Wing Commander in Silent Death

I have been a big fan of the Wing Commander series since it began, although I usually play them well after they were released as that's when I have a machine powerful enough. After playing Wing Commander III and IV again I decided to create the ships in those games in Silent Death. Here then is the results.

Rather than force the Wing Commander ships into the Silent Death model, I created a host of new weapons, equipment, and rules. All of this is summarized below. I tried to use actual data from the game in my conversions, although I fudged here and there for playability. For instance all of the weapons have slightly more than twice their "actual" range as even the laser cannon could only shoot 5 hexes.

Wing Commander Ships

Wing Commander Rules

Unless noted below, all of the Silent Death rules are in effect when using Wing Commander ships.

Weapon List

Weapon	Dice	Damage	Range	Cost
Laser Cannon	2D8	Low	3/8/11	1
2 Laser Cannons	2D8+1	Low+1	3/8/11	2
4 Laser Cannons	2D8+3	Low+3	3/8/11	4
Ion Cannon	2D6	Med	2/7/10	2
2 Ion Cannons	2D6+1	Med+2	2/7/10	2
Photon Cannon	2D6	Med	3/9/10	3
2 Photon Cannons	2D6+1	Med+2	3/9/10	3
Meson Blaster	2D8	Med	1/9/10	4
2 Meson Blasters	2D8+1	Med+2	1/9/10	4
Mass Driver	2D6	High	3/4/5	5
2 Mass Drivers	2D6+1	High+2	3/4/5	6
Reaper Cannon	2D8	Medium*	1/7/10	6
2 Reaper Cannons	2D8+1	Medium*+2	1/7/10	6
Particle Cannon	2D6	High	1/5/9	6
2 Particle Cannons	2D6+1	High+2	1/5/9	6
Plasma Gun	2D8	High	2/5/7	8
2 Plasma Gun	2D8+1	High+2	2/5/7	10
4 Plasma Gun	2D8+3	High+4	2/5/7	12
Tachyon Gun	2D8	High	3/6/7	9
2 Tachyon Guns	2D8+1	High+2	3/6/7	11
4 Tachyon Guns	2D8+3	High+4	3/6/7	13
Wing Commander IV Weapons
Leech Cannon	2D6	Spec**	1/4/7	7
Stormfire***	2D6	Med	4/7/12	4
Scattergun	2D8+2	High+2	2/3/4	5
Fission	2D6	All	3/6/7	12
*double damage when doubles are rolled
**only damages the Drive of a ship. When the Drive is 0, the ship is immobile.
***has 6 shots of ammo.

Missiles in Wing Commander correspond to torpedoes in Silent Death. The different missiles have various requirements to lock on. If a missile cannot lock on, it cannot be fired.

• Dumbfire missiles travel in a straight line. They cannot turn but have no lockon requirements. They are fired and moved at the beginning of the firing ship's movement, not during torpedo launch phase.
• In order to fire a heat seeking missile, the firing ship must have the rear arc of the target ship in its front arc.
• The target of a leech missile must be in the front arc of the firing ship. If the missile hits, the target ship cannot move or fire weapons until after the next turn.
• Mines have a 1 hex radius and automatically hit anything that enters the radius. When fired, they are placed in the hex of the firing ship. They may be fired while the ship moves. They are not activated until the movement phase is over giving the mine-laying ship time to escape the radius of the mine. They can move 1 hex each turn in any direction.
• Friend or Foe missiles may be fired at any time. They automatically lock-on to the closest enemy ship.
• To fire an image recognition missiles, the target must be in the firer's front arc.
• Torpedoes can only be fired at Warhounds. To fire, a ship announces it as normal, but the torpedo is not launched until the end of all movement phases.

Missile List

Missile	Drive	Damage	Cost
Dart Dumbfire	30	5d12	4
Javelin Heat Seeker	20	4d12	3
Leech	14	special	3
Mine	1	1d12	2
Pilum Friend-or-Foe	12	2d12	3
Spicum Image Recognition	16	3d12	4
Torpedo	10	10d12	10

Afterburners get a lot of use in Wing Commander. In Silent Death, the Afterburner has five pips of fuel. Each pip gives the ship +5 Drive until the end of the turn. The afterburner can be triggered at any time during the ship's move.

Stealth is a Kilrathi invention, but is eventually mounted into an Excalibur. It costs 15 points to put stealth on a ship (it is already figured in the Strakha's cost). When stealth is activated, the ship moves for five points and is removed from the board and continues its movement. It is up to the stealth ship's controller to keep accurate track of the ship's location. When in stealth mode, a ship can only move. The stealth mode can be turned off anytime during the ship's movement.

Finally, all Wing Commander ships have the following critical chart:

2	Pilot Killed. So much for the Heart of the Tiger.
3	Missiles Hit. Lose 1D6 Missiles.
4	Targeting system destroyed. -1 to to-hit and may only fire dumbfire missiles.
5	Targeting system damaged. -1 to to-hit.
6	Afterburner damaged. Lose 2 units of fuel.
7	Power plant hit. No weapons fire until after next turn.
8	Shields hit. -3 to Defensive Value.
9	Maneuver thruster hit. +1 to the cost of all turns.
10	Structure damaged. Ship may not perform tight turns.
11	Gunner Killed. If no Gunner, engine dies, it starts up after end of next turn.
12	Reactor Hit. Chunks of ship float in the darkness.

Please let me know what you think of these rules. Hopefully they capture the flavor and frenzy of the Wing Commander series.