SCN - Silent Death

7/21/2012 - Silent Death is Back! The following information was sent in by Leland Erickson (aka BlackWidowPilot):

"Metal Express is back and under new management. Veteran Silent Death authors and designers Sheldon Greaves and Leland Erickson are ushering a new era in SciFi miniatures gaming.

Our first year will focus primarily on Silent Death. We are in the process of upgrading and fine-tuning various aspects of this classic miniatures game. In response to requests for greater internal consistency, we are revising Silent Death’s unique ship design system that lets players create their own ships. These refinements will improve play balance and allow for greater varieties of ship designs. In addition, all the core ships are being revised to comply with the new system. For players new to Silent Death, MX is preparing a new starter set.

We are also releasing some ships that never quite made it into production before Silent Death went out of print. The first of these will be the Colosian Totenkopf warhound, followed by some freight and passenger hulls, soon to be part of a new Silent Death Campaign System, currently undergoing revision and testing.

We are developing additional new rule sets and revisions for mines, boarding actions, logistics, and more. All of the original house books are available, and a new revised version of the main rulebook, Silent Death: The Next Millennium is also in the works. This will include the new design system and a few other tweaks to the basic and frequently used optional rules.

Note: If you are a customer who has an outstanding order that was placed under the previous management and have not yet heard from the new management, please contact Sheldon Greaves at mxsavant@metal-express.net."

PDFs for about everything previously released are available at the Metal Express site. A free intro PDF is in the works. Miniatures ordered will be be sent directly from the manufacturer, RAFM.

5/13/2012 - Where is Silent Death today? BlackWidowPilot posted on TMP the following:

"We're working our way through a start-up punch list as of this writing. You can monitor the Metal Express website, and watch this and SCN for an announcement, and hopefully fairly soon. The initial offering will include *all* of the metal miniatures (over 100 different fighters, gunboats, and escorts), the main rule book and supplements up through Drydock Vol. II as PDF and print-on-demand hard copies.

A new start-up boxed set, the 3 to 1 resin ships including the never-before-released Night Brood models, and other mischief are also planned to see the light of day as soon as is practical."

I am saving the bulk of my Silent Death news until late next week, but I wanted to give everyone a weeks notice on a rather major price increase. ICE has been absorbing price increases on the Silent Death miniatures for years. We could do that as we only sold them direct. About the middle of last year the costs had increased to the point that we could not sell them through distribution except at a loss in any case.

The root cause of these cost increases is the price of metal. The cost of the mix we use has nearly quadrupled in the last 5 years with the bulk of the increases happening in the last 2-3 years. Anyone buying miniatures in today's market is painfully aware of that fact as it is reflected in the prices you see.

We were hit with another price increase on our last order, which is arriving tomorrow, and we might very well get further increases every 60 days or so for a while.

As a consequence we will be raising the prices on the blisters by approximately 50% on April 16th so you have a week to place orders at the old prices.

The recent miniatures released for Operation Dry Dock II will see a smaller increase, but still substantial.

This is a very steep price increase, but we have to do it in order to continue to make them available now and in the future. Unless things get totally out of hand with metal prices we do not intend to do another price increase for some time. Further, this increase will bring the ships back into distribution, although they will not be sold in blisters except via special orders direct to stores. The full line of miniatures is in stock and ready to go.

We do have quite a bit more pending news, but we need to finalize a few things over the next 10 days before we announce them or release them.

6/6/2006 - In a special limited time offer, Iron Crown has made Operation: Drydock Volume II available for free off of their website until June 12th. After that, a final version (any error found in the free version would have been corrected) will be available for $5.

Also now released are 10 miniatures from the old first edition of SD are once again available along with 13 all new miniatures. These minis are featured in Operation: Drydock Volume II. More info and pictures here

Plus Masters for three new escort-sized vessels, the MUKADE, a multi-armed space tug, the LIBERTY, a boxy and butt-ugly military cargo ship, and the sleek CONSTABLE class military courier and patrol vessel, can be seen in the MX Gallery.

2/26/2006 - Leland Erickson of Metal Express makes the following announcement:

Hallooo Space Possums! There's news from the Backnet of Terran Space!
Now available to members of the METAL EXPRESS FORUMS is version 1.0 of the new SILENT DEATH: THE NEXT MILLENNIUM CAMPAIGN SYSTEM!
This is a free downloadable PDF file to *registered forum members* of Metal Express, and registration is free! 8D
(Please note that a stealth system is in effect, so only registered MX Forum members can see the Campaign System thread!)
Updates will be added on a regular basis, with new ship displays coming out commencing *next week!*
The SD:TNM Campaign System is exactly that, and includes several new and essential logistical support ships enabling players to project for in the universe of 14 AL in an unprecedented way. Now games of Silent Death: The Next Millennium can take on a whole new level of intensity, with *strategic* consideration having a direct impact on the tactical dogfights raging in Terran Space.
Now it's no longer just watching yer six! Now, you had also better start watching yer fuel gauges, ammo count, and the air supply! And never mind if you run out of rations: If you're running *Draconians*, you can always start cannibalizing the lower ranks…Mwahahahaaa!!>;D

2/9/2006 - Free shipping from Iron Crown on all Silent Death Metal Miniatures from the Iron Crown On-Line Store

As of Feb 1, 2006 Silent Death metal minis have FREE shipping via UPS Ground for the US and Canada and International Airmail for overseas orders!
If you order just metal minis you pay nothing extra for shipping via UPS Ground (to US and Canada) or International Airmail (for overseas) OR if you order minis along with other items from the ICE Online Store you only pay shipping for the other items.

1/2/2006 - The House Falstaff minor house book is now available as a 26 page pdf here. It introduces 3 new ships into the Silent Death universe with 2 refits and 4 game scenarios. These new ships are based on the al Malik ship miniatures from HDI's Noble Armada.

More products will be released in 2006 including a SD campaign system and a few new Operation Drydocks covering refits of existing ships, new minis including more from the Noble Armada fleets and stats for ALL of the Brood miniatures.

9/29/2005 - Some big news from Leland R. Erickson on lots more 3-1 scale resin ship models on the way, though no new pictures yet:

A fabulous lost treasure has been recovered from the depths of The Backnet! A whole pile of masters for resin 3 to 1 scale models of the Silent Death fighter miniatures have been recovered from the bowels of the Metal Express cargo holds!! These are the original professionally rendered 3 to 1 scale masters of sooo many of the beloved ships from ilent Death: The Next Millenium, 22 Terran ships and 13 or the dreaded Night Brood bio-technology warcraft in all!! Shocked Very Happy Twisted Evil

AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD!! We'll release them at the rate of two or three new ships every month (we just launched the KOSMOS and the SALAMANDER for this month!). While several of the masters were damaged while in storage, restoration work has begun, and most of the models were not only unharmed, but *exquisitely* rendered! Even more exciting is the fact that several House ships are in the mix, including *COLOSIAN* and *TOKUGAWAN* fighters already in print in House Colos and More Than Valor!

7/21/2005 - 2 new large 3-1 scale resin ship models are now available from ICE, the Deathwind and the Blizzard III. They are 3 times the sized of the metal ship miniatures.

3/6/2005 - From Leland R. Erickson (Bwahahahaaaa!! And you can QUOTE ME...!):

The Metal Express website is now LIVE! This is THE place to be for fans of Silent Death, Bladestorm, and the wonderful games from Holistic Design including Noble Armada and Carnage! Metal Express will include an ever-growing resource of forums, articles, galleries, and more for the fans of Silent Death: The Next Millenium, Noble Armada, Bladestorm, and Carnage (among other things - MX is going to be as versatile as possible). The MX website is also one-stop shopping for all of your MX and Holistic gaming needs, with an online store giving access to all sorts of gaming goodies.

2/15/2005 - ICE has now released a ton more books on PDF so about every Silent Death book is now available as a PDF file plus they grouped the books into one of 3 Value Packs where you can save over 25% on buying the books as individual PDFs. They are Value Pack 1: Rules and Support, Value Pack 2: House Books, and Value Pack 3: Miscellaneous.

Also just released is Hanger 51, this is the first PDF-only supplement for Silent Death and it contains complete ship sheets for all 228 Silent Death ships, including the Dolphin, Orca, Piranha, Executioner and Snarling Badger prize ships. Hanger 51 is 265 pages and a 10.2MB download for only $20.00.

2/8/2005 - 3 more Silent Death books are available as PDF downloads from ICE. They are Sigurd Archdiocese ($7.00), Kashmere Commonwealth ($7.00), and Rules of Warfare ($6.00).

2/7/2005 - It has been quiet at ICE when talking about Silent Death but that is changing in 2005.

7 books are now available for purchase from ICE as a downloadable PDF file; The main Silent Death: The Next Millennium rulebook ($9.00), Sunrunners forcebook ($6.00), and Renegades: The Espan Rebellion campaign book ($6.00), Warhounds ($9.00), Night Brood: First Contact ($8.00), Universal Night Watch ($7.00), and Operation: Dry Dock ($7.00)

Here are some bits of information on the plans for Silent Death from Bruce Neidlinger, CEO of Iron Crown Enterprises as posted in the ICE Silent Death forums...

"The old company used minis as a prop to sell paper products and that really has the shoe on backwards. We intend to use the software to sell the hardware to put it in shameless marketing terms. The toys are what is cool about miniature gaming and we want the emphasis in the right place.

You will actually see more "paper" products in either virtual or physical form, not less, but you will also see many more minis for each product. Red Star has 13 mini's associated with it at last count pending playtesting.

We also intend to go back and layer some more ships onto each of the houses as they were subjected to a very arbitrary limit of six before.

The major change will be in delivery systems and emphasis- not in the volume etc. It will still be the strategic (tactical?) miniatures game we know and love, but with a much more flexible and dynamic background and paper support."

A SD Ship Sheet Annex is in the works. It is 240+ pages of ship sheets with a table of contents done alphabetically and two indexes. One done by size alphabetically and one done by Product (House) by size and alphabetically.

Additional new products in the works include House Red Star, a Campaign System, House Tokugawa, a general book on all the ships needed for campaign system (a collection of logistical hulls, recon vessels, cargo ships, tenders, etc), and Corridian Crisis.

"One of the big releases planned is a new fleet level miniature game called Cold Fury. It has a system where fighters and large ships can exist on the same board and interact in interesting ways. "

A Metal Express website (http://www.metal-express.net/) will go live on 2/15/05. MX will be about mini's in general, but will start off with a heavy sci-fi space feel as the two main product lines will be Silent Death and Noble Armada from Holistic Design.

"The Metal Express site will be going live soon and it will have a substantial bit of constantly new content as well as forums and other community driven areas. The people at ICE and at Holistic Design will be involved of course, but there will also be three people dedicated to providing that constant stream of new and fun content. Those three people are Leland Erickson, Sheldon Greaves, and Phil Thompson in alphabetical order."

"We do intend to have a pretty constant stream of SD content for the Metal Express site in 2005 and there will be lots of new miniatures. Each book will no longer just have 6 or so ships attached to it, but will have as many as needed. We will also be going back and releasing more ships for each of the existing houses."

11/21/2003 - The first batch of 3-1 resin miniatures are now available directly from ICE. They are 3 times the size of the metal miniatures and are great for demo games. This first batch consists of the Sorenson III, Revenge, Shryak Shuttle and the Star Raven. They are up to 6 inches long and cost $15 each. Additional resin minis should be available soon.

A few more updates on Silent Death have been mentioned on the SD mailing list by Bruce at ICE:

There are quite a few groups playtesting the campaign system. I do not expect it to release until next year.

Other products definitely in motion are Corridian Crisis and House Redstar. The authors will be under contract shortly, but the mss are already finished.

Two new promotional minis are being sculpted: The Seal and the Muskrat. They will be used along with the old ones to kick off a new demo program in stores and conventions next year.

Much of the progress on the SD front can not yet be seen on the consumer level, but it is happening.

11/23/2002 - Since ICE came back, not much has been said about the future of Silent Death, but recently the have posted on a SD mailing list some info on their plans which include a return of the larger 3-1 resin ship miniatures and a move to make the game more miniature driven. ICE will issue a full announcement when they the start up the new processes.

7/23/2002 - ICE is now selling the metal Silent Death minis through their online store. Quantities are limited so order quickly.

4/15/2002 - From the Silent Death mailing list on silent-tower.org, it was posted that "ICE and Mythic have reached an agreement on the rights to SD:TNM. ICE has regained the right to sell everything printed and metal, AND may proceed with developing and releasing new products!" and "ICE is now working on a business plan for SD:TNM..." Stay tuned for more info when it shows up. Nothing on ICE's website yet.

On November 19, 2001, John R. Seal, a long time ICE fan, acquired the majority of the Iron Crown Enterprise, Inc. assets. These assets were purchased at an auction run by a Federal bankruptcy court in Charlottesville,Virginia.

Though not mentioned in the release, Mythic still has the rights to Silent Death and the word is that they are willing to license it out... and the new ICE is looking into it. There are products that were being worked on before ICE closed, and they were close to completion

11/22/2001 - Actually SDO may not be shutting down, according to someone on one of the Silent Death mailing lists, "EA is withdrawing it's platinum service which contains SDO. Mythic have taken back the rights to the game which they bought off ICE last year when it went bankrupt, and the game will be hosted in Mythic Realms in a couple of months. www.mythicentertainment.com, www.mythicrealms.com.

See the article on The Miniatures Page for more info. EA.com was running this multiplayer game based on the board game but it looks like its time is over. Here is the text from EA.com:

Space has always been a dangerous place and those who explored it and lived it always knew there might come a time when they would not return. It is with heavy heart that we announce the shut down of Silent Death Online on December 6th. Those of us who had a hand in the creation, production and support of the game will miss the players and friends of Silent Death. Pilots of Silent Death, we salute you!

Until the close of the game, if you need support for this product, please use the Game Support link on the game's Web page to access our searchable database of Frequently Asked Questions. The message boards for Silent Death will remain open for one week after the game closes.

11/16/2001 - Star Wars Gamer #7 is now available and includes the 3rd article on Silent Death conversions. Included are rules for colossal-sized starships (a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser takes up 35 hexes in a scenario), three new ships (Millenium Falcon, Coral Skipper, and Yorik-Vec Cruiser), and 3 scenarios.

9/5/2001 - A pdf file of the Star Wars conversions of Silent Death from Star Wars Gamer #3 has been posted on Wizards website (5MB pdf file). More info here.

7/13/2001 - Issue #5 of Star Wars Gamer magazine is now available and includes the article 'Get to Your Ships!: Episode 1 Starships for Star Wars Silent Death Starship Combat Game' by Erik A. Dewey (pages 76-82). It consists of rules for gunboats since Amidala's Transport is an unarmed gunboat. Other ships included are the Sith Infiltrator, Naboo N-1 Starfighter, and the Droid Starfighter.

4/20/2001 - You should be able to find Issue #3 of Star Wars Gamer magazine almost anywhere now. It does include a full version of the Silent Death rules with a few modifications for the Star Wars universe. Control sheets are included for your favorite Rebel and Imperial fighters. A hex-map is even included.

On a SD mailing list I did find out about some more material to be included in future issues of Star Wars Gamer from the author:

"FYI, in issue 5 there should be another Silent Death article, this one dealing with gunboats and Episode I ships. Then in issue 7 we are hoping to put in one dealing with the invading aliens whose name eludes me. This will allow me to put in the Falcon and deal with battles against large ships."

3/19/2001 - Issue #3 of Star Wars Gamer magazine, published by Wizards of the Coast will include a "Free Silent Death Fighter Game" according to the banner on the top of the cover. Issue #3 is due out on April 17th and listed on WotC's preview page of issue #3 is an article titled "What Good Are Snub Fighters...?" Dogfighting Using the Silent Death Rules by Erik A. Dewey.

11/24/2000 - The Trustee is allowing ICE to sell stock on hand to raise cash so go ICE's webpage and get the Silent Death books and minis you need before they are gone.

11/17/2000 - Mythic Entertainment (http://www.mythicgames.com/) announced that they have acquired all the intellectual property that makes up Silent Death (full announcement). Mythic Entertainment are the developers of multiplayer internet games including Silent Death Online, available though AOL.

There is a group trying to produce licensed Silent Death products. If you want to help, you can email Mythic Enterprises customer service (lori@mythicgames.com) and tell them that you still want products for the table top version of Silent Death.

10/25/2000 - Iron Crown Enterprises files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and closes its doors. The following is an excerpt of the announcement from Pete Fenlon:

I regret to say that, after 20+ years and after having published hundreds of adventure game products, Iron Crown Enterprises is closing its doors. We have filed a voluntary petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court pursuant to Chapter 7 of Title 7 of the United States Code, which governs the liquidation of companies. We are converting our Chapter 11 petition to a Chapter 7. We are beginning steps toward dissolution."

The full announcement is on RPG.net and Games Unplugged. In 1999, ICE filed Chapter 11 in order to reorganize debts while still conducting business. Unfortunately most companies that file Chapter 11 still don't make it. The future of Silent Death is unknown. Later in the announcement it mentions selling the company as a whole or in parts. It is then possible that someone will buy the rights to Silent Death and continue publishing it (see Starfire for an example of this).