After alot of moaning and groaning form people i know and people on various 40k forums i decided to start making a squat codex. As well as that whne it is done i am actually taking it to one of the white dwarf team who lives not to far away and is a regualr in my gw.
If anyone has the need to help here is alist of things i have came up with so far.
1. The squats spend a lot of there time fighintg enmies such as orcs and tyranids so there troops are excelent at rapid fire.
2. Much like dwarfs they hold out in ginat strongholds and use various artillery.
3. Becuaes of all there fighitng wiht orcs they are exelent at close combat.
4. Squtas are alot older than the imperium and inveted the bolter so there bolters are slightryl stronger.
problems i am having.
Fluff. I cnat coem up with any good fluff so if anyone wishes to make some good fluff then ure are welocme to.
Unit names. I have a couple names e.g Iron lord(squat hq choice) Squat warriors and iron guard( a body guard unit.
SO as u can see i am strugllign for anems i have the ideas but not the names.
Any help or any advice would be helpful.

What do squat look like? It would help with the unit names and fluff.

just a question. so let me get this straight. you want to create an army that has ample artillery, better shooty than most armies and better CC than most armies. i take it this will be offset by a complete lack of mobility. so basically this list sounds like a cross between guard and spacemarines except that the marines have the stats of GK. are their points costs going to be obscenely high?

ill anwer all questions.
Squats look like dwarfs.
Yes thely ahve nealry no tranpsorts that 1 cna ponyl move about 6 inches no bikes
and 0
.can move less tahn normal toops(4 or 5 icnhes).
Im think average points cost 18-20pts.
And theyll have only 1 fast atack option(a sort squat riding dog thing).

ok well there is no movement characterisitic for troops in 40k. so the closest that you are going to get to what you want is something liek the rules for obliterators in the chaos codex. also as for fast attack squats used to ride around on power trikes. so there you go for fast attack. also keep in mind that since transports have been n00bed in 4th ed. that having almost no mobility is not that much of a downside since most armies now have a lack of mobility or will not take much of it in lieu of the much more powerful shooting phase. this list looks like it is going to need a lot of balancing before comign to the table. good idea though.

Well as a fast attkac choice im thinking of giving them a sort of cavarly. ANd heres a sneak preview of some fluf and special rules.
CODEX: SQUATS
The squats were one of the very first races to use space travel and were around a lot longer than the Imperium. There empire stretched further than both the old realm of the Eldars Empire. The squat empire encompassed most of what is now the Imperium and also a lot of the worlds that are overran with orks.
For many years there lives were great, war was non-Existent. But still they had invented many weapons that defended them against any attack that might have come.
These weapons included the very first bolters and rocket launchers of any sort.
But things were not to last almost over night various things started to appear. The first thing that happened was the collapse of the Eldar Empire which shot a shockwave straight into the squat empire disorientating any. Then various other races started to appear pale fleshed beings calling themselves humans started attacking and destroying helpless squat cities. A vile green race which calling themselves the orks, appeared out of the bowls of planets sitting on the fringe, of the squat empire. But this did not stop the determination of the Squats they struck back with all there might and for several hundred years they fought this new green menace. But as victory looked in sight a new menace dressed in black armour with hosts of daemons at there sides
Came and destroyed any hope the squats had.
As there last resort they retreated to there capital planets lying the middle of there empire and have fought from there ever since.
Every year the fighting gets harder and more enemies appear if it be the Tau or the Tyranids they still fight till there last breath.



Special rules.
Slow but steady.
The squats are a short race in general (the tallest squat only being 3ft 9) therefore there legs are shorter and they tend to move slower than any race. Because of this most squats only move 4 inches in game terms. There tanks and vehicles also reflect this and only move a maximum of 12 inches.
Also because of this they only have 2 fast attack choices and instead may have either 1 extra troop’s heavy support or elite.
Determined.
Squats are Determined not to loose what remains of there empire so they would rather die by a hail of fire than duck down. To reflect this any squat unit that fails a pinning test may re-roll it. But unless there is less than 5 models in the squad if they fail a second morale check than roll 1d3 to represent how many squats die from trying to get back up but get blown away as they come up.
Expert shooters.
Squats are excellent at rapid firing to show this all (unless stated) squat weapons that can rapid fire only deduct 4 inches of there normal range. This only doesn’t applies to weapons that can rapid fire and are able to shoot from 24 inches (squat sniper rifle).

ok. well the fluff is kinda contradictory w/ the fluff that already exists. before the eldar empire even came into existence there were the old ones and the necrons. the old ones controlled pretty much all of the galaxy and the only reason that they were destroyed was due to the great war between them, the necrons, and the ensuing enslaver plague. as for humans, they came about a lot later w/ the coming of the emp. also as far as i can tell from 40k novels etc the squats and the imperium are on pretty good terms for "this age in time".
as for rules you could simplify the vehicle movement by just not giving them any fast vehicles. and as for infantry movement you could just count them as in difficult terrain all of the time. also what would the points and weaponry be like for them? i got more but it is late and sleep is calling. good start though. needs refinement though.

It seems clear to me that you are attempting this project without any knowledge of what the Squats were in their old fluff. May I recommend you do a little research on the Squats before attempting to do an unofficial codex?

It's either that or begin from the ground up- don't attempt to make them 'dwarves in space,' as GW has already decided to remove that idea. Think up something new and original, and go with that.

Ok itme to clear some things up.
The fluff was a genral outline( i am crpa at fluff) so if anyone would like to ocntribute there welcoem and thelly get credit were its due.
The movmeent rule has been chnged to thr olbteratro rule for the simplicity of it.
I am paling on giving them vehicles(artilery) but also a sort of anmial side(years of fighting in jungles and palces like that).
And about the dwarfs in space that is all squats basically were.
And the imperium and squats were not always at peace.
It took ages for it to happen and there were battle between the chaos legions whilst they rteated to the eye of terro witht eh squats.
Necrons were not known to the squats(so therefore get no mention in the fluff).
i hope that has clereed some things up.
Othere than that heres a base profile for the squat warrior
Pts 18
Ws 5
Bs 5
S 3
T 4
W 1
I 4
A 1
Ld 8
sv 4+

Rules
Oblierator wlakign rules(not psoting in case of necro or sumit).
Expert shooters
Determined.
Tell me what u think
I will change thigns if poeple think its too gud but thats the genral stats.

Some bullet points, then, to assist in your research. Clearly you haven't done any, or you'd know this:

• Squats are abhumans, not aliens.
• They are descended from early colonists of the centre of the galaxy, where the worlds were denser. Hence, they evolved into their current form.
• The Squat Homeworlds were cut off from the Empire of humanity early, and thus they developed their technology differently from the humans which would eventually become the Imperium.
• When the Emperor emerged to reclaim the galaxy for humanity, he encountered the Squat Leagues. They certainly haven't been around longer than the Eldar, seeing as they were once human colonists.
• The Imperium and Squat Leagues haven't always been at peace, no. But they are officially allies.

Hmmm...
That doesnt seem the same squats i rmember (they had been aorund jsut as long as eldar and were not completley human.)
Seems diffrent like some new way for Squats to be lol.

That squat is too powerful. He'll be able to rapid fire at 20" range, hitting on 2s. Ballistic skill 5 is too good.

Well ure wrong about the hitining from 20 part.
The squat bolter is 16 inches.
Its a drwabakc there wepons that cna rapid fire cant shoot to far.

Personally i woud just use the Ig codex to make a squat army whith a whole bunch of conversions to suit the Squat theme. Its been done before and with the IG docterines a sutable force could easily be put together.

Remember Squats are really just short humans (abhumans as was stated), there basic stats should be only slightly tougher than your basic IG grunt. A space marine has a BS of 5, a SM commander has a BS of 5 and your basic squat in your list has a BS of 5. Thats not right at all i would think.

Try a net search for the squats, it will turn up lots of info on them and there high tech, beer drinking, hells angels of space ways.

Go to www.criticalhit.com and look under 40k fluff, they have a very nice detailing of squat info there, a compile of All WD stuff on them. Sry it tooke me so long to read this...

Haha cheers the fluff is one thing im finding hard there should be another entry here soon for another unit.
Also about the bs 5 thing a normal marine has a bs of 4 not 5 squat are so use to firing conditions that there shooting abillties are awseome.

And they are also really really good engeneers...so how helpful was the fluff article?

It was pretty dan useful so i could get all the flufff wright ive been busy on the codex and should have some new updates on soon but ive also being a sort predator inspired codex as well so its taking em longer to do the squats than i thought.

Lol maybe GW would take interest :P ::Sarcasm:: :P Good Idea thuogh, I'd me more than willing to read it. :thumb:

So far its pretty awseome and the basic units are expensive but good.

:blink: This squat is far, far, far, far too powerful. I would refuse point blank to accept that as a squat. To start with, they aren't as good as Space Marines. Secondly, they are technologically advanced.

I would use a profile like this for your basic Squat:

WS: 3
BS: 4
S: 3
T: 4
W: 1
I: 3
A: 1
Ld: 9
Sv: 4+

Weapons: Boltgun

Special Rules:
Slow & Purposeful, like Obliterators and Thousand Sons
Stubborn and Intractable, like Dark Angels
Preferred enemy (Orks)

This little guy should be somewhere around 12-14 points. That sums up the Squats well.

The Squats should mostly be much like dwarves in fantasy: tough, have incredible amounts of firepower, difficult to break, but be unmanoeuvreable and stubborn. Having said that, Squats are famous for their bikes, so one of their very few Fast Attack choices should be that.

They should have a higher proportion of advanced weaponry than even marines, utilising plasma, las-weapons and meltaweapons to a high extent. You should definitely include conversion beam projectors, rapier laser destroyers, taratulas, thudd guns and more somewhere in the list - maybe as heavy weapon squads or similar. They will have access to stasis and other special issue grenades (possibly :unsure:). Their highest leader would be a Grand Warlord, followed by a Warlord.
(If you haven't heard of these items/units before, you should not be making a Squat codex, as it would be laughed out of court.)

Here's my sample list, obviously just off the top of my head here:

HQ:
0-1 Grand Warlord (3-wound) or Warlord (2-wound)
some sort of engineer, a la techmarine commander

Elite:
heavily armoured squats
dreadnoughts?

Troops:
Squat Brotherhood (10-20, inc. leader)

Fast Attack:
Gyrocopters
Bikes
Trikes

Heavy Support:
0-1 Land Train
heavy weapon squats
other tanks...?

Anachron good ideas, but I doubt GW would (if they ever considered making Squats an army) put in a Gyrocopter cuz that is just a Fantasy ripoff. I know these were just your ideas off the top of your head so I don't mean to sound too harsh.

Other than that I agree with your unit ideas.

Roland, you do realise that the Squats were an army, right? They were cut from the Universe because of poor sales.

I don't know whether gyros were part of their list or not, but he's not just making it up as he goes.

I understand they were an army, but my point is if GW decided to remake the Army I doubt they'd add gyrocopters. That's what I was getting at.

But than again, seeing as this is a player created army we're debating, I guess if you wanted gyrocopters you could put them in...

Though seeing as they're just abhumans and former members of the Empire, I'd assume they'd have more in common with IG vehicles.

Like I said though, other than the gyro, everything looks pretty solid for a rough beginning. Props to Anachron.

My opinion anyways.

Here's a few pics of some models by Mat Birdoff. The squats.
It's a good read and it might give you some ideas.

Cal

How I see it,squats should function the same way as eldar,I.e having a few units which specialize in a lot of things.

some squad choices.


Squat Clansmen

Normail squats,have a choice of a squat bolter(longer range),a boltpistol and squat chainsword,Or a Giant chainsword (strikes last,but stregnth 6)

Squat engineers
these squats are skilled engineers who have developed their guns to be extra powerful and carry many upgrades
these squats carry normal bolters that can have extra upgrades,I.e long range,extra stregnth,a extra AP dice,etc etc.They each pay for all their own upgrades,so you can have a squad full of unique and different weapons.

SPecial rule:No one engineer cna have the same gun as the rest.


Scouts
these squats carry powerful sniper rifles,and ignore difficult terrain tests.they have increased ballistic skill

Death Bringers
these squats are like the 40k epitome of doomseekers.they wear no armour,carry huge menacing axes and before the first turn,move a extra d6 towards the nearest enemy unit.Can be bought as a squad upgrade ot certiain squads.


Death bringers
these squats have jump packs attacked ot their backs so they can reach the enemy quickly.they carry 2 chain axes or a bolter.

steel warriors

these are the lords bodyguard.they wear HUGE armour that is parctically inpenetrable,and carry 2 handed chain axes.they come with a lot of attacks,but are very slow

Magnatrons.These are robot warriors.They are built by the squats,and are very powerful.they carry squat bolters,and have a good BS,or can have chain-arms instead of hands and can be monsters in combat.Quite vulnerable to high stregnth.


Well,waddya think?I know some of these ideas sound dumb,But I'm new to 40k, and the squads will have fair points cost.I will od the tanks and machines later,probably never.then mayhbe the characters.

I like your engineers Ross... a group of geezers who are trying to outdo each other in "best weapon" stakes, and all have home-made custom jobs - that could possibly blow up in their faces. :lol: Your steel warriors are also cool... these two are your best ideas, and if I were doing a Squad codex (I'm not), I'd think about including them.

All of my previous unit ideas had some basis in old Squat fluff - Gyrocopters did exist (and still do - the Orks have a Gyrocopter model). Except dreadnoughts, I have no idea if Squats had them or not, but I can't see why not. :unsure: