The Squats are back!
If anyone knows who created this artwork, I'd like to give them accreditation!
You may have seen in the AC thread posted by Tiny Tim, that the Army Commander keys have been passed over from Moscovian to myself. You may be wondering what's been happening with the short space dwarves? They've been stuck on 'Experimental' status for years now, and there is very little happening in the forums.....
So this post is to set out what is happening with this Army List, and the ideas and philosophy that is going to hopefully drive this list over from "Experimental" to "Approved"
I have seen many new and experimental list in epic get invented, get through 90% of the design and testing process.... and then kind of stop. there is an old joke that the first 90% of the work takes 90% of the effort, and then the remaining 10% takes us the remaining 90% of the effort.
It's fun to begin a list and create new and interesting units and rules. It's hard to polish and test the final ruleset so that is satisfies all players and opponents, and has good external and internal balance.
But for the next 18 months, that is going to be the job of myself and all interested Squat commanders.
Respect the Models, Respect the History
Squats occupy a unique niche in the history of Epic. They once had a full range of models, and a full army rules list. This means that any developments and changes are constrained by the availability of the ancient model range - no inventing new units and squad sizes should match at best the groupings of models that people can actually get their hands on.
As stated in a previous post; personally I agree a lot with the current philosophy behind the list as brought forward by Moscovian, Tim and others - That real 'feel' of the 2nd edition while still remaining an interesting, balanced modern army. I do not think that the current army list needs much tinkering with any of the rules that have been developed over the previous years.
(Boy I sound like an actual traditionalist squat decrying new trends!)
What does the Army List need?
It's a bit early to start pushing forward any changes, but realistically the list is in pretty good shape and mostly in the 'zone' of where it should be.....maybe we should solve that perennial favorite, the static AA problem and maybe the Land Train might need on last polish but I'd like to keep any rules chances to a minimum. There are many good ideas bouncing around the forum for both the Tunderfires and the Land Train and soon I'll open an official post to discuss each.
Changes in Structure, not Ruless.
If I do have a personal philosophy I want to push, I'd prefer to give the list more flexibility in how units and choices are selected, rather than making any alterations to a unit's stats.
Warriors and Thunderers are know to be unpopular choices. Instead of chaing theirs stats by a +1 here or there, what about giving more flexibility to how they are fielded. Would Thunderers be useful if they could be fielded as their own unit? Would Warriors find a niche if you could purchases them in squads of 6 instead of 10?
I feel that it would give the list more room to breathe and allow individual armies to be 'built' along the same lines as the mainline Guard and Marine armies.
But we need your help
But I am not going to be able to do this alone. I'm asking everyone who is alive and currently active in the Squat community (or even experienced players from other races that enjoy playing against the squats) to speak up, reply to this thread and make themselves known. I'd like to see some life in this corner of the Forums
Realistically, I've set myself a goal of getting a 1.6 Version list by the end of 2015, with rigorous testing and approval to follow about 6 months after that. For the rest of this year I want to do nothing but being the discussion of all things Squats. Expect polls, discussion and research threads to start popping up so we can collate everyone's views.
Please, start posting so we have hear your voice!