Yup. Spam. Not the kind that comes in a can, but the obnoxious internet sort that comes from hijacked IP addresses in other countries flooding your forum with advertising for bootleg pharmaceuticals and one get rich quick scam after another. We hate spam. Canned spam is not so bad, really, fried up with onions and accompanied by eggs and baked beans, but this stuff is just annoying. So why are we talking about spam?

As some of you our fine Interstellar Flying Circus members are aware, we just had a concerted spam barrage dumped on the Silent Death fora. After an alert issued by Callsign: Smurf, we scrubbed away the offending derp and nonsense, and in the process of doing so discovered that the spammers are also clever virtual burglars, having found or made an apparent hole as it were in the defenses that come with this particular platform. Some quick research by Dr. Greaves and myself followed the breadcrumbs back to their ostensible point of origin and also verified the IP address being used as having prior complaints on file for spam and other misbehaviors.

We reported the breach in the system to the platform host, and implemented some extra measures that we are fairly confident will dramatically reduce the probability of another such obnoxious intrusion by these kissing cousins of the Night Brood if not all but eliminate the risk entirely. We know that the struggle between spammers and IT security professionals is eternal, but for now it looks like our new defense layers will make it exponentially harder for spammongers to breach.

Not every system is perfect of course, so should our new security measures give any of you any hissy fits when you’re trying to enjoy the Silent Death forum, don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know so we can fine tune the system accordingly. We do appreciate that the new measures now in place are rather more extensive than what was previously in place, so hiccups can occur. We ask for your patience accordingly.

Oh, and if any of you have a pair of Political Reedumacayshun officers from the Luches Utopian Bureau of Political Correctness Enforcement show up at your door, we apologize in advance for any inconvenience that might ensue. But please remember, Capt. Knuckles and Sgt. Major Crunch are well meaning fellows ever so dedicated to their profession, so it ain’t nothin’ personal if you find yourself being dragged off to the next jail barge bound for the Devil’s Star system. They’re just doing their jobs of rooting out counterrevolutionaries and shipping the lawbreakers off to the uranium mines of Hell where they can rethink the errors of their ways while performing useful labor such as shoveling out the ash from the nuclear blast furnaces or polishing new fuel rods. So if you do get hooked up and summarily sentenced to 20 years on the scenic world of Hell, don’t panic! Just grab your towel on the way out, and rest assured we’ll have the paperwork processed in no time at all, and have you sprung and back home within a fortnight, you betcha!

So there you have it, space possums! Back to your ships, and watch yer sixes!

Cheers!

The Metal Express Team

As we’ve been in an unintended silent running mode longer than we’d intended (but couldn’t avoid as it turned out), now we’re surfacing back into real space with some bits of news, some things to cross our fingers and look forwards to, and a really insane idea for a scenario…

To begin with, the news from the depths of the Backnet! We’ve shipped off a selection of 3 to 1 masters for evaluation by a potential resin caster. They’ll be gone over and weighed to calculate the actual costs of labor and materials to see if they’re still within the range of cost effectiveness from a consumer’s point of view. Over 10 years ago a typical 3 to 1 model retailed at $15. Given the increases in the cost of everything from dog biscuits to advanced fighter aircraft since 2006, we’re really hoping that these solid mostly single piece castings will not require so much resin to cast that the end costs is beyond acceptable levels.

Next, progress on two fronts! The reworking of the Ship Design System for #silentdeath 3rd edition has been making steady progress; there will be an announcement and in-depth summary of what is happening in a separate post tomorrow. Stay tuned for that particular update!

The Night Brood hit a creative block, however that has also been overcome very recently. The issue was the Gammas (again! #$%@^@ ungrateful little Brood maggots!) and how they move and fight as a group. The answer have been pure Occam’s Razor, in that the simplest solution -limiting Gammas to a single weapon system and requiring them to move and fight in small groups- is proving to be the correct one. More on this in a separate post as well…

Finally, show of appendages, who uses terrain in their games of Silent Death? I for one have always loved using asteroids, as it creates all sorts of opportunities to duck behind cover to avoid getting shot, only to get killed when you forget to take into account the fact that the asteroids drift every turn (!!!). Along those lines I was pondering different scenario ideas, and went looking for inspiration on my Pinterest board “The Interstellar Recycling & Salvage Company:”

https://www.pinterest.com/…/interstellar-recycling-salvage…/

In doing so, I came across an old art piece probably for a paperback book cover of an asteroid with a base built on and around and most importantly, *in* the asteroid itself. That triggered a memory from the mists of aeons past of a movie I saw in the theater as a young spratling, the sci-fi classic adventure romp, The Last Starfighter. Upon remembering that feature length film’s pioneering use of CGI to cover the special effects needs for all of the space combat scenes, I cast my mind back to a particular sequence in which the protagonist experiences space fighter combat in earnest for the very first time, and that dogfight took place *inside* of an extensive tunnel network excavated inside of a large asteroid.

Welp, I also happen to be the proud owner of a classic bit of modular terrain kit, the Geo-Hex Cavernscape terrain layout meant specifically for dungeon crawls and subterranean battles. So I thought, why not? Why not run a game of Silent Death set inside of the extensive tunnel network within a large asteroid? The problem was why would the fight run into the interior of such a large floating object in the cold vacuum of space?

The solution was simplicity in itself, an Occam’s Razor answer: it’s an abandoned mining operation that has since been taken over by a space pirate gang who are using the asteroid’s proximity to civilian shipping lanes to launch raids against merchant shipping for essential supplies, luxury goods to fence on the Black Market, and captives to either ransom or sell off to slavers. But this meant that being the obsessive-compulsive sort, I had to have something besides bare stone walls on the tabletop.

I figured that the pirates would have adapted any modular habitation units, docking platforms, etc. to their needs. So what I needed was a series of generic looking assorted habitation units and accompanying components such as landing/docking pads, defensive weapon systems, repair shops, etc. I wanted everything simple, straightforward, easy to use and reasonably robust enough for handling, yet small enough and detailed enough to provide a good visual impression.

So how to accomplish this task? Well, as most of you well know by now, I’m eternally looking at whatever has landed in the middle of our recycling bin to see if there’s anything to be salvaged for a new life as part of Something Sci-Fi for the #tabletop. I’ve made a habit over the years to save empty dental floss boxes, as I find them useful for a variety of projects, and also had accumulated expended gift cards from #peetscoffee for use as everything from bases to large doors on #scifibuildings, to sheet plastic to be cut up for use for various kitbashing needs.

The end result is a series of protected military grade habitation units, along with accompanying defensive weapon batteries, large and small docking platforms, water and air purification processing and storage. Each module will therefore have its own Damage Track, including an opportunity for Critical Hits.

So without further ado, here are the photos of the hidden pirate base from which the Black Skull Gang have been launching raids on shipping within House Tokugawa’s sovereign territory, no doubt at the behest of the Luches Utopians who use pirates and piracy to carry out their less than scrupulous agenda. I’ve used all sorts of plastic rhinestones, odd metal bits, and various plastic and metal toy and model parts to create a coherent and plausible looking organized criminal syndicate’s hidden base of operations. And I even managed to find a scale model of a Soviet-era Soyuz module to convert into an appropriate tramp freighter to have loafing about the base when the Tokugawan “cops” show up looking to crash the party.😏

Enjoy!👍😎

 

To commemorate the fine old Colosian tradition of regicide, We’re have another SALE! From today until the 31st of March, all minis and models in the Metal Express online store are 20% off!

 

Just use the following code when you’re ready to check out:   IdesofMarch2018

 

And remember, when you are attending a court function on Colosia Prime, that extra long knife on your dining table place setting is not for the steak…

 

                                    

 

 

+++Border Listening Post 499+++Transmission intercept+++Point of broadcast origin Luches territory+++Border Sector 872.36+++ Transmission content as follows:

 

“An Official Communique from the Office of the Revolutionary Commissariat for Special Tasks and Political Correctness Enforcement Headquarters:

The Metal Express Online Store is now back in business thanks to our resident Senior Luches Utopian Political Officer and IT specialist. The investigating team of commissars swiftly identified the offending ASP Technocracy counterrevolutionaries who wrote the destructive counterrevolutionary code used for their diabolical plan presented as an innocent system update. The fiends!

The summary field interrogation and trial conducted by the diligent commissars and our loyal revolutionary IT specialist have found these ASPer spies completely responsible for this affront to The Glorious Luches Utopia People’s Revolution and our Dear and Glorious Leader Simon Luches!

Despite their ludicrously transparent false protestations of being innocent members of an ASP Technocracy technical assistance team merely trying to keep the Metal Express Online Store updated with the current software, our superbly trained and astute Defenders of The Glorious Luches Utopia People’s Revolution saw straight through their subterfuge and were not deceived for even a moment!

The counterrevolutionaries were promptly subdued by the commissar’s 300,000 volt shock batons, and taken into custody, tried, convicted, and sentenced on the spot for their vile counterrevolutionary crimes against Dear Leader and The Glorious Luches Utopian People’s Revolution!

The counterrevolutionary scum are now in transit as they deserve, packed into the hold of a zero-g livestock freight conveyor enroute to Reedumacashun Kamp Number 1 on the garden world of Muck for their all expenses paid permanent holiday. No doubt being the new arrivals the camp commissars will put the miscreants to good use cleaning out the Mudmaggot pens…

Hail the Glorious People’s Revolution! Hail Dear Leader! Hail Luches!”

 

+++End intercept+++

Due to a technical issue the Metal Express online store is temporarily down while our IT gang works to restore it to full working order. Please bear with us while we sort this out (most likely by putting a Luches Political Officer in charge, as they always get things “right” even if they have to apply their standard issue 300,000 AMP shockstick batons to tender portions of the human anatomy!). We’ll post an announcement as soon as service is restored!

“Now, whose idea was it again to hire the ASP Technocracy IT Company as our service provider again…?”

From the merry band of interstellar swashbucklers here at Metal Express to all of you devoted fans of Silent Death, we wish you all a New Year where all of the hits in your life are crits on your opponent’s ships (and your opponents are flying Draconian Microraptors)!

We thank you all for your loyal support of our endeavor to Keep ‘Em Flying across the stars of Terran Space! We plan to tackle some new milestones for this classic game as the new year unfolds, and we welcome you all to stay in formation with us as we race forward into 2018! We’ll need playtesters and feedback, shared talent with a paintbrush, and our enthusiasm aplenty for Silent Death to bring a new 3rd edition Core Rulebook into being, finish putting the Night Brood in their proper place as the Carnivorous Psychic Cockroaches of the Known Universe, and seeing if we can get the impressive 3 to 1 scale resin ships back into production. All ambitious goals, but we think we can do it, so with all the foolhardy courage of the legendary Sigurd Ace of Grimmnar’s Saga, we’re going to throw ourselves in against the odds, that our deeds might please Odin Allfather and assure us a seat at the table in Valhalla!

So grab your flight helmets and saddle up, people! This is not a drill! All pilots, to your ships!

Death or glory! Launch!

(3 to 1 scale Revenge model)

 

Every winter as the old year is in its final weeks on Colosia Prime, the Colosian aristocracy bid farewell to the old year and celebrate the coming new year with their annual Turkducken Festival. This is a very Colosian period of celebration, with much merrymaking, joyful family gatherings, feasting, and “unfortunate accidents” and a few cases of “bad luck” involving too much champagne and balconies on high rise buildings.

The pinnacle of the celebration is the opening of the annual Turducken Shoot held in Duke Colos’s personal game preserve. There the best, brightest, and most fearless members of the top Colosian aristocratic families lay aside their differences and together hunt the native Turducken to be the centerpiece of the traditional holiday feast. To commemorate this august tradition of festive cheer and dagger-in-the-back enhanced family gatherings, we’re launching our first annual House Colos Turducken Festival Sale!

All miniatures in our Metal Express webstore are 20% off. Just use the following code at checkout to do your part to help celebrate this fine old Colosian tradition (and do so without risking any “hunting accidents” that more than a few Colosian bluebloods succumb to each year):  turduckenshoot2017

 

Long past time for some catch-up before Fall is formally upon us! So. Let us begin… with a FALL SALE!!! Yup. 20% off through October 31, Midnight, PST!! So now is the time to build up those squadrons, replenish the ranks, and make life Hell for your noisy neighbors in House No-Good-So-in-So!! Just use the following code when you check out:  fallsale2017

In other news, we’ve added a half dozen kitbashed escort vessel models to the store as well. Two of each of a corvette, frigate, and destroyer built and finished ready to serve your House to defend its territory or go raiding your neighbors for loot and glory! Here’s a sneak peak at these fancy painted terrors of the void:

 

 

Yes, space possums, these are all my doing, and I will gladly spill the beans about what inspired their racy paint jobs and how I bashed them all together on the Forum, don’t you all worry! Now, for a quick update…

To begin with, Life as you can all well imagine, got firmly in the way of life for both Sheldon and I. We both wear some very real world professional hats, and they will be served as surely as Darwin expected his bangers and mash for breakfast on time and done correctly.

That being said, we have not been as completely idle on the Silent Death front as our radio silence these past months would indicate. I have managed to snipe away at the next iteration of the Night Brood update based upon playtester feedback. I am a Colosian rat’s whisker away from having a workable set of new rules governing everybody’s favorite galactic juvenile delinquents, the Night Brood Gammas! So stay tuned on that front for the heads up from the Night Brood hive mind…

Besides bashing out those custom new escorts, I have been researching sources for good quality space combat hex mats. Quite simply, I need a replacement for my much abused, long serving original official Silent Death cloth mat made by Geo-Hex so long ago when the Terran Empire was still in its infancy. I will be adding links to these various makers of fancy mats to our Links section shortly.

Some progress also on the reworking of the Core Rules Ship Design System; it’s really just a matter of fiddling with the numbers a bit more, then reworking the Core Ship display sheets. This is a task that I have long wanted to see to completion, as it has never sat well with Sheldon or I that the Core Ships did not line up with the published design system. We are aiming for consistency, however we are also aiming squarely at keeping as much of the quirky flavor of the original Core Ship designs as possible.

Finally, we’d like to acknowledge some very devoted and talented fans of Silent Death who in the past year have jumped on board out of sheer love of this classic game to lend their time and talents to stoke the flames!

We really do appreciate the efforts of Timothy Sung and his Magnificent Flying Marsupials down in Australia, who took it upon themselves to pick up Silent Death and promote it down under. Other individuals have done the same up here in North America, and we have a splendid supporter in Denmark (Thank you, Steen!) who keeps the flame burning in Europe. We really do appreciate all of you helping us keep this classic game alive and kicking!

As you who lurk and participate in our Forum already know, the master painter and artist who is the man of mystery behind Third Fate Creations has joined our forum community with his considerable talents. Callsign: Karpav1 has established himself in the Techniques section of the Forum under Karpav’s Painting Blog. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you are in for a treat, as the man is a master artist, photographer, and experienced gamer who knows how to get the most out of a gaggle of Mk. 10 torpedoes!

So don’t just sit there, space possums! Kick those tires and light those fires! It’s time to launch!