Saturday 25 June 2011

What if...??

I have recently joined a forum dedicated to Space Dwarfs.

If you visit it, you will see that it is a very young forum but there is some interesting stuff there. That brings me on to what has been occupying my mind lately and that is...why are there so many people who fervently cling to the GW view of Dwarfs in Space?

GW initially had a nice little band of Space Dwarf militia. They then built up the background to include Guilds and then they ruined everything by making them into some sort of a Hell's Angels cult. As much as this would have been fine...even cool...for a human army, for Dwarfs it was the dreaded straw that broke the camel's back and they ended up a big joke that got wiped out in the most evil way possible...they just got pulled from production with no explanation.

Eventually...'they got eaten by Tyranids' was the reason they disappeared.

They just weren't cool any more was the real reason.

Since then there have been the odd murmur about Demiurg but that, as they say, was the end of that.

So why do people cling to the Fantasy Dwarf in Space that GW started all those years ago...fat, bearded Dwarfs with a knack for making things...living in Holds and Guilds and being miners, just like their fantasy brethren.

Familiarity?

Who knows?

Grymn are really cool miniatures. They are everything Space Dwarfs should be...but the die-hards won't even look at them because they aren't fat and don't have a beard as a mandatory fashion accessory.

The GW idea of Space Dwarfs (or Squats) has gone. The army lists have disappeared in the dim history of the WH40,000 legends.

So what army list would best suit a 'NEW' version of an old idea?

I would suggest that the Space Marine Codex would be the best place to start.

HQ - The Squat Lords had Exo armour and Guild heavy armour which could be represented by Terminator or Powered armour.

HQ - Living Ancestors could be Librarians.

Elites - Hearthguard are elite warriors that also had access to similar armour so they could be represented by Terminator or Powered armour veteran squads.

Troops - Scouts could represent the Warrior brotherhoods (both close combat and standard troops).

Fast Attack - I hate to say it but bikers could be represented by Scout bikers or even normal Space Marine bikes for the Hearth-guard/Guild bikers.

Fast Attack - Gyro-copters could be represented by Land Speeders in their various types.

Heavy Support - Scout Squads with extra access to heavy weapons could act as heavy weapon squads.

Heavy Support - TANKS...Thunderfire Cannon (Thudd Gun anyone?)...Dreadnoughts...

On top of that, throw in some Techmarines and Servitors and you have the Guild Technicians covered.

Thinking of armour types, the basic troops would be in Carapace and the Guild/Hearth-guard/HQ units could be in either Powered armour or Terminator/Exo armour.

So what we need is fat, bearded Dwarfs with a hint of Old-school runes/mining/berserking and wearing a mix of Carapace, Powered and Exo armour. There should be a bike design that suits them, a few miniatures to represent the technical side of their army...maybe a cool Gyro-copter and a few chunky walkers/dreadnought styled vehicles...not to mention tanks, Thudd guns and even drilling machines...

I think that about covers it...

Hmmm...

See you in a bit :)

4 comments:

David said...

As near as I can figure it, Space Dwarves trace their lineage back to a White Dwarf Traveller article (back when WD was a RPG mag, not a catalog) where a writer statted up the tunnel dwellers from Ursula Le Guin's Rocannon's World as a Traveller Minor Race. The artist obviously had not read the original book and fixated on the fact that the tunnel dwellers were small - so knocked off a spoof of a viking-like dwarf in space armour with a axe-head equipped laser rifle (which just doesn't work on so many levels). Fast forward a few years and Warhammer is the new game d'jeur. Rogue Trader is just taking off and the guys in the figure-lab take some dwarf axemen, slap on some space marine bitz, and give birth to the madness known as "Squats".

And I don't understand the obsession with them, either.

Andres said...

It seems Mantic will be providing the 'Squat' fix to the masses. I do prefer Grymm over the viking-biker-dwarf in space concept.

Andres

Draxius said...

Personally I think there should be a hybrid codex of sorts between Imperial Guard and Space Marines. Yes the Space Marines are a lot tougher and such but then they are supposed to be. It is also why I picked the Imperial Guard as my Codex of choice. Of course I could make all my Troop choices into Veterans and give them an armor upgrade in order to reflect their so called superior technology.
What draws me to these Space Dwarfs is a hybrid view of classic fantasy with science fiction. The entire 40K line takes place in an old world that has fallen in disrepair and is slowly collapsing. To me the Space Dwarf and their aptitude for technology and mining gives them the perfect industrial advanced angle that I really love.
Of course that is just me.

fog99uk said...

There's always my codex

http://fog99uk.blogspot.com/search/label/Codex%3A%20Demiurg%20Warhost