Deathsquads

hi all,

I was at NICON over the weekend doing a demo for the 40k skirmish game Deathsquad. Nik_ invited me over to let you all know what Deathsquad is all about.

what is Deathsquad:

this is a fan-based skirmish game set in the WH40k universe. for those who have played Mordheim, Necromunda, combat squads, Inquisitor and WH40k you will notice, or feel that certain aspects have been taken from each of those games. Well it has. The lead developers for this game are heavily into the Mordheim U.S scene.

But understand this is not Necromunda version 2, or Mordheim in space... or Scaled down 40k. alot of the rules, weapons and squads just don't work in a skirmish setting. [eg no Eldar Firedragons, Dark Reapers,warp spiders, swooping hawks or Avatars.] please note that the Swooping hawks hopefully are coming and we are trying to make the Warp spiders fit once we nail down their teleporting skill. its going to depend on some of the new squads that have flying units to see how they work.

Also there are NO instant death weapons. [eg Plasma cannons, multi-meltas, melta-guns, missile launchers, assault cannons, etc etc] the heavy weapons in this game are grenade launchers, flamers, heavy stubber and the heavy bolter [marines only].

The squads are balanced by using a very advanced code. The three developers have been able to number crunch every unit, item and wargear to make this game as balanced as they can. Hence why the Space Marine scout squad and the Chaos cultists are so important as both of these forces are lead by a Marine. these two will be the precursor to the Chapter and traitor squads of the Space Marines.

This game is not a one hit wonder it has in fact been in development for over 2 years now. Me well I am the rookie been working as part of the staff [I am a contributor] for 3 months but have been involved for around 5 months in total.

An easy way to describe this game is that it is a squad based skirmish RPG. As each unit [eg miniature] can grow and become someone.
the example I used over the weekend was Imperial guard infantryman Bob would be the same as the other 50+ imperial guard troops that are in the basic WH40k IG army. In Deathsquad he is BOB the infantryman that CAN become an officer THAT can grow and learn new skills and WHO can gain better attributes, wargear, weapons and even armour.

in WH40k he is lost amongst the horde. the squad will appear to be incredibly green when you first start out this has been designed on purpose. its to simulate the inexperienced squad but by game 10 your squad is starting to turn into the crack IG squad, by game 15 your heading on to the path of glory. [now at this stage by game 25 of a campaign Necromunda would have fallen over long before and Mordheim would be starting to teeter over.]
by the time you've hit game 30 your squad is the bomb it can do everything yet you can still get to 35 games and still feel like its not over powering.

You will have between 3 - 17 miniatures in a squad... some may have more others less.

currently there are four official races:

Imperial guard [cadian, catachan, mordian, ice guard, urban fighters, death korp,]
Imperial Renegades
Ork
Eldar

there are more squads being developed at the moment:

Kroot mercenaries *
Chaos cult [Slaanesh, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne] *
Space Marine Scouts **
Rogue Trader [3 lists for this Good, neutral and evil versions] **
Adeptus Arbites [this is my project I am the lead on this.] **
Genestealer cult ***
Tyranids ***
Grotz revolutionary committee ***
Inquisitor ***
Sisters of Battle ***
Space Marines Chapter Squads [Blood Angles, Dark Angels, Space wolves, Ultramarines and maybe Deathwing] ***
Chaos Marines [Slaanesh, Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne] ***

The Marines are down the list of things due to their cost, armour saves and the fact their squads will be small.

*: currently in game testing stage
**: at the fluff, rules, stats and costing stage
***: purely conceptual stage no work done on these but some work will commence soon on some of them.

where can you get the rules?

well you can get them for free from here: http://www.deathsquadsgame.com/forum.htm

you will need to register on there but it won't take long.

I spoke to Nik_ when he was there and he is keen to start up a Deathsquad group in Auckland. We are currently in the process of doing one for the Waikato region. I am based in Te Aroha and can visit Hamilton and the mount easy enough [eg got family in both places] unfortunately Auckland is a bit of a stretch for me. Hence why Nik_ is going to try to set one up. We also have some boys down in Palmy as well and we are hoping one day soon we might get a tournament under way based in Hamilton. we'd wait till we had enough players who were familiar to the game first but it is something to aim for...

I'll post some pics of my Deathsquads to give you an idea on what the squads can look like.

Why should I play Deathsquad and what are the future plans:

that will be up to you really. But for me I got into due the price. It is a lot cheaper buying only 20 miniatures then apposed to hundreds. Infact I have 7 different squads at the moment and with many more planed.

FiCQ:

Fighting in Close combat. This would be ideal for those who love Space Hulk and Space crusade. Its Deathsquad but on 2D or 3D gaming tiles. We are working through the basic 2D tiles plus a 3D advanced set up as well.

Vehicles:

These will come what they are and how many the squad is allowed is not known at this stage. but we will get vehicles eventually…time will tell.

Well that’s it for now glad to been able to share this with you. Any questions please let me know. I have the same Nick [Lord Greywolf] on the Deathsquad forum board.

Cheers
LGW