Kroot in 10th

[Tawnis]

I've been playing a lot of Kroot since the new rules came out and figured I'd come share what I've found for anyone who might be more interested in the Auxiliary part of the Tau army. 

 

First off, especially with the new points released, the Kroot Hunting Pack is very strong and I think a lot of people are sleeping on it since it plays a fair bit different from a lot of armies. The 5+ invul you get at range on your base 6+ armour saves means that cover mostly doesn't matter to the Kroot anymore, so you're a lot more flexible in where you can position your army. In addition the buff of +1 to hit when targeting a unit below starting is really easy to turn on and the +1 to wound for targeting a unit below half comes up more often than I originally expected and plays well into the Kroot's aggressive hit and run style of combat. 

 

While on the surface, the Kroot don't look like they have a lot of damage output given that aside from the Lone Spear, their best weapon is BS 4+ S:7 Ap:-1 D:2, these profiles bely the Kroot's strength in overlapping many buffs to bring down largest targets, playing very much into the pack hunting mentality. 1v1, you're often going to loose, but set up a few 3v1's and scatter before relation and you're golden. 

First off is the aforementioned +1 to hit and +1 to wound if a target is below starting or half. You can field a lot of units in the Kroot list, so it's easy for one unit to pick off a model and set this up, or to use a grenade strat to enable this as well. Beyond that, the Kroot Lone Spears give you full re-rolls to hit against any target they hit. You've also got a strat in A Trap Well Laid to give a pip of AP to any unit that attacks a specific enemy that phase, you can also overlap this with the free strat from the War Shaper. Then suddenly the attack I mentioned earlier becomes BS:3+ with re-rolls S:7(sometimes with +1 to wound), AP:-3, D:2 which is a much scarier profile and when you consider that a 105pt unit tosses out 12 of these shots per turn at decent range, has a shoot back ability if nearby Infantry are targeted, and has a melee profile that is just as good. 

However, it's not just offence where the Kroot get some good stratagems as they gain a few really good defensive and utility ones too. Hidden Hunters lets you give any Kroot unit Lone Op. You have one for fall back and shoot/charge, another gives a target within 8" -1WS/-1BS this turn (which stacks with Stealth), and a CP one to bring back a giant blob of carnivores. The only meh one is the one to force battle shock in really specific situations, but still 5/6 solid stratagems is a good toolkit. In fact while I'm a full Kroot army advocate, the one unit I do consider running is an Etherael just to farm more CP, because you're always blazing through it. 

As for the units themselves, they're all very playable at their points level and provide key roles to the army. While I think that infantry spam will probably be the best competitive list, an all around list of all the units will still do very well (and IMHO is a lot more fun to play). 

Lone Spear: These are a key part of the army, giving you your full to hit re-rolls and being very evasive units with a large move and move/shoot/move on top of that. The only thing you'll want to be careful with is that while their accuracy is good, it's not guaranteed, so make sure you have a backup plan if you do wiff on the setup. Using the Froothawk flock on one of these is a great way to get a very mobile 12" no Deep Strike Bubble. 

Trail Shaper: While the unit is reasonably weak on it's own, you're paying for the great utility you get. This Shaper gives the attacked unit a reactive move of D6 as well as the ability to re-deploy 2 Kroot units at the start of the game. It also has the enhancement to give its unit +3" move and the Assault Keyword, making whatever unit to attack it to incredibly mobile. 

War Shaper: While weakened a little but the recent FAQ saying that it can't use it's free strat ability to use the revival strat, it still leaves us with a free extra activation of a Trap Well Laid each turn which is still a big damage buff, also letting a unit recover from battleshock is a handy tool too. I always take at least one of these with a bow because the Root Carved Weapons enhancement that gives them Dev Wounds and Precision on a weapon with Anti-Infantry 3+ is a reasonably good character sniper. 

Flesh Shaper: The big melee threat, the flesh shaper gives your unit Sustained Hits 1 in close combat and a 6+ FNP (upgrading to a 5+ after you kill a unit in melee.) It's a decent buffing character, but in most cases, just taking more carnivores is worth about the same amount of points. That is except for the Borthod Gland enhancement that gives them crits on 5+ which when addinng to the full re-rolls from the Lone Spear and the fact that they are likely hitting on 2's in close combat, generates an absurd ammount of hits (The highest I've gotten is 73 hits on 48 attacks) (This 5+ crit effects any other shaper you add to the squad too, so I like it with the Lethal Hits melee War Shaper)

Kroot Carnivores:  The backbone of the army. Even at T3 with Stealth, and a 5+ Invul, they're reasonably durable. They hit reasonably well in both ranged and close combat, move fast and sticky objectives. Great Battleline unit that you'll always want a lot of. In a balanced list, I find either 60 or 70 to be the sweet spot. 

Kroot Farstalkers: Having an infiltrate screen so that all your scout moves go off is really important. I don't ever run less than 2 units and will often run the full 3. They're only a little stronger than baseline carnivores, but they ignore cover and their ability to target a single enemy unit to gain Lethal hits against is nice. They combo really well with the Trail Shaper being able to replace them if they are in a bad spot after first turn is rolled. One thing I tend to do is that if I get first turn, I'll use my Trail Shapers to re-deploy them 9" away from something I want dead, make it all of their bounty targets and just go to town. With a little support they can take out or cripple most units and then you've got 3 squads in your opponent's back line while the rest of your army has already flooded the midfield. 

Krootox: The best unit in the all Kroot lists, this unit is a solid workhorse dealing respectable damage in every phase of the game and supporting other units at the same time. I'm glad I already have 6 of these from the old days because I run a full 9 in every 2k list no question. This is your best way to deal with 2W units or to punch up into Monsters and Vehicles. 

Rampagers: While I think that the Krootox's far superior ranged firepower outclasses the Rampagers, it's still pretty close. They cost and extra 5 points per 3 and you don't get the big gun, but you do get assault pistols making this unit great for actions. In addition, they pick up sustained hits in melee, some extra lighter attacks from the rider, and the ability to deal mortals on the charge. I prefer running these in units of 3 to maximize what you can base in combat for mortals, but there is certainly an argument to be made for running a 6 man blob and protecting it with Hidden Hunters. 

Kroot Hounds: Last of the tournament legal units, hounds make very fast and cheap screening units that provide a great utility to the army. They can easily body block units turn 1, are reasonably hard to kill for their points, and work great to turn on A Trap Well Laid in close combat to allow your larger units to get the buff. 

Knarloc Riders (Legends): The Knarloc riders are reasonably well costed and serve as a lighter version of cavalry. They are the same cost as Rampagers, loose 1W and 1T, but pick up Stealth to replace it, which I think arguably makes them a but more durable. Their attacks are only D1, but at S:6 Lance, you're often hitting AND wounding on 2's. These straight up blender 1 any 1W infantry they come across.  

Great Knarlocs (Legends): Sadly after their time being way undercosted in 8th and a little undercosted in 9th, GW has overcorrected, both nerfing the Great Knarloc and almost doubling its points. At 100 points, this unit does very little for your army and I'd just run more Rampagers for almost the same amount of points. The one way I would still use 1 is the baggage one that gives ranges Sustained Hits in a 3" aura, put all 9 of my Krootox around it and protect it with Hidden Hunters. It's still not worth it unless you're already maxed out on Krootox, but it does add some extra firepower after that, and it's also a cool imposing model that can easily be a distraction Carnifex when needed. 

While our range is still limited, Kroot finally feel like a proper army and not just a Tau afterthought. I love the way the army plays and the models are great. They've even lightly hinted that there will be more to come one day, fingers crossed. 

How have you been finding the Kroot so far, either as support for a larger Tau army, or as a force in their own right? 

[Focslain]

I will be submitting your report to my sister, who is building a Kroot centric force, for review. 

 

Honestly I haven't had a chance to face a pure/mostly Kroot army just yet as they aren't popular in my local area. Hoping that changes as I can see these being a terror for those not prepared. 

[Hfran Morkai]

I haven't yet played around with the thought of a Kroot list or indeed Kroot in my purely hypothetical T'au list.

 

However I bought the Hunting Pack for the savings as I think the models are great. I fully intend on collecting at least one of everything in the range. 

 

I'm incredibly grateful they got such a range refresh because they're a cool race (I was captivated by the story in the, first(?) Tau codex of them ambushing Eldar (possibly Rangers?), they came across as horrifically alien).

 

 

[The Pounder]

Fantastic write up @Tawnis!

 

 I’m really grateful for the advice whilst I’m building my own force.

 

 

[Tawnis]

Glad you're all finding it useful. Here's a few other little tips that didn't really fit in above:

- Your Shapers provide a lot of key buffs, but are very fragile. Be weary of Precision weapons and Epic Challenges that can take them out easily. 

- The hit buff from Heavy Weapons like the Tanglecannon and the Lance buff from things like the Lone Spear's Hunting Javelin DO NOT stack with the buffs from targeting a unit below starting and half. If you have these in your army it's good to attack with them first and try to tip an enemy unit over the edge into buffing others. 
- In addition, though its a super corner case, the Lone Spear's ability also works on over watch, so if you hit a unit with it then that unit charges into one of your units, you will get full re-rolls to hit against it. 
- The Lone Spear's re-roll hit buff lasts until the end of the turn, so both your shooting and melee attacks will get full re-rolls. 

- Having both Lone Op and Fire and Fade, the Lone Spears can easily fight while staying safe, move them just close enough to throw their Javelins then back off keeping enough distance to protect them. 
- For more competitive lists, brining in Darkstrider from Tau proper is very strong. With him and a Kroothawk Flock on a Lone Spear, you have 2 mobile 12" no Deep strike bubbles.  
- I always tend to forget that the Kroothawk flock also gives their bearer's ranged weapons Ignores Cover.  

 

[Tawnis]

Just ran this list at the Play On Gamescon tournament last weekend: 

 

Kroot Hunting Pack 2000 Points:

Lone-Spear with Javelins: 90pts
Lone-Spear with Javelins: 90pts

War Shaper with Dart-Bow & Tri Blade + Root Carved Weapons: 70pts
War Shaper with Bladestave & Prety-Hook: 60pts

Trail Shaper with Nomadic Hunter: 85pts
Trail Shaper: 65pts

Flesh Shaper with Bothrod Gland: 70pts

Carnivores x20: 150pts
Carnivores x20: 150pts
Carnivores x10: 75pts
Carnivores x10: 75pts

Farstalkers with Dvorgite Skinner x12: 85pts
Fasrtalkers with Londaxi Tribalest x12: 85pts
Farstalkers with Londaxi Tribalest x12: 85pts

Hounds x5: 40pts
Hounds x5: 40pts
Hounds x5: 40pts

Rampagers x3: 110pts
Rampagers x3: 110pts
Rampagers x3: 110pts

Krootox with Repeater Cannon x3: 105pts
Krootox with Repeater Cannon x3: 105pts
Krootox with Repeater Cannon x3: 105pts

Total Points: 2000

I went 4-0 at the tournament rather handily. It was very narrative themed, so I wasn't playing top tier meta armies, but this list still performed incredibly well.

I was expecting to have a lot of trouble against vehicles, but aside from a tank heavy Astra Militarum list, I never had issues downing armour. I took out a Land Raider Redeemer and Baal Predator in game 1, as well as a Brutallis and Venerable dread, plus Bjorn in game 4. The armour list was tough, running a Baneblade, Rogal Rogal Dorn, 3 Russ' and 2 Chimera's, but I still took out half his vehicles and put the big ones I couldn't kill in Kroot Hound jail for the first couple turns.

Against infantry heavy lists, even terminators which I was worried about the 2+ save, Kroot just shred them with oceans of AP -1/2 attacks and eventually they fall over. The trick is to bait out AoC then switch to something else and put your AP there.

The benefit of going first with this list and setting the tempo for the entire game cannot be understated. Against that tank list, I had 4 turn 1 charges and had 2 more in easy charge range, but chose to hold them back. Kroot are FAST, however fast you are thinking, they are faster.

The 3 Farstalkers with 4 redeploys turned out great, either taking down a key exposed unit if I went first (which was only once and they killed a Leman Russ plus an infantry squad since I had firepower to spare. But people underestimate how hard they hit with their lethals and with some good positioning can jump on a baited target. I had them down Gabriel Seth with Sanguinary Priest FNP on 10 Intercessors in game 1 (though they did have a little support since I had to use one to bait the charge), as well as downing the Lion in game 3 after I baited him into the center, and the Brutallis in game 4.

The Krootox and Rampagers proved to be reliable damage dealers against pretty much any target so long as I had the impossible to pin down Lone Spears around to support.

The army can also be everywhere all at once. In game 4 turn 2, I had about 90% of the board screened out from his 2 Deep Strike units so he had to spend his turn just clearing spots to put them on the table.

Some games we had to call early because the one downside of the army is that it takes a long time to move so many bodies around. Between deploying such a big army, doing your re-deploys, then all your scout moves, it's a long time before you even start playing. Totaled points for anyone wondering were (or calculated to have been had we made it to turn 5) 100-30 against Blood Angels, 88-47 against Astra Militarum Tanks, 90-27 against Dark Angels, and 90-70 against Space Wolves.

Edited June 19 by Tawnis

[The Pounder]

Thanks @Tawnis a really helpful write up again!

 

 Any chance of some pics of your force? I for one would love to see it.

[Tawnis]

17 hours ago, The Pounder said:

Thanks @Tawnis a really helpful write up again!

 

 Any chance of some pics of your force? I for one would love to see it.

 
Sure thing, here are some of my army as a whole and from the event: 

 

[Tawnis]

On another note, with the new Balance Dataslate, War Shapers are going to play very differently. Overall, it's hard to say if it's a buff or a nerf there is certainly a give and take.

 

Pros: 

- We now have access to ALL stratagems, not just Battle Tactics. So we can get free uses of Grenades, Fall Back and Shoot/Charge, EMP, Counter-Attack, ect... This gives the unit WAY more flexibility instead of just using A Trap Well Laid every turn. 

- They didn't clarify that Join The Hunt can or can't be used (They REALLY should have), I think with the nerfs to those strats, it's very fair to use it with your War Shapers. 

 

Cons:

- You can't double up on Strats anymore. This means that we can't use A Trap Well Laid twice in one phase to gain -2 AP anymore, so our anti-armour firepower will go down a bit. (Hopefully more grenade usages will help offset this). 

- 2CP Strats are now at -1 instead of free and Join The Hunt is now single use. 

 

Overall I really like this change, it's making a lot more decisions rather than just spamming the same 1-2 strats over and over again. While I think it is a bit of a nerf to the army overall, I think it will also make Kroot more fun to both play as and play against. 

 

There is one more con that's tangentially related as it came out with the new mission pack but seems like the standard going forward. Now ALL re-deploy abilities happen BEFORE you roll for first turn, which means the Trail Shaper got a huge nerf. That was most of the reason you took the character, so I don't expect them to be making any of my lists in the near future. Now you're paying 65 points essentially for a reactive move on a unit since the Trail Shaper doesn't fight anywhere near as well as the other two. Yeah, you can get the extra 3" move and assault on the Enhancement, but then you're paying 85 points instead and that's just such a huge investment when you could just run a whole other unit. It's not like re-deploys are bad, but with the amount of units in a Kroot army, we often still have a good chunk of our army left to put down after our opponents have deployed anyway. 

Edited June 21 by Tawnis

[The Pounder]

Great advice again!

Your force looks brilliant. The tables too! 
 

I have a mountain to climb before I can field that many bodies!

 

Thanks for sharing your insight and the pics!

[FeeDBacK]

How durable and effective are Rampager does it make sense using them in 6 man units or are 3 man units more effective?

 

 

[Ulfast]

I have not tried them myself but I think a three man unit for clearing shaff and threating the flanks would work nice. Then try to  have a 6-man unit to threating bigger target, like tanks, 2+ armour inf and other monsters and hope they get at least 5-6 mortals on charge and then another couple of wounds in close combat.. 

[FeeDBacK]

Well I was playing with the idea make a Hybrid Kroot hunting pack army with 4x20 kroot 3x6 Rampager 2x Lonestalker and rest something like HH or Broadsides....

the best would be something what doesn't need much Marker support like Stormsurge ( but it's just to expensive) 

[Tawnis]

 

How durable and effective are Rampager does it make sense using them in 6 man units or are 3 man units more effective?

 

 

More than you expect, but not as much as you hope. XD 

With T6, W5, 5+invul at range, they can soak a lot of firepower. People often have to put anti-tank weapons into them to bring them down, and the 5+ invul works wonders there. While the still hit hard, they are more of the distraction Carnifex because the Krootox is the better unit, but since you can only take 3x3 of them you run rampagers as well. When they are charging up the board, anyone who doesn't know Kroot (most people) will shoot them first thinking they are the bigger threat. 

There's pros and cons to 3 vs 6. The upside to 3 is that a) you have more movement/deployment flexibility, and b) since Linebreakers only activates on models that base the enemy, you tend to loose out on a few activations when taking a unit of 6. That being said, sometimes the units of 3 just don't have the damage output to chew through their targets, and having the extra three bodies can really push the unit through the fight and get them to move onto other things. 

 

A good trick to boos their damage output is that if you've got the full re-rolls from the Lone Spear, after you hit in melee, re-roll all your non 6's, since you're hitting on 2's it's always mathematically better to fish for the exploding 6's. 

I suggest testing both out and using what suits your playstyle best. 

[Ulfast]

That was several good asvice to use them from Tawnis. I like it.

[INKS]

Carnivores x20: 150pts --- How do you quip these guys? Do you just go all rifles? Or do you take any of the weapon options?

[Tawnis]

 

Carnivores x20: 150pts --- How do you quip these guys? Do you just go all rifles? Or do you take any of the weapon options?

There are only two variations for the carnivores. 

1. The Shaper's Carbine is at best a side grade, but is often worse, it goes from 2 D1 attacks to 1 D2 attack, and from RF24 to 18. it's not worth it right now.

2. The Tanglebomb launchers are a slight upgrade giving you +1S and Blast. But that's it and you have to roll them separately, which takes more time. In casual, no reason not to take the minor upgrade, in competitive, the time you loose rolling another suite of dice is not with the miniscule increase in damage output. 

Edited September 28 by Tawnis

[Ulfast]

What weapon would you give to the Farstalker unit? I would like to use the anti-tank weapon as Kroot miss those but I guess that there role as infiltrator the torrent weapons is better?

[Tawnis]

 

What weapon would you give to the Farstalker unit? I would like to use the anti-tank weapon as Kroot miss those but I guess that there role as infiltrator the torrent weapons is better?

They are pretty close in value and it really depends on how you want to use the Farstalkers in your army. The funny thing is that neither weapon synergizes well with the Lethal Hits from Bounty Hunters since the Skinner doesn't roll to hit and the Tribalest looses it's Dev Wounds if you score a Lethal hit (which will be 50% most of them since they are 5+ Heavy).

Essentially, these both work best as splitfire setup weapons. You have your Farstalkers go into their primary target with their normal guns, but if you have a full health ideal target within range (infantry for the Skinner and vehicle for the Tribalest), you use it to plink off a wound/model to enable your +1 to hit against them for the rest of your army. 

 

I've played around with both and while I do tend to prefer the Tribalest as you can get hit re-rolls from the Lone Spears and vehicles are the bigger threat, though I will often run the full 3 Farstalkers, 2 with Tribalest and 1 with Skinner. 

Edited October 1 by Tawnis

[Ulfast]

Sounds good that both work. My plan is similiar to your to get at least two unit, propably three in the end. And I will chose one weapon in each unit and the third, when I get it, will be a extra Tribalest.  They are very good looking miniatures and rules are pretty nice too.

[Tawnis]

 

Sounds good that both work. My plan is similiar to your to get at least two unit, propably three in the end. And I will chose one weapon in each unit and the third, when I get it, will be a extra Tribalest.  They are very good looking miniatures and rules are pretty nice too.

 

If you have any extra models laying around, it's not that hard to finagle a conversion and be able to swap out the weapons as needed. For example, I've got my old metal shaper with the Pulse Rifle as the leader of one of my Farstalkers units (since that's the only unit that can take a Pulse Rifle now), so I used the extra Farstalker body with a spare arm to hold the extra heavy weapon. 

[INKS]

Got some balancing coming up in Oct at some point. What do we need to see?

Besides some miracle way to deal with knights and hvy tanks. lol

[Ulfast]

I wish our Krootox Riders had a little more bite, like AP -2 or damage 3 (or both!) Another change would be to change Krootox rampager  would make the linebreaker ability on 3+. A little change in points is ok but not a big thing.

[Tawnis]

 

Got some balancing coming up in Oct at some point. What do we need to see?

Besides some miracle way to deal with knights and hvy tanks. lol

- Trail Shaper needs a points reduction by a fair bit to be an okay utility piece, Flesh Shaper needs a small one. 45pts per is probably where they should both be at given their profiles.
- Rampagers should have Linebreaker trigger on successful charge, not on basing the enemy. Some units are like this and some aren't and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why. 
- They need to clarify that War Shapers use their ability with Join the Hunt, especially now that revival strats have been nerfed. 

Honestly, that's about all I can think of, we're actually in a pretty good place army wise right now (small model range aside).  

[INKS]

Yeah we could use an anti tank model. but I don't see that happening anytime soon. maybe 11th if we are lucky. 

all good points. hopefully we see something