STANDING IN FOR THE LITTLE GUYS
Since the new version of 40K came out there has been a small (no pun intended) but vocal group of players saying things along the lines of "What's happened to my Squats?!?" Now it has to be said that over the years the games development team have come up with some good ideas, and some, erm, not quite so good ideas. Although there are some that I know will disagree, we feel that the Squats fall into this later category, and after literally years of trying to come up with a way of making them a bit more interesting, none of which have worked, we've decided to retire them the game. In the future we want to return to the Squats, but whatever we do will be radically different to what has gone before.
"Aaargh!" I can hear Squat players cry, "What do I do with all my old Squat models, throw them in the bin?". Well, no, you don't have to do that. For a start I know that the Journal crew are planing to publish a Squat army list for the new edition of the game, and below I describe two other ways that will allow you to use Squat armies if you want to. Both of the methods I describe use a way of building an army which I call, for want of a better term, "stand in army lists". In a nutshell, all you have to do is take a similar exisiting army list and change the names of the troop types to those you want to use.
For example, when I was at the Canadian Grand Tournament last year, one player fielded a lovely Estalian army. All of the models were converted or scrath-built, and the result was a truly magnificent and unique army. The army was legal, and he could use it in the tournament, becuase the army list he'd used to pick it from was the Empire list; all he'd done was take suitable entries from that list and said that the troops in his army 'counted as' them. Opponents were happy to play gainst the army, becuase they new it was fair and legal, and he was able to use his lovely converted models in a tournament. What's so useful about using stand in armies is that there really is no reason for an opponent object as long as its clear what is standing in for what, and as long as everything is consistent. For example, saying "all the heavy bolters count as big shootas" is OK, while saying "this heavy bolter is a big shoota, and this heavy bolter is a rokkit launcha" is definately not OK! Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea. Here then, are two ways of using 'stand in armies' for the Squats.
Squat Imperial Guard Regiments
Over the last few hundred years the Squats Homeworlds have slowly but surely been conquored and incorporated into the Imperium, so that now there are no independent Squat planetary settlements left. Human settlers were encouraged to live on the Squat worlds as soon as they had been made part of the Imperiun, and Imperial officials take over the day to day running and administration of the planet. Such worlds are required to raise Imperial Guard regiments in the same way as any other planet. The Imperial Guard army list can be used unchanged to represent such regiments. Just use Squat models to represent Imperial Guardsmen of an appropriate type (i.e. a Squat with a lasgun is a Guardsmen with a lasgun, etc). You can represent the whole army with Squat models, or mix Squat and Imperial Guard models as you wish. This is the simplest method of using those old Squat models, but doesn't allow for the use of some of the more specialised types like bikes and trikes unless you let bikes 'count as' Rough Riders and trikes 'count as' Sentinals. The low leadership of this Squat army compared to Squats in the last version of the game simply represents the fact that their are conquored race.
*** I've incorporated suggestions on the list for counting bikes as rough riders and trikes as sentinals - thanks guys! ****
Squat Renegades
Although all the Squat Homeworlds no longer exist, their are still bands of Squats that fight independantly and follow the old traditions of their race. Many have become little more than pirates and brigands, though some consider them freedom fighters attempting to restore Squat independance. Squat Renegades can be represented by entries from the Ork army list, as shown below.Their low ballistic skill simply represents the fact that guerilla fighters find it difficult to get hold of ammunition and have to make do with inferior equipment, rather than not being able to shoot straight as is the case with the Orks. Their higher toughness and attacks compared to their brethren in the Imperil Guard represents that fanaticism and zeal.
Warlord = Warboss
Hearthguard = Nob/Warboss's Bodyguard
Engineer Guildmaster = Mekboy
Ancestor Lord = Mad Dok
Warrior Squad = Shoota Boyz
Attack Squad = Slugga Boyz
Thunderer Squad = Shoota Boyz (or Loota Boyz from Ork Codex)
Weapon Team = Big Gunz
Bike Squad = Warbike Squadron
Heavy Weapons Bike = War Buggies
Exo-Armour = Mega-Armour
Any Special Weapon = Rokkit Launcha
Any Heavy Weapon = Big Shoota
Mole Mortars & Thudd Guns = Lobbas
Multilaser, Rapier, Tarantula = Zzappa
Conclusion
Although this article specifically relates to Squat armies, I'm sure tht you can see that using 'stand in armies' allows a whole range of interesting possibilities, not just for Warhammer and 40K, but also for games like Necromunda and even Gorkamorka. The most exciting thing about using stand in armies is that, as long as you make sure that it is easy for an opponent to see 'what counts as what', then no-one can really have an objection to you using the army. This makes stand in armies an excellent way of collecting a really unique army.
Have fun!
Jervis
------------------
