This blog post is even more for me to read back and laugh some time in the future than normal :)

 

Still its time to set out some hostages to fortune, we do now have the basic rules and we have seen all the missions. Choosing disposition is going to be a challenge, from what we have seen I think Recon fits my playstyle best of the dispositions, fortunately we know one of the 1DP detachments has Recon so all I need to do is add that in (well so long as KHP is a 2DP detachment, which as it only affects Kroot I think it really should be). This blog post should be the foundation for me to set out my ideas on how each of the missions might play and how I should approach them.

 

Looking at the missions there are a few things that will drive list changes from what I have been playing

 

1. Mobility is critical

2. The missions reward Multiple small units (MSU). MSU has always been mathematically powerful but held back by kill point missions - the kill points against Recon are of the once per turn type which don't affect my build as its always been impossible to stop an opponent killing a kroot unit per turn if they want to

3. Battle shock matters a bit more. Its not going to be HUGE but it looks like it matters now so its worth thinking about

4. Fast assault armies, especially with Fly, are still my kryptonite

 

Xenos - T'au Empire - Kroot Hunting Pack/Advanced Acquisition Cadre. Recon disposition

2x The Twin Lance (185pts)
Kroot Lone-spear, Kroothawk Flock (90pts)
Kroot Lone-spear (80pts)
Kroot Lone-spear (80pts)
Kroot War Shaper, Root carved weapons (60pts)
Kroot War Shaper (50pts)

 

10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)
10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)
10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)
10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)
10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)
10x Kroot Carnivores (65pts)

 

12x Kroot Farstalkers (85pts)
12x Kroot Farstalkers (85pts)
10x Pathfinder Team, rail rifles, grav-inhibitor drone (90pts)
10x Pathfinder Team, rail rifles, grav-inhibitor drone (90pts)
5x Vespid Stingwings (65pts)
5x Vespid Stingwings (65pts)
3x Krootox Riders (90pts)
3x Krootox Riders (90pts)
3x Krootox Riders (90pts)
5x Kroot Hounds (40pts)
5x Kroot Hounds (40pts)
5x Kroot Hounds (40pts)
Piranhas, fusion (60pts)
Piranhas, fusion (60pts)
Piranhas, fusion (60pts)

 

Is it mobile?

 

Not strictly as mobile as the most extreme mobile Aeldari lists but it has fast units (Piranha, hounds, vespid, lone spears), scout and infiltrate (basically everything), and uppy downy (vespids)

 

How does it score?

 

This is about as MSU as you can realistically get. 

 

Mostly this is for scoring and I do find MSU lists score strongly in secondaries. It should score primary pretty strongly in all the missions too. There is a question mark over how well this list can limit opposing primary scoring - screening/blocking out objectives is good but it does tend to throw units away. At least i don't have to sit on objectives to score them and Kroot don't need terrain to gain the benefits of cover.

 

With this much mobility things like table quarters are fairly easy - just as well as one of the primary missions is table quarters. It's still kroot, it still has a big pile of OC and can still just out-OC many opponents. I have run higher OC lists than this but I think this one is enough

 

If I keep the hounds within 12" of the characters they do great at actions and positional scoring. Stupidly fragile of course but making opponents trade down into them is to my advantage. Once the hounds are dead the vespid take over the role - along with Kroot brought back by Rejoin the Hunt stratagem

 

Mitigating / controlling damage

 

One trick worth noting here is that it has quite a lot of Lone Operative and  units that can hide without cost (Hounds and also due to the detachment the Pathfinders). That helps me control what can be shot at in matches against primarily shooting armies. But mostly I depend on that 5++ on what is a lot of wounds on the table and hope the dice like me.

 

Against assault armies the mitigation are in a few things

1. Screening. My screens have screens. Basically only 4 character units are not really disposable enough to be considered screens in most lists.

2. Charge penalties. I have 2 grav-inhibitor drone and the Twin Lance, so across much of the table I should be able to impose a -1 or -2 to charge rolls. That can make charges just a bit less certain.

 

How does it kill anything?

 

Kroot don't always kill that much, although as I noted in previous battle reports they do punch harder than it looks at first gllane. I have a T'au contingent here and their role will be to get the initial chip on targets to start the ball rolling - once Kroot are at +1 to hit they are respectable, when they get to +1 to wound they are surprisingly deadly. Those T'au units will have to help me deal with the defensive profiles that Kroot struggle into - high Toughness and 2+ saves.

 

Piranha are swingy as heck into big targets but the very high Strength on their seeker missiles and the sheer number of them does make them a deterrent against over-aggressive big models. They have fusion for the same deterrent reason, Melta 4 hurts if it works.

 

The pathfinders will look odd to many but my thinking is that my list has pretty good levels of D2 AP 1 weapons - so Ion weapons don't really add that much different whereas AP 4 D3 weapons do something my list otherwise rather lacks. The D3 damage profile is less vulnerable to damage reduction abilities which are a real slog for a lot of my output. I'm also not a huge fan of how many mortals the ion rifles will generate from their overcharge profile. I need to model the grenade launchers onto these guys.

 

Matters of Morale

 

I have defensive and offensive things here. I'm still going to suffer when something like Perils of the Warp hits but at least I have some tools

1. Each War Shaper can remove battle shock from one kroot unit per game

2. Each Piranha can make an enemy unit test for battle shock at the end of the movement phase - which I can now make happen before overwatch. The Twin Lance can also force a battle shock test of their own. A theoretical maximum of 4 tests per round might matter against armies with middling leadership.