The Good, the Bad, and the Hungry (10th ed Kroot)

[Tawnis]

So, the Kroot look pretty solid in 10^th so far and I wanted to do a bit of a breakdown of everything we’re working with at the moment. I know points are out tomorrow, but I don’t imagine they are going to shift all that much. So this will be based on the assumption that their points will be relatively similar to what they were in 9^th since they didn’t drastically change anything.

Overall Army:

 

Keywords (For the Greater Good): Sadly no FTGG for Kroot, while they aren't excluded from the rule itself, they don't have the Keyword on their Datacard. Hopefully Dal'Yth will give it to them when the codex drops. 

 

Kauyon: It’s going to be interesting in the Kauyon only days for a little while. You want to get close for all the melee fun, but the only Detachment rule makes you want to stay at range. However, with Kroot being what they are, I think this puts us in a solid spot, we can play aggressive against shooting armies and cagier against melee ones.

 

Stratagems: Kroot come out quite on top in this department. We really only had three usable strats last edition: Grisly Feast (now baseline on all carnivores and slightly buffed), A Trap Well Laid, (now baseline Heroic Intervention), we loose the +1A, but get to fight at the same time as the charging unit, I’d say a solid trade, and Outflank which will probably come back as a Dal’Yth specific strat later.

 

With more baseline strats, we get a bit more to do. The new Grenades strat for usable by Carnivores and Farstalkers will be a great damage boost to hard targets and will likely be used a lot. Go to Ground will also be a great way to boost the survive ability of larger Kroot blobs (on most units, they are now -1 to be hit, +1sv, 6+ invul, and a 6+FNP with a potentially 4+ FNP). Lastly they pick up Point Blank Ambush from Kauyon, giving them an extra Pip of AP in the late game to help close things out. 

 

Now for the units:

 

Shapers:

Less of an auto include than I though they’d be when I learned how leaders work. They don’t add that much more firepower and only a bit more melee power. The increase of the FNP from 5+ to 4+ is nice, but really situational as you have to kill a unit in melee. They don’t even give the unit better LD, I was really hoping for a 6+ on the Shaper. The only Enhancement they can take so far is a +1 to hit and sometimes +1 to wound, not a big deal on their minimal attacks. Overall, sadly really underwhelmed by the Shapers so far, hopefully they get more creative with them in the codex proper. The passive 6+ FNP for the unit is nice though, that's basically what you're paying for. 

 

Carnivores:

The loss of Ap is an expected blow, but otherwise, they look stronger. Stealth making them a permanent -1 to be hit is great for their ranged survive ability and Grisley Feast being baseline is a nice situational buff. I think they’re in a good spot and there are also now between FTGG and Feast, there are real incentives to run them in 20 man blobs rather than MSU. The lack of Battleline is the biggest problem here and will keep all Kroot armies pretty much hamstrung and unable to run at 2k

 

Krootox Riders:

Again the loss of some AP was expected, but packmates is a really neat buff harkening back to the old rules of them all being all one big unit. Them having +1 to hit if they are within 6” of a carnivore unit (so pretty much all the time) is a great buff. Also, since you can never increase your hit roll past +1, they also make great spotters for your Carnivores if they ever do get FTGG from Dal'Yth later on. I can also seeing them be taken as a durable one of in regular Tau lists just as spotters if their points are low enough. So long as they don’t get a big points hike, I think these guys will be great in any list.

 

Hounds:

Picking up stealth like the carnivores is a great buff if they can’t close right away. Their scout move is down from 12” to 9”, and with no longer re-rolling charges, having them close on something turn one is a lot less of a sure thing than it was last edition. They’ve also unsurprisingly been made OC:0 so no snagging backfield objectives for them anymore. No more grisly feast for them either which is sad as it was the main unit I used it on. They are +1 to wound now if they are near carnivores which is nice, but they’ve also lost their pip of AP like most Kroot. Overall, their strength has gone down considerably; however they were a very ubiquitous unit in 9^th, so I’m not surprised they got hit pretty hard in the downgrade redesign.

 

Farstalkers:

The only unit that REALLY changed considerably in what they are and what they do, both positive and negative. The Kroot hounds that come with the kit are part of the unit now, so you’ve got to take a squad of 12, not sure how that will effect their points. Most of their weapons have been made baseline, so the shotgun, bow and sniper are all just guns now. It makes sense for the shotguns, but I’m sad to see the bow and the sniper go. At least we still have the tribalest and skinner to play with. While the tribalest did pick up anti-vehicle 4+, and while it did go down to D1, I think picking up devastating wounds was worth the trade off.

 

Where they are really going to shine though is as character assassins. While they don’t get full re-rolls against their bounty targets anymore, they do pick up both Lethal Hits and Precision against their target, making them a solid option to take out all but the most heavily armed characters. This of course can be make even batter with the addition of the FTGG buffs.

 

Without the Legends data sheets yet, there sadly isn’t anything else to talk about. So long as points remain close, I think that Kroot will still be reasonably strong on the tabletop. It will be very much a swarm the infantry and ignore the vehicles kind of play-style, but Kroot have pretty much always played like that, so I don’t think that’s too big a change there. I’m looking forward to the points reveal tomorrow and prepping everything for launch day. Another Krootsade may be in the works too. :D

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Tawnis

[Schlitzaf]

Honestly if Carnivores hadn’t lost Battleline, I’d be reasonablt feeking Kroot would been pretty well off but :(