Death Squads - GREAT NEWS

Howdy! Just wanted to drop a line (although most of you probably know) last Tuesday DaBank, Dozer and myself had a nice chat at a local fast food joint. The very first thing that we all agree (besides that my new buzz cut sucks) is that the opening of the Forum was not handled properly. After some nodding, we moved on and started working with renewed energy on Death Squads!

We decided that we would continue to use the private Google Group to discuss design stuff (they tend to be heated discussions and the ability to upload documents is very nice) and the public Forum (www.DeathSquadsGame.com) as the medium to spread TLRB and where players can gather to ask questions, make suggestions, tell stories, etc.

In less than a week, we have flipped our 'internal' design upside down, and the result has been very nice discussions and streamlining rules, experimental Squads and more. We expect to have the new version of TLRB (v0.4.0) out in few weeks.

So... if you are interested, feel free to go to the Forum, get the rules and play to your heart content. Regardless of your opinoin, stop by, say hello and let us know what you think!

Mordheimer...you forgot to tell them you bought me a Choclate Milkshake at Burger King.

Yes, our forces are consolidated again and things were moving forward. Not saying they were not before but already we have noticed a few things have been "hammered" out in a week. There have been at least 50-75 emails traded back and forth this week alone.

I actually like the new forum and as Mordheimer noted, will give interested people a place to check out the game and comment and etc but is no way intended to challenge this forum. As Mordheimer had noted on an older post, "We love and like this forum and our forum is not challenge to TBMF in anyway as it is for Death Squads." Mordheimer can fill it in better if I screwed up his quote.

I would like to thank everyone for their help and support on the TBMF on Death Squads.

Does this mean the Duel to the Death with Battle Report & photos is off?

DeafNala wrote:

Does this mean the Duel to the Death with Battle Report & photos is off?

LoL

i think it means there will be even be BIGGER battles and MORE death and even more battle reports to flood the interwebs

P.S

Not to mention the ludicrous amount of photo's....

It will be crazy! Tomorrow there will be some serious testing of Chaos Cultists and Tau! I will be everyone's punching bag... I play IG! Hey, someone has to be the bench mark!

Probably DaBank will take pictures and testing battle reports posted.

yes, I plan on bringing the camera and get some pics of Mordheimer...er..er..uh...I mean pics of the game.

And I can't wait to write up another battle report though it will not involve Commissar DaBank as he is on Holiday on a Holiday Planet.

Da Bank wrote:

And I can't wait to write up another battle report though it will not involve Commissar DaBank as he is on Holiday on a Holiday Planet.

...staying at Motel 666?

I believe it is ran by Slannesh Limited.

Good to hear you all kissed and made up... btw where can I find these glorius rules?

You can visit our forum at www.DeathSquadsGame.com.

FYI... we are putting the last touches on the next version of The Living Rulebook (TLRB)... I would suggest you do not print the current ones and wait for TLRB v0.4.0. Several items have been explained better, some bugs squished and new ground for the newer Squads laid down!

Awesome thanx man!

This sounds really cool, is it essentially Mordheim for 40K? I mean, I guess there's already Necromunda, but the focus of Necromunda was so limited compared with Mordheim, which is pretty much all-encompassing when it comes to the Warhammer world. I always wanted a campaign-style skirmish game that brought all of the 40K races together.

We picked up where Necromunda and Gorka Morka left off.

It allows you the opportunity to field squads from the 40K universe.

interesting. Can you only field a squad (i.e. one type of troop, along with the leader and weapon upgrades), or can you have sort of a mish-mash of troops from the same army?

For instance, could I have a marine death squad with a few tactical marines, but led by a terminator and maybe have a couple of assault marines and scouts thrown in? Or an Eldar squad that's guardians with a few aspect warriors or harlequin sprinkled in?

Myntokk wrote:

This sounds really cool, is it essentially Mordheim for 40K? I mean, I guess there's already Necromunda, but the focus of Necromunda was so limited compared with Mordheim, which is pretty much all-encompassing when it comes to the Warhammer world. I always wanted a campaign-style skirmish game that brought all of the 40K races together.

Lots of things... hope I make sense.

Like DaBank said... Death Squads is much more than just Mordheim-in-Space or Updated-Necromunda or 40k-With-Fewer-Models. It was important that the game was not felt like a 'weird' setting for Mordheim or Necromunda. Instead, we have been dissecting the "whys" and "hows" other skirmish games work (specially Mordheim... our all time favorite!) and with those raw materials we decided to work on the 40k Universe. Rather than a 'simple' conversion of 40k models to use in Mordheim, we decided to create a platform in which players are in total control. As you probably know, 40k has rules to play army size battles in ruined cities (Cities of Death), a 'regular' rules to fight armies in 'regular' battlefields and rules to play ridiculously large games (Apocalypse). There are no guidelines for such a small level.

All these large scale games are fine and dandy... but they lack the 'personal' touch that has made Mordheim king. This seems ironic, granted that the 40k lore is FULL of stories which depicts mall squads and platoons... how their actions affect the outcome of war that affects billions of lives. Mordheim, from the start, is about the story of few people and their actions affect themselves... kindda like D&D adventurers are out to become rich & famous themselves and not to change the world (but it always ends that way!!! Our focus is different; players are free to make what they want of Death Squads. Our objective is to make a balanced skirmish game in which players decide what to do of the game.

Death Squads can be played as a pure skirmish game or campaign (like Mordheim) or it could be use as a pre-amble for a 'regular' 40k game... before attacking the Ork's Camp, you decide to send few elite commandos to take out their fueling stations... maybe the winner gets an advantage in the next game! Your Imperial Guardsmen Army has a General... where did he came from? In 40k, that is irrelevant... but Death Squads let you 'build' a story for your future commanders if you want.

For those of us that LOVE story-based campaigns, this is what really makes a game. 40k lacks this approach... they TRIED (and failed) by trying to get Necromunda out of the Hive or by the half-cooked trial that Kill-Team was. The game does not forces players to 'look for a resource', rather is open enough that everyone at the game can have their own agenda. If you check older posts, you could see what I mean. My Ork Mob (The White Waaagh!) had a different motive that DaBank's Imperial Guard (Last Chancers), Dozer's Imperial Renegades or Jamie's Eldar.

Myntokk wrote:

Interesting. Can you only field a squad (i.e. one type of troop, along with the leader and weapon upgrades), or can you have sort of a mish-mash of troops from the same army?

For instance, could I have a marine death squad with a few tactical marines, but led by a terminator and maybe have a couple of assault marines and scouts thrown in? Or an Eldar squad that's guardians with a few aspect warriors or harlequin sprinkled in?

In game mechanics, we have taken many elements from different games and tackled many of the 'issues' other games have. For example, we adopted the 40k Armor, Cover or Invulnerable Save concept rather than the subjective partial or full Cover Save or the confusing Armor Save that Mordheim has in place. Those elements work in Mordheim, but not in Death Squads. Many other little adaptations have been done, which have make Death Squads its own. Anyone who has played Mordheim or Necromunda can pick up Death Squads and know 90% of the rules!

Just like in Mordheim and Necromunda, there are groups (or races) from which you hire members... Officers and Recruits. Each Squad (warband) choice has been design to balance each other out. So rather than 'emulating' a 40k Squad, you create a 'new' concept. This is easy to see when you make Imperial Guard Squad... kindda like the 'Dirty Dozen'. The concept becomes WAY cooler when you have something completely different/alien. For example... Orks. Their base premise is the story of a Nob getting few Boyz together and forming a group to engage anyone... to prove himself to eventually become a Warlord and bring the WAAAGH! across the galaxy. Both Squads could have different elements that are 'treated' as different squads in a 40k army. For example the IG could have some Heavy Weapon Specialists or an Ogryn, while the Orks could have few Kommandos or Burna Boyz. The Craftworld Eldars are directed by a newly appointed Exarch with some Aspect Warriors. Spece Marines are tricky, because the game mechanics.

GW games are based on a theoretical scale of 1-10... 40k has a practical scale of 3-6 (you don't see many 2 stats), the Space Marine is the base to compare (all stats 4) and numbers on 7's and 8's are not uncommon. This works well for a large scale game... but not for a skirmish. It is absurd to have a Melta Gun (S 8 weapon) to be shot at ANYONE... is deadly! In 40k, this is used against giant war machines and tanks. We decided to use as the benchmark the Guardsman (all stats 3) for comparison... with a practical scale of 2-5. The balancing act is more complicated for game designers, but not for players who understand that this is a small scale game, and some stats have to reflect this. For example, a Power Fist does not double the attacker's strength like 40k, but give a Strength bonus and allows D3 attacks. Mathematically, they are equally devastating but the 2nd one give some chance to survive.

At the moment there are 4 established Squads (warbands): Imperial Guard, Imperial Renegades, Orks & Craftworld Eldar. We are currently working on IG specific variants, Kroot, Tau, Chaos Cultists and Space Marine Scouts. Speaking of SMS... this is not a pure reflection of the Scout Squad in 40k... which are so generic that players use them as cannon fodders. Our Scouts will carry that feeling that this are super-human soldiers in training. Rather than 10 guys (like in 40k), you will be control fewer Scouts and their support entourage. So... at the end of your campaign, your Scouts could be the Scout Sergeants of your Army, full of flavor and story. Of course, they will have 40k stats and abilities, but you will be CERTAIN why is that THAT particular model has an eye-patch!

Eventually, we will bring Space Marine's Deathwatch (pure Space Marine Squad!), Genestealer Cult, Tyranids, Necrons, Dark Eldar. The work has slow down a bit... with the Fall new schedules making everyone run for cover, but we are still working hard (but at a slower pace!)

Go to the forum, download the rules and see for yourself. Once TLRB v0.40 is out, we will let everyone know.

Mordheimer pretty much covered but I will add to his comments.

Death Squads is not a straight 40K adaption to a skirmish game. This has been attempted many many times. A few are nice but as Mordheimer noted do not allow you to "grow" your squad with experience (Mordheim, Necro, GorkaMorka, Warhammer Quest and etc). This is the most comprehensive attempt at this.

As Mordheimer noted check out our forum and download the rules, read over.

We have attempted (as much as possible) to cover the rules completely but there is no way to plan for ever single instance. Please read and post your comments they are welcome. Playing a couple games also helps in understanding the rules.

If you can follow Necro and Mordheim rules then you can easily play ours. There is only one thing with charges that might throw some people off at first but once you get it down you will see it really works and makes the game more exciting.

We are always looking for people to playtest because since we created it is easy of us to "take it for granted" everyone knows what we mean. So, try out a few small games and give us your feedback.

It sounds pretty cool, I definitely want to give it a shot. Unfortunately I moved recently, and left my 40K (and Mordheim/Warhammer/everyothergame) gaming group behind, not to mention most of my models, so I'll have to wait until I visit Colorado again to try it out. I'm excited for it though!

Go fo the forum and sign up. At least you could read the rules over and you will see what Mordheimer and myself have embarked on now for over one year.

I agree with DaBank... go check the rules out. As you know skirmish are a great way to poison newbies to join the dark side. Maybe you could start a new group!

(DaBank just lead me towards this thread, considering I proposed a Dune-style "Ash Wastes" Setting for Necro, or using your Lustria scenary for a Catachan Civil War Setting).

I'm afraid I really don't know 40k at all, but would a Sisters of Battle Warband be too powerful to use? Their figures are fantastic.

Also, I haven't had a chance to see the rules yet (which part of the Deathsquad site are they?), but I hope you left room for the old Necro-style gangs. Call them 'Noble Houses', or 'Gangsters', or something. Maybe use the renegade IG rules?

Best of luck with the project!

Stryofoam...you finally looked our way. Yea!

Sisters of Battle could work and they have been noted but we have not tackled them yet as they would work similiar to Space Marine Scouts.

We are wokring on Imperial Guard, Imperial Renegades (Chaos Renegades from Forge World rules), Eldar and Orks.

Kroot and Chaos Cultis (with full range of Chaos Marks) are being developed in our secret lab as we speak.

In the pipeline: Space Marine Scouts, Tau, Rebel Grots, Nid Cultists and more.

Gangers would be easily adapted to the IG rules, though there could be an off shoot for a more "pirate" or "raiders" type feel. You know the ones on the edge of society who work for the Imperium and or anyone else who will pay them.

Go to the forum on Mordheimer's signature, sign up and read the rules.

All has been said... hehehe...

Check out www.DeathSquadsGame.com, under the News & Announcements section.

(btw, DaBank, if you wanted to me check out the Death Squads thread, it would have been smart to give the link the FIRST two times you asked me to get involved. "Have you heard of Death Squad? Have you heard of Death Squad?") -_-

(teasing, I promise)

Gangsters: I'll take a look at the LR rules as soon as I can (apparently, my girlfriend's comp doesn't have an application to open pdfs.) However, I think a whole new set of rules for Gangsters would be fun too. While they could work for the Imperium, they'd work against them just as much. The smugglers, the drug distillers, the mercenary raiders. They'd also represent the rebellious (or, at times, nihilistic) natives of the various planets the Imperium has taken over.

Once I get a handle on the rules, I'll try to submit a gang. Ideally, they'd have different branches / variations you could take, reminescent of the different Necro gangs: the close combat gang, the sneaky/shooter gang, the well equipped gang (maybe 4 or so variants). This way, a player wouldn't feel out of line fielding his Goliaths or Eschers against a group of Cadians.

didn't the "Eye of Terror" campaign even feature a unit for Imperial Guard calle Hive Militia or somesuch, and they were essentially just Necromunda gangers? You could certainly put together something along those lines, and have different skill tables and special rules for each house.

I hadn't even thought of Sisters - not sure why. They'd be perfect, sort of an elite group of Imperials, but still not the superhumans that Space Marine Scouts are going to represent.