Squats (Warhammer 40,000)
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In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Squats were a race which were descended from humans who colonized the high gravity worlds at the centre of the galaxy. Due to having to live in tunnels beneath the surface of these dead worlds and the high gravity the Squats evolved to be short and stocky. The Squats occupied a semi-autonomous confederation known as The Homeworlds, and had true engineers, in contrast with the dogma-bound humans of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Squats were the equivalents of Dwarves for the Warhammer 40,000 universe much in the same way as the Eldar serve as Elves and Orks bear a striking resemblance to Warhammer Fantasy Orc.
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[edit] History of the Squat Homeworlds
The Squat Homeworlds were colonized during the Age of Founding (known to the Imperium as the Dark Age of Technology). During the Age of Isolation (or Age of Strife), which began in M.26, the Squats evolved into their current morphology. The Age of Trade, which lasted for almost three millennia, saw a decrease in the warp storms isolating the Homeworlds. The Squats traded with the Orks and Eldar during this period. The Age of Trade was ended in an enormous attack on the Homeworlds by the Ork Warlord Grunhag the Flayer. The Squats pleaded for assistance from their Eldar trading partners, but were rebuffed. This lead to the enmity against Orks and Eldar that lasted through the Age of Wars into the current Age of Rediscovery (or Age of the Imperium). The Inquisition launched wars against the Squats in the belief that they were aliens, but eventually the Squats were accepted, along with other abhumans, as being human in nature. Many Squat Strongholds joined the Imperium, but this was not to last. The final Imperial Squat Strongholds seceded from the Imperium during the Age of Apostasy (M.35). The Homeworlds, however, maintained trade and mutual assistance with the Imperium, trading military hardware, allowing Commissar military advisors to join their armies, and sending recruits to the Adeptus Mechanicus. In the forty-first millennium, a Tyranid hive fleet (it is unclear whether it was Leviathan or a tendril of Kraken) swept through the Homeworlds, destroying the Squats as a power in the galaxy.
The Squats carried grudges for millennia, and none so strongly as against the race of Orks, who betrayed the Squats on more than one occasion and inflicted many losses upon them in war.
[edit] Equipment
In war, the Squats used squads of motorcycles supported by massive artillery barrages from outlandishly large superheavy tracked vehicles such as the
- Land Train,
- The land train consisted of an engine and a number of towed battlecars. The battlecars each carried a weapon (Mortar, Dragon gun, missile) or troops (Bezerker car)
- Leviathan,
- Cyclops
- Hellfury Cannon
- Colossus,
- Doomsday and Thunderer cannon
- Overlord Airship
- Thunderer Cannon
- Goliath Mega Cannon
[edit] Removal from the game
The Squats have been out of the current games and model production by Games Workshop for some time; in the game setting their homeworlds were attacked and devoured by the Tyranids. Many say that they are the major victim of Games Workshop's attempts to make Warhammer 40,000 a totally original world and not just Warhammer Fantasy in space. Games Workshop's official stance, however, is that the Squats were dropped because they felt dissatisfied with their established background and army design.
Squat miniatures go for relatively high prices on eBay and fans reportedly bombard the games developers regularly with what is called "the Squat question". The Squats were never among the most popular armies in their heyday and many of their miniatures are ranked rather poorly even by enthusiasts, though many make the point that to compare them with current production miniatures is to not compare like with like. Many other model making companies have been producing space dwarf models for a long time. Some players have written their own rules for Warhammer 40K so Squat armies can be played. However popular this trend has proven to be, the official ruling from Games Workshop is that only 40K miniatures can be used in GW stores and GW-sponsored tournaments.
A statement on why the Squats were dropped was given by games designer Jervis Johnson on 28 July 2004. In a Squat-themed thread on a popular Warhammer 40,000 message board, he posted an official response to the Squat Question: [1]
Summarizing, Johnson said the race was removed from the Warhammer 40,000 universe for the following reasons:
- The designers felt that the "Dwarven" concept was not given justice, and that the Squats were more of a joke race.
- There existed a design disparity with the Warhammer 40,000 and the Epic-scale renditions of the race, which prevented there being a cohesive vision of the race.
- Despite the efforts of the design team, they were unable to think up ways to revitalize the concept.
Jervis Johnson's statement also confirms that the Demiurg began as an effort to re-think the concept of Squats, after their decimation, and that the concept might one day be expanded on.
Some people still make squat soldeirs for their whole army and then they use rules of another race to play them (usually IG because of their weopons and doctrines can have them resemble Squats)
[edit] References
- Johnson, Jervis (2004-07-28). Squats. Epic: Armageddon. Retrieved on 2006-01-20. (6th post on the page)
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