Photos of our game

Cool pics, DaBank, they have a lot of character.

Indeed COOL PHOTOS! It's good to see the Death Squad Project progressing. Keep up the good work.

Sorry, it is just a few pics but both Mordheimer and myself didn't bring a camera and the owner of the store snapped off a few quick photos.

Hope to bring more soon. We are not gaming tonight due ot scheduling conflicts but we have more completed on the LRB.

We will jump into Tau next then SM.

It looks like we are gaming this coming Tuesday so we will see if we can get some pics.

Mordheimer and I split a large amount of Orks for sale. So we will have more work to do. LOL>

That is really cool!

VERY COOL!
Looks like a 40K Recruiting Poster. Reminds me a bit of the News clips from Starship Trooper.

Thanks guys. Mordheimer came up with the slogan and the picture was taken by the store owner. Don't forget to support your local gaming establishment.


I thought the same thing you did Deafnala...about the starship trooper recruiting clips. LOL>


The playtesting is coming along well. Just a few more fine tunes and it will be ready.

IG and Orks are pretty much complete...going to Tau next and then Chaos Renegades.

Nice pics.

Just one thing makes me uneasy. It's the name "Death Squads". Death Squads are groups of armed soldiers who kill civilians.

The SS who deported, tortured and killed millions of jews in nazi Germany were called death squads. Many other countries also have/had death squads who commit similar warcrimes, e.g. Argentina, Chile, Russia, Rwanda, Yougoslavia...

In Europe the term "death squad" is firlmy associated with the Holocaust, so I think it is not suited for a game's name.

[EDIT]: Example of a so called "Death Squad"


I would feel uneasy telling someone that I enjoy a game called "Death Squads". You wouldn't call a game "Rape, Torture & Murder, 2nd Edition" either, would you?

I suggest you find another title for the game that does not spell "Holocaust" or "Shooting children in the back of the head before shoving them into mass graves".

Just my opinion.

English wikipedia gives another well known and terrifying example for death squads in the USA: Ku Klux-Klan.

Great Pics! Tomorrow my friend who just started 40k challenged to take over one of my Ork World! He will know the true brutish nature of Mulraks Fury! Murlark being my Ork Warboss of the Black Boot Clan.

Death Squads is a GW Name in 40K, thus borrowed from them.

AKA Kill Teams thus meaning Death Squads.

If someone wants to think something else there is not much I can do.

40K and Warhammer is about death and yet I don't hear anyone complaining about that.

If someone wants to judge the name then I would suggest rethinking playing Mordheim as it involves death, maiming, possessing and etc.

This is a fantasy game.

Da Bank wrote:

Death Squads is a GW Name in 40K, thus borrowed from them.

AKA Kill Teams thus meaning Death Squads.

If someone wants to think something else there is not much I can do.

40K and Warhammer is about death and yet I don't hear anyone complaining about that.

If someone wants to judge the name then I would suggest rethinking playing Mordheim as it involves death, maiming, possessing and etc.

This is a fantasy game.

The fact that WHFB, WH40k, Mordheim etc are all fantasy games removes them somewhat from the grim reality of war in the same way that violent sci-fi and fantasy films are seen as pure entertainment whereas more realistic war films are viewed with more gravitas.
The names Mordheim and Warhammer don't have any sort of connotations with any real life factions or atrocities, people won't take their names on face value as having any sort of deeper meaning whereas your game could be taken the wrong way. I don't think that anyone is deriding you for choosing that name but more just suggesting that you exert some caution as some people might not look past the name...

Considering my dad's side of the family left Autria because of persecution during the 30's and then those things being mentioned don't set too well.

Trying to come up with an event that is pretty tragic in nature and then attempting to apply to someone, especially someone's family that left central Europe under persecution is a little askew. (fixed my wording errors)

Incidentally I am actually looking forward to how this will turn out, I'm definitely up for a small scale WH40k game! Maybe my small Inquisitorial retinue could see some action...

We will be working on an Inq Squad also.

If you have some thoughts or play Inq for 40K I would be happy to hear about them.

Da Bank wrote:

Death Squads is a GW Name in 40K, thus borrowed from them.

I have never read "Death Squads" in any 40K product. I have read "Death Company" however in the Blood Angels context I think. But then again, I don't know a lot about the 40K universe. But even so, just because GW uses a designation, that doesn't abolish it's connotation.

Da Bank wrote:

Kill Teams thus meaning Death Squads.

You are right. They are synonymous. But you forget that "Death Squads" designate a very precise thing. It is a terminus technicus if you will that signifies a thing and not another, and it's meaning is not synonymous to any other thing.
e.g. "Death Squad" DOES NOT EQUAL "Squad of Death"
There is a big difference between the two. You will never find "Squad of Death" in a history book, but always "Death Squad".

Da Bank wrote:

If someone wants to think something else...

No one "wants" to. You cannot help but make the association. If I say "Bombay Sapphire" you will automatically think of either a precious stone or the city in India. Only a few people will think of the alcoholic drink straight away.

Da Bank wrote:

...there is not much I can do.

Precisely. One more reason to be aware of the implicit meaning of certain expressions.

Da Bank wrote:

If someone wants to judge the name then I would suggest rethinking playing Mordheim as it involves death, maiming, possessing and etc.

This is beside the point. You are confusing 2 things I think. I am not saying "playing violence" in a fictional environment is wrong. I am merely suggesting that the TITLE "Death Squads" designates something very concrete and horrible in history that has NOTHING to do with the game that you are playing.

Da Bank wrote:

This is a fantasy game.

You are right again. And as such, there is no reason it should bear a name that is intrinsically associated with totalitarian regimes and human suffering in the REAL NON-FANTASY world.

Da Bank, I am not criticising you. I am merely suggesting, honestly. If you feel like keeping the title as it is, this is your right and I will not say anything more.
I am just pointing out things that strike me as relevant. I do that because I want to help and because I am taking you seriously, don't forget that. If I didn't give a rat's ass about your game, I would not have bothered writing all these replies.

Hope you won't take this the wrong way
Cheers,
AT

Da Bank wrote:

Considering my dad's side of the family left Austria because of persecution during the 30's and then those things being mentioned don't set too well.

I am sorry to hear that. But I was sincerely NOT criticising you. I was simply remarking on the title; being an Austrian myself I am very sensitive to these things. But Jackanory put that much better than I ever could.

jackanory wrote:

I don't think that anyone is deriding you for choosing that name but more just suggesting that you exert some caution as some people might not look past the name...

Admin Tom wrote:

But Jackanory put that much better than I ever could.

jackanory wrote:

I don't think that anyone is deriding you for choosing that name but more just suggesting that you exert some caution as some people might not look past the name...

For Germany (and I suppose Austria as well), you might substitute "some" with "a lot", as Death Squad, or Todesschwadron, is immediately and strongly associated with SS and Holocaust and if you told someone in Germany that you play a game where "Todesschwadrone" fight each other, they'd most definitely be shocked. There are some countries where "Nazi" or "Jew" still is a common swear word (at least I think so), here, you'd perhaps get sued when calling somebody a "Jew" in public. It a very sensitive topic in Germany.

Da Bank wrote:

We will be working on an Inq Squad also.

If you have some thoughts or play Inq for 40K I would be happy to hear about them.

I've never actually played any GW games, I'm more into it for the painting/converting side so I won't be much help really! Will you have rules for mounted combat? I've got a converted order hereticus inquisitor on a horse that I made just for the hell of it but it would be cool if he could actually be used!

Jack...there will be mounted and a limited number or type of vehicles. I am still flushing out the rules on that. I never thought of including horses but we could as there are some mounted horses for 40K Universe. In our setting there will be an "add on" for vehicles. It will not be in the core LRB but an add on for those that like that. No blaneblands, tanks, necro pyramids. Just small skirmish or recon type vehicles (a horse could fit in that category).

Do you have a local group to play games with?

The core rules or Living Rule Book is pretty much complete but as with anything there are a few things to work out and make sure it is sound.

I won't derail this thread any more but I would like to point out that "Mordheim" for the German release was retitled "Mortheim", because "Mord" is the German word for "murder" and with "heim", meant as an Empire word, ie having it's origin in German language", "Mordheim" to German speakers means something like "Home of Murder" or "City of Murder". Please consider that GW has obviously found this too offensive for a German title of a game and thus retitled the game for Germany. Think about how much extra work (=$$$) this involved because they even had to adjust the logo graphic for this.

With this in mind, think about a game title that is the general term for oganizations like the SS.

Got it but most people fully understand MORD is short or latin root of DEAD.

Eliziar you are correct. MORD Is biting in Latin. LOL.

I'd say MORT is