to drawa bead on a Hell Bender making a breakleft or right. Or, the Hell Benders may dashstraight forward and overshoot the torpe-does that way, in which case they will notget a shot at your ships. This gives you anew chance to regain initiative on the nextturn. Of course, since each player movesships alternately, things will not turn outquite as neatly as the diagram shows it. Theprinciple remains valid: your own torpe-

does can provide some cover as long as youremain inside or near their kill zone. Evenbetter, sucker your opponent into attack-ing your ships and forgetting about thetorpedo’s kill zone. As long as your topedoesare in flight, make good use of them.

We should note that there is one instancein which your torps will not help you. Ifyou are being tracked by a torpedo, and thattorpedo is in turn being tracked by a tor-pedo. If you and the two torps happen tomeet in the same hex at the same time, evenif the second torpedo hits the first one, ifyou do not dodge successfully, you will suf-fer damage. Remember this if you are try-ing to use your torpedoes to shoot downinbound torps. Try to maneuver in such away that when the movement phase is overyour torps will hit the inbounds before theyreach your hex.

MOVING TO HIDE BEHIND YOUR TORPEDOS

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Cannon Fire“Whatever happens, we have got theIon Ram, and they have not.”

—Squadron Motto, 3078th DeathWind Regiment

Scoring a Hit,or, a Discrete

Dissertation on Dice“In war, as in love, we must achievecontact ere we triumph.”

—Napoleon BonaparteMaking a hit depends on the roll of the

dice. Before we tackle the tactics of fire-power, a short discussion of dice and theirquirks is in order.

If you only have a single die, it is easy tofigure out the odds of rolling any one num-ber. On 1D6, the odds of rolling any pos-sible number are 1 in 6. But suppose youhave two D6s, and someone asks you to givethe odds of rolling a 2. Youmight think that there areeleven possible outcomes,namely, from 2 to 12. So yousay, “One chance in eleven.”Nope, sorry. The chances ofrolling a 2 are 1 in 36! Thereason why is because there6 x 6 possible outcomes with2D6, but only one of thoseoutcomes is a 2: two 1’s. Onthe other hand, there are sixways to roll a 7: 1 and 6, 2and 5, 5 and 2, and so on.That is why the odds of rolling a 2 or a 12

are much lowerthan the odds ofrolling a 7 or an 8.The diagram belowshows the numberof combinationsout of the 36 pos-sible result eachnumber, 2 to 12 isexpected to showsup. The horizontal

axis shows the result, and the vertical axisshows the number of times each result isexpected to happened.

As you examine the graph, you will no-tice some interesting things. First, as wementioned, it is much harder to roll a 2 ora 12 than a 6. Take a look at a critical hitschart that uses 2D6. Notice where the “pi-lot killed” or “reactor explosion” results arelocated. They usually require a 12 or a 2.Keep this in mind. If you take a critical hit,the chances of either result is much lowerthan you might think. Do not assume thatextremely high or low die rolls are as com-mon as middling scores. That is not howthe dice roll.

Another thing to consider is that if youcan add a plus 1 to your roll, your odds tohit do not always change in the same way.Below is another chart, this time showingthe expected outcomes for each dice com-bination of 3D6:

reserve status hadbeen revoked andshe’d been recalled tothe colors. She lookedwith a suspicious eyeat these odd birdsdespite all of themanufacturer’s hype.

Not even the enthu-siastic insistence ofthe ship’s eccentricdesign team fromGrivas Armamentsabout the new ship’simpressive armamentpackage would con-vince Toini of theship’s capability. Infact, the only reasonthe Karelian government accepted thecrazy gooney birds wasthe sheer desperationof a besieged world.Only actual combatwould prove or dis-prove the ship as aviable weapons plat-

The data comes out to a rough bell-shaped curve. Now, if you needed a 13 tohit, everything under the curve and to theright of 13 on the horizontal axis representsa hit. If you have a plus 1, everything un-der and to the right of 12 represents yourchances to hit. In that case, adding plus oneadds a large chunk of the curve, and in-creases your chances by about 11%. But ifyou needed a 17 to hit, and you got a plusone, your odds increase by only about 3%.

Die roll (2D6)

2

10%11%12%13%14%15%16%

Perc

ent C

hanc

e to

Rol

l

2%1%

3%4%5%6%7%8%9%

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

3/36

6/36

5/36

5/364

/36

2/361/36

1/36

2/36

3/36

4/36

Die roll (3D6)

2%1%

3%4%5%6%7%8%9%

10%

Perc

ent C

hanc

e to

Rol

l

54 6 73

11%12%13%

1098 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

21615/

2166 216

10

21621/ 216

24/ 21628/

//

21628/ 24/

216

21621/

21615/

21610/

2166/

23

The left column gives all the different hitdice used by the cannon/projector typeweapons in Silent Death, plus the ADBs.The top row shows the possible defensivevalues. The intersection of these rows andcolumns gives the percent chance of hit-ting a given defensive value with a specificset of dice. For example, 2D6 + 1D8 has a72% chance of hitting something with adefensive value of 10. If you have plussesor minuses because of range, damage, orweapon type, add or subtract those valuesfrom the defensive value to compensate. Ifyou know what kinds of ships you are likelyto face, the table can help you decide whatkinds of ships are capable of getting a hit,and how often they are likely to do so.

For example, if you are using a SpiritRider with two Splatterguns (2D6 + ADB)at close range, the guns carry a +1, andclose range gives you an additional +1. As-sume your ADB is 1D8, and the defensivevalue of the target is 14. Use the row for2D6 + 1D8, but reduce the defensive valueby 2 in order to compensate for the two+1s. This gives a percent chance to hit of50%.

You can also use the percentage table todetermine the chance that a group of fight-ers will hit a single target. The best way todo that is to figure out the chances that allof the fighters will miss the target. Why?Because the inverse of that probability (100minus the percentage probability) is thechance that at least one of the fighters willhit. To figure out the chance of all of thefighters missing, first figure the chance

each fighter will miss by subtracting thepercentage chance they will hit from 100.Express all of these chances as decimals (sothat 23% is 0.23) and multiply them to-gether. The result will be the chance thatall the ships will miss. The inverse of thatwill be the chance that at least one will hit.

Take our Spirit Rider above as an ex-ample. Suppose that Spirit Rider has awingman, also with 1D8 ADB, at mediumrange firing on the same target. He gets+1 for the Splatterguns, but no bonuses forclose range. According to the table, thewingman’s chances to hit is 39%. The in-verse of the two chances are 50% (100 -50) and 61% (100 - 39). Expressing themas decimals and multiplying them togethergets us 0.5 x 0.61 = 0.305. That means thatthe chance they will both miss is 30.5%.The inverse of that is 69.5%, and that isthe chance that at least one of the two willhit.

Hitting is one thing. Inflicting damage isquite another. Planning an attack becomeseasier if you can estimate the amount ofdamage you can reasonably expect to do.Expected damage is defined as the chance ofdoing damage multiplied by the averagedamage done. In games with a separate dam-age roll this is much easier to compute, butSilent Death’s damage system depends onthe roll to hit. Rather thans how you how tocalculate damage, we have generated tablesshowing the average damage for the variousweapon systems and pilots. Remember whenusing these charts that the number given isthe average damage of all the possible re-

PERCENT CHANCE TO HIT TABLE

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 182D6+1D4 100 99 97 93 86 76 64 50 36 24 14 7 3 1 0 02D6+1D6 100 99 98 95 91 84 74 62 50 38 26 16 9 5 2 12D6+1D8 100 99 99 97 93 88 81 72 61 50 39 28 19 12 7 32D6+1D10 100 99 99 97 94 90 84 77 69 60 50 40 31 23 16 102D8+1D4 100 99 98 96 92 87 80 71 61 50 39 29 20 13 8 42D8+1D6 100 99 99 97 95 91 85 78 70 60 50 40 30 22 15 92D8+1D8 100 99 99 98 96 93 89 84 77 68 59 50 41 32 23 162D8+1D10 100 99 99 98 97 95 91 87 81 75 67 59 50 41 33 25

to hit can be a great help. We created thefollowing chart shown below to help youout.

When you are assembling your next fleet,especially if you know what manner of forceyou must deal with, knowing your chances

form. Toini just hopedthat she and her “kids”would live to reportback if the darn thingsdid not prove such ahot idea. The pre-flight check andlaunch proceededroutinely. They flewsteadily toward thelocal hot zone, sensorskeyed, guns at theready.

“Point-oh-six-one-niner, Leader!” crack-led over Toini’s commset. “I’m picking up adozen blips vectoringon us now!”

“Keep it cool,people,” replied Toini.“We’re here to seewhat these ships aremade of, so don’t takeany foolish chances!”

24

EXPECTED LOW DAMAGE

EXPECTED MEDIUM DAMAGE

EXPECTED HIGH DAMAGE

sults. These charts can tell you what you canreasonably expect if your four Pit Vipers de-cide to tangle with a Sorenson III, assum-ing each one can get at least one shot off.Assume each Pit Viper has 2D8 + 1D8 + 2attacking a target with a defensive value of12. Because of the +2 you would look at the10 column of the Low Expected DamageChart. This gives you a result of 2.87 ex-pected Low damage. However, the Pit Vipersdo Low + 2 damage, so the actual expecteddamage is 4.55 (2.87 + (2 x .85(the chanceto hit))) for each ship. Adding together theexpected damage for the Pit Vipers showsthat you can expect 13.65 points of damageif you attack the Sorenson III. The actual

damage of the attack will obviously be aboveor below 13.65, but this gives you a roughidea of how much damage you will do.

Now, we should mention at this pointthat we do not think you need to consultthe percentage table and run the numberson every turn. That would slow the gamedown, and we certainly do not want that.The best way to use the percentage table iswhen you are experimenting with differentscenarios, deciding what ships to buy for acampaign, or analyzing what happenedduring a previous game. Also, rememberthat the percentage table covers cannonand projector fire only. Missile and torpedohits are determined by different factors.

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

2D6+1D4 2.43 2.41 2.37 2.31 2.18 2.01 1.78 1.51 1.17 0.88 0.55 0.3 0.1 0.03 0 02D6+1D6 2.72 2.71 2.68 2.64 2.56 2.43 2.26 2.04 1.76 1.49 1.15 0.85 0.57 0.35 0.15 0.082D6+1D8 2.82 2.81 2.79 2.76 2.69 2.6 2.48 2.3 2.08 1.84 1.55 1.26 0.97 0.7 0.44 0.282D6+1D10 2.88 2.87 2.85 2.83 2.78 2.7 2.6 2.46 2.29 2.09 1.85 1.59 1.33 1.06 0.79 0.572D8+1D4 2.46 2.45 2.43 2.39 2.32 2.22 2.1 1.93 1.71 1.48 1.2 0.93 0.66 0.44 0.25 0.142D8+1D6 2.92 2.91 2.89 2.87 2.82 2.75 2.66 2.52 2.35 2.15 1.9 1.63 1.35 1.07 0.78 0.552D8+1D8 3.16 3.16 3.15 3.13 3.09 3.04 2.97 2.87 2.72 2.56 2.35 2.12 1.86 1.58 1.29 1.032D8+1D10 3.28 3.28 3.27 3.25 3.23 3.18 3.13 3.04 2.93 2.8 2.62 2.42 2.2 1.95 1.68 1.41

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

2D6+1D4 4.49 4.47 4.42 4.28 4.07 3.73 3.26 2.69 2.08 1.47 0.94 0.54 0.24 0.08 0 02D6+1D6 5.15 5.14 5.11 5.01 4.88 4.63 4.26 3.82 3.29 2.67 2.03 1.4 0.88 0.5 0.25 0.082D6+1D8 5.15 5.14 5.12 5.05 4.94 4.75 4.48 4.12 3.69 3.16 2.58 1.98 1.39 0.9 0.53 0.272D6+1D10 5.21 5.21 5.19 5.13 5.05 4.9 4.68 4.39 4.04 3.6 3.1 2.56 2.01 1.5 1.05 0.662D8+1D4 4.99 4.98 4.96 4.88 4.76 4.57 4.3 3.93 3.49 3.02 2.5 2.01 1.52 1.09 0.7 0.42D8+1D6 5.51 5.51 5.49 5.43 5.36 5.22 5.01 4.73 4.37 3.93 3.42 2.87 2.28 1.72 1.24 0.822D8+1D8 6.12 6.11 6.1 6.06 6 5.89 5.74 5.51 5.22 4.86 4.42 3.93 3.38 2.79 2.22 1.652D8+1D10 6.18 6.18 6.17 6.13 6.096 5.88 5.7 5.46 5.16 4.79 4.37 3.88 3.35 2.8 2.23

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

2D6+1D4 5.47 5.45 5.41 5.26 5.01 4.59 3.99 3.22 2.44 1.67 1.04 0.57 0.25 0.08 0 02D6+1D6 6.12 6.11 6.08 5.99 5.82 5.51 5.04 4.4 3.71 2.92 2.17 1.46 0.9 0.5 0.25 0.082D6+1D8 6.47 6.46 6.44 6.36 6.24 6.01 5.66 5.15 4.56 3.83 3.09 2.33 1.62 1.03 0.61 0.32D6+1D10 7.08 7.07 7.05 6.99 6.89 6.71 6.42 6.02 5.54 4.94 4.27 3.53 2.78 2.08 1.45 0.912D8+1D4 6.61 6.6 6.57 6.49 6.35 6.11 5.78 5.29 4.68 3.95 3.2 2.46 1.81 1.25 0.79 0.432D8+1D6 6.98 6.97 6.95 6.9 6.8 6.63 6.37 5.97 5.47 4.83 4.14 3.39 2.65 1.95 1.38 0.892D8+1D8 7.59 7.59 7.58 7.54 7.46 7.34 7.14 6.83 6.4 5.85 5.23 4.54 3.83 3.09 2.41 1.762D8 + 1D10 7.98 7.97 7.96 7.93 7.87 7.77 7.61 7.36 7.02 6.57 6.03 5.4 4.73 4 3.3 2.58

“How can I takenotes, when I’mshooting at things?”joked the normallydour gunner Sgt.Juutilainen. Toinigrinned to herself.

‘Let’s just hope thatthese ships were freefor the right reasons!’thought Toini.

The blips turned outto be a mixed group ofLuches Pharsii IIs andSalamanders in equalnumbers; that this wasgoing to be some testindeed was not lost onthe nervous Karelianfighter crews.

The Karelian four-some turned towardthe inbound Luchesships and both groupsbegan to close in ahead on confrontation.The Luches formationhad spread out into a

25

EXPECTED ALL DAMAGE

Combined Arms - Usinga Mix of Weapons

“In no other profession are the penal-ties for employing untrained person-nel so appalling or so irrevocable as inthe military.”

—Douglas MacArthur, Annual ReportChief of Staff, U. S. Army 1933

Each weapon has limitations. Some, likeMeld Lasers, cannot hit a target that movesfaster than twelve. Others, like ProtoboltProjectors, cannot hit anything closer thanfive hexes. Be aware of these factors whenyou are building your fleet. If you build yourfleet with all Lance Electras, someone candash inside your Protobolt range after thewarhead phase and get free shots on yourships unless they are carefully arranged toprovide overlapping fire support. Do notmake it any harder on yourself than youhave to. Make sure you are familiar withthe weapons at your disposal. Choose themcarefully to suit your style of play, and whatyou know about your opponent.

This is another situation where think-ing about the minimum amount of dam-age done by a weapon can help your plan-ning. If you are facing someone with mis-siles for example, a salvo of ten missilesguarantees an amount of damage greaterthan or equal to the defensive value of itstarget. That is enough to cripple or destroymany light fighters, and slow down quite afew medium fighters. Keep these ideas inmind, and you will have a better idea whatto expect from your armaments.

Use your ammo judiciously. Is the otherplayer just one point away from a criticalhit, or losing a weapon of your choice? Areyou targeting a torpedo? One torpedo,maybe two, ought to do the trick. If youacquire a missile lock with a salvo of tenmissiles, the damage is virtually assured.The same is true of Protobolt Projectors.Once you hit, the damage is fixed and cer-tain. The Ion Ram does “All” damage, soyou know that if you roll high enough tohit, you will do an amount of damagegreater than or equal to the other fighter’sdefensive value. Other kinds of weapons areless obvious. If you have a weapon that does“Low + 3,” then the minimum you will todo is 4 points of damage.

Another consideration is the order inwhich you use different weapons. This ispartly dictated by the skill of your gunners,since the better gunners fire first. But sup-pose one Night Hawk and two Pit Viperspounce on a stray Teal Hawk. If the NightHawk hits with its Splatterguns, it will doMedium + 10 damage, while the Pit Viperswill do Low + 2 each. Unless the Pit Vipersget lucky and come up with low doubles,most of their damage will be absorbed bythe Teal Hawk’s damage reduction of 4. Areasonable amount of damage inflicted bya Night Hawk is enough to reduce the TealHawk’s damage reduction from 4 to 2. Thisbuys the Pit Vipers two extra points of dam-age apiece, assuming they hit on laterturns. Consider putting your best gunnersbehind your biggest guns for this reason.Once they “break open” a ship and takedown its damage reduction, it clears theway for less powerful weapons to finish thejob.

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

2D6+1D4 9.5 9.48 9.4 9.19 8.77 8.09 7.09 5.84 4.45 3.08 1.91 1.01 0.42 0.11 0 02D6+1D6 10.5 10.5 10.4 10.3 10 9.53 8.75 7.71 6.46 5.08 3.69 2.43 1.46 0.76 0.32 0.082D6+1D8 11.5 11.5 11.4 11.3 11.1 10.8 10.2 9.38 8.33 7.11 5.78 4.42 3.16 2.07 1.23 0.642D6+1D10 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.4 12.2 11.9 11.5 10.8 9.97 8.96 7.79 6.53 5.24 3.99 2.84 1.852D8+1D4 11.5 11.5 11.4 11.3 11 10.7 10.1 9.37 8.36 7.15 5.84 4.52 3.32 2.26 1.39 0.722D8+1D6 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.4 12.2 12 11.5 10.9 10 8.96 7.74 6.42 5.08 3.79 2.66 1.732D8+1D8 13.5 13.5 13.5 13.4 13.3 13.1 12.8 12.3 11.6 10.7 9.59 8.37 7.05 5.71 4.39 3.22D8+1D10 14.5 14.5 14.5 14.4 14.3 14.2 13.9 13.5 13 12.2 11.3 10.2 9.02 7.73 6.4 5.1

horseshoe formationwith the Pharsiis inthe center and theSalamanders on thewings. The Luchesformation was lookingto hit the Karelianshead on with theirbest ships and harrythem on the flankswith the more nimbleSalamanders; thesewere not the hastilytrained, press-gangedpilots usually encoun-tered by the Karelians.

Within seconds therange had been closedand the Luches flightbegan to launchtorpedoes. TheKarelian flight coun-tered by launching allof their torpedoes onintercept vectors,effectively neutralizingthe bulk of the Luchestorpedo barrage. The

26

Don’t ForgetYour Tailgunner!

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprisethe enemy.”

—Stonewall Jackson, 1824-1863If you have more than one crew mem-

ber in a ship that can use a weapon, take ormake any and every opportunity to bringall your weapons into play.

We should also point out that if thePharsiis had kept a tighter formation, theSalamander could not have been such apest. Now, while this goes against our ruleof concentrating firepower as much as pos-sible, the objective of the Salamander is toslow the enemy down, to harass them anddistract them until the cavalry comes to therescue. Even if it had used both the pilotand the gunner on the same ship, in all like-lihood it would only have annoyed theheavier ship. So why not annoy two shipsinstead of one? Firing on both ships in-creases the chances that one Pharsii wouldstop and turn on the Salamander , thus dis-rupting its advance. Also, do not forget thata Pharsii takes a crit on the 12th hit. Al-though scoring that much on even one ofthem is unlikely, it is still possible! Whoknows what might happen then?

remainder would bedealt with by thesubstantial load ofdecoys carried by theexperimental ships asthe designer hadinsisted, or so Toiniand her squadronmembers hoped.

Holding their fireuntil optimum rangehad been reached,both sides opened firealmost simultaneously.Toini hit the firingstud on her controlstick, concentratingher fire on a Pharsiithat closed head onwith her, firing hisown guns. Just likedshe had trained them,Toini’s gunners fol-lowed her lead andfired on the same shipin the head on cannonduel. Dodging the fireof the Pharsii’s forward

OBVIOUS MOVE

In the diagram above, player one confi-dently advances his two Pharsii IIs (gray) towithin a few hexes of a lone Salamander(white) assigned to delay the heavy fightersuntil reinforcements arrive. Since they arein the movement phase, an obvious ploy forthe Salamander is to get into the closestPharsii’s right forward arc where it cannotreturn fire, and unload with the pilot’sImpulsegun and the gunner’s Pulse Laser.But this player is smarter than that! She slipsher craft straight between the two oncom-ing ships, and pulls a single facing turnwhere the move ends between the Pharsiis.Note that the Salamander is outside the us-able firing arcs of both ships. Now, she canbring her gunner into play and get a freeshot at one ship with two rear Splattergunsinstead of the weaker pulse Laser!

BETTER MOVE

27

WeaponryExercises

“Long training tends to make a manmore expert in execution, but such ex-pertness is apt to be gained at the ex-pense of fertility of ideas, originality,and elasticity.”

—B. H. Liddell Hart, Defenseof the West, 1950

1. The white torpedo is tracking the blackfighter (see below). The fighter has justfinished its move. Is it safe from the tor-pedo for this move?

2. Your white fighter is being tracked bytwo black torpedoes (see below). The pi-lot has a piloting skill of 9. How can youget rid of the torpedoes over the next twoturns without using decoys or any war-heads of your own?

3. A gunner’s attack die are 2D8 + 1D6. Thetarget has a defensive value of 14. Whatis the percent probability of scoring a hit?

4. Three Spirit Riders are closing in on atarget, all are within firing range. Theirpercent probabilities for a hit are, respec-

tively, 50%, 38%, and 60%. What are thechances that the target will be hit bytheir attack?

5. Three Spirit Riders are attacking a DeathWind (defensive value 13). Two SpiritRiders have gunner skill 7, for a To Hitof 2D6 + 1D8, and one has a skill of 9,for a To Hit of 2D6 + 1D10. What is theexpected damage? (Hint: A Spirit Rider’sSplatterguns do Medium + 2 damage.)

7. You are shooting a Plazgun at a targetwith a defensive value of 16. Assumingyou hit, how much damage can you rea-sonably expect to inflict on the target?

battery, Toini and hergunners all hit theLuches heavy fighterwith all eighteen ofthe Splattergunsmounted on the ship,divided into two turretand one fixed battery.The Pharsii, normallya lethal and ruggedopponent for anyone,came apart like acheap tin can.

Within momentsthe Karelian flight hadcut through the centerof the Luches flight,reducing four perfectlygood Pharsiis to somuch ionized trash.Two of the Karelianships had taken somedamage, but whilesignificant on oneship, it was nothingcompared to thepandemonium thatnow reigned amongst

28

the Luches flight. Nowdivided into twoseparate groups, theLuches pilots seemedto hesitate about whatto do, as if dazed bythe virtually instantremoval of one third ofthe entire formationand two thirds of theirbest ships!

Before the Luchespilots could regroup,the Karelians hadalready turned aroundand pounced on one ofthe groups of threeSalamanders and theirlone accompanyingPharsii. As her secondin command, Lt.Halbo, hit the Pharsiiwith his wingman,Toini and herwingman shared outtheir multiple six-gunbatteries on the three

Situational Tactics“Adherence to one principle frequentlydemands violation of another. Anyleader who adheres inflexibly to oneset of commandments is inviting disas-trous defeat from a resourceful oppo-nent.”

—Adm. C. R. Brown, USN., ThePrinciples of War, June 1949

No manual can completely cover everysituation you are going to face in a game.One reason is because such a manual wouldbe too cumbersome to use. A better reasonis because most situations do not have oneand only one good solution. The idea is notto become rule-bound, but to learn to un-derstand the dynamics of the game and usethem to your advantage whenever andwherever you can. Every move you makeshould improve your situation, even if onlymarginally.

Throughout this manual we havestressed general principles along with somedetailed study of the Silent Death gamesystem, its structure and dynamics. Theoryis one thing, using it in practice is another.There are several common situations thatplayers encounter in the course of the av-erage game or campaign. This section takesa look at some of these situations, withsome of our thoughts on how to deal withthem effectively.

Loss of Initiative“If you are thoroughly conversant withtactics, you will recognize the enemy’sintentions and thus have many oppor-tunities to win.”

—Miyamoto MusashiGaining the initiative at the beginning

of every turn depends largely on the whimof the dice. Knowing how to move whenyou win initiative is easier for beginnersthan knowing what to do when you lose it.As a general rule, if initiative goes to theother player and you have to move yourcraft first, make the best of it by regroup-ing and reestablishing mutual supportwherever you can. Sometimes it is a goodidea to retreat to a safe distance in order toregroup. It may not sound like much of anoption, but paying extra attention to thingslike mutual support can make your forceharder to attack. Moreover, if your oppo-nent gets overeager and allows his force tobecome dissipated, there will probably besome nearby stragglers that would be easyprey for a well-ordered formation.

Another thing to consider is that if thesituation is looking unsalvageable, you maydecide to get what force you have left offthe board. In that case having to make thefirst move gives you a head start in yourdash for safety.

29

Finally, the presence of one really goodpilot on the other side will naturally skewthe initiative roll in favor of your opponent.If initiative is a critical factor in your battleplan, find a way to take out that pilot andreduce your opponent’s chances to gain theinitiative. Of course, that may be moretrouble than it is worth, but if you have achoice between several ships, pound on theone you suspect has the best crew.

Coping WithBattle Damage

“Hard pressed on my right. My centeris yielding. Impossible to maneuver.Situation excellent. I am attacking.”

—Ferdinand Foch, Message toMarshal Joffre, Battle of the

Marne, 8 September 1914If you have a choice, try to counter un-

damaged enemy craft with undamagedcraft of your own. Using a significantlydamaged craft against a similar, undamagedship usually means sacrificing it. Keep yourdamaged ships together. Even if they movemore slowly, at least they can maintain for-mation integrity.

In campaign rules, getting your damagedbirds off the barbecue takes on greater sig-nificance. If you are playing campaign ruleswhere ships can be repaired, you need todevelop a sense of whether the mission hasbeen blown and when it is time to save theremnants of your force. Pessimism or op-timism can cloud your judgment in thesekinds of decisions. Your best guide, as inmost things, is experience.

Using AttritionFighters

“It did not matter where we met, orhow many enemy airplanes therewere. We always attacked without con-sideration of chances or consequences.Our war cry was simply to shoot theenemy down...wherever and when-ever!”

—Ilmari Juutilainen,Double Fighter Knight

As we mentioned before, “Attrition fight-ers” are the cheap fighters like Pit Vipers,Darts, and Blizzards. Beginning players of-ten wonder whether there is a meaningfulrole for attrition fighters in a universewhere ships keep getting bigger and nas-tier. If so, what is that role? What exactlydo attrition fighters do, besides get blownup?

As the name implies, the attrition fighteris intended to wear the enemy down by ex-changing several cheap ships in order tokill one or two larger, more expensive ones.Any war, and particularly a war of attrition,is often won or lost on the budget sheet.When your opponent can no longer replacelosses, the game is yours. Using attritionfighters effectively depends on understand-ing how they work. First, you have to real-ize that attrition fighters are not really allthat cheap. Their BPV cost is low individu-ally, but if they are going to be any use,you need to buy them in droves. If you planto go after big targets like heavy fightersor gunboats, you will lose ships, possibly alot of ships. Start getting used to that idearight away if you want to use attrition fight-ers.

In theory, the advantage of attritionfighters is twofold. First, because they aresupposed to heavily outnumber opposingships, they have more opportunities to fireand more guns than the enemy. More gunsmeans more chances to hit, and morechances to do damage. Of course, manyattrition fighters carry weapons that do notinflict a lot of damage. If the target has ahigh damage reduction, the initial “hits”are likely to do little or no significant dam-age. Second, because attrition fighters arecheap, it is easier to bring your squadronsup to full strength between engagements.As we stated earlier, a good way to use at-trition fighters is to stiffen them with a fewships that can hit hard enough to drop thedefensive value of the target, then let thesmaller, more plentiful guns complete thekill. Using a force consisting entirely of at-trition fighters is usually not a good idea.Whatever you do, keep your attrition fight-ers together, focused, and fighting as agroup. If you let them become scattered orspread their fire over too many targets atonce they will be next to useless.

Salamanderswhich,under the Karelian’swithering fire, cameapart like so manycockroaches throwninto a blender.

Upon seeing theircompatriots messydemise the remainingLuches pilots turnedtail and ran backtoward their lines asfast as their shipscould accelerate,despite the visibledamage to the newKarelian craft; itseemed that the newships were rather weakin the armor depart-ment.

30

“Well, kids...”radioed Toini over hercommand frequency,“it looks like thatnutcase of a designergot it right when henamed these crazythings ‘Black Wid-ows!’”

“Yikes!, What nastyitsy, bitsy, spiders theyare!”

Even dour FlightSgt. Juutilainenlaughed about Toini’snew name for her ship;‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’would be emblazonedacross its flanks just assoon as Toini couldround up her me-chanic and his paintbrush!

If you do not have enough attrition fight-ers to make a usable force, you can putthem to work picking off stray torpedoesbefore they impact larger ships. This isn’tthe most efficient way to use attrition fight-ers, but if a single attrition fighter can keepthat one Mark 50 from nailing your gun-boat or heavy fighter it can make like a bigdifference.

Fun WithGunboats

“Once at the enemy, you should notaspire just to strike him, but to clingafter the attack.”

—Miyamoto MusashiShips with multiple damage tracks like

gunboats are very intimidating opponents.They usually carry enough firepower toengage several smaller ships at once. Al-though slow, gunboats make a good rally-ing point. Move your seriously damagedfighters within the firing range of yourgunboats to discourage your opponentfrom casually picking them off.

Gunboats are also good for taking onother gunboats, although you should notuse gunboats in this role without fighterprotection. Torpedoes are a threat to gun-boats, since gunboats cannot dodge torps,and their slow speed makes it harder forthem to get out of a well-timed torpedo’skill zone.

Using Gunboats“Impetuosity and audacity oftenachieve what ordinary means fail toachieve.”

—Niccolo Machiavelli, Discorsi,xliv, bk. 3, 1531

Generally speaking, gunboats have theirheaviest firepower pointing out the forwardarc. Since the idea is to concentrate fire-power, lead with your forward batteries. Theother weapons are designed to deal with thefact that gunboats are slow and easier forsmaller ships to outflank.

When your gunboat is under attack, pro-tect your rear quarter. This quarter typicallyhas the shortest damage track. It also hasearlier and more serious critical hits, andcontains the majority of hits on the drive.

The rear quarter also tends to have lowerdamage reduction than the other quarters.If you are looking, for instance, at a heavytorp spread closing in on your “six” and youcannot get out of the way, consider turningthe ship about and taking the hits on thefront or side quarters. They can absorb moredamage with fewer ugly side effects.

Attacking Gunboats“There is no approved solution to anytactical situation.”

—George S. Patton, Jr.,War as I Knew It, 1947

If you do not have any gunboats of yourown, you will probably need quite a fewfighters to ensure success. If you were pay-ing attention during the preceding section,you already know the basic tactical doctrineagainst gunboats: concentrate your fire-power against the rear quarter.

If you score some big hits using missiles,torpedoes, or other heavy weaponry on thebackside of a gunboat you stand a goodchance of success. Hitting the other quar-ters is not difficult, but doing significantdamage is. There are a lot of empty dam-age boxes on those tracks. Even worse foran attacker is the fact that their damagereduction tends to be higher, and it takesquite a few hits to take down that damagereduction. If you gain the initiative, useyour faster ships to get in behind for thatall-important shot at the rear. It is possibleto do this with torps, but difficult to en-sure that they all hit the correct quarter.Since torp hits only strike the rear if thetorps enter the target hex from the rearquarter, a gunboat only needs four drivepoints to pivot and take the hits on a moreheavily protected side quarter.

One more point: use heavier torps againstgunboats. A gunboat can shrug off a pair ofMk. 10s on the side damage track. But it isquite another matter when they’re Mk. 50s.Bigger targets demand bigger weapons.

Missile attacks on the rear quarter giveslightly better odds of success. If the targetenters a new hex during a turn when mis-siles are fired at it, chances are 50% (rollinga 4, 5, or 6 on 1D6) that your missiles willstrike the rear quarter. If the gunboat has notmoved to a new hex, missiles are targeted thesame as cannon fire, so you can line up your

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual© 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

1 2 3 4 5 7 12 13 14 15 19 209 10 11 18171686GAME TURN RECORD TRACK

CRITICAL HITS

2 — Pilot killed. Bat may perform nofurther actions. Defensive Valuedrops to 5.

3 — Engines sputter. Bat may onlyuse 3 movement points nextturn. Reduce Defensive Value by6.

4 — Electronic Warfare knockedout. Bat may no longer jamtorps. Reduce Defensive Valueby 5.

5 — Torps jettison. Lose allremaining torps.

6 — Pilot's Splatterguns damaged.Reduce damage to Low+2.

7 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

8 — Gunner's Splattergunsdamaged. Reduce damage toLow+2.

9 — Maneuver Thrusters damaged.All turns, including tight turns,cost one extra movement pointto perform.

10 — Hull compromised. ReduceDefensive Value by 4.

11 — Gunner killed. Gunner'sSplatterguns may not fire.

12 — Reactor hit. Bat screeches to ahalt, permanently.

SPLATTERGUN SPECSShort Range: 1–2 hexes (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 3–6 hexes.Long Range: 7–10 hexes (–1 To Hit).

Pilot2 Splatterguns (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+1Damage: Medium+2

Range: 2/6/10

BP

V: 4

2I.D

.B

AT TPV Crew

PILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________GUNNERGnr: _________

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

12

17

(FQL)

(R)

2

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

(RQL)

Gunner2 Splatterguns(RQL) (R) (RQR)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+1Damage: Medium+2

Range: 2/6/10

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 300

DAMAGE TRACK

bbbb@tbbb0]wt=8bbtb6[w=t4bbbbX

Mk. 10Torps

❍❍❍❍

➞

Pilot2 Splatterguns (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+1Damage: Medium+2

Range: 2/6/10

BP

V: 4

2I.D

.B

AT TPV Crew

PILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________GUNNERGnr: _________

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

12

17

(FQL)

(R)

2

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

(RQL)

Gunner2 Splatterguns(RQL) (R) (RQR)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+1Damage: Medium+2

Range: 2/6/10

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 300

DAMAGE TRACK

bbbb@tbbb0]wt=8bbtb6[w=t4bbbbX

Mk. 10Torps

❍❍❍❍

➞

REARCRITICAL HITS

RIGHT SIDECRITICAL HITS

LEFT SIDECRITICAL HITS

FRONTCRITICAL HITS

BP

V: 2

98

I.D

.N

EM

ES

IS TPV

bbb+bbb+btb+bbb+w=b+Tbb+bbb+bbt+bXW+=bb+Tbb+bbb+bX

REAR DAMAGE TRACK

CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________GUNNER AGnr: _________GUNNER BGnr: _________GUNNER CGnr: _________GUNNER DGnr: _________GUNNER EGnr: _________

2 — Engineering Systems hit. ReduceDamage Control to 1-3.

3 — Splattergun E damaged. PenalizeTo Hit attempts by -3 and reduceDamage rating to Medium+4.

4 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 1.

5 — Engine hit. Reduce Drive by 4.6 — Maneuver Thrusters hit. All

turns cost 1 extra movementpoint to perform.

7 — Major Structural damage. Take2D10 additional hits to eachDamage Track.

8 — Reactor Detonates. TheNemesis fights no longer.

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual © 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

(RQR)

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+4

0(FQ

R)

Drive:

(FQL)

(R)

(F)Defensive Value

15

0 0

(RQL)

FRONT DAMAGE TRACK

➞

0

12

bbbbtbbbbTbbbbtbbb+Tbbbbwt=bbTbbbbtbb+bTbbbbtbbbbWT=bbtb+bbXTbbbtbbbbTbbbbX

➞LEFT SIDE DAMAGE TRACK RIGHT SIDE DAMAGE TRACK

bbbbtbbbbTbbbbtbbb+Tbbbbwt=bbTbbbbtbb+bTbbbbtbbbbWT=bbtb+bbXTbbbtbbbbTbbbbX

➞

2 — Engine sputters. Reduce Drive to4 until after next turn.

3 — Gunner C killed. Gunner C'sSplattergun may not fire.

4 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

5 — Splattergun C damaged. PenalizeTo Hit attempts by -2 and reduceDamage rating to Medium+2.

6 — Minor Structural damage. Take3 more hits on this Damage Track.

7 — Gunner B killed. Gunner B'sSplatterguns may not be fired.

8 — Electronic Warfare gone.Nemesis cannot jam torps.Reduce Defensive Value by 2.

2 — Engine sputters. Reduce Drive to4 until after next turn.

3 — Gunner D killed. Gunner D'sSplattergun may not fire.

4 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

5 — Splattergun D damaged. PenalizeTo Hit attempts by -2 and reduceDamage rating to Medium+2.

6 — Minor Structural damage. Take3 more hits on this Damage Track.

7 — Gunner E killed. Gunner E'sSplatterguns may not be fired.

8 — Electronic Warfare gone.Nemesis cannot jam torps.Reduce Defensive Value by 2.

2 — Pilot killed. Nemesis may not moveor fire Ion Ram. DV drops to 5.

3 — Ion Ram loses power. It may notfire until after next turn.

4 — Gunner A killed. Missile Launchermay not fire.

5 — Splattergun B damaged. PenalizeTo Hit attempts by -3 and reduceDamage rating to Medium+4.

6 — Missile Launcher A malfunctions.Lose 1D10 of remaining missiles.

7 — Torp load jettisons. Lose 2D10remaining torps (player's choice).

8 — Pilot Dazed. Nemesis may notmove nor fire Pilot weapons untilafter next game turn.

➞

bbbbbbbbbbtbbbbbbbbbbTbbwbbbbbbbt=bbbbbbbbbTbbbbbWbbbbtbbbbbbbbbbT=bbbbbbbwbtbbXbbbbbbbTbbbbbbbbbbbX

Gunner E6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10Decoys: ❍ ❍ ❍

❍ ❍ ❍

P-D: 1-8 (6)Dmg Con: 1-8Tons: 1500

Gunner AMissile

Launcher(FQL) (F) (FQR)Lock-on <____

❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

Gunner B6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10

PilotIon Ram (F)

To Hit: 2D8+ADBDamage: All

Range: 5/13/15Target SR ≤15

Gunner C4 Splatterguns

(F) (FQL) (RQL) (R)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+3Damage: Medium+6

Range: 2/6/10

Mk. 10Torps

❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

Mk. 50Torps

❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍

Gunner D4 Splatterguns

(F) (FQR) (RQR) (R)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+3Damage: Medium+6

Range: 2/6/10

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual© 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

1 2 3 4 5 7 12 13 14 15 19 209 10 11 18171686GAME TURN RECORD TRACK

CRITICAL HITS

2 — Pilot killed. Black Widow maynot move or fire pilot weapons.Reduce Defensive Value to 5.

3 — Engines sputter momentarily.Black Widow’s Drive value isreduced to 2 until after nextgame turn.

4 — Electronic Warfare knockedout. Black Widow may nolonger jam torps. ReduceDefensive Value by 3.

5 — Splattergun Targetingdamaged. Reduce a randomSplattergun's chance To Hit by4.

6 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 4.

7 — Gunner dazed. One randomgunner may not fire his weaponuntil after the next game turn.

8 — Gunner A killed. Gunner A'sSplatterguns may not fire.

9 — Splattergun Power Feedmalfunctions. Reduce randomSplattergun's damage rating toLow+5.

10 — Gunner B killed. Gunner B'sSplatterguns may not fire.

11 — Torp load explosion. Take1D12 more hits for eachremaining torp.

12 — Massive structural collapse.Black Widow buckles andexplodes.

SPLATTERGUN SPECSShort Range: 1–2 hexes (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 3–6 hexes.Long Range: 7–10 hexes (–1 To Hit).

BP

V: 15

7I.D

.B

LAC

K W

IDO

W TPV CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________GUNNER AGnr: _________GUNNER BGnr: _________

Pilot6 Splatterguns (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5

Damage: Medium+10Range: 2/6/10

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:(FQ

R)13

17

(RQL)

(FQL)

(F)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 10Torps

❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍

Gunner A6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10

Gunner B6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10

bbbbbbbbtbbb#bbbbtbbbbbbw!t=bbbbbbbtbb9bbbbbtbbbbW=7btbbbbbbbbtb5bbbbbbtbbw=b3bbtbbbbbbbbt1bbbbbbbbX

➞

DAMAGE TRACK

Decoys: ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍

P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-6Tons: 1000

BP

V: 15

7I.D

.B

LAC

K W

IDO

W TPV CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________GUNNER AGnr: _________GUNNER BGnr: _________

Pilot6 Splatterguns (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5

Damage: Medium+10Range: 2/6/10

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

13

17

(RQL)

(FQL)

(F)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 10Torps

❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍❍ ❍

Gunner A6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10

Gunner B6 Splatterguns (360°)

To Hit: 2D6+ADB+5Damage: Medium+10

Range: 2/6/10

bbbbbbbbtbbb#bbbbtbbbbbbw!t=bbbbbbbtbb9bbbbbtbbbbW=7btbbbbbbbbtb5bbbbbbtbbw=b3bbtbbbbbbbbt1bbbbbbbbX

➞

DAMAGE TRACK

Decoys: ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍

P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-6Tons: 1000

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual© 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

1 2 3 4 5 7 12 13 14 15 19 209 10 11 18171686GAME TURN RECORD TRACK

CRITICAL HITS

2 — Pilot killed. Shark may performno further actions. DefensiveValue drops to 5.

3 — Engines sputter. Shark mayonly use 3 movement points nextturn. Reduce Defensive Value by6.

4 — Electronic Warfare knockedout. Shark may no longer jamtorps. Reduce Defensive Valueby 5.

5 — Maneuver Thrusters damaged.All turns, including tight turns,cost one extra movement pointto perform.

6 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

7 — Ion Ram damaged. ReduceDamage to High.

8 — Impulsegun Targeting dam-aged. Reduce chance To Hit by3.

9 — Hull compromised. ReduceDefensive Value by 4.

10 — Severe structural damage.Reduce Defensive Value by 6.Modify Shark’s further To Hitattempts by –4.

11 — Pilot dazed. Shark may notmove or fire until after the nextgame turn.

12 — Reactor hit. Shark is destroyed.

IMPULSEGUN SPECSShort Range: 1–3 hexes (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 4–8 hexes.Long Range: 9–10 hexes (–1 To Hit).

ION RAM SPECSShort Range: 1–5 hexes (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 6–13 hexes.Long Range: 14–15 hexes (–1 To Hit).Target Speed Restriction: Target’s

Drive value must be ≤15.

Pilot1 Impulsegun (F)To Hit: 2D8+ADB

Damage: HighRange: 3/8/10

BP

V: 4

2I.D

.S

HA

RK TPV Crew

PILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

Pilot1 Ion Ram (F)

To Hit: 2D8+ADBDamage: All

Range: 5/13/15Target SR ≤15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

18

15

(FQL)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

(RQL)

DAMAGE TRACK

bb*bb^bb$w=@bb0bb8bw6=b4bb2bbX

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 300

➞

Pilot1 Impulsegun (F)To Hit: 2D8+ADB

Damage: HighRange: 3/8/10

BP

V: 4

2I.D

.S

HA

RK TPV Crew

PILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

Pilot1 Ion Ram (F)

To Hit: 2D8+ADBDamage: All

Range: 5/13/15Target SR ≤15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

18

15

(FQL)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

(RQL)

DAMAGE TRACK

bb*bb^bb$w=@bb0bb8bw6=b4bb2bbX

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 300

➞

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual© 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

1 2 3 4 5 7 12 13 14 15 19 209 10 11 18171686GAME TURN RECORD TRACK

CRITICAL HITS

2 — Pilot killed. Chupacabra mayperform no further actions.Defensive Value drops to 5.

3 — One Engine destroyed.Reduce current Drive value byhalf, ignore fractions. ReduceDefensive Value by 3.

4 — Electronic Warfare knockedout. Chupacabra may nolonger jam torps. ReduceDefensive Value by 4.

5 — Disruptorgun shorts.Disruptorgun may not be fireduntil after next game turn.

6 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

7 — Disruptorgun Targetersdamaged. Reduce chance ToHit by 2.

8 — Random Missile Launcher hit.Launcher loses remainingmissiles.

9 — Forward Hull cracks. ReduceDefensive Value by 3 and markoff 3 more hits.

10 — One Engine sputters. Reducecurrent Drive value by 3 untilafter next game turn.

11 — Pilot dazed. Chupacabra maynot move or fire until after thenext game turn.

12 — Reactor detonates.Chupacabra disintegrates.

DISRUPTORGUN SPECS§Short Range: 1 hex (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 2 hexes.Long Range: 3-6 hexes (–1 To Hit).§ If the target's Defensive Value has

not been reduced by a critical hit,add 1 to its Defensive Value. Also,completely ignore the target'sDamage Reduction when resolving ahit.

TPV

BP

V: 18

I.D

.C

HU

PA

CA

BR

A CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

17

15

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

Pilot1 Disruptorgun (F)To Hit: 2D8+ADB

Damage: Medium §Range: 1/2/6

b&w#=9W51X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

PilotMissile Launcher (F)

Lock-on < _____❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

PilotMissile Launcher (F)

Lock-on < _____❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

TPVB

PV

: 18

I.D

.C

HU

PA

CA

BR

A CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(RQR)

Drive:

(FQR)

17

15

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

(F)

Pilot1 Disruptorgun (F)To Hit: 2D8+ADB

Damage: Medium §Range: 1/2/6

b&w#=9W51X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

Decoys: ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

PilotMissile Launcher (F)

Lock-on < _____❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

PilotMissile Launcher (F)

Lock-on < _____❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍❍ ❍ ❍ ❍ ❍

TPV

Silent Death: Fighter Tactics Manual© 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. Permission granted to photocopy for personal use.

TPV

TPV

TPV

2 — Pilot killed. Stinger mayperform no further actions.Defensive Value drops to 5.

3 — Torp Loads jettison. Removeany remaining torp load.

4 — Electronic Warfare knockedout. Stinger may no longer jamtorps. Reduce Defensive Valueby 3.

5 — Major Structural Damageinflicted. Stinger takes 1D4more hits.

6 — Shields damaged. ReduceDefensive Value by 2.

7 — Splattergun Targeter hit.Reduce chance To Hit by 2.

8 — Evade Thrusters hit. ReduceDefensive Value by 4.

9 — Splattergun hit. Weapon mayno longer be fired.

10 — Engines damaged. Stingerreduced to a Drive value of 1.Reduce Defensive Value by 6.

11 — Pilot dazed. Stinger may notmove or fire until after the nextgame turn.

12 — Reactor hit. This Stinger'sbeen swatted.

SPLATTERGUN SPECSShort Range: 1-2 hexes (+1 To Hit).Medium Range: 3-6 hexes.Long Range: 7-10 hexes (–1 To Hit).

CRITICAL HITSCrew

PILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

BP

V: 18

I.D

.ST

ING

ER Pilot

1 Splattergun (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADBDamage: MediumRange: 2/6/10

Drive:

15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(F)

(FQR)

(RQR)

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

18

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 40Torps

❍❍

Decoys: ❍ ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

*t$0=w6t2X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

BP

V: 18

I.D

.ST

ING

ER Pilot

1 Splattergun (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADBDamage: MediumRange: 2/6/10

Drive:

15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(F)

(FQR)

(RQR)

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

18

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 40Torps

❍❍

Decoys: ❍ ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

*t$0=w6t2X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

BP

V: 18

I.D

.ST

ING

ER Pilot

1 Splattergun (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADBDamage: MediumRange: 2/6/10

Drive:

15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(F)

(FQR)

(RQR)

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

18

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 40Torps

❍❍

Decoys: ❍ ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

*t$0=w6t2X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

CrewPILOTPlt: __________Gnr: _________Luck: ________

BP

V: 18

I.D

.ST

ING

ER Pilot

1 Splattergun (F)To Hit: 2D6+ADBDamage: MediumRange: 2/6/10

Drive:

15

Dam

age ReductionD

efen

sive

Val

ue

(F)

(FQR)

(RQR)

(RQL)

(FQL)

(R)

18

0

Tight Turn Cost:

_______+3

Mk. 40Torps

❍❍

Decoys: ❍ ❍P-D: —Dmg Con: 1-2Tons: 100

*t$0=w6t2X➞

DAMAGE TRACK

STANDARD RULES TORPEDO KILL ZONE

X

810

1214

1618

VARIABLE SPEED TORPEDO KILL ZONE

VARIABLE SPEED MANEUVERABLE TORPEDO KILL ZONE

810

1214

810

1214

1618

Mk. Number Base VS SM VSSM VS SM VSSMCost Cost Cost Cost Upgrade Upgrade Upgrade

Mk. 10 1 1 3 3 6 2 2 52 2 6 6 12 4 4 103 3 9 8 18 6 5 154 4 12 11 24 8 7 206 6 18 17 36 12 11 30

10 10 30 28 60 20 18 50Mk. 20 1 2 4 6 9 2 4 7

2 4 9 11 19 5 7 153 6 13 17 28 7 11 224 8 18 22 38 10 14 306 12 26 34 56 14 22 44

10 20 44 56 94 24 36 74Mk. 30 1 3 4 8 11 2 5 8

2 6 9 17 22 3 11 163 9 14 25 33 4 16 244 12 18 34 44 6 22 326 18 27 50 67 9 32 49

10 30 45 84 111 15 54 81Mk. 40 1 4 4 11 11 0 7 7

2 8 8 22 22 0 14 143 12 12 34 34 0 22 224 16 16 45 45 0 29 296 24 24 67 67 0 43 43

10 40 40 112 112 0 72 72Mk. 50 1 5 3 14 10 -2 9 5

2 10 6 28 20 -4 18 103 15 9 42 30 -6 27 154 20 12 56 40 -8 36 206 30 18 84 60 -12 54 30

10 50 30 140 100 -20 90 50Mk. 60 10 60 18 168 60 -42 108 0Mk. 70 10 70 21 196 70 -49 126 0Mk. 80 10 80 24 224 80 -56 144 0Mk. 90 10 90 27 252 90 -63 162 0Mk. 100 10 100 30 280 100 -70 180 0

Torp Costs

Aternative Torpedo, Warhound, Satellite, & Outpost Costs

Ship Base Cost VS Cost SM Cost VSSM Cost

Aosho 764 762 1034 962Constellation 806 768 1040 930Fletcher 894 918 1038 1018Longboat 921 922 1173 1133Megafortress 482 526 536 606Narwhal 623 682 731 828Stingray 551 599 623 699Taurus 41 41 84 84Octopus 42 76 82 136Dauntless 391 391 403 463TBD Platform 210 210 253 253Wakazashi 260 320 314 410

Alternative Torpedo Ship Costs

Ship Base Cost VS Cost SM Cost VSSM CostAvenger 78 108 110 158Bat 42 50 49 62Betafortress 216 291 293 295Betafortress Alpha 218 292 295 297Betafortress Beta 220 295 297 299Betafortress NW 160 180 178 210Black Widow 157 177 175 207Blizzard 19 27 26 39Blizzard II 18 26 25 38Catastrophe 142 176 182 236Conestoga 215 223 242 256Cresent 55 65 64 80Death Wind 60 70 74 90Death Wind II 64 74 78 94Drakar 121 125 125 131Drakar Alpha 125 133 132 145Eagle 170 198 215 261Epping 119 125 141 151Epping NW 119 125 141 169Equalizer NW 123 143 141 173Firebat NW 57 77 75 107Glaive 106 106 120 120Glave II 107 107 121 121Glaive III 104 104 118 118Hammer 60 78 81 110Havok 59 67 66 79Hell Bender 32 35 37 40Hell Bender II 33 36 44 55Hell Bender K 26 31 33 41Hornet NW 97 127 124 172Hound 19 24 26 34Iceberg 207 230 261 300Javelin NW 131 151 149 181Karttikeya 150 174 186 224Lakshmi 83 91 90 103Lance Electra 60 67 75 86Lance Electra II 60 67 75 86Marut 15 21 20 30Nemesis 298 318 424 448Pharsii 110 116 118 127Pharsii II 120 126 128 137Pit Viper 17 22 28 33Praying Mantis NW 167 187 185 217Rattler NW 70 90 88 120Revenge 120 100 210 170Revenge II 120 100 210 170Salamander 66 76 77 93Salamander II 66 76 77 93Salamander NW 67 75 74 87Scorpion 122 130 158 171Seraph 121 127 137 146Seraph II 121 127 137 146Sorenson II 47 63 66 92Sorenson III 68 84 95 115Spider 129 163 169 223Spirit Rider 18 22 22 28Spirit Rider II 17 19 21 24Star Raven 125 131 157 165Star Raven Alpha 128 141 153 174Stinger 18 18 32 32Talon 33 35 35 38Talon II 38 46 45 58Teal Hawk 43 45 45 48Teal Hawk II 47 55 54 75Teal Hawk NW 50 52 52 55Thunder Bird 25 35 36 52Thunder Bird II 24 32 31 44Thunder Bird NW 32 40 39 52Varuna 120 132 131 150

Dodging TorpedosA ship may not dodge and point-defense

torpedos in the same turn. Though it maydodge torpedoes and point-defense missilesin the same turn.

To dodge torpedoes a ship must have acurrent Drive equal to or greater than 10.

The table shows what you need to roll tododge one torpedo. To determine the num-ber needed compare the Pilot’s skill againstthe number of incoming torpedoes. Eachpoint higher than the number requireddodges an additional torpedo.

PILOT SKILL

No ChanceEat ’em and weep.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 33 10 9 8 7 6 5 44 10 9 8 7 6 55 10 9 8 7 66 10 9 8 77 10 9 88 10 99 1010#

OF IN

CO

MIN

G T

OR

PS

Torp ID Color Target Drive MK Type Tracking Cone Source

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

_______ _____ ______ ____ ____ ____ ____________ _______

TORP TRACKING SHEET

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shots accordingly, unless the gunboat rotateswithout leaving the hex. To help increase yourchances, attack with several missile-carryingfighters simultaneously.

Of course, not every situation will giveyou the opportunity of a clear shot at agunboat’s rear. In that case, pick one con-venient quarter and concentrate exclusivelyon that quarter. It might take a little longer,but if you fill the entire damage track forany one gunboat’s quarter, it destroys thetarget. One downside is that concentratingfire on the front or sides usually does notreduce the drive of the target very much.On the other hand, as the weapons protect-ing the targeted side are removed, thatquarter becomes increasingly vulnerable.Side quarters also cover two hex faces in-stead of one, meaning you have a greaterarea from which to pile it on.

Fighting WithInferior Numbers“Their force is wonderful, great andstrong, yet we pluck their feathers bylittle and little.”

—Sir William Howard, Of theSpanish Armada, 1588

Nobody likes to be outnumbered oroutgunned. Our advice to you is, assum-ing you have a choice, do not engage supe-rior forces unless you have a compellingreason to expect success. Campaign sce-narios make the option of running from abad situation more useful, being outnum-bered can be less troublesome than it wouldbe in a regular “fly ‘til you die” game.

If you must work with smaller forces,remember that the key is local superiority.A simple but effective tactic is to move infast or let the enemy get close, concentratewhat fire you can on one or two easy tar-gets, and get the hell out of Dodge beforeyour opponent can react. Do not let thetemptation of a major upset lure you intosticking around. Decide in advance on amodest objective that can be accomplishedin two turns, three tops. Do not wait anylonger to clear out or you will probably losewhat forces you have.

When attacking a larger force, try to“nibble at the edges.” Hit ships that areclosest to your ships. This helps you stay

away from the bulk of the enemy’s fire-power, especially if you manage to crippleor destroy the ships you attack on the firstor second turn. Of course, if the heavier,more expensive ships are in the middle ofthe formation, you will not have time to domore than throw your remaining torpedoesat them as a parting shot. You will not beable to do very much during a given en-gagement, but losses accumulate. Winningagainst superior numbers in a campaignsetting is a long-term problem. It takestime to carry it off successfully. Do not beimpatient. Keep nibbling, and with luckeventually those heavies will not have anyescort fighters to support them. When thathappens, it’s party time!

If you have the luxury of knowing aheadof time that you will be using hit-and-runtactics, this should influence your choiceof ships. As we mentioned in the chapteron weapons, missiles are a good choice forthis kind of combat because they can beused before the movement phase and can-non phase. This lets you wait for the en-emy to close, release a volley of missiles,and move beyond range of a counterstrokeunless your opponent is also using missiles.Releasing a few torpedoes in addition to themissiles will help discourage pursuerswhile you run for it. Torpedoes can effec-tively increase the size of your fleet by ty-ing up other ships as they try to evade,dodge, or shoot down your torpedoes.

Using Elite Forces“The forces sent first to confront theenemy are normal ones, and sent laterto attack the enemy are extraordinaryones.”

—Wei Liaozi, Sung Dynasty scholarMost people would not think of this as a

tactical problem, but by their very natureexceptional units can play by slightly dif-ferent rules. That is what makes them elite.The last thing you want to do is use themin the same, tired old ways. If they havesuperior gunnery, they can do damagequicker and from further away. A unit withedge-of-the-envelope speed and pilotingskills can blow past the escorts as they closeto engage, and get at least one relativelyundistracted shot at the big juicy targetsthe escorts were protecting. Of course this

32

violates the guideline we gave earlier about“nibbling at the edges,” but that’s preciselythe point. If you have units that are out ofthe ordinary, you must force yourself tothink of unconventional ways to use them.

It is also important to be careful how youuse less stellar units. Mediocre or poorunits are good for harassing the enemy orcreating a diversion. You do not need to bebrilliant to just drop your torps and run.Average units are generally fine for engag-ing opposing line units in order to inflict afew losses, disrupt their formation, and getthe opponent to commit as much of hisforce as possible. Then, when everything isone big fur-ball, send in the cream with aclear target or objective. Very often this iswhat swings the momentum of a game orcampaign solidly in your favor.

Diversions, Traps,and Feigned

Retreats“The nature of water is that it avoidsheights and hastens to the lowlands...Now the shape of an army resembleswater.Take advantage of the enemy’sunpreparedness; attack him when hedoes not expect it; avoid his strengthand strike emptiness, and, like water,none can oppose you.”

—Chang Yu, c. 1000A good tactician controls the flow of the

game. Creatively distracting the otherplayer’s attention with a diversion is oneway to do this. However, if you want to en-tice the other player to come after you, youneed to do more than just sit out there andhope you look vulnerable or threatening.You have to make such a nuisance of your-self that you will look like a serious threat,or look helpless enough to look like a genu-ine opportunity. Of course, the really clevertactician can turn the diversion into thereal punch if the opponent becomes openor vulnerable to it. Do not forget to makeallowances for unforeseen opportunitieswhen you formulate your battle plan.

Another good surprise ploy is the tacti-cal retreat. Suppose you are locked inbattle, with neither of you gaining any sig-nificant advantage. Both of you have taken

damage. Your damaged ships start headingthe other direction, followed by your faster,intact vessels. Suddenly your whole fleet isin retreat across the board!

Smelling victory, your opponent pursuesat top speed. The faster ships begin to out-strip the slower, damaged ones. If you playthe stratagem well, you can string out theenemy formation. That is when you turnand strike! If you are careful, you will havekept your force together. Turn the brunt ofyour entire fleet on the ships leading thepursuit. If you can cripple or destroy themquickly, you can continue to roll up theenemy fleet, which is too spread out to re-act concertedly. Use this technique to breaka deadlock or wrap up a victory. If you aremore battered than the other player, thisploy probably will not save you. The Mongolcavalry frequently employed this tactic, butthey used it only when they knew they werein a position to win.

As an additional twist, if the rules allowyou to bring extra forces onto the boardduring a game, sucker your opponent overtowards your side of the board just in timeto meet new, fresh fighters emerging fromyour border.

Situational TacticsExercises

1. You must select a small strike force offour fighters to launch a hit-and-run at-tack. You know that the target will be apair of Revenge heavy fighters. You havethe choice of using four Death Winds orfour Lance Electras. Which should youuse, and why?

2. Your fleet includes four Night Hawks andsix Spirit Riders. You want to use theSpirit Riders to feint towards the enemyflank. How can you make the feint moreeffective?

3. Three Night Hawks are trying to get backto the rest of the fleet. Two of the NightHawks have moderate to heavy damage.The third is unhit. As they attempt toregroup with their fleet, an undamagedTeal Hawk moves in to try to keep themaway from their fleet. Assuming youwant two of the ships to get to the fleetwhile the third deals with this threat,which Night Hawk should you use?

33

4. You need to select a gunboat from thechoices listed in the rulebook for SilentDeath: The Next Millenium. The missionprofiles will be short, hit-and-run ac-tions. The choices are the Drakar, StarRaven, Epping, and Betafortress. Whatis your choice?

5. A flight of Talons is two turns into amessy dogfight with your squadron ofHell Benders, when you blow the initia-tive roll. Casualties and damage areabout even. You have to start movingships first. What should you try to do thismove?

Campaign Tactics“I rate the skillful tactician above theskillful strategist, especially him whoplays the bad cards well.”

—Sir. A. P. Wavell, Soldiersand Soldiering, 1939

When we talk about tactics, we are usu-ally talking about how to win a game. Acampaign is a sequence of games where theoutcome of each game has an impact onthe next one. How do you win a campaign?One game at a time. Of course, some thingsare going to be different. For one thing,most campaigns involve an umpire, that is,a non-player who controls the flow of ac-tion and information, and manage prob-lems like hidden movement and other op-tional rules requiring a trusted third party.A good umpire can make all the difference.For that matter, so can a poor one. Good

umpires that can also design good scenariosare especially to be prized and treated todinner occasionally. If the campaign is well-designed, you will be facing a wider varietyof situations than you would in a singlegame. You must assemble your forces care-fully because you will be stuck with themfor the whole campaign.

You also have the option to upgrade yourcrews with experience rules. Repairing andreplacing ships also becomes possible, soyou have more incentive to make sure ev-eryone gets home safely. Naturally, theprinciples of teamwork, concentration offirepower, careful planning, and everythingelse we have discussed in this book are justas important. If you payed attention, youshould do well. What follows are some hintsthat are especially germane to campaigns,but apply to regular games as well.

34

Assembling YourFlight Crews

“All men from 15 to 70 years of ageare ordered to come:not even a monkey tamer will be letoff.”

—excerpt from mobilization ordersissued by Hojo Ujimasa cir. 1560

If you are participating in a campaign, youprobably will not be able to staff all of yourships with the best of the best. You will haveto make some concessions in order to de-ploy enough ships to do the job. The prob-lem involves the trade off between lots ofaverage pilots and a few really good ones.Some fighters or mission profiles do notneed ace pilots. You may need some pilotsflying Blizzards or Thunderbirds and all youneed them to do is wait on the fringes, droptheir torpedoes at the right moment, andhead back to the barn. Other pilots who flysuperiority fighters or will face torpedo bar-rages will need outstanding piloting skills.

Purchasing gunnery skill presents differ-ent problems. Obviously, buying bettergunnery will result in higher to hit percent-ages. But are 4 fighters whose pilots eachhave a 25% chance to hit as good as 2 with50%? In other words, are the points spenton the latter more cost-effective than theformer? In one respect, higher quality pi-lots are a better value; they give you ahigher precentage to hit per BPV pointspent on gunnery skill. However, you havemore to lose if a good pilot or gunner goesdown. Suppose you have 2 pilots, each witha 50% chance to hit a given target, or 4pilots each with a 25% chance. If you loseone of the first group, the remaining pilotonly has a 50% chance of hitting. If youlose one of the second group, the survivorsstill have a collective 58% chance of hit-ting. High quality pilots or gunners giveyou more punch per point, but at a cost offormation depth and redundancy.

Another useful thing you can do for yourunits is to keep the skills more or less con-sistent. In other words, it is better for yourpilot skills be consistent in a particulargroup than for you to have one or twostandouts and the rest mediocre. This iswhy: imagine you have a flight of four shipswith pilot skills of 9, 10, 4, and 5.Suddenly,

your flight gets targeted by a nearby Bliz-zard, who launches a spread of four torpe-does. The Blizzard directs one torp at eachship. For half the pilots in the flight, this isnot a serious threat. In addition to the usualcountermeasures, the better pilots have80% and 90% chances, respectively, ofdodging a single torp. For the weaker fli-ers it is a different story. Their odds are 30%and 40%. Not nearly as good.

As the commander of this intrepid flight,you face a troublesome decision. Do you flyon and hope that the weaker pilots will getlucky dodging rolls? Probably a bad idea. Doyou exercise caution and try to evade whilekeeping your flight more or less together?This is safer, but will probably force you awayfrom your objective. Finally, you can let theweaker pilots evade, and the better pilots tryto dodge. The big drawback with this op-tion is that it splits your formation. Yourbest pilots press on while the weaker onesstruggle to stay one step ahead of the torps.In effect, that pesky Blizzard has succeededin cutting your force in half without scor-ing a single hit! Also, by splitting your for-mation, each half becomes an inviting tar-get for opposing formations to cut off andblow away at their leisure.

If all the pilots in the formation had moreor less the same level of skill, this decisionwould not be so difficult to make. A soundresponse would be more obvious, and youwould be less tempted to break up thegroup. True, the formation may have toevade rather than press on, but at least theywould do so as a group. With formationintegrity intact they are more of a threatthan they would be as solitary ships scat-tered across the board. As suggested ear-lier get as many of the best pilots as youcan afford, but keep them working together.You will want them around for the advan-tages they bring to the initiative roll. Donot bog them down by putting them withmediocre crews. Put them with the eliteswhere all of them can shine!

As with most rules, there are exceptions.At the beginning of each turn both sidesdice for initiative. The roll is added to thehighest piloting skill on that side. Obviouslyone exceptional pilot helps you during theinitiative phase. It certainly helps to haveone elite pilot in a group of average fliers.Just do not lose that pilot!

35

BuildingSquadrons ThatWork Together

“We must remember that one man ismuch the same as another, and thathe is best who is trained in the sever-est school.”

—Thucydides, History of thePeloponnesian Wars, I, c. 404 BC

One common mistake is for someonebuilding a fleet or task force to pay throughthe nose for a bunch of really hot ships andcrews, then try to stretch the remainingbudget by purchasing cheap, undependableunits. Do not fall into this trap. Build eachpart of your fleet with the whole in mind.Try to create consistency across the work-ing units of your fleet.

One way to do this is to assemble squad-rons using ships with similar drives. Re-member the definition of “flank speed”: thetop speed of the slowest ship in a convoy.Your task force can only move as fast as itsslowest vessel. Try to keep the speed differ-ential between working units below threedrive points. If speed difference is too high,it might be too tempting to divide or scat-ter your forces, and that is usually not agood idea. We are not advocating that youonly use fast ships, just keep your shipsworking with allies of similar speed when-ever possible. Try not to make slow shipswork with (or against!) fast ones, unless youhave a good reason to expect success. If youneed to use ships with widely differingdrives, make sure the ships of the differentspeed classes can get help from other shipsof similar speed. Or, simply exercise enoughdiscipline not to let your faster ships leaveyour slower ones behind in the excitementof battle.

The same problem applies to defensivevalues. If you have a mixed task force, youmay find yourself unwilling to commit allof the force against a difficult target if someof your ships are especially vulnerable.Some ships, like attrition fighters, are vul-nerable practically by definition so plan tolose a few. But if you do not intend to useyour ships in an attrition role, keeping theDV consistent in your formation helps sim-plify many tactical decisions.

Choose Your Weapons“Bold decisions give the best promiseof success.”

—Erwin Rommel, Rules ofDesert Warfare

The Silent Death player has a wide selec-tion of choices when it comes to weaponry.As we mentioned earlier, a mix of weaponsis a good idea, especially when the nature ofyour mission is unknown. Every weapon typehas drawbacks, and situations where it doesextremely well. We offer the followingthoughts on making sound choices whenyou shop for weaponry, or when you are se-lecting weapons for ship designs.

Do not just consider the amount of dam-age a weapon will do when choosing weap-onry. A Plazgun usually does more dam-age than 6 Splatterguns on any given hit,but it’s harder to hit with one, since the 6Splatterguns have that +5 to hit. Over thecourse of an average game, you will prob-ably do more damage with the Splats.

Other weapons like torpedoes, Ion Rams,Meld Lasers, and Railrepeaters, are good forhitting something at a distance. Unfortu-nately, these weapons have speed limita-tions and cannot track fast targets. Still, ifyou know you’re going to be hunting slowgunboats or freighters, use things that al-low you to get in an extra punch beforeother short-range weapons get closeenough to count. When you’re doing hit-and-run tactics against large, heavy targets,a long reach can render some escort fight-ers superfluous until they close, and bythen you can be long gone. A Turbo Lasercan open up on a slow-moving Betafortressat a range of 30 hexes and do high damageat -1 to hit. Not bad, especially when youconsider that it could take your opponentsome time to bring faster escorts ships upto deal with your attack. And how longwould it take the Betafort to plod closeenough to hurt you? This would be an in-teresting way to draw off the escorts of aslower ship. If you play it well, you can ei-ther chew up the unsupported escorts orpounce on the unescorted gunboats. It mayalso force your opponent to deploy the es-corts further out from their charges to pre-vent long range attacks, and thus render-ing both escorts and gunboats even morevulnerable to isolation.

36

Do not just purchase big, nasty weapons.Subtlety counts for a lot in many tacticalsituations. Some smaller weapons haveunexpected and underappreciated advan-tages. For example, disruptors give an edgeto smaller attrition fighters, because youdo not need heavier guns to break down atarget’s damage reduction before the littleships can go to work. Although they havesome disadvantage in hitting initially,Disruptorguns bypass the damage reduc-tion, so their mischief adds up suprisinglyfast. Study the quirks of each weapon typeand compare them with your needs and theweaknesses of other ships before you as-semble your squadrons.

Keeping theMission in Mind

“When reaching a stalemate, win witha technique the enemy does not ex-pect.”

—Miyamoto MusashiAs in real-life air forces, squadrons

should be created for different kinds ofmissions. Your goal will dictate the kindsof ships you group together. Are you goingto adapt an attrition strategy? Pick shipsthat work well in that strategic role. Willyou be hunting larger prey? Decide whetheryou want to strike from afar or get “up closeand personal” when you choose your ships.

Do not forget to think about who mighttry to stop you. If you go after a convoy witha task forced all tooled up to pound slow-moving lugnuts, imagine your surprisewhen your opponent puts a fast-movingsuperiority squadron between you and yourerstwhile prey. In that case, you are prob-ably in very deep trouble, unless youbrought along your own squadron of supe-riority fighters.

When you choose your forces, it helps tospecify your goals, then break those goalsdown into steps. For example:Step one: Neutralize the convoy’s covering

force.Step two: Engage and destroy cargo ves-

sels.Step three: Disengage and retire.

Maybe you can do all of this with a groupof strike fighters, or perhaps you wouldprefer superiority ships. Attrition fighters

may take too long if the job needs to bedone quickly, however their higher speedsmake a quick getaway possible. Think eachstep through carefully. Make sure the shipsyou choose can do what you need them todo at every step of the engagement. Makenotes after and even during your games andincorporate your insights into the forma-tion and adjustment of your own fleets andtask forces. Specifying your objectives willalso help you keep your mind on the mis-sion.

IntelligenceGathering

“There exists a small number of fun-damental principles of war, which maynot be deviated from without danger,and the application of which, on thecontrary, has been in all times crownedwith glory.”

—Jomini, Précis de l’Art de la Guerre,1838, Campaign Tactics

During the average game, most playersengage in intelligence gathering that goessomething like this: “Oh, look. I am aboutto get splatted by four Night Hawks clos-ing on a quarter that I am defending withone Pulse Laser.” That kind of intelligencereport ranks right up there with “Sir, wehave hit an iceberg!” or “Someone is bomb-ing Pearl Harbor” or “I tot I taw a puty tat.”It is useless information because it is toolate to be of any use.

Short of bugging your opponent’s house(which we do not recommend), we stronglysuggest you do whatever you can within thebounds of reason, game rules, generalsportsmanship, the law, and the tenets ofgood taste, to learn how your opponentconducts a campaign. If you have seen thisperson play a game or two, you may alreadyhave enough information to develop someidea of what to expect.

If you are denied this kind of intelligence,you are left with what you can learn dur-ing the game. Not to worry. There are waysto probe your opponent’s intentions. Cam-paigns often use rules that keep the size,location, composition, and objective of eachside’s forces a secret. This is one area inwhich a referee or umpire can be critical

37

to simulating the “fog of war” by carefullycontrolling what each side knows about theother. As a player, you have other sourcesbesides the referee. Your objective as a“spook” is to learn all you can about theforces arrayed against you while disclosingnothing of your own order of battle. Startby using fast ships to scout and probe, try-ing to provoke a response. Entice the en-emy into pouncing on your scouts and thusshow you what kinds of forces he is using.Look for responses that are disproportion-ate to the provocation. Well-designed cam-paigns generally have objectives moresubtle than “kill the other guys.” A goodcampaign design can even involve objec-tives that are not necessarily exclusive onthe surface. If you threaten the attainmentof an opponent’s objective, your opponentwill react accordingly. Build a profile ofyour opponent’s responses. Learn whatkind of move is likely to be ignored, or re-sponded to with extreme prejudice. Usethese facts to inform your deployment andstrike with unexpected and overwhelmingforce. As we stated earlier, you must knowyour enemy.

Sudden, unexpectedly harsh reponses toa probe are instructive. Reasons for a strongreply to a scout or probing raid include:a) Hiding something important.b) Preparation for a major assault.c) A bloodthirsty attitude itching to kill

something.d) Desperation.

In the case of the first two, clearly some-thing is waiting to be disrupted. If youstumble onto a way to block your oppo-nents objective, chances are you now knowwhere to mass your forces and where tostrike. Your next step is to strike hard, keepyour opponent stymied, and quite possiblywin the campaign. If a major build-up is inthe works, this is a great opportunity tostrike before your opponent is ready. Do notwait around for the attack. Take the fightto the enemy when he is still unprepared.Incidentally, if your plan of attack is simpleand straightforward, you will need less timefor preparation. This makes you less vul-nerable to being caught off guard yourself.

The third possibility is that you are play-ing against someone who is very aggres-sive, perhaps reckless. If this is the case,try to get your opponent to over-commit

and perhaps loose sight of the objective,allowing you an opportunity to pouncewhile the enemy is distracted elsewhere.Maybe you can cause the enemy forces toget strung out. An over-aggressive playeris easier to sucker into making this kind ofblunder.

The final possibility is an intelligencereport by itself. Learn what makes youropponent feel desperate, and try to inducethat feeling as often as possible.

Campaign TacticsExercises

1. You want to add some torpedo capabilityto a squadron of Pit Vipers. You canchoose between Thunderbirds and Bliz-zards. Which would be a better choiceoverall, and why?

2. Your opponent has a pair of Drakars thatyou need to stop. Circumstances requireyou to engage these ships at long range.Fortunately, they are pretty slow sotracking is not a problem. You optionsinclude three Seraphs with Turbo Lasers(High damage) or three Hell Benderswith Meld Lasers (Medium damage).Leaving aside the difference in cost,which is the better choice, and why?

3. Your squadron of Lance Electras is es-corting a group of three Drakar gunboats.Suddenly an enemy force of six Blizzardsappears at a range of about 25 hexes onan attack vector. Your choice is either tosend the Lance Electras out to engagethem, or stick close. What should you do?

4. Your fleet is about to engage youropponent’s fleet in what promises to bea glorious bloodbath. You have a smallgroup of high-quality fighters with elitecrews, a larger group of low-quality shipsand crews, and the bulk of your forcewhich consists of decent ships with av-erage to above-average crews. Howshould you commit them? Should you:(a) lead with your best, (b) throw yourlow-quality (and therefore expendable)ships in to disrupt the enemy formations,or (c) attack with your average crews,using the elite forces for breakthroughand the poorer units for diversions orsimple tasks?

38

Squadron ProfilesFortes fortuna adiuvat.(“Fortune favors the brave.”)

—Terence, Phormio, c. 160 BC

Sadroos StarRiders

1106TH KASHMERE COMMONWEALTH

CONVOY DEFENSE REGIMENTThe Star Riders are a successful example

of the specialized convoy defense fighterunits so necessary for the continuing suc-cess of the Kashmere Common-wealth’smerchant shipping. The Star Riders are or-ganized into three groups each of threesquadrons. Each is equipped and organizedto operate as an independent convoy escortunit capable not only of repelling attackingpirates, but also of pursuing a beaten en-emy to give them something to rememberthem by. This organization and tactical doc-trine was the creation of the Star Riders’founder, Colonel M. Sadroo (also known tothe Kashmeri as “Sadroo the pirate

crusher”). It is a brutally effective system towhich many a grateful merchant captain ofthe commonwealth can attest. The No. 3fighter group “Kali’s Children” is a typicalexample of this organization.

Kali’s ChildrenNO. 3 GROUP, 1106TH CONVOY

DEFENSE REGIMENTAs can be seen from the description, each

squadron is a specialized part of a three-tieredconvoy defense system. The first squadronconstitutes the extended layer of the convoy’sdefense, relying on the superior performanceof the death wind and the added advantage ofthe rear gunner to dominate fights with op-ponents of comparable tonnage. The secondsquadron constitutes the close escort of theconvoy, utilizing the excellent firepower andhandling characteristics of the Hell Benderand the awesome firepower of the BlackWidow to smash anything getting past thefirst squadron. The third squadron acts asboth a mobile reserve, utilizing the Dartsenormous speed advantage to race to anypoint of crisis, and to pursue and harass anysurvivors fleeing from the battle. This hasproven a highly effective system against eventhe most determined attackers.

Unit Summary

NO. 1 FIGHTER SQUADRON “RATHORS”Squadron Leader:

Soohas Nehru (Plt 9, Gnr 9)Assets: 12x Death Wind

NO. 2 FIGHTER SQUADRON

“FIST OF GANESH”Squadron Leader:

Shulpa Patel (Plt 10, Gnr 9)Assets: 8x Hell Bender II

4x Black Widow

NO. 3 FIGHTER SQUADRON

“PUNJABI FALCONS”Squadron Leader:

Alexander Singh (Plt 9, Gnr 9)Assets: 12x Dart

39

The King’sMessengers

YOKA-SHAN WARWORLD 221ST

SPECIAL TASKS UNIT The “King’s Messengers” is a unique unit

within the combat formations of the Yoka-Shan Warworld. While the Warworldershave many excellent fighter units that areavailable for punishing those who fail to paya debt owed to the Warworld, the King’sMessengers are unique among these “dead-beat” executioner units.

Because of their unique mission profile,the King’s Messengers are a unique groupof people. All prospective candidates aresubjected to a rigorous psychological andspiritual screening process intended toweed out all but those with an unusuallyintense and deeply held sense of justice andpersonal awareness. Since the 221st’sfounding, never once has a King’s Messen-gers failed in their duty without paying withtheir lives in the attempt. This level of pro-fessionalism shows no sign of wavering.

Although the 221st is a mercenary unitopen for hire like any other Yoka-Shancombat unit, the King’s Messengers comewith a very heavy price tag. The cost isnearly five times the normal going rate fora Warworlder fighter unit, paid in advance!

The 221st is so well known that many awould-be aggressor thinks twice if the in-tended victim (or the victim’s relatives) havethe resources to hire the 221st. This also ap-plies to special situations, as the 221st has aprocess of appeal for those who cannot affordto pay the huge fees required, but who maynonetheless have an unusually worthy case.

Historical footnote: the ships of the 221stare painted in a very dark charcoal gray.No markings of any sort other than indi-vidual ship numbers and names appear onany King’s Messenger fighter. The Nemesisgunboats of the third squadron were do-nated to the 221st by the shipping mag-nate Knut Homme out of gratitude for ser-vices rendered. All of the Nemesis gunboatsbear the ancient Latin motto “ultima ratioregum” (“The final argument of kings”) in

bold lettering along both sides of the hull.This was Knut Homme’s personal messageto the murderers of his granddaughter andsole heir. Thereafter it became the unoffi-cial motto of the King’s Messengers.

Unit Summary:

1ST SQUADRON “ GRIOTS”Squadron Leader:

Alexander Kun’ Voerhoven(Plt 10, Gnr 10)

Assets: 24x Blizzard

2ND SQUADRON “SPEAK THEIR

MINDS CLEARLY”Squadron Leader:

Roger Sauvage (Plt 10, Gnr 10)Assets: 16x Black Widow

3RD SQUADRON “THE FINAL

WORD SPOKEN”Squadron Leader:

Quase’ Fulani (Plt 10, Gnr 10)Assets: 12x Nemesis

40

The Lynch Mob3RD LOMA VERDE COMPOSITE CITIZEN’S

FIGHTER DEFENSE REGIMENTThe 3rd Loma Verde CCFD regiment is

one of five such umbrella organizationsconstituting the fighter defense networkprotecting the colony of Loma Verde andthe associated Herrera shipyards. It wasorganized to serve as a central commandstructure in time of emergency for the vari-ous local reserve citizen’sfighter wingsbasedon the colony and the outer planetsof the system. The CCFD regiments alsoprovide a venue for the various reserveunits to receive ongoing training under thetutelage of the hired professional fighterpilots who act as the regimental commandcadre. This has proven to be a fairly effec-tive system due in no small part to thetraining priority placed on gunnery skillsand team tactics by the Warworlder andKarelian advisors employed by the govern-ment of Loma Verde.

Unit Summary

REGIMENTAL COMMAND FLIGHT,3RD CCFD REGIMENT

Acting Regimental Commander:Juba Usuthu (Plt 9, Gnr 9)(Yoka-Shan)

Assets: 4x Deathwind

1ST ATTACHED SQUADRON,3RD CCFD REGT.

(21ST LOCAL DEFENSE SQN.SHIPYARD WELDERS)

“THE FIRE GUARDS”Squadron Motto: “Too Hot To Touch!”Squadron Leader:

Candalario “El Pistolero”Guerrero(Plt 5, Gnr 8)

Assets: 24x Chupacabra

2ND ATTACHED SQUADRON,3RD CCFD REGT.

(1ST LOCAL DEFENSE SQN.HOVERCAB DRIVER’S)

“THE TAXI DRIVERS”Squadron Motto: “You Lookin’ At Me?”Squadron Leader:

Ramon “El Loco” Cortez(Plt 6, Gnr 6)

Assets: 24x Chupacabra

3RD ATTACHED SQUADRON,3RD CCFD REGT.

(2ND RANCH HANDS

LOCAL DEFENSE SQN.)

“THE RUSTLIN’ REPTILES”Squadron Motto: “What Goat?”Squadron Leader:

Benjamin “Breaker” Casteneda (Plt 6,Gnr 9)

Assets: 24x Chupacabra

41

4TH ATTACHED SQUADRON,3RD CCFD REGT.

(3RD PROGRAMMERS

LOCAL DEFENSE SQN.)

“FINNEGAN’S FLYING FEEDING FRENZY”(AKA “THE 4 F’S”)

Squadron Motto:“You Will Stick In Our Teeth!”

Squadron Leader:Concepcion “La Azteca” Finnegan(Plt 7, Gnr 7)

Assets: 16x Pit Vipers16x Stingers

This system was already in place whenthe Grubs first came to Loma Verde, aug-mented by the eleventh hour productionof an effective, locally produced light fighterdeveloped by the Herrera Shipyards. Short-falls in deliveries of Pit Viper and Stingerclass fighters on order before the Grub War

were filled by the HSF-1 “Chupacabra,”named for a local pest/predator much de-spised by Loma Verde’s numerous sheepand goat herders. The ship proved to be awinning design. Better still, the “Chupy”utilized minimal strategic materials andhas a brief maintenance cycle allowing forvery short down time between missions: nomore than 10 minutes between combatflights with a skilled hangar crew.

Equipped with an effective ship and ledby competent mercenary commanders, thecitizen pilots of Loma Verde succeeded ingiving such a good account of themselvesthat the Grub swarm attempting to infestthe system was driven off with staggeringlosses. This order of battle has stayed inplace ever since, as many pirate groupsfound out the hard way after the Grub War.Herrera Shipyards has also begun to exportthe “Chupy” to other small colonies in needof cheap but effective fighter craft.

42

Draconian Betafort∝

1922nd Frontier

Scenarios“The measure may be thought bold,but I am of opinion the boldest are thesafest.”

—Lord Nelson to Sir Hyde Parker,urging immediate action against

the Danes and Russians,24 March 1801

Now that you are brimming with tacti-cal expertise, we have written the follow-ing scenarios to help you practice and honeyour skills. The following scenarios concerndifferent combat problems that cry out forsmart, innovative resolution. Most of thesescenarios have special rules, and some ofthem also use optional rules from the Si-lent Death: The Next Millenium rulebook.

Scenario 1: The Piranha Gambit“Quantity has a quality all its own.”

—V. I. LeninWhile navigating a nearby asteroid field,

a Draconian Betafortress Beta has becomeseparated from its battle group. TheDraconian Raiders subjected the local out-post to merciless attacks using the Betafortto terrible effect. Now, while the gunboatis separated from is supporting ships andexposed in open space, the local militia hasa long-awaited chance to even the score.

So much for the good news. The badnews is that the window of opportunity issmall. The locals do not have time to callin their heavier ships from long-range pa-trols. It is therefore up to the smaller attri-tion squadrons to take down this massive

foe. Fortunately, elements of the 4th At-tached Squadron, 3rd CCFD Regt.(“Finnegan’s Flying Feeding Frenzy”) in-clude some slightly heavier assets. Even so,it will take careful strategy and hard fight-ing to take out the big Betafort.

1922nd Frontier SquadronSet up second along edge 2.

Pit Viper A Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)Pit Viper B Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 5)Pit Viper C Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 8)Pit Viper D Pilot (Plt 8, Gnr 9)Pit Viper E Pilot (Plt 5, Gnr 7)Pit Viper F Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 6)Stinger A Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 5)Stinger B Pilot (Plt 8, Gnr 7)Stinger C Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 6)Stinger D Pilot (Plt 9, Gnr 7)

43

Draconian RaidersSet up first along edge 4.

Betafortress Beta A Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 6)Gunner A (Gnr 7)Gunner B (Gnr 6)Gunner C (Gnr 5)Gunner D (Gnr 6)Gunner E (Gnr 7)

Victory ConditionsThe Frontier squadron must destroy the

Betafortress within eight turns withoutsuffering losses greater than 60% of theirtotal point value. Total up the losses of theCCFD player at the end of each turn.

Scenario 2: Catch As Catch Can!“Hit ‘em where they ain’t.”

—“Wee Willie” Keeler, 1872-1923During the course of the Karelian war a

Draconian sympathizer succeeded in dis-abling the stardrives of a freighter carry-ing badly needed supplies to the besiegedKarelian system. While the disabledfreighter drifted helplessly just inside theKarelian border a mercenary gunboat unitemployed by the Draconians sped acrossthe border in an effort to destroy thefreighter and deny the Karelians their badlyneeded supplies. While most gunboat unitsoperate with fighter support, the mercenaryunit had lost its fighter support during anencounter with the Karelian 3rd fighterregiment “Werewolves” just hours before.The four gunboats escaped unscathed byabandoning their comrades to annihilationat the hands of the Karelians when the gun-boat leader realized that the fighters theywere engaging were not ordinary TealHawks, but an entirely new and lethal vari-ant.

Seeking to redeem themselves in the eyesof their Draconian employers, the gunboatflight agreed to undertake this mission onthe spot. It would prove a risky missionindeed, as the Karelian fighter patrols ma-rauded along the disputed border.

Forces

Gunboat flight of the 353rd FighterSquadron “Logan’s Looters”

Set up first along edge 1 within two hexesof the board edge.

Epping A Pilot (Plt 10, Gnr 7)Gunner A (Gnr 8)Gunner B (Gnr 7)Gunner C (Gnr 8)

Epping 2 Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 7)Gunner A (Gnr 9)Gunner B (Gnr 6)Gunner C (Gnr 6)

Epping 3 Pilot (Plt 8, Gnr 6)Gunner A (Gnr 10)Gunner B (Gnr 7)Gunner C (Gnr 8)

Epping 4 Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 9)Gunner A (Gnr 7)Gunner B (Gnr 8)Gunner C (Gnr 6)

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44

Assorted Karelian fighter sweepelements (3rd, 6th, and 7th Fighter

Squadrons, Karelian 2nd Fighter Regiment)Set up second anywhere along edge 3.

Turn 1 patrol flight:Thunder Bird A: Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 7)Thunder Bird B: Pilot (Plt 8, Gnr 8)Thunder Bird C: Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)Thunder Bird D: Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)After the discovery of the Epping flight

racing toward the disabled freighter, theKarelian fighter patrol leader realized theintentions of the intruders. He immediatelysent out a wide band alert broadcast re-questing assistance from any other fight-ers in the area. The Karelians proceeded toattack in an effort to delay the Eppings untilhelp could arrive.

Special RulesAt the beginning of each turn the

Karelian player consults the appropriaterandom fighter patrol chart and rolls onedie of the type appropriate to the table inuse. The result of the die roll will indicatewhich reinforcements will enter from theKarelian side of the board during the cur-rent turns movement phase. Pilot and gun-nery skills for the randomly generated re-inforcements are determined by rolling1D4+5 for both pilot and gunnery skills.This range of possible skills reflects theKarelians obsessive emphasis on trainingbefore considering a fighter pilot worthyof combat.

Turn 1 reinforcements (1D4)1 = 2 x Kosmos2 = 2 x Teal Hawk3 = 2 x Pit Viper4 = 2 x Dart

Turn 2 reinforcements (1D6)1 = 2 x Kosmos2 = 2 x Teal Hawk3 = 2 x Pit Viper4 = 2 x Dart5 = 2 x Thunderbird6 = 2 xNighthawks

Turn 3+ reinforcements (1D8)1 = 2 x Kosmos2 = 2 x Teal Hawk3 = 2 x Pit Viper4 = 2 x Dart5 = 2 x Thunderbird6 = 2 x Nighthawks7 = 2 x Salamander8 = 2 x Lance ElectraThe scenario uses two playing boards

placed adjacent along their long sides. Thedisabled freighter is placed in the center ofthe playing area between boards G and Hon the side opposite the edge throughwhich the Eppings will enter. The freighteris completely helpless and can offer no re-sistance whatsoever. The freighter pos-sesses 80 damage boxes. The Eppings mustdestroy the freighter and exit at least oneof their number back off of the playingboard to win (edge 1) to win.

45

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Scenario 3: Space Billiards!“In war the power to use two fists is aninestimable asset. To feint with one fistand strike with the other yields an ad-vantage, but a still greater advantagelies in being able to interchangethem—to convert the feint into thereal blow if the opponent uncovershimself.”

—B. H. Liddell Hart,Thoughts on War, I, 1944

While conducting a routine fighter sweepon the outer rim of the Loma Verde Sys-tem, the No. 2 wing of the “Rustling Rep-tiles” detected a superior force of uniden-tified fighters on an intercept vector. Real-izing that the intruders were hostile, andthat their light “Chupacabra” fighters wereoutgunned by the hostiles, Flight LeaderRamon “Razorback” Bautista led his flightinto a heavy meteor storm in an effort toeven the odds.

Forces

No. 2 Flight, “Rustlin’ Reptiles”Set up first in Areas C or D.

Chupacabra A Pilot (Plt 9, Gnr 8)Chupacabra B Pilot (Plt 8, Gnr 7)Chupacabra C Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 7)Chupacabra D Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 7)Chupacabra E Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)Chupacabra F Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)

2nd Flight,”Death’s Head” Squadron,Draconian Fighter Forces

Set up second on edge 3.

Salamander A Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 7)Gunner (Gnr 7)

Salamander B Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 6)Gunner (Gnr 7)

Salamander C Pilot (Plt 7, Gnr 8)Gunner (Gnr 6)

Salamander D Pilot (Plt 6, Gnr 6)Gunner (Gnr 6)

Salamander E Pilot (Plt 5, Gnr 5)Gunner (Gnr 6)

Salamander F Pilot (Plt 5, Gnr 6)Gunner (Gnr 6)

Special Rules1) Boards A and B are the outer edge of a

meteor storm. Any ship that moves intothese hexes is subject to possible hits frommeteors of varying impact. To determine ifa meteor strikes a particular ship roll 1D10for each ship before every warhead launchphase. If the result is even then play pro-ceeds as normal. If the roll is odd then theship has strayed into the path of oncomingmeteors. Players may attempt dodge rollsagainst meteors. Dodging these are handledthe same as a dodge against a single tor-pedo. To determine the attack value of themeteor affecting the ship roll 1D6 and con-sult the following table:

1 - 3D6, Low damage2 - 3D6, Medium damage3 - 3D6, High damage4 - 3D6, All damage5 - 3D6, All x 26 - 3D6, All x 3The winner of the scenario is the side

with any surviving pilots left on the board.

46

Answers to Exercises Basic Tactical

Concepts“If men make war in slavish obedienceto rules, they will fail.”

—U. S. Grant, PersonalMemoirs, 1885

1. Yes. Remember, if the ship on the out-side of the turn has enough points to makethe maneuver, all of the ships in the for-mation can make it.

2. False. Dividing your forces means thatinstead of one strong force, you have twoweaker forces. If they can come to the aidof each other, that is one thing. If one partgets isolated, you may lose it.

3. True. Although roughly half of theopposing ships are under attack at a time,they are under much heavier attack. Byganging up on a few ships, you create zonesof local superiority.

4. In this case, the Glaives are probablythe most dangerous part of the opposingforce. Try to concentrate as much fire onthe Glaives as quickly as you can, beforethey eat your lunch.

5. No. It cannot dodge torpedoes, so firea few well-aimed torpedoes at it, and con-front the new threat. Or, if the newcomersare too much trouble, run for it. Either way,the heavy fighter is toast.

6. False. Look again at the diagram inthis chapter. There are gaps in the fire zoneswhen only three ships are in the circle.

Weaponry“The Nemesis-class gunboat is best de-scribed as a Lufbery Circle consistingof a single ship.”

—Reviewer, ImperialDefense Quarterly

1. Yes. The torpedo cannot hit the blackfighter this turn.

2. A pilot with a piloting skill of 9 onlyneeds to roll a 3 or better to successfullydodge one torpedo. That is an 80% chanceeach time. If those odds sound good, closedeliberately with one torpedo in such a waythat the other torpedo cannot reach you

this turn, and go for a dodge. Do the samewith the second torp on the next turn. Donot forget to attempt a jam on each turn inaddition. Chances are, you will make it.

3. The percent chance to hit is 40%.4. The chance that at least one of the

ships will hit is 87.6%.5. For skill 7 pilots, damage is 2 x 2.58 +

(2 x .389) or 8.75 points of damage. Skill 9pilot expects to do 3.09 + (2 x .5) or 4.09points of damage. Together the do 10.04points of damage.

7. Since the Plazgun does “All” damage,the roll To Hit is approximately the amountof damage, leaving out pluses or minusesfor range, etc. If you hit the target, yourdamage is going to be at least 16 at me-dium range.

Situational Tactics“When the situation is obscure,attack.”

—Attributed to GeneralHeinz Guderian

1. Both the Lance Electra and the DeathWind have weapons with long enoughrange that they can strike a Revenge with-out fear of being hit by anything but atorpedo. However, the Lance Electra’sprotobolts have a finite ammo supply, whilethe Death Wind’s Ion Ram does not. Fur-thermore, the Ion Ram can do much moredamage at long range. If your fighters areadept at evading torpedoes, they can hangout of missile range and pound away at theheavy fighters.Therefore Death Winds arethe correct choice.

2. Add one of the Night Hawks with avery high gunnery skill level. The light gunsof the Spirit Riders will not make much ofan impression if the target has a respect-able damage reduction. With a high gun-nery skill level in the Night Hawk can re-duce the damage reduction of a target ortargets enough for the Spirit Riders to bemore of a threat. And when a feint is moredangerous, it is more likely to be taken se-riously, which is the whole idea of a feint.

47

3. Use the undamaged Night Hawk. Itstands a good chance of slowing down orstopping the Teal Hawk. A damaged shiphas lost some of its damage reduction,speed, and perhaps one or more weapons.To throw one of the damaged Night Hawksin front of the Teal Hawk would almost cer-tainly mean losing it.

4. For these kinds of short actions, theEpping is probably the best choice. If itsurvived the first round of cannon fire, itcan launch its heavy missile load before thenext movement phase. This lets it retirequickly before additional cannon fire canbe brought to bear. In addition, its four Mk.30 torpedoes can finish off crippled oppo-nents after the Epping has made its escape,or strongly discourage pursuers.

5. Try to accomplish two things. First,get your fighters regrouped so they canconcentrate their fire. Second, try to directtheir combined firepower against one ortwo likely targets once your opponent hasmoved one or two ships.

Campaign Tactics“After winning a great victory, ahaughty heart, disdain for the enemy,and incautious actions often follow.Avoid this. There have been manyfamilies in the past destroyed in thismanner.”

—Hojo Ujitsuna, 16th centurySamurai Warlord

1. Use the Blizzards. They can keep upmore easily with the Pit Vipers, their torpload is very nearly as good, and they arecheaper than Thunderbirds.

2. Use the Seraphs. Since their TurboLasers do High damage, over the long termthey will probably do more damage to thetarget than the Meld Lasers.

3. Stay close to your convoy. The LanceElectra packs a substantial punch, but it issignificantly slower than a Blizzard. If youdash out to meet them, the Blizzards canblow right by your fighters and drop theirtorps practically on top of the haplessDrakars. Meanwhile, the Electras will getturned around just in time to see the Bliz-zards come blowing past on their wayhome. Instead, stay close to the gunboats,and let the attackers come to you. Use yourtorps to intercept their torps. Your missilesand protobolts will ensure that not all ofthe Blizzards get out in one piece.

4. For most situations, the answer is (c).Do not lead with your elites if you want tokeep them. Use them for unconventionaluses or the final breakthrough. “Unconven-tional” should not be construed to mean“stupid.” The average units can use theirnumbers to wear down the enemy, and ifthey are used intelligently, they can some-times achieve a breakthrough themselves.Give the low-end forces some respect; donot just throw them away. Use them forthings that are within their capabilities.

WO

RK

SH

EE

T

48

For Further Reading“To fly a combat mission is not a tripunder the moon. Every attack, everybombing is a dance with death.”

—Serafima Amsova-Taranenko,Soviet Bomber Pilot, World War II

Learning about real-world air combatcan help you improve your gameboard tac-tics. The following is a suggested list ofbooks that will help you better understandstrategy and tactics in general, and fightertactics in particular. Most of these booksare available either from your local bookdealer, or your local school or public library.Bishop, William A. Winged Warfare. (Gar-

den City, NY: Doubleday), 1967.Boyington, Gregory. Baa Baa Black Sheep.

(Fresno, CA: Wilson Press), 1958.Boyington proved himself a remarkablyinnovative and insightful tactician, onewho was not hesitant to challenge con-ventional tactical thinking.

Frank, Norman. Aircraft Versus Aircraft.The Illustrated Story of Fighter PilotCombat Since 1914. (New York:Macmillian Publishing Company), 1986.Well-written discussion on the histori-cal development of individual and groupfighter tactics and aircraft, clearly ex-plained with useful diagrams.

Gallagher, James J., CSM U.S.A. (Ret.), ed.Combat Leader’s Field Guide, 11th edi-tion (Mechanicsburg, PA: StackpoleBooks), 1994. This book contains an ex-cellent summary of basic rules for suc-cessfully conducting armed conflict. Alsosome good material on basic principlesof small unit tactics that can be fruit-fully applied to the gameboard.

Galland, Adolph. The First and the Last.(New York: Bantam Books), 1978. Mem-oirs of one of Germany’s greatest aces ofWorld War II.

49

Gunston, Bill and Lindsay Peacock. FighterMissions: Modern Air Combat - The Viewfrom the Cockpit. (New York: CrownPublishers, Inc.). Also available throughthe Military Book Club.

Handel, Michael I. Masters of War: Classi-cal Strategic Thought. Second, revisededition (London: Frank Cass), 1996. Aninteresting study of general strategy inwhich the author, an instructor at theUS War College, shows how the basicprinciples of both western and easternstrategists are ultimately the same. Cer-tain to provoke controversy, but very in-structive. Available through Barnes &Noble.

Johnson, Robert S., with Martin Caidin.Thunderbolt! (New York: BallentineBooks), 1959. Memoirs of the top US Ma-rine Corps fighter ace of World War II.

Juutilainen, Ilmari. Double Fighter Knight.Heikki Nijunen and Paul Gillcrist, trans.(Tampere, Finland: Uusi Kivipaino Oy),1996. Fascinating memoir by Finland’stop scoring ace (94 kills) of World WarII. Juutilainen’s descriptions of Finnishpilot training helps explain how theFinns, outnumbered and using obsoleteequipment, achieved kill ratios as highas 32:1 against their Soviet opponents.

Longstreet Stephen. The Canvas Falcons.(New York: Ballentine Books), 1972.Well-written, lucid and detailed accountof the people, planes, and machines in-volved in World War I air combat. Goodstudy of the early evolution of air com-bat doctrines. Available as a reprint fromBarnes & Noble.

Luukkanen, Eino. Fighters Over Finland.(London: Macdonald), 1963.

Musashi, Miyamoto. A Book of Five Rings.Victor Harris, trans. (Woodstock, NY: TheOverlook Press), 1974. A classic on strat-egy by a warrior who came to define whatit meant to be Samurai. This book hasbeen a major influence on Asian tacticalthinking for centuries.

Noggle, Anne. A Dance With Death. SovietAirwomen in World War II. (College Sta-tion, TX: Texas A&M University Press),1994. Intriguing and moving stories ofSoviet women combat pilots and groundcrew, told in their own words.

Nordeen, Lon. Fighters Over Israel, illus-trated by Ken Kotik. (Orion Books),1990. A fascinating discussion of Israelifighter tactics used in several recent con-flicts.

Park, Edward. Fighters. The World’s GreatAces and Their Planes (Charlottesville,VA: Thomasson-Grant), 1990.

von Richthofen, Manfred F. The Red AirFighter. (New York: Arno Press), 1972.Air combat and tactics described in de-tail by the Red Baron himself.

Rickenbacker, Eddie V. Fighting the Fly-ing Circus. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday),1965. Memoirs of the top-scoring Ameri-can ace of World War I.

Sakai, Saburo, with Martin Caidin and FredSaito. Samurai! (Garden City, NY: NelsonDoubleday), 1978. Memoirs of one ofJapan’s greatest World War II aces.

Shaw, Robert L. Fighter Combat - Tacticsand Maneuvering (Annapolis, MD: Na-val Institute Press), 1985. This is one thatreal fighter jocks study! If you must buyonly one of the books on this list, makeit this one.

Sims, Edward H. Fighter Tactics and Strat-egy, 1914-1970. (Fallbrook, CA: AeroPublishers), 1980.

Spick, Mike. Fighter Pilot Tactics. (NewYork: Stein and Day), 1983.

Sun-Tzu. The Art of War. Several transla-tions and editions are available. Writtenover 2500 years ago, it remains one ofthe classic texts on military strategy.Master Sun had a tremendous influenceon the contents of this manual.

Yeager, Charles. Yeager. An Autobiography.(New York: Bantam Books), 1985. Rec-ollections by one of the premier air-war-riors of the United States. The chapteron his experiences as a fighter pilot inWorld War II is a must-read.

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Worksheets“Success in war is obtained by antici-pating the plans of the enemy, and bydiverting his attention from our owndesigns.”

—Francesco Guicciacardini,1483-1540

You may photocopy the following twopages and use them in planning and ana-lyzing tactical problems. Use these sheetsto take notes and experiment. You can putthese sheets inside a plastic page sleeve anduse a dry-erase marker or grease pencil to

draw up your nefarious plans! Keep a fewextra sheets around to permanently recordyour moments of unearthly brilliance (orabysmal stupidity).

Long map setup belowBattle Plan inside front coverA ruled section for notes, plus a compact

hex grid for diagrams and sketches.All-map sheet inside back coverIt shows the difference in size between

the standard play surface and the geo-hexbattle map.

LONG MAP SETUP

PERCENTAGE TO HIT CHART

Def. Value 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 182D6+1D4 100 99 97 93 86 76 64 50 36 24 14 7 3 1 0 02D6+1D6 100 99 98 95 91 84 74 62 50 38 26 16 9 5 2 12D6+1D8 100 99 99 97 93 88 81 72 61 50 39 28 19 12 7 32D6+1D10 100 99 99 97 94 90 84 77 69 60 50 40 31 23 16 102D8+1D4 100 99 98 96 92 87 80 71 61 50 39 29 20 13 8 42D8+1D6 100 99 99 97 95 91 85 78 70 60 50 40 30 22 15 92D8+1D8 100 99 99 98 96 93 89 84 77 68 59 50 41 32 23 162D8+1D10 100 99 99 98 97 95 91 87 81 75 67 59 50 41 33 25

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Fighter DesignsThe following fighters have been de-

signed using the standard Silent Deathship design system. Their designs are basedprimarily on the tactical and strategic con-cepts in this manual. We include them hereas an example of how these concepts caninform combat starcraft design.

These new ships are used by the follow-ing worlds:Nemesis: Yoka-Shan, Red Star, Hibernia,

Sigurd, Q’raj

Black Widow: Yoka-Shan, Tokugawa, RedStar, Karelian Republic, Kashmere,Q’raj

Chupacabra: Karelian Republic,Unkulunkulu, Loma Verde, Red Star,Q’raj

Stinger: everybody!Bat: Kashmere, Hibernia, Red Star,

Tokugawa, Karelian Republic, DataSphere, Q’raj Shark: Luches Utopia,Colos, Draconian, ASP***

BatCrew: 1Maneuvering Thrust: 0.119 km/s/sMass: 300 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Reinforced CrysteelAtmospheric Capability: NoneArmaments:

4x Mk. 10 Splattergun Blast Cannons4x Mk. 10 Torpedoes

Commentary: The Bat is designed to be anextremely agile defensive attrition fighter,optimized for dogfighting other attritionfighters of equal or smaller weight. The Batalso makes a reasonably good convoy escortship if used in quantity. What the Bat lacksin speed and armor it compensates for withexceptionally high agility for a fighter of itssize and the defensive advantage of a rea-sonably armed rear gunner.

Algol Systems A-117 “Stinger”Crew: 1Maneuvering Thrust: 0.184 km/s/sMass: 100 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Steel HullAtmospheric Capability: NoneArmaments:

1x Mk. 10 Splattergun Blast Cannon2x Mk. 40 Torpedoes

Commentary: The effectiveness of manyattrition fighters is limited by their initialprice tag and upkeep costs. The Stinger isdesigned to be the ultimate in en masseattrition fighters. Designed to operate inlarge groups and attack larger opponents,yet relatively cheap and easy to maintain.The Stinger’s downside is a logistical one;keeping the little devils supplied with Mk.40 torpedoes!

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Herrera Consortium A-97“Chupacabra”Crew: 1Maneuvering Thrust: 0.169 km/s/sMass: 100 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Steel HullAtmospheric Capability: FullArmaments:

1x Mk. 10 Disruptorgun2x Missile Launchers (Magazine: 20 missiles each)

Commentary: Herrera Consortium is oneof many civilian shipbuilders forced to takeup military ship building by the collapse ofthe Empire. In the case of Herrera Con-sortium this conversion came about in di-rect response to the looming threat of theGrub invasion. In order to protect the lo-cal system, Consortium’s brilliant designteam produced a cheap, low maintenance,and lethal attrition fighter in a very shortperiod of time. Although circumstancesrequired a design that did not use the usualstrategic raw materials, the “Chupy” proveda strong performer against Grub craft.

Dionysia Dynamics P-401“Shark”Crew: 1Maneuvering Thrust: 0.177 km/s/sMass: 300 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Steel HullAtmospheric Capability: FullArmaments:

1x Mk. 15 Ion Ram1x Mk. 10 Impulsegun Ion Cannon

Commentary: This medium superiorityfighter was the brainchild of a consortiumof smaller colonial governments. The goalwas to build a fast, relatively agile fighterusing public domain internal systems in anew airframe. Now sold abroad and manu-factured in several systems under license,the Shark is designed to be a fast gun plat-form with a respectable “bite.” While rela-tively unarmored, it makes up for this de-ficiency by being very maneuverable andtough to hit. Do not expect the Shark tostand up to more sophisticated opponentssuch as the Deathwind or Salamander, butdo not underestimate the Shark either!

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Grivas Armaments EX-198“Black Widow”Crew: 3Maneuvering Thrust: 0.127 km/s/sMass: 1000 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Steel HullAtmospheric Capability: FullArmaments:

18x Mk. 10 Splattergun Blast Cannons10x Mk. 10 Torpedoes

Commentary: The Black Widow is builtaround the principle of a single ship or pairof ships being able to establish immediatefirepower dominance over any given oppo-nent in a cannon duel and totally obliter-ate that opponent on the first exchange.With three (3) six-gun batteries ofSplatterguns, two of those batteries con-tained in 360-degree counter-rotating tur-rets (one each ventral and dorsal), and tenMk. 10 torpedoes for added fun, the BlackWidow lives up to its name with a ven-geance! Beware the kiss of this SpiderWoman!

Homme Industries GBX-1“Nemesis”Crew: 6Maneuvering Thrust: 0.124 km/s/sMass: 1500 tonsTranslight Capability: NoneArmor: Steel HullAtmospheric Capability: FullArmaments:

20x Mk. 10 Splattergun Blast Cannons1x Missile Launchers (Magazine: 20 missiles)1x Mk. 15 Ion Ram10 Mk. 50 Torpedoes20 Mk. 10 Torpedoes

Commentary: Homme Industries is a ci-vilian shipyard that built a reputation forexcellence producing numerous successfulcargo ship designs used throughout Impe-rial Space.

When the head of Homme Industries losthis granddaughter and sole heir in abotched Colosian kidnapping attempt, theold man insisted on revenge that wouldcause the plotters ...”as much grief as theyhave caused me!”

Out of this tragedy was born the Nem-esis class high speed gunboat. Workingwith a highly successful priority transportdesign (the HICC-51 “Mercury”), KnutHomme himself oversaw the design of anunprecedented gunboat configuration. Thedesign dispensed entirely with any armorprotection in favor of a superior turn ofspeed, fighter-like maneuverability, and atruly horrific weapons load meant to over-whelm virtually any opponent on the firstexchange of fire.

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Costs for Maneuverable andVariable Speed Torps

Since the beginning of Silent Death, theManeuverable Torps (Silent Death: TheNext Millennium Rulebook,page 72) andVariable Speed Torps (SDTNM Rulebook,page 72)) have been two of the most popu-lar optional rules in the game. Maneuver-able Torps allow torpedoes to find their tar-gets in a larger area and simplify the al-ready streamlined Silent Death movementsystem. Variable Speed provides additionalflavor to the torpedo rules, giving the gamea range of torpedoes, from ultra-fast littleMk. 10s to slow and lumbering but incred-ibly powerful Mk. 100s. Combined, the tworules make the use of torpedoes fast, en-tertaining, and exceptionally dangerous.

Unfortunately, Maneuverable and/or Vari-able Speed Torps are not particularly bal-anced. The base costs for torpedoes (SilentDeath: The Next Millennium Rulebook ,page86) assume that normal torpedoes are be-ing put on a ship design. The differences in

cost between the various Mk. numbers rep-resent only the strength of the warhead.These costs were balanced against the costsof other weapon systems. The ManeuverableTorps rule, however, gives torpedoes addedcapability for free, making them more pow-erful than other types of weapons with thesame point cost. Similarly, the VariableSpeed Torps rule make Mk. 10 through Mk.30 torpedoes more powerful, but hamper therange of Mk. 50 and higher torpedoes, with-out altering how much a player has to spend.These effects can be vary dramatic.

For example, a Mk. 10 torpedo with ei-ther the Maneuverable or the VariableSpeed Torps option can reach almost threetimes the area in one turn that a standardtorpedo can. If both options are in effect,the area the torpedo can reach is almostsix times as great as that of its unmodifiedcousin. In another case, a Mk. 60 torpedohas only one-third the area of a standard

55

torpedo under the Variable Speed Rules. Inboth cases the capability of the torpedo hasbeen greatly affected, without any adjust-ment to its cost.

To solve this problem, the TacticsManual provides costs to upgrade a ship’storpedoes. These costs take into accountthe amount of area that can be reached bya torpedo in one turn. They bring shipsusing these rules into balance with the restof the system, while allowing more flavourand increased ease of use.

Optional RulesIf any of these optional rules are in ef-

fect, the players cannot gain the effects ofeither the Maneuverable or the VariableSpeed Torps optional rules without payingthe specified additional cost.

All Ships Must Upgrade to ManeuverableTorps

All players must pay the cost (page 59)to upgrade all torpedoes on their ships totake into account the effect of the Maneu-verable Torps optional rule.

All Ships Must Upgrade to Variable SpeedTorps

All players must pay the cost (page 59)to upgrade all torpedoes on their ships totake into account the effect of the VariableSpeed Torps optional rule.

All Ships Must Upgrade to Both Maneu-verable and Variable Speed Torps

All players must pay the cost (page 59)to upgrade all torpedoes on their ships totake into account the effect both the Ma-neuverable and the Variable Speed Torpsoptional rules.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps on aShip to Maneuverable Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 59) toupgrade all torpedoes on a ship to gain theeffects of the Maneuverable Torps optionalrule.

Example: A player is in a game andwants to take a Sorenson III. If hewants to make any of the torpedoesManeuverable, he can, but he must

choose to either upgrade all of thetorps (4 Mk. 20 and 3 Mk. 10) for anadditional cost of 19 points, or he can-not upgrade any of them.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps of a Typeon a Ship to Maneuverable Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade all torpedoes of the same type ona ship to gain the effects of the Maneuver-able Torps optional rule. The cost for eachtype of torpedo is paid separately, and play-ers are free to have standard and Maneu-verable torps on a ship provided they arenot the same Mk. number.

Example: A player who took aSorenson III would have three op-tions; he could upgrade the 4 Mk. 20torpedoes for 14 points, the 3 Mk. 10sfor 5 points, or he can upgrade boththe Mk. 20s and the 10s for 19 points.

All Ships May Upgrade Some of the Torpson a Ship to Maneuverable Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade any of the torpedoes on a ship togain the effects of the Maneuverable Torpsoptional rule. The cost for each torpedo ispaid separately and players may have anycombination of standard and Maneuverabletorpedoes. Warhounds must still upgradetheir torpedoes in blocks of ten.

Example: A player taking a SorensonIII has a huge number of options. Hecould upgrade one of his Mk. 20 torpe-does for a cost of 4 points, two for a costof 7, three for a cost of 11, or 4 for a costof 14. He could additionally choose toupgrade one of his Mk. 10 torpedoes fora cost of 2 points, two for a cost of 4points, or three for a cost of 5 points.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps on aShip to Variable Speed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 59) toupgrade all the torpedoes on a ship to gainthe effects of the Variable Speed Torps op-tional rule.

56

Example: A player takes a Constella-tion. If he wants to upgrade to Vari-able Speed torpedoes, he must up-grade all of the torpedoes on the ship.The ten Mk. 20 torpedoes would costan additional 24 points. The ten Mk.50s and ten Mk. 60s, however, haveless range than normal torps underthe variable speed option, so he wouldget a total of 62 points back on thesetorpedoes (20 from the Mk. 50s and42 from the Mk. 60s). Thus, the Con-stellation would cost a net 38 pointsless under this option than under thestandard rules.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps of a Typeon a Ship to Variable Speed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade all torpedoes of the same type ona ship to gain the effects of the VariableSpeed Torps optional rule. The cost for eachtype of torpedo is paid separately, and play-ers are free to have standard and Variabletorps on a ship provided they are not thesame Mk. number.

Example: A player takes a Constella-tion. He now has three options (sincethe Constellation has 3 types of tor-pedoes). He can upgrade the Mk. 20sfor 24 points, upgrade the Mk. 50s fora 20 point savings, or upgrade the Mk.60s for a 42 point savings. The playermay choose any combination of thesethree options, or none of them. Hecould upgrade the Mk. 20s and the 60sfor a net savings of 18 points, the Mk.50s and 60s for a 62 point savings, etc.

All Ships May Upgrade Some of the Torpson a Ship to Variable Speed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade any of the torpedoes on a ship togain the effects of the Variable Speed Torpsoptional rule. The cost for each torpedo ispaid separately and players may have anycombination of standard and VariableSpeed torps. Warhounds must still upgradetheir torpedoes in blocks of ten.

Example: A player takes a LanceElectra (why, we are really notsure...). He could choose to upgradeone Mk. 30 for a cost of 2 points ortwo for a cost of 3 points. He couldalso upgrade one Mk. 10 for a cost of2 points or 2 for a cost of 4 points.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps on aShip to Either Maneuverable or VariableSpeed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 59) toupgrade all the torpedoes on a ship to gainthe effects of either the Maneuverable orVariable Speed Torps optional rule.

Example: A player taking a Houndcould either upgrade the two Mk. 20torpedoes to Maneuverable for 7points or he could upgrade to Vari-able Speed Torps for 5 points. He couldnot, however, pay the 15 points itwould cost to take both options.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps of a Typeon a Ship to either Maneuverable or Vari-able Speed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade all the torpedoes of the same typeon a ship to gain the effects of either theManeuverable or the Variable Speed Torpsoptional rules. The cost for each type oftorpedo is paid separately, and players arefree to have standard, Maneuverable, andVariable Speed torpedoes on a ship providedthey are not the same Mk. number.

All Ships May Upgrade Some of the Torpson a Ship to either Maneuverable or Vari-able Speed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade any of the torpedoes on a ship togain the effects of the either the Maneu-verable Torps or the Variable Speed optionalrules. The cost for each torpedo is paid sepa-rately and players may have any combina-tion of standard, Maneuverable, and Vari-able Speed torpedoes. Warhounds must stillupgrade their torpedoes in blocks of ten.

57

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps on aShip to Maneuverable and Variable SpeedTorps

All players may pay the cost (page 59) toupgrade all the torpedoes on a ship to gainthe effects of the Maneuverable and Vari-able Speed Torps optional rules. Upgradedtorpedoes do not have to have both effects.

Example: A Hammer has four Mk. 20torpedoes and four Mk. 10 torpedoes.Under this rule, the player may up-grade the Mk. 20s and the Mk. 10s toManeuverable for 21 points, to Vari-able speed for 18 points, or take bothoptions for 50 points.

All Ships May Upgrade All Torps of a Typeon a Ship to Maneuverable and VariableSpeed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 59) toupgrade all the torpedoes of the same typeon a ship to gain the effects of the Maneu-verable and Variable Speed Torps optionalrules. Upgraded torpedoes do not have tohave both effects. The cost for each type oftorpedo is paid separately, and players arefree to have standard tops and Maneuver-able/Variable Speed torps on a ship providedthey are not the same Mk. number.

Example: A Hammer has four Mk. 20torpedoes and four Mk. 10 torpedoes.Under this rule the player may up-grade the Mk. 20s to Maneuverable for14 points, to Variable speed for 10points, or take both options for 30points. He could also upgrade the Mk.10 torpedoes to Maneuverable for 7points, to Variable Speed for 8 points,or take both options for 20 points.

All Ships May Upgrade Some of the Torpson a Ship to Maneuverable and VariableSpeed Torps

All players may pay the cost (page 58) toupgrade any of the torpedoes on a ship togain the effects of the Maneuverable Torpsand Variable Speed optional rules. Up-graded torpedoes do not have to have botheffects. The cost for each torpedo is paid

separately and players may have any com-bination of standard and ManeuverableTorps with Variable Speed. Warhoundsmust still upgrade their torpedoes in blocksof ten.

Must verses MayThe optional rules presented above come

in two types:those that require a player toupgrade, and those that leave the upgradeas an option to the player. The “Must” rulesare very simple to implement: everybodypays the cost. The “May” rules give playersmore freedom in ship selection, since play-ers do not have to pay the upgrade cost.They can spend points on upgrades if theywant it or buy better crews or more ships ifthey do not. The “May” rules do, however,cause more bookkeeping.

Also, when playing with the secrecyrules, the “May” options make getting closeto a ship far more tense. Players have towonder whether they can really close torange 13 on a ship and still have a chanceto drop a decoy.

All, All Of A Type, or SomeLike the May verses Must considerations,

these parameters allow players more free-dom to customize their ships at the expenseof more bookkeeping. The “All” rules arevery easy to implement (either torpedo getsthe upgrade or it does not). The “All of aType” rules are almost as easy to use, butdo allow players to pay for advantages onselected torpedo types. They are especiallyuseful when using Warhounds, since theplayer can choose to avoid upgrading theMk. 50s and above to Variable Speed (whichactually slows these torpedoes down), whileallowing Mk. 30s and below to be upgradedto Variable Speed (which makes these tor-pedo types more powerful). The “Some”rules give the most freedom, allowing play-ers to mix and match standard, Maneuver-able, and Variable Speed torpedoes at will,and, under the secrecy rules, makes iden-tifying the exact composition of anopponent’s fleet very difficult. The “Some”rules, however, require intense bookkeep-ing and are not recomended for new play-ers.

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Mk. Number Base VS SM VSSM VS SM VSSMCost Cost Cost Cost Upgrade Upgrade Upgrade

Mk. 10 1 1 3 3 6 2 2 52 2 6 6 12 4 4 103 3 9 8 18 6 5 154 4 12 11 24 8 7 206 6 18 17 36 12 11 30

10 10 30 28 60 20 18 50Mk. 20 1 2 4 6 9 2 4 7

2 4 9 11 19 5 7 153 6 13 17 28 7 11 224 8 18 22 38 10 14 306 12 26 34 56 14 22 44

10 20 44 56 94 24 36 74Mk. 30 1 3 4 8 11 2 5 8

2 6 9 17 22 3 11 163 9 14 25 33 4 16 244 12 18 34 44 6 22 326 18 27 50 67 9 32 49

10 30 45 84 111 15 54 81Mk. 40 1 4 4 11 11 0 7 7

2 8 8 22 22 0 14 143 12 12 34 34 0 22 224 16 16 45 45 0 29 296 24 24 67 67 0 43 43

10 40 40 112 112 0 72 72Mk. 50 1 5 3 14 10 -2 9 5

2 10 6 28 20 -4 18 103 15 9 42 30 -6 27 154 20 12 56 40 -8 36 206 30 18 84 60 -12 54 30

10 50 30 140 100 -20 90 50Mk. 60 10 60 18 168 60 -42 108 0Mk. 70 10 70 21 196 70 -49 126 0Mk. 80 10 80 24 224 80 -56 144 0Mk. 90 10 90 27 252 90 -63 162 0Mk. 100 10 100 30 280 100 -70 180 0

Torp Costs

Aternative Torpedo, Warhound, Satellite, & Outpost Costs

Ship Base Cost VS Cost SM Cost VSSM Cost

Aosho 764 762 1034 962Constellation 806 768 1040 930Fletcher 894 918 1038 1018Longboat 921 922 1173 1133Megafortress 482 526 536 606Narwhal 623 682 731 828Stingray 551 599 623 699Taurus 41 41 84 84Octopus 42 76 82 136Dauntless 391 391 403 463TBD Platform 210 210 253 253Wakazashi 260 320 314 410

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Alternative Torpedo Ship Costs

Ship Base Cost VS Cost SM Cost VSSM CostAvenger 78 108 110 158Bat 42 50 49 62Betafortress 216 291 293 295Betafortress Alpha 218 292 295 297Betafortress Beta 220 295 297 299Betafortress NW 160 180 178 210Black Widow 157 177 175 207Blizzard 19 27 26 39Blizzard II 18 26 25 38Catastrophe 142 176 182 236Conestoga 215 223 242 256Cresent 55 65 64 80Death Wind 60 70 74 90Death Wind II 64 74 78 94Drakar 121 125 125 131Drakar Alpha 125 133 132 145Eagle 170 198 215 261Epping 119 125 141 151Epping NW 119 125 141 169Equalizer NW 123 143 141 173Firebat NW 57 77 75 107Glaive 106 106 120 120Glave II 107 107 121 121Glaive III 104 104 118 118Hammer 60 78 81 110Havok 59 67 66 79Hell Bender 32 35 37 40Hell Bender II 33 36 44 55Hell Bender K 26 31 33 41Hornet NW 97 127 124 172Hound 19 24 26 34Iceberg 207 230 261 300Javelin NW 131 151 149 181Karttikeya 150 174 186 224Lakshmi 83 91 90 103Lance Electra 60 67 75 86Lance Electra II 60 67 75 86Marut 15 21 20 30Nemesis 298 318 424 448Pharsii 110 116 118 127Pharsii II 120 126 128 137Pit Viper 17 22 28 33Praying Mantis NW 167 187 185 217Rattler NW 70 90 88 120Revenge 120 100 210 170Revenge II 120 100 210 170Salamander 66 76 77 93Salamander II 66 76 77 93Salamander NW 67 75 74 87Scorpion 122 130 158 171Seraph 121 127 137 146Seraph II 121 127 137 146Sorenson II 47 63 66 92Sorenson III 68 84 95 115Spider 129 163 169 223Spirit Rider 18 22 22 28Spirit Rider II 17 19 21 24Star Raven 125 131 157 165Star Raven Alpha 128 141 153 174Stinger 18 18 32 32Talon 33 35 35 38Talon II 38 46 45 58Teal Hawk 43 45 45 48Teal Hawk II 47 55 54 75Teal Hawk NW 50 52 52 55Thunder Bird 25 35 36 52Thunder Bird II 24 32 31 44Thunder Bird NW 32 40 39 52Varuna 120 132 131 150

Battle Plan Map

Notes_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Forces_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

=Standard Map

=Geohex Cloth Starmap

All Map Setup