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Hello

First time poster here....anyhow, wondering what the opinion would be to using squats or "space dwarfs" as counts as orks? They have could have power armour with mega nobs, (little) mechs and robots (dreads), bikes, trikes can be warbuggies, you got deffkpptos as gyrocopters, miners can be komandos, big guns and cannons etc. I tried using em as abhuman imperial guard but the rules didn't feel right.With orks you get the t4 and since they are little buggers the "strength in numbers" mob rule works as well..also with kans and dreads you can do a big mech list which feels more dwarfy than anything you do with a guard list...does this make sense?

LE GASP! SQUATS!

In all seriousness though, Space Marines might be a better representation. when you think of Dwarves, you think of heavy armor. Probably go with one with alot of heavy weapons and Dread concentration (A Master of the Forge would be perfect as a Squat HQ choice, since he's a combat engineer).

I'd suggest either Death Korps of Krieg or Space Marines. Orks are terrible shots and ride shoddy vehicles that are inappropriate for any serious take on the Space Dwarf/Demiurg concept.

If you're going to use them as counts-as Space Marines, you can use the Drop Pod rules to represent Termites, and Vindicators to represent some sort of heavy mining vehicle with a sonic cannon for pulverizing rock.

Space marines work better and won't cause dwarf lovers to burn you as a heretic. You would get the mech heavy options with an enhanced stat line (compared to guard).

You have a enough Squats to field a full Ork army? You, sir, are my hero. Please post pics!

And, I'd vote you scrounge up and old Squat rulebook and just use that!

If you really want them up-to-date, I'd vote either IG or Tau.

IG because they are human-like and you could fluffy-explain it as them being from a high-gravity world that screws up proper bone development.
Tau because they are basically Squats 2.0!

There was a guy who ran Squats as an Ork army the at the Big Waaagh in Memphis last year. They were painted up like Conferedates from the ACW.

I am not a huge fan of marines since they are so common. I probably shouldn't have refferred to them as squats since these aren't vintage figs but rather converted BSP dwarfs and ya, between 2 boxes and some trades I have enough for a horde (pics soon). Tolkein said the term "orc" was from ww1 and reffered to generally violent and crazy warlike individuals...so that is how I see these space dwarfs....with ramshackle vehicles and kan style robots rather than marine dreads.....

In an old issue of Citadel Journal, shortly after 3rd edition was released, either Jervis Johnson or Andy Chambers suggested fielding Squats as "counts as" Orks. Their poor BS was due to being a conquered client of the Imperium, and their assault prowess was due to them wanting to live to fight another day.

So not only is it a good idea, it was actually suggested by GW ten years ago.

now that you mention, i think i remember that...

My only problem with that would be that you'd need an awful lot of models to do an Ork army with em. I always say Squats as a Scout-centric Marine army can work.

gazelle wrote:In an old issue of Citadel Journal, shortly after 3rd edition was released, either Jervis Johnson or Andy Chambers suggested fielding Squats as "counts as" Orks. Their poor BS was due to being a conquered client of the Imperium, and their assault prowess was due to them wanting to live to fight another day.

So not only is it a good idea, it was actually suggested by GW ten years ago.

You realise that you used 'squats' and 'supported by GW' in the same post? What is the world coming to!!?

There was a project log over on Warseer of a guy who was using the Ork codex - had made little war engines for use as Killa Kans, things like that. It was pretty characterful.

Would love to see some pics if you have them!