Mordheimer
Posts: 3076
Join date: 2009-07-12
Age: 36
Location: Cape Coral, FL
 |  Subject: What is the Game of Death Squads?  Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:49 am | |
| | Quote: | | What ARE the Death Squads? Are they the small garrison positioned on an outpost? Are they a small detachment from a larger army? Are they the tiny advance squads of a larger force, left entirely by themselves? Are they marooned individuals, desperately trying to regain resources to repair their broken ship? |
For your reading pleasure...
| The Living Rulebook, page 5 wrote: | What is ‘Death Squads’?
Death Squads is a skirmish miniature war game that pays homage to those that have gone out to war and sacrificed with little or no recognition in the Warhammer 40,000 futuristic universe. There have been many historic wars in the universe, but during many smaller battles, fighters have helped to decide how some of these historic events have unfolded.
This is your opportunity to pick your favorite race and play out smaller events in the 40K Universe. Who knows maybe you like the Imperial Guard and you are in charge of a platoon on a boring recon mission when you stumble upon a group of Orks just beginning to set up their base in that area. Maybe you love the idea behind the Space Marine’s Deathwatch, and would like to infiltrate a Tau factory plant for sabotage. The Tyranids may be initial Vanguard forces, which eventually lead to the planet’s infestation. Maybe you control the Tau, who are building a new planetary canon from which they intend to shoot Imperial Navy war cruisers in high orbit. The ideas are limitless!
Sounds like Kill-Team? Far from it… because now the Brutes are Officers on their own rights!
The objective of Death Squads is to personalize the story based campaign. Each fighter in your small group will have a name, story, ambitions, hope, dreams and gear. Each fighter will grow in experience and the longer you play, the more unique he becomes. Our goal is to enhance the 40k settings and battles. Maybe you like to play Battle Fleet Gothic, to take upon ship-to-ship battles in space… but when it comes to boarding an enemy ship, you can use the Death Squads rules! Based on what happens, you may slowly build the unique story behind your Imperial Guard Company Commander!
All in all, this is about you having fun, playing a great game and hopefully watching your Squads of Warriors grow with experience through their battles. |
So to answer your question... is all of what you mentioned!  Death Squads was designed from the ground up (from the very first day) to be an open-ended platform. This is what makes the game different than other GW skirmish games. We have no constrictions of space and time. Mordheim (a SUPERB game) is constricted to a particular place (the city of Mordheim) on a very specific time (just after the two-tailed comet crashed on the city, early 2000.) If you take the game (as intended by GW... not the excellent fan-based resources) out of that place and time, it does not work as well. If you play before the comet, there is no wyrdstone... if you play to far ahead, there should not be any either (all been looted). You can't play outside the city, because the mechanics are tailored for it. Attempts to move it out of the city (Empire in Flames) is produce mediocre results because many of the true elements of the game are attached to the spacial-temporal scale. Attempts to move the game of Mordheim outside the city yields a Mordheim-in-the-jungle (Lustria) or Mordheim-in-the-desert (Kehmri) feel to the game. They are fun in all, but eventually you get that feeling. The same thing happens with Necromunda; taking it outside the Hive (Ash Wastes) never yield the same experience. It is not the fault of the creator's minds... the game system is designed around the spacial-temporal conditions.
You could play Death Squads in any place (whatever planet... Terra, Mars, Ultramar or a made up one), any location (be a city, a jungle, a village, inside a ship, or caverns) at any time (pre-Heresy, Macharian Campaigns, current time... even your own grim future!) The mechanics do not change and are unaffected by the location or time of the campaign. Of course, if you decide to play pre-Heresy some restrictions should be placed... but that is between you and your gaming group! The point is that the game's Core Rules do not degrade.
In our Campaigns, we play on this made up world (Karameikos IV) which is a pivotal time on their history... IG Special Forces trying to help the locals recover from a natural catastrophe, the initial setup of Orks coming from underground to start a Waaagh!, Eldar's seeing that the destiny of the planet will affect (even destroy) their Craftworld and trying to control the planet's faith in their favor, unhappy locals are forcing cohesive forces to overthrown the local government while keep within the Imperium (yet they do not know they are puppets of Chaos!)...
You want to make YOUR campaign about the Tau frontier and how they are sending initial 'negotiators' to insure the planet's embrace of the Empire? You want YOUR campaign to be about seeking a lost artifact? You want to play as IG Cadians crashed on an Ork-infested planet, trying to 'find their way home'? Do so. The Core Rules won't change... just how you make your own stories. 
| Quote: | | Likewise, where are they fighting? What resources are they fighting over? And why, oh WHY, in the age of sci-fi goodness, are they fighting on the ground when a ship can just pass overhead and nuke whatever they want blown up? |
As stated, the reason for their combat are up to the players. Maybe the Campaign mission is to stop the Imperium from activating a new deep-space telescope from capturing images... that would reveal you secret army. Who knows... up to you! If you mean what Expendable Resources, here is another quote from that beloved book...
| The Living Rulebook, page 73 wrote: | Exchanging Resources
Exchangeable Resources can be transformed into tremendously valuable resources; from favors, to letters of recommendation, from information to currency… and are in constant demand by anyone in the known universe. This means that finding someone willing to exchange for your Squad’s Exchangeable Resources (ER) for Credits is not difficult. You do not have to exchange or sell all your ERs immediately after the battle – you may want to hoard them for a later time, as selling ERs in smaller quantities will increase demand and raise the price. Unfortunately, the demands of running a Squad often mean that you will have to sell most of your ERs as soon as you find it. |
This means that you are looking for anything that gives you an edge... maybe a piece of Military Intelligence that would earn favors with your HQ, or an embracing fact that helps you blackmail you CO. Maybe you find scrap metal or old ammo you sent for recycling. If you want YOUR campaign to be about finding wyrdstone... do it!  It is an open ended theme. In our Campaign it was nothing specific... DaBank's IG 'struggle' to get more personnel assign to him (long live Imperial Prisons!), my Orks look for scrap metal and parts for a Stompa (I got TWO legs!), the Eldar searched for evidence of progress to gain favor with the Seer Council and the IR hunted weapons and ammo for their upcoming revolt. The details are story based... left to the players!
| Quote: | | And why, oh WHY, in the age of sci-fi goodness, are they fighting on the ground when a ship can just pass overhead and nuke whatever they want blown up?" |
Simple... because if not there is no game.  Just kidding! Why are there 'armies' in 40k, when a flying Death Star could do an Exterminatus on any planet? Sometimes resources need to be supported and maintained.
In our Campaign, the planet was rich in a promethium catalyst, but now produces energy cells for the Imperium. The 'problem' for the IG is that there has been a natural disaster and the Manufactoriums on the southern continent are almost inoperable (few still operational.) They send a small 'disposable' group of IGs to make a routine inspection of the damages before they send some Engineers... to their surprise they found Orks taking over the factories... making weapons! They are actually repairing the place... and since monitors only register 'activity' (and not what kind) the government is clueless of the danger their are in. To make matter worse, they do not seem to understand direct information from the IGs on site (always twisting the reports!) On the confusion, the Eldar make landfall with an elite group of commandos to insure that the incoming war between IG vs Orks goes THEIR way. Manipulative bastards. Unknown to all, the Dark Gods are heavily involved; Tzeentch is up to his tricks... he misaligned the world's axis by few degrees to cause the tremors... he was the one who diverted the Ork hulks to crash on the planet and be buried underground for half a century, he was the one giving the false visions to the Farseers, he is the one whispering lies of a better tomorrow to the oppressed matters.
All those are OUR reasons why armies are not there... YET. Eventually we would move from Squads to 40k Armies... and eventually Apocalypse! Then, probably an Imperial Death Star blow up the place anyway.
Hope this helps you form your own Death Squads games & campaigns! _________________ . The Mordheimer - Death Squads' Chief Editor & Ninja Designer. Support Bacteria; it is the ONLY culture some people have! . |
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