Warhammer 40k Kroot Trail Shaper

[phandaal]

26 minutes ago, CL_Mission said:

But will they be called Broots?

 

Yes.

[Garrac]

One interesting thing I keep wondering about the LVO afirmation talking about "what was showed was just half of the release" is: were they counting the aniversary kroot model for this phrase? Or there's really another kit to expect besides the mounted character and a more than likely great gnarloc?

Edited February 13 by Garrac

[Fire Golem]

They said ‘about half’ I think, so I wouldn’t be using exact numbers. I doubt the anniversary model counts though, it’s just an alt carnivore. 

[OttoVonAwesome]

9 hours ago, Hfran Morkai said:

To clarify, I'm not saying I dislike it being break action at all.

 

However my understanding was that Kroot Rifles were upgraded with T'au Pulse technology (At least that's what I seem to recall from reading a book many, many years ago).

 

I think it's a cool mini.

Nah they always had big shells as an accessory. I always just assumed they were break loaders cuase there's no obvious loading mechanism and it's more primitive.

[OttoVonAwesome]

3 hours ago, Garrac said:

One interesting thing I keep wondering about the LVO afirmation talking about "what was showed was just half of the release" is: were they counting the aniversary kroot model for this phrase? Or there's really another kit to expect besides the mounted character and a more than likely great gnarloc?

Maybe there's still a few things they could take from the old white dwarf army list and FW and whatever else the imagination can cook up.

[Tastyfish]

5 hours ago, Garrac said:

One interesting thing I keep wondering about the LVO afirmation talking about "what was showed was just half of the release" is: were they counting the aniversary kroot model for this phrase? Or there's really another kit to expect besides the mounted character and a more than likely great gnarloc?

 

I really hope we get a big Kroot beast, but I really don't think we're going to see a return of the Knarlocs - I think they're going to remain happily in legends.

 

About half of what we saw? What we saw:

 

Warshaper

Fleshshaper

Kroot

Krootox

Rampagers

 

What we have seen/will see later

Trailshaper

Hounds

Krokonewt Rider thing (which is starting to feel like almost certainly a character - having been shown on it's own and the hound article mentioning that someone could keep up with the hounds)

Wishlisted other thing - Broots, Vulturekin, Big beastie or unit of the mounted things above if it's not a Sniper style character. I think we're going to be disappointed here.

Perhaps the Shaman with the traditional double ended fighting stick rather than the more common rifle that appears to be leading in the artwork? They're also holding some sort of hook shaped thing on a string in their off hand which doesn't fit the Warshapers we've seen.

 

I think we've got one set of sprues left and we've got these potential Kroot and Pech native rumour engines. But it might just be the mounted character with an alt-spear/crossbow build. Add another foot character and that's an extra 4 unit compared to the 5 we saw in the preview.

 

and the following silhouette. 

 

And would give a full Kroot list

 

War Shaper

Flesh Shaper

Trail Shaper

'Beast Shaper' mounted character

Shaman

 

Kroot Farstalkers

 

Kroot Carnivores

 

Kroot Hounds

Krootox Rampagers

Knarloc riders in Legends

 

Krootox

Great Knarloc in Legends

 

I'd love a transport/tank type thing but I can see how perhaps it's not the main vibe of them.

 

 

Edited February 14 by Tastyfish

[DemonGSides]

A Mumakil adjacent type unit (or like a squiggoth if you want to keep it in Universe) could fit the transport idea while still remaining in that 'feral' lane they exist in.

[Garrac]

9 hours ago, Fire Golem said:

They said ‘about half’ I think, so I wouldn’t be using exact numbers. I doubt the anniversary model counts though, it’s just an alt carnivore. 

 

I totally see Warcom and GW going with that mindset, but I hope to be wrong

 

Btw, I think that in GW's the Fleshshaper already fits the psycological sort-of shaman role. Would be weird to have actual psychics on a tau army.

 

And anyway: all GW armies nowadays allways have a big centrepiece model to hell boost sales and also give the army some punch against the biggest guys of others, mostly when having knights as a literal army as of currently.

 

(I doubt It Will be a transporte because kroots Will already have a lot of mobility, but Who knows?)

 

However, I do expect it to be a great gnarloc. If they are resurrecting a lot of old fw krieg models to plastic, why not do the same with the rest of the armies, mostly now that gnarlocs arent being sold by GW itself?

Edited February 14 by Garrac

[sitnam]

7 hours ago, Garrac said:

Would be weird to have actual psychics on a tau army.

In lore the Kroot do have psykers, and the T’as have other psychic client races like the Nicassar. 

[phandaal]

16 minutes ago, sitnam said:

In lore the Kroot do have psykers, and the T’as have other psychic client races like the Nicassar. 

 

There was that one short story where a Kroot warband developed some powerful psykers after eating a bunch of Eldar.

 

Maybe they can eat a Nicassar or two and turn into psychic pancake Kroot!

[sitnam]

12 minutes ago, phandaal said:

There was that one short story where a Kroot warband developed some powerful psykers after eating a bunch of Eldar.

Ohh, I’d like to read that. You remember the name?

[phandaal]

1 hour ago, sitnam said:

Ohh, I’d like to read that. You remember the name?

 

Primary Instinct by Sarah Cawkwell. Believe it is in the Victories of the Space Marines anthology.

[Garrac]

3 hours ago, sitnam said:

In lore the Kroot do have psykers, and the T’as have other psychic client races like the Nicassar. 

I was talking about rulewise

 

And if a character gets added I see as a bigger priority for GW to make it a named guy

[sitnam]

10 hours ago, Garrac said:

I was talking about rulewise

Fair enough, but we already have multiple factions that cant use psykers I don’t see it as a particularly unique aspect of T’au. I think having auxiliary psykers actually opens up for some interesting design space, both miniature wise and rules wise. 

[Noserenda]

Yeah having no psykers is kinda rare given how most things loose in the galaxy are old one created it seems, just the Necrons from the old old days and the Tau from the new new days really :D 

(I know there are several more armies without psykers, but they are all humans who could have been psykers potentially :D ) 

Edited February 15 by Noserenda

[Magos Takatus]

On 2/13/2024 at 1:26 PM, Triszin said:

Tau made different ammo for them.

 

So in Tyranid conflicts they alternate between slugs and plasma rounds, depending on how the Tyranids have adapted.

But kroot tech is actually really solid.

Kroot haven't let Tau into the forge cities hidden under the mountains on their homeworld, and rumored to have killed Tau trying to infiltrate them.

 

I hadn't heard that before about the Forge Cities but I have this impression from a long time ago (probably 3rd edition codex or White Dwarf support material) That the Kroot used to be quite technologically advanced and after some setback or catastrophe (was it the wars with the Orks?) they deliberately chose the nomadic, "primitive" lifestyle for spiritual reasons or something? It's not something I am confident about but I feel like I read it from somewhere. Kroot travel around in their "Warspheres" when not travelling with the T'au so they must have some form of technology base. Did I dream this self-imposed lifestyle up or as I recalling some really old lore?

Edited February 15 by Magos Takatus
Forum duplicated my post after failing to update.

[apologist]

5 hours ago, Magos Takatus said:

I hadn't heard that before about the Forge Cities but I have this impression from a long time ago (probably 3rd edition codex or White Dwarf support material) That the Kroot used to be quite technologically advanced and after some setback or catastrophe (was it the wars with the Orks?) they deliberately chose the nomadic, "primitive" lifestyle for spiritual reasons or something? It's not something I am confident about but I feel like I read it from somewhere. Kroot travel around in their "Warspheres" when not travelling with the T'au so they must have some form of technology base. Did I dream this self-imposed lifestyle up or as I recalling some really old lore?

 

That certainly sounds like the Index article on Kroot from White Dwarf – the one that had the background for Ankhor Prok.

 

... and an +EDIT+ update – it's in Index Xenos: Savage Evolution, from White Dwarf 264. 

 

In summary: an ork rok crashed on their homeworld Pech, the Kroot ate the orks and manifested Mek-like abilities that led to the 'Kroot Expansionist Phase': city-dwelling, factory farming, the creation of hives, and the creation of 'warp-capable warsphere to take them to the stars.' They settled new worlds, but then enounter the orks again and are roundly defeated. 

 

The orks loot the worlds and move on, and more Kroot arrive to re-settle, but the survivors...

Quote

[...]had other ideas: they were not about to rebuild a society that had led them into war and then failed to defend them. Led by a visionary leader named Anghkor Prok, they advocated a return to the old ways, to the time before the coming of the Ork Rok. There would be no rebuilding and the Kroot would revert to the traditional ways that had served them perfectly well for thousands of years. A compromise was reached where each kindred would spend time as mercenaries and fight for other races, returning to their home world periodically to pass on any useful genetic material they had acquired following their victories. A number of warspheres remained on Pech to guard against further invasions, and the mercenary Kroot departed to ply their trade among the stars.

 

In other words, there was a period when their technology rapidly improved, and they remain tech-capable, but there are deep cultural taboos against further development. The text makes it clear that their technological development was instinctual, as a result of devouring orks, rather than creatively driven and innate to the Kroot. The implication is that they are no longer able to develop further, though it's quite open-ended.

 

The same articles notes that there are no remaining cities on Pech, and the five hives that did exist have been abandoned to be reclaimed by the forests.

Edited February 15 by apologist

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. I've been in the hobby for a long time and have absorbed much information as well as fan speculation so it's nice to know my memory was pointing in the right direction. Following that lore the remaining Warspheres must be very carefully protected so that the Kroot are not entirely beholden to the Tau. Either that or they are technology that is considered an exception. It would be a real drag for the Kroot if they have to call an Uber every time they want to go somewhere other than where the Tau Empire wants them. 

[MithrilForge]

Thanks for the Lore Nuggets, always fun to learn more (I did recall reading some of that info years ago) . 

Eating Orks was never going to end well  like that Kroot (that looked like a huge fish) that the inquisitor kept in a tank in the Ghazkull novel ate a bit of makari and

Spoiler

up and died!! 

 

really happy/excited for expansion of Kroot related models, i remember wishing for more of them waay back when T'au first came out and i had an army.... dreams are coming true again (although it feels like it's been nearly 10,000 game years since though )

I'm thinking I need to finish painting up my long forgotten little T'au force to make my eventual Kroot force legal , although yes the rumour of a whole Kroot legal roster is exciting...

 

M  

Edited February 16 by MithrilForge

[Garrac]

From today's sunday preview:

Quote

Meanwhile, on Warhammer Community this week, we’ve rummaged around and found another lovely Kroot to reveal to you all.

 

[ZeroWolf]

Might be the one who was previewed at new year. Doubt it would be the greater knarloc as i bet they would be more dramatic with it than "we rummaged round" then again, you can never tell with the WarCom team 

[Fire Golem]

A Greater Knarloc, or similarly sized model, would presumably be the last reveal if we’re getting one. End on a big showcase model. I hope we do. 

[Garrac]

3 hours ago, Fire Golem said:

A Greater Knarloc, or similarly sized model, would presumably be the last reveal if we’re getting one. End on a big showcase model. I hope we do. 

 

I kinda wonder if they're preparing it to be revealed at he end of february, or keeping it for Adepticon. But I 100% don't doubt there's a big guys coming, whenever he does anyway.

[Cenobite Terminator]

Very nice looking miniature.

[Urauloth]

Excellent lizard. Can't wait to get one.