Games Workshop has released a new unit for its sci-fi skirmish game Necromunda that directly references a classic, and delightfully silly, Warhammer 40k design from the 1980s. The new Ironhead Squat Prospector Exo-kyn wear heavy exo-suits, which protect them from environmental hazards, wild beasts, and rival gangs. It’s also a call back to a range of egg-shaped elite space dwarves released for the first edition of Warhammer 40k between 1989 and 1991.
If you’ve been out of the loop for a while, or are much too young to remember Rogue Trader, some context will be useful. The squats were originally a range of space dwarves released during the first edition of Warhammer 40k. In 1989 GW released the first of several distinctly egg-shaped armored warriors, the Hearthguard in exo-armor. Sadly for Squat fans the range wasn’t supported for long, and by the mid 90s they had been dropped entirely as a Warhammer 40k faction.
The Squats were effectively written out of the lore, but they did eventually return, with the first new model appearing as a bounty hunter for the skirmish game Necromunda.
That was followed by the Leagues of Votann, a new faction for 40k that reimagines a lot of the original Squat lore and takes subtle cues from their original models. But the ‘Kin’ of the Votann are a lot more high tech than either the Imperium of Man or the original Squat models, so Votann armor is merely egg-adjacent.
The term ‘Squat’ hasn’t gone from 40k, however. A population of Kin settled on the Hive World Necromunda to assist with reconstruction efforts following the Horus Heresy. Their descendents have been loosely integrated into the fringes of Imperial society, where they’re known as Squats, and have lost many of the technological advances that the space-faring Leagues enjoy.
This has been a perfect excuse for the miniature designers to give the new Squats unsubtle references to classic models. The Exo-kyn’s exo-suits look much more like the 1989 version of Squat exo-armor, than the new version worn by the Votann Einhyr Hearthguard. It’s an awkward shape for fighting in, but it makes sense when you consider it is primarily an industrial tool intended for mining operations in extreme conditions.
It even has a slight resemblance to Bob Naismith’s original, high backed Space Marine Terminator model. This kind of detail is one of the coolest things about both the new Votann and Squat ranges. Kin technology is derived from the same Standard Template Constructs used by the Imperium, and the model sculptors put little references into the miniatures: the fancy new plasma weaponry Belisarius Cawl made for the Space Marines looks an awful lot like the tried and true firearms employed by the Votann, for instance.
If you like a good suit of fictional power armor, check out our guide to all the marks of Space Marine power armor – there’s surprisingly deep and satisfying lore.
Source: Wargamer
