Historia Squataticus Supplement: Squats Summary from 1994 to 2004

A Comparison Squats material and game-design decision-making from 1994-2004 in White Dwarf and The Citadel Journal (Historia Squataticus Appendix 1)

This table provides a year-by-year summary of the treatment of the Squats from the release of Warhammer 40K 2nd Edition in 1994 to the final reference in 2004. Both 40K and Epic are included in this comparison of White Dwarf and Citadel Journal information.

Living Ancestors Never Forget

Year	White Dwarf	The Citadel Journal
1994	Frequent Epic, not much 40K.	Same as White Dwarf
1995	Continued Epic without new minis, not much 40K.	Continued Epic, including 40K/Epic crossover rules
1996	Incidental Squats 40K & Epic but no really bad news until end of year's report that the new Epic 40,000 would not have the Squats included at the start.	Frequent 40K and Epic material
1997	Only incidental pictures and references, reported as a former army when Epic 40,000 appears in Spring.	Squats Army List for Epic 40,000 published, reports that Squats left out because they could not get them right in time (same with Epic Knights) but high level of response from Squats generals demanded an “unofficial” list until an official army list was developed. Squats rules included in 40K and Necromunda articles.
1998	Febuary issue (217) notes that greatest concern from Warhammer players is “What's happening to the Squats?” but does not address the issue. Later in the year, 40K 3rd edition is announced without any mention of the Squats, but it also massive underestimates of the impact on usability of older models and units, Squats or nots.	Squats featured in several articles for Warhammer 40K, but a Convention Report from late March states that the decision to exclude the Squats from Warhammer 40K 3rd edition has been made, but that they are planning to revive them for 4th edition. So it seems likely that the decision to keep the Squats out of 40K 3rd edition was made in late 1997 or sometime in 1998. We can speculate that the decision evolved from trying to reintroduce the Squats to Epic 40,000, but cannot be certain, and there are no known prototypes or unreleased Epic Squats items from the late 1990s. There are also no known 40K Squats from the time either, the 8 Warhammer 40K 2nd edition Squats were done in 1993 or 1994. But it also clear that GW did not plan on totally eliminating the Squats in 1998, and instead hoped to bring them back to Warhammer 40K (eventually) and Epic 40,000 (hopefully sooner).
1999	Nothing	Discussion of how to use Squat miniatures in Warhammer 40K by Jervis Johnson, Warwick Kinrade, and others. Squats are mentioned in all but one of the 1999 issues. Johnson reports that Squats have been left out of 40K 3rd Edition because the designers have failed to come up with enough good ideas about how to make them into a distinct and coherent army. The general recommendation is to use Squats as Imperial Guard stand-ins or as units within human-dominant IG armies.
2000	January issue (240) features the “Eaten by Nids” customer-service fail by whoever was responsible for the Letters page.	Mostly comments in letters from readers.   However, the final issue from the year reports that Epic Squats infantry sprues are available again; the metal vehicles have likely been continuously available as well.
2001	Nothing	Just one comment in a reader letter.
2002	Nothing	The last year for the Citadel Journal, with Warwick Kinrade mentioning the Squats “Counts As” article from Issue 33 (Late Summer 1999) as a favorite.
2003	Nothing	Citadel Journal no longer published.
2004	Increasingly jittery denials of Space Skaven fail to fully assuage guilt over treatment of Squats, leading to an editorial error in the February issue (289) leaving a reference to the Squats of the Forge World Golgotha being conquered by Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka due to insufficient support from alleged Imperial allies. Warhammer 40K 4th edition is released in the fall with no revitalized Squats.	Citadel Journal no longer published.

The Grudge Master Remembers.

Squats Epic 40K Update

Just a brief update to the Hungry Ghosts revue of the Squats models for Epic Warhammer 40K. Though Hungry Ghosts is on the mission to paint all of the Squats miniatures for Warhammer 40K, he has no foreseeable prospect of assembling and painting an Epic 40K army.

So the Hungry Ghosts Epic Collection is destined to be kept in nice blister packs for posterity.

The Epic 40K models are interesting from a packaging point of view. As the range of miniatures expanded in through the first half of the 1990s, Epic miniatures were produced with a special package insert, despite the fact that the rules for the game remained a sprawling mess. 

Rules were fractured into the Epic Space Marine set, which covered Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar forces, released in 1990, with some cardstock building terrain to fight for.

After that, White Dwarf was a source of regular rules updates to include other major factions – Chaos, Squats, Imperial Guard. Many of these updates were gathered into the Adeptus Titanicus book.

The Epic Titan Legions set came in 1994, with new rules updates. It also brought forth the mighty Imperator Titan and the Mega-Gargants of the Orks, as well as a gaggle of plastic Imperial Knight Titan Paladins (nice bits for Squat conversions). And continued to include not very impressive cardstock buildings.

Entire armies were available for Chaos, Alaitoc Craftworld Eldar,

http://solegends.com/citcat1993/c93582-01.htm

Imperial Guard of Barbarius Prime (with some Ultramarines allies) and Squigbreff's Ork Horde

http://solegends.com/citcat1993/c93583-01.htm

But the Epic Titan Legions rules were not enough. Thus rules supplements appeared for the various faction – Armies of the Imperium, Chaos and Eldar Renegades, and Ork and Squats Warlords (deliberate pairings of ancient enemies), and Tyranid Hive War.

But that is all prelude. Here we have our new additions:

The Overlord Airship in its blister pack.

 The mid 1990s brought full color inserts for the Epic range, displaying the Overlord in glorious assembled and painted form.

So too with the Goliath Mega-Cannon.

– as with the remainder of the Epic 40K models.

 Where's Our Land Train? Yes, We Know Trains Generally Remain Land-Bound.

Meanwhile, both the 40K and WFB miniatures were shafted with most boring packaging, red for new releases and blue for older miniatures, with no inserts. Yawn.

An unwelcome trend toward less and less differentiation for the sake of cheaper printing costs. Echoed by the awful "we're just standing here" plastic troops of the time.

This was a let-down even from the earlier packaging, shown here with the Mole. The Mole came with a small Thudd Gun, making the claim that this was an “Imperial” armament an even more Grudge Worthy action.

 The Imperial Lies did not cease with the new packaging.

Most images are from the 1996 Epic 40K Catalog, which also taunted the Eldar enthusiast with Exodites and new versions of Grav-Tanks and Flyers that would be scrapped when Epic morphed again to become Epic 40000 in 1997.

Thus, our Epic 40K products from the 1990s foreshadowed the packaging for the transformation from metal miniatures to Finecast miniatures of today. Truly an advancement in packaging, as for the rest...