Tournament Kroot Reporting

[Tawnis]

So, I've been maining Kroot as my army since 8th edition, but up until now I've mostly been sticking to local leagues and semi-competitive narrative events, because that's what's been around where I live. Kroot have been doing exceptionally well in that space, to the point where I've considered switching armies because I've been winning almost all my games, and there's not really a lot of space to tone the army down unless the event/league allows Legends units. And that was before we just got points cuts across the board. 

 

However, there's been a bit more of an interest in the competitive scene lately in my city, so I'm gunna dive beak first into that and see how well the Kroot fair. My first 5 round tourney is next weekend and here is the list I'll be running: 

 

- Kroot Lone-Spear with Kroot Long Gun (90pts)
Enhancement: Kroothawk Flock (10pts)
- Kroot Lone-Spear with Blast Javelin x2 (180pts)
- Kroot War Shaper with Dart-Bow & Tri Blade (50pts)
Enhancement: Root Carved Weapons (10pts)
- Kroot War Shaper with Bladestave & Prey-Hook (50pts)
- Kroot Flesh Shaper (45pts)
Enhancement: Borthrod Gland (15pts)

 

- Kroot Carnivores no options x20/20/10/10/10: (455pts)

 

- Krootox Riders with Repeater Cannons x3/3/3: (270pts)
- Krootox Rampagers x6/3/3 (380pts)
- Kroot Farstalkers with Londaxi Tribalest x12/12/12 (255pts) 
- Kroot Hounds x5/5/5 (120pts)
- Vespid Stingwings x5 (65pts)

 

Okay, so it's not TECHNICALLY all Kroot since I have 5 Vespid in there, but I only have 70 Carnivores painted and didn't think I'd have enough time before the event to finish the last squad since I already had 200 more points to paint up after our points cuts. Also, Vespid are really good.  :D 

 

So the general idea is the same as it usually is with Kroot, just more of it. Flood the midfield with fast durable bodies while focusing down key targets. I've got the hounds for screening, the 10 mans and/or the vespid for action monkeys and the rest to fight. My biggest concern honestly is the clock and moving around all these models. I've got some move trays to assist, but I'm not sure if it will be enough as in my casual games, we usually go to time, so I'll have to be even more careful with a chess clock. 

 

That being said, I've got a practice game planned with a friend tonight who's also attending the tournament with his World Eaters List. We already swapped lists, so here's what he's running:

 

- Angron 
- Khârn
- Lord Invocatus
- Lord on Juggernaut
- Master of Executions

 

- Berserkers x10/5
- Jackals x10

 

- Exalted Eightbound x3/3/3
- Eightbound x3
- Spawns x2/2 

 

My plan is to screen the first charge with hounds and 10 man carnivores since he's very low on shooting in the army, then punch back as hard as I can, trying to focus down Khârn's and the Master of Execution's units first if I can. As for Angron, the plan is to keep my Farstalkers back a little until he hits my lines and then overwhelm him with an ocean of re-rolling Lethal hits. I am a lot more squishy in melee than I am at range where I can rely on stealth to protect me, so he is pretty much going to melt whatever he touches.  

 

Anyhow, how do you think it's going to turn out? I'll post an overview of the game when it's done and then a recap of the tournament and how well I did after that's finished as well. 

[MithrilForge]

Awesome to see them doing well in capable hands..

that's a lot of models there  I can see those ring movement tray type things being very handy here!! ... "The Old World" Kroot on movement trays 

 

I'd like to know how you fair against the Khorne list .... 

 

 

Cheers. M

[Tawnis]

I recently finished my tournament practice game with my Kroot against World Eaters in preparation for my first seriously competitive tournament; a really different experience from playing even semi-competitive games I’m used to. Lots of tiny little tricks that you can do for incremental benefits that you just don’t see anywhere else. I learned a lot.

 

Also, as an FYI (since some people keep assuming I’m only racking up wins with Kroot because I’m not playing against good players) my friend that I was practicing with is currently the top World Eaters player in Western Canada, so any gain I got in this match was not because of lack of skill on my opponents part. He is objectively a better 40k player than I am (at least for now ;p).

 

We chose to run terrain layout 1 since it’s the most popular and picked the mission Purge the Foe, since it’s my hardest mission given how many units I have (and apparently the TO really likes this one, so I’m sure to have to play it in the tournament). We did Tipping Point for deployment and Fog of War for the Mission Rule, which didn’t end up mattering at all. I chose to go fixed secondaries with Engage on All Fronts and Assassination (usually I take cleanse, but I didn’t think I’d have the free units to do it in what I knew was going to be a very fast meat-grinder). He took tactical secondaries.

 

I finally got a benefit of my propensity to roll ones to determine first turn as this is one of the few matchups I actually wanted to go second in. I managed to get my deployment and a full army scout move done in just over 20 minutes, which is actually pretty good for me, but I know I can shave a few more minutes off that. I got most of my screen in place just in case he managed his advance and charge on turn 1 and just went ham into me. He put two units of Exalted Eightbound in reserve, and I put everything on the table, even my Vespid since I wasn’t worried about being shot.

 

Fortunately he didn’t get advance and charge turn 1 and made a few cautious moves up, keeping both his berzerker units (the 10 man with the executioner and the 5 man with Khârn), and one unit of eightbound hidden behind terrain in his deployment zone, waiting for me to push up. Angron came up to cover behind the centre terrain with his other eightbound, both units of spawn and the Lord on Juggernaught. His last play was to push his Lord Invocatus into my lines to try and get a turn 1 kill for points and to move block some of my Rampagers from engaging Angron on my first turn. He only managed to down 9/10 carnivores though, and his turn was done, unable to score either secondary he drew.

 

With everything mostly hidden on his side I had a quick turn one. I pushed my screen of hounds just past the centre line to get engage, used my 10 man carnivores to cover the gaps and quickly took out his Lord on Juggernaut. End of round 1, I was cautiously optimistic with a 12-0 lead.

 

Round 2 is when everything started to die. He moved Khârn up to get on an objective and help with Khorne rolls while he crashed into my screen hard with pretty much everything else, wiping out all my hounds and most of my 10 man carnivore squads. However, this was the first point where my inexperience hurt me. On my right flank, His Lord on Juggernaut hit my Kroot hounds and deal 2 mortals to them opening up a little gap for the Eightbound to sneak through, tagging the hounds as the passed, but also my Dart Bow War Shaper unit that I was planning to jump on them next turn with. The rough part though was that since one of the eightbound was enough to kill the hounds, Angron who had been blocked by them was able to pile in 3” to my Rampagers that were 3.5” away and swat them off the table with ease. (Going to have to remember to keep things 4” back.) On the left flank his eightbound and Jackels hit my screen, but did little else, while the spawn did the same in the centre. While he killed a large quantity of chaff that turn, most of the meat of my army was still alive and ready to hit back.

After only a little movement, mostly just tossing my Vespid into his back like and killing a pair of Berzerkers in Khârn’s unit, he Rapid Ingressed some Eightbound into my back line, but I didn't’ have the resources to deal with them that turn. I pounced on Angron first, Grenading him for 3 mortals and getting me +1 to hit, tossed a Trap Well Laid on him with my unit of 6 Rampager pistols and then hit him with my Lone Spear for re-rolls. Fishing for Lethals with my Farstalkers against him (he was their bounty target) took off another 5 wounds, but left him frustratingly at exactly half. My first unit of Krootox wiffed hard with a bunch of 4’s to wound that would have worked if he’d been 1 lower. I got my 5’s with the next unit though, dealing 4 wounds of which he failed 3 saves and only made 1 FNP, taking him down to 3. A charge in with the nearby Krootox and Farstalkers were enough to bring him down, as well as put my Farstalkers over the line for engage. The unit of 6 Rampagers melted the nearby Eightbound, but lost nearly two of their own to fight on death. The eight bound on the left flank when down to my Krootox and Rampagers there, while my carnivore blender blob opened up on the jackels, dealing 16 wounds, but only killing 3 models after an unreal saving throw, though I did manage to finish them off in the charge phase, however I paid for it, loosing 8 carnivores to their fight on death.

 

Here once again is where my inexperience came back to bite me. I’d shot up one of the spawn in the midfield, and charged into them with my last carnivore 10 man, however, it was just in range of his Execution Berzerker blob to Heroically intervene, cutting that unit to shreds with Fights first and putting them squarely in the midfield and then consolidating into what was left of my Dart Bow War Shaper unit that could just not catch a break. Despite that, I’d still managed to take out quite a few large threats, and deny him secondaries once again, while scoring my own. Second round score 32-12.

 

Round three went a lot faster with a bunch of smaller fights all across the table. The Spawn moved over my left flank that I had cleared last turn to tie up my units there. The Dart Bow War Shaper managed to hold the Master of Executions in place and I brought the squad back with Join the Hunt when the died. His eightbound in the back chopped through a unit of Farstalkers and consolidated into my nearby Krootx, which turned out to be a mistake as they killed 2 on the swingback. Khârn came out swinging, hitting what was left of my large Rampager blob and tearing them to pieces while his Lord Invocatus fell back onto an objective. He finally managed to score some secondaries this round though, netting Assassinate and Extend Battle Lines.

 

On my turn, I dropped the Vespid down on his home objective that was now unprotected and brought my carnivores in on the right flank planning to contest the Lord Invocatus’ objective, while he Rapid Ingressed his last Eaightbound to try and make something of the collapsed left flank since my units there were still tied up finishing off the surprisingly durable spawn. and took down two more of Khârn’s berzerkers with my Lone Spear, however, he Blood Surged in behind cover to protect them from Krootox follow up. However, that put them in perfect site of my Vespid who rolled amazingly well and finished off both the Berzerker and Khârn himself. Lastly, I couldn’t go a round without making another misplay. I used Guerrilla Warriors to fall back my Krootox that were tied up with the single eightbound and get them a line of sight on the Master of Execution’s unit while still being able to charge back and kill the final eightbound. However, when I hit the unit with my Lone Spear (fortunately killing 4 berzerkers), he Blood surged right into my Krootx, I didn’t realize they could enter engagement range with the ability *faceplam*. The Krootox were thus torn to ribbons. I did manage to finally down the spawn units though and free up my models fighting over there. Despite my misplay, I still had some Farstalkers kicking around and managed to pick off the Eightbound I’d fallen back from. I kept up with the steady scoring, but he was closing the gap by killing more units every turn, taking the game to 48-34.

 

Round four was another bout of small engagements. He picked up 5 points on Overwhelming Force by taking out a Lone Spear (the first time I’ve ever lost one) and single carnivore I’d been too focused on time to move, however defend stronghold got him no extra. His last unit of Eightbound hit my left flank, taking down my last unit of Rampagers, but at OC 1, they weren’t able to claim the objective from my 2 Krootox that had their toes still on it.

 

On my turn I ralled the last of my mauled squads, downing both the Eightbound with Lone Spear, remaining Krootox, Shapers and the remnants of my last Farstalker unit. While on the right flank I took down the Lord Invocatus with my Lone Spear (who scooted back into my home table quarter after shooting to keep me in 4), Vespid, and revived Carnivores. This left him only with his Master of Executions and 6 Berzerkers on my home objective while I held the rest of the board at the end of round 4, and giving us a score of 64-51.

 

The last round went as well as possible for him given the board state, with a re-roll from his berzekers, he finally managed to revive Angron, dropping him into my deployment zone and scoring 10 points between Behind Enemy Lines and Establish Locus. I picked up engage for a fine time, but couldn’t get the final assassination. Final score after paint: 86-76 (though we realized after he could have picked up 4 more points by killing my Lone Spear with his Master of Executions, sacrificing 4 points on secondaries for 8 primary, though I would still have been able to get full engage thanks to my Vespid.)

 

Overall, despite my several misplays, I think I did really well against such an accomplished player and I am a lot less nervous about the tournament this weekend. The main thing I need to focus on is the clock, I wasn’t anywhere near as on top of switching it as I should have been, which cost me about 10 minutes and made me time out at the end of round 3. Had this been an actual tournament, I would have lost because of that, 72-86. Even so, playing under that kind of time pressure taught me a lot and I know where I can make up a fair bit of time next game. He had also never played against Kroot before and he remarked on how surprised he was that the Kroot's seemingly weak individual datasheets belied the strength and synergy of the army as a whole. 

 

Anyhow, I hope that this was an entertaining recap and that it might give some more people a sense of how good Kroot actually are right now.

Edited November 14 by Tawnis

[Ulfast]

Sounds like you did put up a good fight and next time you will not make does mistakes!

[INKS]

I look forward to hearing more exploits of the kroot!

[Tawnis]

The tournament was great fun and I got to play against a lot of different lists and skilled players. I was a bit nervous at first going into a more competitive space (and it really showed in game 1) but everyone was super chill and I had a great time. 

 

Round 1 I was paired against World Eaters, thankfully I'd just practiced the matchup as this past week was the only times I'd ever played against them. Most of the list and game went pretty similar to the matchup above, so I won't go into too much detail. I did make a big misplay turn 2, not committing quite enough to kill Angron and leaving him at a single wound and costing me two additional units, one in my fight phase and another in his when he fought on death. Had I left the peripheral objectives for a turn and centralized my firepower (which I Kroot's whole thing, I know better) I would have had a much easier time in the matchup and taken it far more handily. Despite my misplay though, I still managed to eke out a win 88-83. 

 

Round 2 was against Tau Retaliation Cadre, and this one was a total faceroll. He wasn't running any flamer suits and without them, the list just doesn't have the firepower to take on so many small bodies, (it's still a rough matchup for them even when they do) the only small arms fire he had were two units of breachers and a pathfinder squad. Once they were focused down, there wasn't much left for him to do. I took this one 100-31. 

 

Round 3 was against a very aggressive Guard tank spam list. He was running 2 Hellhounds, 3 Hydras, 4 Leman Russ' a Basalisk and 3 Scout sentinels, backed by Lord Solar, with some infantry, scions and a mortar team for good measure. Essentially it was a similar pressure list playstyle to my own, just with tanks instead of infantry and cavalry. Fortunately I got the first turn and was able to pick off a few key units, his screening ratlings which gave my Flesh Shaper Blob their 5+ FNP and placed them securely in the midfield, as well as his mortar team and one of his sentenils. At the same time I was able to move block two of the three routes out of his deployment zone, boxing in several of his vehicles. 

 

He still managed to push into the midfield after having to expend a good portion of his fire on clearing out the Flesh Shaper blob, to the point where he actually had to charge it with a couple tanks to finish the job. We battled over the midfield all game both dealing and taking around equal damage, but my first turn advantage game me the positioning I needed to squeeze out a win 87-76. However, had he gone first instead of me, I would not have been surprised to see that score flipped. 

 

Round 4 I got to take on the event's War Dog list. Kroot vs War Dogs is such an interesting matchup as both armies counter each other. Kroot's massive volume of AP: -1 D:2 shots, ability to apply a lot of mortal wounds, and +1 to wound below half overwhelm 3+ sv vehicles. However, the War Dogs, high volume anti-infantry firepower at BS 2+ and indirect firepower aren't hampered much by Stealth, and the BS: 2+S:12 Melta 4 burn through Krootox better than any other big gun in the game. 

 

He got first turn which already put me on the backfoot. I used my scout move to set up the best screen I could, but he still managed to maul me pretty hard. He killed my full screen of hounds, over half my farstalkers, about 20 carnivores, 4 Rampagers, and assasinated my Flesh Shaper with some Deamon character. I clapped him back hard for it though, killing the Deamon, his screening Nurglings, his Deamonettes, and Blue Horrors he was using for objectives and 5 full War Dogs. However, this is when I made a massive misplay. I forgot to move my Lone Spear's back after shooting and left two of them exposed to retaliation.

 

Next turn, he was able to kill two of my Lone Spears, as well as clean up all my Rampagers, a pair if Krootox and a good chunk of my infantry. It didn't help that my entire freaking army failed Battleshock on turn 3, preventing me from using any stratagems.  By turn 4 we'd both nearly tabled each other. He had 3 badly damaged Knights and a Changeling and I had 3 mauled carnivore squads. I lost that one 73-61, but I'm reasonably confident that I could have taken it had I not accidentally gotten my Lone Spears killed off early. It was a super close game. 

 

My final match was against Aeldari and is a pretty good matchup for me. I took down the Avatar early with a Farstalker ambush and while his Falcon / Striking Scorpions hit hard backed by Warp Spiders, it still wasn't enough to chew through all the Kroot. T3 bodies just go down super fast to anything in my army. I took this one 95-77. 

 

So, I was pretty happy with a 4-1 finish. I placed 4th overall and got the Best Xenos trophy. It was cool that I got to play against almost all of the top players at the event. The Guard Tank list I beat placed second, scoring 3 100 point games and another at 95. The War Dog list lost in the finals to Grey Knights and placed just above me at 3rd. The World Eaters player I faced in round 1 took his other 4 games and finished 5th, and the Aeldari player I was against in the last round got 7th. The Ret Cadre player I faced also had a solid 3-2 showing and might have cracked the top 10 if I hadn't steamrolled him so badly, all his other scores were very respectable. 

 

All in all, I hope this helps to show that Kroot are quite a strong army at the moment. After the event there were several people asking for list building tips on them and thinking of getting into them themselves after seeing them perform. I honestly think that my list was good enough to take the event, and only didn't due to my own lack of experience compared in the competitive scene compared to some of the other players there.

[INKS]

War dogs and all tanks sound like a nightmare 

well done 

[Tawnis]

2 hours ago, INKS said:

War dogs and all tanks sound like a nightmare 

well done 

Thanks. :D It's not an easy matchup by any means, but I think it's a pretty balanced one in both cases. If I were to play those same two games again, I'd put them at about 50/50 odds. On paper, it may not seem like Kroot have the ability to deal with tanks, but practically, with their overlapping buffs, it's not the case, they can down tanks just fine. Kroot only struggle on targets T:12 or higher with a 2+ SV. 

Edited 10 hours ago by Tawnis