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[Tack]

I love my dwarves too much, and so, I think, do many others.
So should be fine. Should.

In other news, sweet conversions on your khorneguys.
I am trying to do similar things but I shied away from the DV chosen. Too messy.
Weirdly enough I play Tzeentch and don't really like visible mutations.

[Grim Portent]

What's the squat treatment?

The Squats were an army of bike riding space dwarves in 1st edition 40k (called Rogue Trader) and were never updated for later editions and their model range was scrapped. In canon their homeworlds were battered by an Ork WAAAGH!!! then eaten by a Tyranid splinter fleet meaning only the ones scattered throughout the Imperium were left.

I read an interview with one of the old designers that said the reason the Squats got killed off was because none of them could bring themselves to try and write an updated codex for them. They just couldn't stand them the way they were and decided it was best to let them quietly go away rather than try to shoehorn them in with the changes they were making after 1st edition and bring the whole space dwarf thing back later if they got a good idea for it.

The 40k fanbase never got over it for some reason and it's become slang for things getting killed off in 40k. Happened to a lot of original stuff that the designers thought was stupid when they made the jump to 2nd, like the shark-people aliens, and the Zoats.



To my knowledge the Dwarves are still a thing in AoS, they've just changed like the Elves have. The original race is gone, but their descendants still live in the Realms fighting chaos, the undead of Nagash, the Ork/Ogre descendants, and just about everything else should they feel it necessary. Only three or so AoS factions have actually had any content produced for them so far, so much is unknown about what it'll end up like.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

One cannot mention the Squats without mentioning GW's draconian treatment of those who dare to even mention them on any platform they have control over. The joke is that even talking about them gets you erased to wherever they went.

However, as of recent editions the Squats are actually back in fluff, amazingly. It's a minor as hell roll, but it's there.

In addition, there was also an essentially erased Beastmen-equivilant for 40k. They were an unaccepted abhuman strain who often went to chaos, resulting in the ones who were loyal to the Imperium being self-hating depressives who desired only to die for the Emperor to atone for being born.

[Kot]

In canon their homeworlds were battered by an Ork WAAAGH!!! then eaten by a Tyranid splinter fleet meaning only the ones scattered throughout the Imperium were left.

At first there was no mention of them in canon, like, GW even refused to acknowledge they ever existed, EVEN IN REAL LIFE (HURR DURR), which was the whole reason they became a meme, and so did GW Death Squads. It took them a while to explain it as Tyranid eating them. The same thing happened to Zoats.
As for the beastmen and Saharduin (shark-people aliens), IIRC they were never "removed", they just weren't popular enough to varrant models and - later on - mentions in codexes.

The 40k fanbase never got over it for some reason

Gee, I don't know, maybe them having tanks that are bigger than fucking titans, armour better than SPACE MARINES, beards, bikes, guns bigger than yours and being, you know, DWARVES IN SPESS had something to do with it. Or maybe the fact that they were literally one of best armies around and also one of most varied as the amount of stuff for them was retardely high, they had those Mechanicus envoys, could use regular Imperial vehicles IIRC, and stuff.
I MEAN LOOK AT THEM, THEY HAVE TANK TRAINS.

[Grim Portent]

Tank trains were, as I understand, one of the reasons the designers couldn't conceive of a way to keep them in the setting without being embarrassed. 

But yeah, old GW (the guys involved in the original versions) basically just tried to forget they existed because they found them silly in the wrong way, new GW (corporate guys) don't seem to mind acknowledging they exist as much.

Who knows, maybe GW will bring them back in the future as an abhuman unit like Ratlings and Ogryn, or maybe as a mini-dex like Mechanicus. It'd make them at least some money after all, so I could see it happening.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm currently a little concerned that the 30k kick they're on is going to end with a repeat of Age of Sigmar.

[Kot]

[Grim Portent]

I'm currently a little concerned that the 30k kick they're on is going to end with a repeat of Age of Sigmar.

I doubt it, Fantasy got Sigmar'd because it wasn't doing well enough for GW to keep making it, which is why a lot of stuff got scrapped over the years (specialist games, bitz packs and so on.) We don't know what the sales were like exactly but we do know that 40k was doing better. This spurred them to try and draw attention back with a big event and move on to try something else with the concept.

40k is still their biggest earner, it's unlikely they'll risk their biggest asset the way they did with Fantasy. As long as 40k still does well it'll stay more or less the same as it is now. AoS itself might keep going or it might not. It's essentially tabletop marmite, some people love it some hate it (I'm kind of meh about it.) If it doesn't get a decent amount of sales over the next 2-3 years it'll probably be dropped in favour of a neo-WHF game or so they can double down on 40k.

[MrRoboto75]

Fantasy could have sold better if it didn't cost it's own weight in gold.

[Kot]

Warhammer could have sold better if it didn't cost it's own weight in gold.

FTFY.
Well, at least the prices are low enough that 3D printing is usually more expensive... for now.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's probably not a great sign that, even as expensive as it is now, the physicals section of Pirate Bay is has Warhammer model files in them.

[Cheesecake]

Tank trains were, as I understand, one of the reasons the designers couldn't conceive of a way to keep them in the setting without being embarrassed. 

But they have a missile-launcher in the shape of an organ! I'm pretty sure they could've made tank trains more grimdark, like with instead of wheels they ran with hundreds of genetically modified slave-squats.

[Kot]

Honestly, if they turned away from the, admit it, shitty Rogue Trader designs of boxes and stuff that looks fucking laughable, and make Squats look like they're using actual weaponry but highly decorated, it would be fine. I know their clunkiness is adored by some people, but come on.

[Grim Portent]

I could see Squats fitting into current 40k, but they'd need to be more than a bit different from their original incarnation.

If I was going to put them in without retconning the near genocide of their race I'd have them be a minidex rather than a full codex with something like this for units:

Solo HQ unit: Tough, well armoured, good in a melee fight but with short range guns.

Command Unit HQ: Something like the Imperial Guard command squad but with more focus on armour/toughness and short range strong guns. Options to gear for melee.

Basic Tough Troops unit: Basically a weaker version of space marines squads but with lots of blast weapons and carapace armour instead of power armour. Have options for close combat weaponry.

Bikers: Stick the troops on a bike. Leave it at that.

Crusher Tanks: Medium armour tanks with the front half being akin to a steamroller. Give it a battlecannon and make it good at ramming and Tank Shocking. Maybe base it off a Leman Russ chassis to tie it into the Imperium.

Tunnel Crawlers: Tracked drill transport. Deep Strikes, has assault ramps and decent armour. Imagine a cross between a Mawloc and a Drop Pod.

Train Tanks: Super Heavy vehicle, covered in turrets, starting with Autocannons being able to upgrade to nearly any Imperial heavy weapon up to and including battlecannons. A single hull mounted D blast weapon at the front and transport capacity. Let it buy additional sections that have their own weapons and transport capacity.



Fluff the army as being a form of mini-crusade.

The Squats having lost their homeworlds have become more dependent on the Imperium they once kept at arms length and can't field much of what they used to. Outcasts among humanity due to their abhuman nature, now they travel the Galaxy in conclaves seeking to stave off the death of their race but unable to find permanent succor on any Imperial worlds. Lacking any psykers they need to rely on human navigators and astropaths, forcing them to cleave to the politics of the Imperial administrative factions. Now scarcely more than mercenaries in the Imperium they follow in the wake of military fleets scrabbling for opportunities to earn favors and resources from the wider Imperium.

[Cheesecake]

For the fluff, maybe a faction escaped being nommed by Tyranids by escaping on a giant Mountain-home ship that travels the Warp, looking for asteroids to mine and stars to fuel production.

Thanks to some Warp-fuckery and being stuck in their Mountain-home ship, they're cave-adapted and feel intense pain whenever they leave their ship. They cope by drinking barrels upon barrels of liquid painkillers, making them tough as nails. They hold a grudge against everyone and everything, and only the thrill of battle or the acquisition of wealth allows them to feel alive.

EDIT:

Drawings of some ideas I had.

The Mountainhome:



Lotsa guns, lotsa skulls, and lotsa bolts and screws and wires. Most of the squats live deep inside, forever fashioning arts and ammunitions, while the military mostly operates on the surface.



The Basic Tough Troops unit, don't have a name for it yet. On his back is a barrel of booze-painkillers, and he wields a chainpick. His beard is plated to protect from enemy fire, and is braided with ammunition belts.