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.
I never much appreciated dwarves of any variety. I'm not sure why.
ReplyDeleteBut recently I was having a look at an old issue of White Dwarf (111, March 1989) and found a good-sized article on Squats... and they grabbed my imagination.
I'm particularly gone on the idea, from that article, of Squat expeditions to recover lost strongholds and homeworlds. A Brotherhood along with some Guildsmen and a small retinue of Adeptus Mechanicus going into dark empty places haunted by gawd knows what.
Those Effin buggers.
ReplyDeleteBest army in 40K and they erased us from the galaxy map.
The Electronic Book of Grudges is chapters deeper for this slight of all slights.
I really do miss the Squats. But I can understand the difficulty in making the Squats sufficiently different from the Imperial Guard to merit their own codex. However, how hard can it really be? I'm sure that if someone at GW were to put in enough effort, they could come up with something.
ReplyDeleteI've never really bought the excuse that they couldn't make the Squats into an interesting and coherent force. Surely an army based around tunneling miners armed with meltaguns and powerhammers would have been a good place to start. Make them into an elite force, tough and hard hitting, but few in number. Maybe the new "supplements" format will allow GW to address the Squat sized hole in their fluff.
ReplyDeleteAh, my friends, Lead Legion and Euan, GW did remake the Squats. They shaved off some letters, then the beards, and slipped a bit and got the noses as well... and now we have the Tau.
ReplyDeleteAn army that is pro-technology.
An army that is all shooty to make up for not being so speedy, a bit short, and uses more technology to make them better at shooting things.
An army that likes armored suits, Exo-Armor -> Battlesuit. Maybe Exo-Armor + Sentinels = Battlesuits.
An army that likes tanks with big guns, but can't have the same tanks as the Guard, and can't be bound by primitive silliness from WW1 & WW2 documentaries.
Living Ancestors -> Ethereals
Bikers -> Kroot. Krootox? Seriously?
Sure, we have plenty of differences, but the essence of armor - personal and hovering with honking huge guns - reverence for a special class of critter (well, pretty much every army has these), lack of need to pray over their toys or imbed them with mortuary bits of lost warriors, and even the same stupid conflict between the main army and the unruly greasy part.
Squats - hair - beer (-sq) + Japanime = Tau.
No need to speculate over mysterious Demiurgs that mostly exist to encourage speculation over mysterious Demiurgs.
We can imagine a second scenario, merging Squats with the Adeptus Mechanicus, ditching the slaves and bringing back the robots.
The Hungry Ghosts army is organized along Imperial Guard lines, but that's because it's much easier to turn Guard tanks into daemonic monstrosities, like motorcycles much more than Kroot nonsense, and don't like the Tau battlesuits. But have been accumulating old Revell Robotech mecha models lately... and have a few old Imperial Robots to use as Sentinels.
And remember, it could be worse. Look at what they did to Orks. They couldn't do a lobotomy, obviously, but a humorectomy and kulcha-stomping, you betcha.