Suicide Assassins

[Lord Drakon]

Assassins with Throwing Weapons

[+] SPOILER

Yes, they are the ultimate enemy and fear of the West currently. But assassins also die quickly and often so this might be an trolling way to take revenge. Now both opponent and me will enjoy their deaths.

But is this acceptable on moral grounds within playing a Fantasy game?

[Daeron]

Technically, I think they look great. If you wouldn't have called them IS, few would make a point out of making a suicidal assassin. It wouldn't be the first game with suicide squads. Or movie.


But by calling them IS and playing them as a force on your side, my guess is that the joke won't work for everyone. It might come across a little too serious. Is IS really portrayed at the bad end of the joke?
If this were my creation, I probably wouldn't have made any reference to the latest terrorist attacks and kept such references for the gaming table, when I'm a room with like minded friends and where I know it won't hurt anyone. Not saying it's bad though.

Politics can always be a sensitive point, however innocent a joke or reference can be. Heck, Dark Elves are slavers ... not exactly the political correct thing to portray in a game.
I wouldn't be surprised if that is one of the reasons GW avoided making a slave unit for Dark Elves.

[direweasel]

I think it's hilarious

[Tarbo]

But is this acceptable on moral grounds within playing a Fantasy game?

Absolutely.

That's not to say everyone will appreciate what you're trying to express (if you're aiming for something other than a conversion idea), like Daeron says. You may or may not offend people; they may find it insensitive, or they may find it humorously provocative.

From a comedic perspective, I'd caution against it. If you're going for a joke, you're going to need a really good set-up, like after something goes horribly wrong. ("Uhh... yeah, let's pretend these guys are IS or something.") If you're going for a political statement, well, remember all those wonderful, thoughtful conversations you've had whenever politics came up. Those always go swimmingly, don't they?

I mean, I don't see a moral problem per se. And the model conversions look really nice. But I don't think the revenge thing is going to stick, for better or for worse.

[Red...]

No, not really. The suicide belts on the models are a particularly unfortunate touch.

I can see that you are going for a comedic touch, but it's not very funny, so what's left instead is bad humor and a somewhat unpleasant taste in the mouth about the content of the models.

If you want to troll them, then make models where the "Islamic State Assassins" are being killed, not one where they are presented in a state where they are going to be able to kill. Their poses, as they stand, feels a bit too close to glorification or at least normalization, for it to be morally acceptable.

You have to be very careful around this kind of material. This feels like it was not sufficiently sensitive.

My two cents.

[toots]

you're probably a really good fellow but i'd have to advise against using or painting these models, even carrying on with this thread! were this a different message board or reddit or whatever you would get stomped on pretty hard. i just think it's really ill-advised. thankfully you didn't post this to a twitter feed! can't really say a great deal more than that amigo!

[Calisson]

The concept of a suicide-bomb sass is fully acceptable. The old rules for Shadowblade did actually make him explode if he was to be killed in melee, so even GW went with this concept.

Joking about the recent attacks is fully acceptable, even for Frenchmen like me, since we have proven - along with our Belgium friends - that humor is a great cure to the sorrow of recent attacks and ongoing threats.

What is not acceptable is to label your assassins as "Islamic" or "Islamic State".
This is against the rules prohibiting discussions about religion and politics.
I'm not aware of any Muslim D.netter, but if I were one, I would certainly not be happy to see, once too many, the name of my faith asociated with an assassin.

My recommendation:
Go ahead, paint them, and play them.
However, you should parody the recent attacks, not quote them or even less revive them.
For example, you could label them as "Assassins from HisMalekith State in LuStryia" or something alike.

Once you've found an funnier name, could you please edit the thread's title?

[Lord Drakon]

What is not acceptable is to label your assassins as "Islamic" or "Islamic State".
This is against the rules prohibiting discussions about religion and politics.
I'm not aware of any Muslim D.netter, but if I were one, I would certainly not be happy to see, once too many, the name of my faith asociated with an assassin.

My recommendation:
Go ahead, paint them, and play them.
However, you should parody the recent attacks, not quote them or even less revive them.
For example, you could label them as "Assassins from HisMalekith State in LuStryia" or something alike.

Once you've found an funnier name, could you please edit the thread's title?

Great point, I'll change it at once.

[Red...]

Yes, they are the ultimate enemy and fear of the West currently. But assassins also die quickly and often so this might be an trolling way to take revenge. Now both opponent and me will enjoy their deaths.

Given that suicide bombers intend to die as part of their method, this makes no sense at all.

I've thought about this topic some more since my last post and have decided that it is pretty stupid and really badly thought through, to be honest. You may just want to delete your original post. Your current post title and "spoiler" still make it pretty obvious that you are referring to Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.

Take this as a learning opportunity. As toots says, If you had posted this connected with a real life account, you would have faced a lot of very negative feedback and probably a lot of anger and unpleasantness from genuinely upset people. I'd advise apologizing, erasing your post and pictures, learning from your mistake, and moving on. Best advice you'll get all day.

[Tarbo]

Maybe an apology is a bit much. Could be it's a cultural difference from across the Atlantic, but I don't feel this is apology material.

It's a very good point that this joke would probably get you pilloried on social networks so, yes, putting it on there would be a mistake. But that may say more about the audience than about the material, and the second rule of comedy is to know your audience. (Don't ask me about the first rule because it's timing.)

Anyway, that's just, like, you know, my opinion, man. Do what you feel is right. Barring that, do what you think is safe.

[Vladdrak]

Personally, from a theoretical point of view, I think your suicide squad poses no problem at all. Military personnel sacrificing themselves against other military, poses no morel dilemma for me as they are more like the Japanese kamikazes during the Second World War and can be in no way compared to terrorists who purposely target civilians (and ironically are more like dark elves who also purposely try to cause terror). While I don't really see the use of sacrificing well trained and costly troops for very limited results, it depends on your personal preference of course. As far as I can remember, Shadowblade even had a kind of suicide device in the earlier versions of Warhammer.
From a more practical point of view, while I love the absurd Monty Python humour and would have absolutely no problem with the unit, I'm afraid I'm part of a minority. But then again, most of my compatriots posted cats on twitter to combat terrorism last week, so what do I know?

[Heartsbane]

Um, yeah. I wouldn't do it. With people where it works, it's not that funny. When it doesn't work, it *really* won't work and has potential for causing great offence or upset.

I think if it was something like goblin sneaky skulkers it'd be a little better, as they're incompetent and cowardly, so the parody would be more obvious. I still wouldn't chance it however.

[Darkprincess]

Given the current political climate I think that this idea is likely to incur a hostile reaction. Also, I don't think the concept sits particularly well with standard DE troops in terms of fluff. (Chaos perhaps, but not "straight" DE). If it were me, I think I would feel somewhat uncomfortable with this. I'm not saying that it wouldn't work in gaming terms, but just that right here and right now, it may be a little bit too close to home. Perhaps I'm being a bit over sensitive here, but one of the reasons I like a fantasy setting is that you can detach yourself somewhat from the horrors of the real world.