Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Silent Death is a space combat game, normally played with miniatures. Most ships are fighter and heavy-fighters in size, but there are expansions to include gunboats and small capital ships.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Variable Player Powers
Each player has different abilities, restrictions, or strategic advantages.
Hexagon Grid
Use a hexagonal map where each space connects evenly in six directions.
Simulation
Model a real or imagined system through detailed cause-and-effect rules.
Read the full game description
Silent Death is a space combat game, normally played with miniatures. Most ships are fighter and heavy-fighters in size, but there are expansions to include gunboats and small capital ships. Each ship has a control sheet to make all bookkeeping (mostly damage and ammo when necessary) easier. The game is normally played in 10 turns, each player alternate moving all ships before making attacks. From designer's notes: Silent Death is an attempt to produce a fun and fast-moving game that is simple to learn. The mix of design trade-offs (detail for playability) in the Standard Game feels about right, but since you can't satisfy all of the people all of the time, we piled in a bunch of optional rules so players can find their own optimum mix; either simpler or more complex. Re-implemented in: Silent Death: The Next Millennium Deluxe Edition