Warhammer 40K: The Squats, AKA Leagues of Votann Lost To Time Since 1987

Squats went missing for a quarter century and are returned triuphant  as the Leagues of Votann – but where did they originally come from? Let’s take a look back to 1987.

The last time the “Squats” got a full army release was circa 1993. Well over two decades later years later Games Workshop finally tossed the Squat Clock in the dumpster and brought them back from the dead as the all new reimagined Leagues of Votann.

Leagues of Votann & Recent Squat Minis

Hello 2025 latest Votann goodness! 

Leagues of Votann, we had been waiting a long time for you! (and we thought it was an April Fool’s joke!)

These Squat Mercs was released for Necromunda a couple years before the grand Votann rerelease, followed by a full Squat Ironhead faction release after. The old timers had all been keeping our fingers crossed for that new 40K army to show up since GW slipped these into Hive Primus. But enough of Necromunda history, let’s buckle our seatbelts and head back to the 1980s.

Meet the Old-School Stunties From the 1980s

The Squats were originally mentioned at length with multiple pieces of artwork in the Rogue Trader hardback that kicked off Warhammer 40,000 all the way back in 1987.

They made an early splash and had a decent range of miniatures in those early days of the Grimdark. Here is a color plate of sample Squat Brotherhoods from Book of the Astronomican in 1988.

Let’s fast forward to 1993 and take a look at the Squat range at that time, once it had some time to grow. It was a very different world with GW rapidly expanding their early 40K plastic kits and ranges. Take a look at this early spread to get an idea of the game’s factions and major kits six years after it launched.

Who still has some of these kits on the tabletop?

Onto the Rogue Trader Squats

Here we see two major ranges of the early figures. Up top are the older minis that are fully metal, including the multi-part exo-armor ones (a Squat analog to Terminator armor). Down below we see the hybrid kits that came with the main metal body, and included a sprue of squat arms and plastic weapons in each blister — more on those sprues below. You can say one thing about Squats – they certainly had distinctive headgear. Check out “Pirate” (2nd fromt he left, lowest line)!

Now we move onto the Squat bikes and heavy weapons. Note the bike with multi-melta which was the Squat’s version of the early Ork buggy and the Marine attack bike. There are also exo-armor bikes for some heavy armor and speed. Below are the heavy weapons that would fall into disuse once the plastic heavy bolters and las-cannons from the Imperial Army sprues became widespread.

Space Dwarfs Plastic Box

Next, we hit the bit central kit needed to build your squat army: the Space Dwarfs plastic box. This box gave you 36 bodies and a ton of the arm and weapon sprues. This was the bread and butter of putting together your Brotherhood and then round it out with the metal models for the specialists.

Some close-ups of the plastic arm and weapon sprues. The weapon sprue was shared with the early Imperial Army range. Take a close look hobbyists and modern Cadian lovers – that is what the early gamers of the Grimdark think a lasgun/laspistol should look like.

The Fall of the Squats

Squat Rogue Trader Armylist sample

Rogue Trader Squat Apex

The most shocking part of the demise of the squats was that they were a full-fledged faction in Rogue Trader. They received many miniatures, background, full army lists, and plenty of attention. They were just as much a part of the universe as say T’au Empire or Necrons are today. They had some of the most evocative artwork in the game. Look at these Paul Bonner beauties:

Squat 2nd Edition Armylist sample

Squats in 2nd Edition – 1993 Trouble Brewing

The Squats made a short appearance in the racial background section of the core 40K rulebook. They would appear referenced in other faction’s codices yet never received one of their own. The writing was on the wall.

EPIC Squats – Early 1990s

Strangely while the Squats were waning in 28mm 40K, they were growing and thriving in early EPIC where they finally grew into a distinctive force at 6mm. GW designers would later say that EPIC offered the scale and “breathing room” that let the Squats shine. Their army highly distinctive. It was slow, but emphasized extreme toughness, high firepower and had battlefield morale that would make a Space Marine blush. You had to kill almost every single Squat in a formation before they would even consider running.

Then, of course, you have to factor the incredible “Rule of Cool” power of things like the Land Train, Overlord Airship and the giant Goliath Mega-Cannons.   There were simply an amazing army in EPIC! You can see the seeds in some of these EPIC Squat concepts, that would grow into Warhammer Fantasy Dwarfs, and Age of Sigmar Kharadron Overlords decades later.

Squat army in EPIC circa 1992

3rd Edition – 1998 – Down the Memory Hole

The Squats made no appearance in the core rulebook and were never seen again, apocryphally eaten by the Tyranids – until their shocking 2018 Necromunda return.

2022 – Present: Leagues of Votann

And that brings us to today. The Leagues of Votann are real, and they are a force to be reckoned with to the 40K Tabletop. Over the intervening decades GW never quite turned out the lights on the Stunties. They had left little teasers here and there in 40K lore, from Necromunda, to little teasers in Psychic Awakening. Then the slow burn drip, drip, drip countdown to a full release months down the road like GW did with Sororitas in 2022. But after over 30 years – I still wipe away bitter dwarf tears to see the little guys rocking it on the tabletop back in high style.

~I guess in hindsight, Kharadron Overlords should have been a strong hint.

Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All games all the time since junior-high.

I started BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming enthusiast, and internet publisher working to entertain and inform my readers every day.

I’ve been playing RPGs and Tabletop Games since the 1970s. I’m been playing and covering Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.

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