Squats are a race from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k universe, a more popular sci-fi version of their Warhammer fantasy universe. They are a sci-fi version of the dwarves found in Middle Earth. The Squats, or Space Dwarves as they were known long ago, are the only major race in the 40k universe not to use the robotic war machines known as Titans. Instead, they employ a number of various types of mobile battle fortress, which are generally classed as extremely super-heavy tanks. They are based on enormous mobile mining vehicles that are used to set up autonomous mining plants on hostile planets. The thick armour needed to protect these vehicles from the harsh conditions makes them well-suited to surviving the heavy fire they face on the battlefield. Some of these juggernauts are troop carriers, others are mighty gun platforms bristling with hundreds of heavy weapons, and some are armed with enormous and devastating weapons designed to annihilate all but the most well protected Titans with relative ease. One, the Leviathan, is supplied to the Imperial Guard, the human Imperium's main fighting force, who use it as mobile command centre, housing the commanding officers of a regiment along with their communications and intelligence equipment. Squat battle fortresses are all protected by void shields and ceramic and adamantium armour, in much the same way as imperial Titans are. They are also powered by plasma reactors, but as they are housed deep inside the vehicles beneath many layers of armour they rarely explode until the vehicle is effectively disabled anyway.
There are four main types of Squat super-heavy war machines: