Squats (Warhammer 40,000)

In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Squats are a race which are descended from humans who colonized the high gravity worlds at the centre of the galaxy. Due to having to live in tunnels beneath the surface of these dead worlds and the high gravity the Squats evolved to be short and stocky. The Squats occupied a semi-autonomous confederation known as The Homeworlds, and had true engineers, in contrast with the dogma-bound humans of the Adeptus Mechanicus. In war, the Squats used squads of motorcycles supported by massive artillery barrages from outlandishly large superheavy tracked vehicles such as the Land Train, Colossus, Leviathan, and Cyclops.

The Squats carry grudges for millennia, and none so strongly as for the Orks, who betrayed the Squats on more than one occasion and inflicted many losses upon them in war. It appears that the Squats were almost entirely wiped out by the Tyranids, though presumably those who were in the interior of the Imperium of Man remain extant, surely harboring a truly heroic grudge against the Tyranid Hive Mind.

The Squats were Dwarves for the Warhammer 40,000 universe much in the same way that the Eldar are Elves.

The Squats have been out of production by Games Workshop for some time. Many say that they are the major victim of Games Workshop's attempts make Warhammer 40,000 a totally original world and not just Warhammer Fantasy in space. Games Workshop's official stance, however, is that the Squats were dropped because they felt dissatisfied with their established background and army design.

Squat miniatures go for relatively high prices on Ebay and fans reportedly bombard the games developers regularly with what is called "the Squat question". This is ironic in that the Squats were never among the most popular armies in their heyday and many of their miniatures are ranked rather poorly even by enthusiasts. In a way, supporting Squats has become something of a protest against the modern, more capitalist mode of operations by GW and a look back at the more whimsical and less "serious" early days of the game.

It has been theorized that the Demiurg are a possible revitalisation of the "Space Dwarf" concept.

Despite this, many other model making companies have been producing space dwarf models for a long time and some players have even converted the rules of Warhammer 40K to allow them to play. However popular this trend has proven to be, the official ruling from Games Workshop is that only 40K races can be used in 40K.