How might Squats return to the setting?

[ThePenitentOne]

I always thought the concept of Living Ancestors was wicked cool, and I'd like the army to be organized around Clans/ Ancestors. I can see the Crusade content- what does it take to BECOME a Living Ancestor? Armies like warbands formed around powerful elders. Really like the mechanized angle.

 

It would be cool to dual kit every box with options for Imperial Aligned vs T'au Aligned. If those bits were upgrades, adding neither would allow unaligned Squats.

[Skaorn]

Looking at old unit entries for Squats, their basic combat squad was essentially Guard with 4 toughness and 3" movement. You could equip the squad with bolters instead of lasguns by the looks too. Hearthguard got carapace armor and better BS, so similar to storm troopers. How would you change the units to make them different from AM and give them more of a unique feel?

[Karhedron]

That is the problem. Squats were somewhere between Guard and Marines in terms of elite-ness. Nowadays we have AdMech, Scions and Sisters in that sort of design space. It is difficult to imagine how to make Squats distinctive from what is already there.

[Dark Shepherd]

Looking at old unit entries for Squats, their basic combat squad was essentially Guard with 4 toughness and 3" movement. You could equip the squad with bolters instead of lasguns by the looks too. Hearthguard got carapace armor and better BS, so similar to storm troopers. How would you change the units to make them different from AM and give them more of a unique feel?

As you said toughness, movement, plus leadership. Going by old interviews seems like the designers wanted them Dwarfier in a robust/doughty/noble/master craftsman way than how they ended up as as 40k models

 

Guess they could stand out from guard as well in terms of bikes, maybe different heavy weapons/different profiles for their versions of weapons. In my head theyre almost more like AdMech

Edited September 27, 2021 by Dark Shepherd

[phandaal]

That is the problem. Squats were somewhere between Guard and Marines in terms of elite-ness. Nowadays we have AdMech, Scions and Sisters in that sort of design space. It is difficult to imagine how to make Squats distinctive from what is already there.

Honestly, don't really care if Squats are similar to other armies. Just want a cool army. Can't be the only one who feels this way.

[Skaorn]

That is the problem. Squats were somewhere between Guard and Marines in terms of elite-ness. Nowadays we have AdMech, Scions and Sisters in that sort of design space. It is difficult to imagine how to make Squats distinctive from what is already there.

They could try to make them melee focused I suppose. That's a niche that is only taken by a few SM chapters. It would kind of be a hard sell with a slow movement though.

[Dr. Clock]

having converted 20 Kharadron for AdMech Vanguard, I would lean into:

 

1) Mercenary status [my head canon Khardron are 'recovery teams' paid to go delving in Space Hulks or generally gather space junk for recycling]

 

2) Abhuman toughness [make them t4 with 4+ Sv standard, with 5" move] [Edit to add: again in my headcanon Squats no longer actually have beards because their societies come out of colonies placed in very high-g and moreover highly irradiated places. Hence as they shrank and 'densified' in repsonse to the gravity, as a population they started losing hair in developing radiation-resistant physiques. It was a popular notion that the toughest most rad-resistant people lost their hair last, and so quickly people started to adopt 'beard wigs' as expressions of toughness/fitness. This became a total cultural meme whereby we now see Squats with beards modeled on to their headgear, when in fact they are all hairless. Obviously this bit is a grimdark rationale for using Kharadron in my army and implying that they look pretty darn different underneath their masks ; ) ]

 

3) Dark Age Tech [again my headcanon suggests that they have, maintain, and moreover develop technology that the Imperium simply does not understand. Make teleportation and anti-grav tech commonplace as a way of ameliorating general low move rates... Squat jetbikes please! Edit to also add: since they originate in conditions already incredibly irradiated, they rarely add the kind of radiation shielding to their equipment that normal humans would... they are simply immune to radiation levels that make other humans terribly sick, and they rely on nuclear power which they have successfully miniaturized far beyond current Imperial standards. This also means that they have access to unstable isotopes in large supply which are used to craft solid munitions of terrible potency. So Squat bolters, stubbers, autoguns and all manner of weapons basically fire 'dirty metals'. In-game this is my rationale for using them as Skittarii Vanguard, but it would be interesting to have an in-built de-buff like that pretty much army-wide in a proper Squat codex IMO]

 

4) Robots [see above; include actual robots and digital intelligences as 'Ancients'. Possibly integrate a 'memory chip' as a hallmark bionic tech that can download 'consciousness' at the point of death... but more like Dixie Flatline in Neuromancer or Puretide Engram: it's a ROM. Have these be of varying quality depending on speed of death so that only rarely, when an individual can foresee their doom and makes the choice to 'upload' will their ROMs be capable of enough independence to take the field as 'Ancients'. Others are installed into transports, weapons and ship computer networks. Basically a step beyond servitor protocols in that there's no actual brain retained and it can 'behave' like the individual even though it's a bit 'stuck' in terms of flexibility and adaptation to new situations. This also creates a good story rationale for an obsession with recovering the remains of dead Squats from the depths of space: often the highest quality ROMs are recovered from the bodies of individuals lost in space who knew they would die 'the cold death' and submitted themselves to slow and more complete 'translation'. It's a little bit Eldar, admittedly, but computery/physical not mystical]

 

5) Defensively Offensive [include fortified/up-gunned drop-pods / termites as Transports; also trains]

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Dr. Clock

[Preliminary Bombardment]

How about they've not only defeated the Tyranids, but have tamed then?

 

Carnifex riding squats

[Helias_Tancred]

In jars, just in time for the Holidays as a pickled spicy meat set?

[Valkyrion]

A living ancestor model like Thorgrim Grudgebearer would be smashing as a centrepiece model.

 

I'd also dig on exo armoured trikers with power axes and multimeltas.

[Ulfast]

I must say that I really like several of your ideas Dr Clock and it really show how much GW could really do with squats in a new format and in bringing them back. I think it would be very fun to something with a mix of new and old things.

[Domhnall]

The Squat homeworlds were devastated by the Tyranids, they dug to avoid the greedy hive, but dug too deep. They discovered ancient technology, Forbidden technology, so forbidden it was sent to the most inhospitible planets near the core, buried and forgotten.

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for one hundred and eleven thousand years, the technology passed out of all knowledge.”

 

And then the squats found it. With this technology they were able to replicate themselves in a what came to be known as 'Tri-Dimensional Simulacrum' Gathering strength, gathering numbers, one day the squat legions will march out from the core to once again become a force in the galaxy!

 

Squats, squats, squats, Squats!!! 

[Skaorn]

Random thought: how do the Squats travel the Warp without the help of the Navigator Houses? Do the Living Ancestors develop abilities that let them travel the Warp or do they use forgotten computers that can calculate their position in it? Either way, it would go some ways to explain why the Imperium didn't try to aid the Squats against the nids. The Navigator Houses likely were not happy with potential competition.

[phandaal]

Random thought: how do the Squats travel the Warp without the help of the Navigator Houses? Do the Living Ancestors develop abilities that let them travel the Warp or do they use forgotten computers that can calculate their position in it? Either way, it would go some ways to explain why the Imperium didn't try to aid the Squats against the nids. The Navigator Houses likely were not happy with potential competition.

We don't really have to accept the Tyranids thing as a hard gospel. It was a throwaway bit of writing and can be given the same level of consideration as the author showed when writing it.

 

That being said, the Imperium is notoriously bad at knowing things are happening, much less responding to those things happening. If the Squats did request aid, that request might get lost in a filing cabinet for hundreds of years. Or someone may have fully intended to help but then got blown off course by a warp storm. And so on.

 

As for how Squats navigate the Empyrean? Sheer freakin stubbornness. They're NOT lost, they're just looking for a landmark and then they'll know exactly where they are.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

 

They're NOT lost, they're just looking for a landmark and then they'll know exactly where they are.

I feel attacked. 

[WarriorFish]

If Squats were to return I'm not sure how this could work in the modern game, aside from slowly of course, because of the short legs...

 

As noted they have a lot of competition for their role now, as cool as Dwarfs are. I too think that a KT introduction and an addition to a codex or two (chiefly Guard) is how they'd do better in 40k proper. Maybe this could go even further, as what is a regiment in model terms outside of three boxes? What's stopping GW making Squats a type/choice of regiment with amended stats and rules for a quick and working army roster?

 

It has been a very long time since Squats existed, GW could easily revamp them so our established knowledge and guesses could well be very misplaced. If Squats can return then that means nothing is off the table I think, not just in the significance of the time gap but also in making a home for them in current 40k where it feels like there is so little room.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I’d make their big armored guys T4 Sv3+ 4++

Give them medium range shotgun/scatter guns with 2-3 ammo types

Grudge shot(00 buck) Assault3 S3 AP0 D1

Honor shot(slug) assault1 S5 AP-1 D2

Reactive shot (slug with a tiny shaped charge?

) assault1 S4 AP-3 D3

Astarte chainsword equivalents and the ability to take 2 power weapons.

 

Honestly I’d make shotguns a theme for them. Don’t ask why, but it seems fitting…

I’d make them aggressively moderate as an army.

Medium range

Medium durability

Medium lethality

And then add strats that are expensive 2-4CP but are absolutely killer.

 

Stubbers, autocannons, melta, and lascannons would be the only infantry Heavy weapons I’d give them, and even make those the most prevalent vehicle mounted Heavy weapons as well.

 

Make their vehicles expensive but durable maybe? -1D on pretty much all vehicles

Edited October 1, 2021 by Inquisitor_Lensoven

[Triszin]

I'd like to see squats come back as a regiment for IG with 1-2 special units.

 

Or a killteam.

As a full stand alone force? No thank you

[Domhnall]

 

See! Even GW when they made the first box set of 'space dwarfs' agree with me that they should be mercenaries! 

 

Saw this on a BoLS article, and thought of you guys. 

[Brother Kraskor]

I'm sure someone has already said this on this thread, but everytime you mention their name the giant clock in GW HQ resets and the countdown begins again for their epic re-release...!

[Philip S]

The squats are the Ad-Mec, they only look like 'normal' humans because they replaced their limbs with bionics. Now they blend in :P

[Grotsmasha]

Honestly, with some recut arms with appropriate aweapons and some more 40k-ified vehicles, they could almost drop the Kharadon line straight in.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

When Kharadton first dropped, I predicted a wave of conversions of them to Space Marines.

 

I was wrong, and I assumed that I overestimated the favorability of the fanbase towards Squats. *IF* we get anything other than more Necromunda/box game releases I will be surprised.

[Snazzy]

If they return, i suspect it would be on the end of some retirements or other rollovers inside the Studio.  Alan Blighe went out of his way to connect the OOP RT era models to the Horus Heresy, when all he was really obliged to reference was the old Power Armor models.  We are likewise seeing some older things like Ambulls back in limited capacity.  But, it is strange to think that these products are being reintroduced after the people who presumably killed them off, or cut them from the scene have departed GW.  So odd to consider that Squats have been gone much, much longer than they were around.

[Red_Shift]

I would theme them as mercenary companies that can ally with other factions and survived the nids by being elsewhere when their home worlds were devoured. I’d also make them look like they just rode off a heavy metal album cover with over the top bikes, land trains and exo armour.