Last year ended with the Tribes-release of Skoldpadda – an absolutely massive release, bigger than the Shuttle Alpha!
Skoldpadda is the Swedish word for Tortoise (Ben explains the pronounciation like this: roughly pronounced hwoold-pad-da – the hw sound is like making your best Michael Winslow impression of a distant jet engine on a warm day). Directly translated, it means Shield-Toad.
The Skoldpadda is a single level starship with a 6×6 GridForge cargo/passenger area, and a 5×2 neck. It will be 13.5 squares long and 11 squares wide (ca. 34 cm x 27.5 cm).
The Skoldpadda is now available in our store at Myminifactory, our main distributor.
Ben’s chief inspiration for the Skoldpadda is the USS Defiant (anyone who’s familiar with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine understands) along with another design that he can see in his imagination (he refers to Macross and Robotech).
2nd Dynasty has not done many Trek style ships, but some have pointed out that Skoldpadda is not far from belonging quite comfortably in a Traveller universe too.
And guess what happened in January Tribes? Benoworf premiered! A kind of cross between Skoldpadda and a Traveller Grant Cab, most voted for by the community during one of our Friday Livestreams on Youtube.
By default Benoworf has an interior cargo space of 6×8 tiles, a vestibule of 4×4 tiles, and the upper deck is 4×4 tiles, plus a 2×2 tile area at the front and 1×2 at the back. The alternate nose and upper deck is compatible with the base Skoldpadda, and the ship can be lengthened, but not wide.
These two massiv Tribes releases will be followed this month (February) by a phantom of sorts. That is the working title of the drone space fighter inspired by QF-9iE Ghost II, a obscure Macross design. It features six turrets and 44 missiles, letting you get a full Itano Missile Circus going! The arms stow for landing.
Weighing in at around 28 cm (11.3 inches) in length, or 16.5 metres at scale this phantom of a space fighter is another big Tribes release.
All three, Skoldpadda, Benoworf and the phantom drone will be presented in more details on 2nddynasty.com shortly.
