Squats: A grognard's journey back into 40k

[Pacific81]

After a very long absence from 40k (I think my last game was somewhere around 6th edition) the new League of Votann miniatures have prompted me to start collecting again! Chapeau GW, your plans made by shadowy figures smoking in darkened rooms to pull back old timers back into the game have been successful! 

So this is just a blog of the collection, but with a twist. I can't entirely shift my grognard ways (one step at a time!) so a friend and I are collecting forces for 2nd edition(!) - I always wanted a Squat force back in the day, and although I had an Epic Squat force that was tremendous fun, this is a chance to do that with the lovely new miniature range. What led me to this is that the new releases line up almost perfectly with the old 40k codex list, so far looking almost like unit for unit, perhaps with a few units re-named again to get a chance to use the new minis. I'm also a tight *expletive* wallet-wise and the free rules for 2nd edition, via the Battle Bible community release, and the much smaller model count for a 1500-2000pt army means we should be able to get up and playing fairly quickly. We will probably expand into a later edition at some point, so may need some hand-holding if we get that far!

In the meantime I'll be adding comments about collecting in the oldhammer edition, if anyone else fancies giving it a go after reading this. 

So without further ado I present the first 'Warrior' unit of the Zultarr Union - a small collection of engineering/mining Voltann that track down and obtain precious minerals, which are often in perilous locations requiring a significant military presence to support them during their acquisition activities. Better/expanded fluff to come at some point!

I've used the Necromunda miniatures to represent a 'mining' unit - they are going to be transported in a termite burrowing unit. Rules-wise they are wearing ceramite-plated flak armour (sealed of course!) - I'll add some comments about the rules at a future point. 

My opponent is collecting Necrons (although the Necron Codex in 2nd edition was very limited, there is a great community-made version which pulls in most of the 3rd edition unit releases so you can more or less play with a modern Necron range). The storyline will be simple - the Votann were after some precious ores, but then disturbing some that didn't want to be disturbed when they delved too deeply!

Any thoughts appreciated, I'm working on a vehicle and character next, and will be getting the regular Votaan miniatures, so hopefully will post again soon :) 

[Pacific81]

Transport Termite Unit and Engineer Guildmaster

 

Firstly, a Termite/Transport burrowing unit. I had a look and found a Forge World miniature which looked lovely, but I saw the price and didn't want to not be able to pay my bills for the month so needed a cheaper option - I found this burrowing unit of the 'Veermyn' faction from Mantic's Warpath range. £20, nicely detailed kit, and probably went together a great deal easier than the FW resin effort would have. Its quite a lot smaller too, which I think suited the little guys and the transport capacity of the vehicle in the rules. 

 

 

Initial prospecting units of the Zultarr Union, sub-contracted as part of the Kronus Hegemony, arrived on the red sands of planet designation 'Grugwald's Way', as named after the Votann expedition that discovered the world and its rich mineral deposits. 

 

 

 

Engineer Guildmaster Khulgrom carries out a final inspection of a Termite burrowing unit before it begins its journey under the surface. Initial expeditionary units had discovered the ruins of ancient alien cities, thought to be millions of years old and long since abandoned. Scouting units sent into the ruins to inspect them seemed to have missed their check-in call times, but not allowing such concerns to get in the way of such rich deposits of ore, the attending Votann units continued to delve deeper in into the passages beneath the earth. 

 

*Artwork courtesy of Yamonstro on Freepik.com

 

Any C&C very welcome. I'll post some more details on the Character next and some rules references. I'm hoping there will be some individual Votann units release soon as well, so I can start to bulk out the force. 

 

[Valkia the Bloody]

This is awesome! Great work.

And great visual narrative.

[Pacific81]

Arise, dead thread, arise!

 

 

Have dusted off these minis and a friend and I are getting back on track with our 2nd edition plans.

 

In the meantime we played some One Page Rules (Grimdark firefight), which is essentially a basic skirmish ruleset that you can play within 1 hour. A dwarven mining team have been troubling the indigenous aliens by attempting to steal their succulent (and highly valuable) eggs. Understandably, the locals were not too happy at their intrusion.

 

Dwarf-kin crossing a walkway of the ancient underground ruins. Some eggs already loaded into their transport.

 

The defenders attack! The Zultarr-Union raiders are pinned behind cover, one of their number knocked flat by a powerful rifle shot.

 

An alien hound charges the dwarven thieves. One was knocked to the ground, but his colleague bopped the beast on the nose with his powered glove, sending it whining and scampering away to it's handlers.

 

Eventually the Zulturr raiders withdrew, with some eggs in their greedy hands, the howls of the aliens carrying with them at the loss of their younglings.

 

Hopefully some fairly regular updates from now on! I have bought the Hearthkyn Scavengers kill team kit and also the heavy weapons guys (I forget the name, the ones with exo-skeletons) which I will use to build a couple of squads.

[Dr. Clock]

I see you are also a kyn of fine taste. Team Yellow ftw!

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[phandaal]

 

In the meantime we played some One Page Rules (Grimdark firefight), which is essentially a basic skirmish ruleset that you can play within 1 hour.

 

Grimdark Future and Grimdark Firefight are great rules for getting stuff on the table! GW's rules were frustrating me, so my dwarves always hit the table using OPR for the rules these days.

 

Looks like a fun battle!

[Pacific81]

Thank you guys! Yes I agree @phandaal - I have not been able to keep up with later 40k editions, and also I found the lack of focus on the hobby aspect (preparing and painting an army etc) worst of all, at least locally to me, with 40k. My last army took over a year to finish, but ended up fighting against a pair of grey legs on a base (armed with power fist apparently) which I must say lessened the immersion somewhat. But now just a couple of friends and I playing OPR and now 2nd edition, we can take our time, knowing a fresh codex won't pull the rug out from under us (and the armies are much smaller too!)

 

Just a quick update - An Ironkin ('hero' in 2ed rules) multi-melta armed and to attach to the mining team. Miniature is a Mantic 'Hellfather' from the Forgefather range.

 

Next up, have got a box of the Thunderkyn heavy weapons and also the Killteam Hearthkyn Scavengers, which I'm building into squads.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 2 by Pacific81

[Pacific81]

Latest update on the Squat/Grognard journey! A combination of the Voltann Thunderkynn and Hearthkyn kits to make a squad of Thunderers. 

 

I have to say these were fun to build, but extremely fiddly to paint with the exo-suits! But love the overall design. In 2nd edition rules, these will be a standard Thunderer squad. They are armed with carapace armour (unsealed, except for the Sergeant). The Sergeant is carrying a scanner, and the armaments are as they appear on the miniatures: two lascannons for tank-popping duties, and a heavy bolter.

 

[Pacific81]

A small update: Squat Engineer Guildmaster (using the Necromunda miniature).

 

The 'sniffer bot' uses rules similar to the Ork 'Sniffer Squig' - advanced sensors allow it to spot hidden units within a radius, and also any sneaky assassins using polymorphine to disguise themselves as fellow dwarves (that must have been a painful transformation!)

 

Engineer Guildmasters played a key role in keeping mining operations on Grugwald's Way to schedule; both the freight skiffs that transported the gathered ores into orbit and also the equipment and armaments of their kin on the surface. Pictured here, this Engineer has a power fist and servo arm for moving and breaking heavy objects, and a power-pick.

He is accompanied by a sniffer-bot, which acts to locate veins of valuable ores. It also discovered several immense caverns of artificial origin beneath the planet's surface, a curiosity as it was previously thought uninhabited. And to which the curious dwarf-kin would wish to explore.

[phandaal]

On 10/20/2024 at 6:31 AM, Pacific81 said:

I have to say these were fun to build, but extremely fiddly to paint with the exo-suits! But love the overall design.

 

You are not kidding! Thunderkyn ended up looking way cooler in person than I expected from looking at the pictures, but they do have a lot of nooks and crannies and inward-facing surfaces. They are great models though.

[Len Fork]

On 11/20/2024 at 3:20 PM, Pacific81 said:

A small update: Squat Engineer Guildmaster (using the Necromunda miniature).

 

The 'sniffer bot' uses rules similar to the Ork 'Sniffer Squig' - advanced sensors allow it to spot hidden units within a radius, and also any sneaky assassins using polymorphine to disguise themselves as fellow dwarves (that must have been a painful transformation!)

 

Engineer Guildmasters played a key role in keeping mining operations on Grugwald's Way to schedule; both the freight skiffs that transported the gathered ores into orbit and also the equipment and armaments of their kin on the surface. Pictured here, this Engineer has a power fist and servo arm for moving and breaking heavy objects, and a power-pick.

He is accompanied by a sniffer-bot, which acts to locate veins of valuable ores. It also discovered several immense caverns of artificial origin beneath the planet's surface, a curiosity as it was previously thought uninhabited. And to which the curious dwarf-kin would wish to explore.

 

These look awesome! I'm really enjoying the fluff you're writing along with it! Can't wait to find out what these artificial caverns are...

Edited November 24 by Len Fork
Forgot a space

[Pacific81]

A Squat Mining/Warrior team. I just used the standard Kill Team/Hearthkyn box, which I have to say was a wonderfully characterful little kit and a lot of fun to build.

 

Although they were ostensibly planetside to carry out mining duties, work crews would down tools and arm themselves with an array of formidable weaponry should the need arise.

[Len Fork]

On 12/10/2024 at 4:22 AM, Pacific81 said:

A Squat Mining/Warrior team. I just used the standard Kill Team/Hearthkyn box, which I have to say was a wonderfully characterful little kit and a lot of fun to build.

 

Although they were ostensibly planetside to carry out mining duties, work crews would down tools and arm themselves with an array of formidable weaponry should the need arise.

Excellent work on these guys! Glad to hear that it's a quality little kit too! 

[Pacific81]

Thank you @Len Fork ! 

 

Have just completed this Sagitaur. A bit of a fiddly kit doing all the masking on the canopies but otherwise very straightforward to build. And just about sits on the right side of 'toy like' for me (I went a bit overboard with the weathering for this reason, so it looks less like it has just come out of a Tomy Toy box).

 

I used the Neil Hodgson sci-fi art book for the background (thoroughly recommended!) and then the cameras portrait/background blur to give this effect. 

 

A Zultarr-Union recon team deploys from a Sagitaur transport. Long-range sensor sweeps had detected the movement of several large subterranean objects, but upon arrival they have found the area deserted.  The team were just about to return their vehicle, and their ore-processing facility, where a hot meal and tankard of ale awaited them. But just as they were about to do so, their accompanying sniffer-bot suddenly turned to them, and emitted a quizzical 'beep', as the sand underneath it shifted..

 

Edited December 15 by Pacific81