Expanding the Kroot Range

[Tawnis]

It's hard to say what direction GW are going to go with the Tau in the coming years, but with the army being essentially ranged only, and already filling pretty much every role that an army like that needs, it's hard to think of what else they could really add to Tau proper other than porting over some of the old FW kits, or updating the last few older sculpts. We've seen great new models for both the Kroot and the Vespid this edition which gives me a lot of hope that they'll be heading more in the auxiliary direction in they years to come. While there are plenty of races that could be added in addition the Vespid being expanded upon, that's a bit of a different post. Kroot have come out this edition as their own mini army within the Tau codex and while an expensive army to get into with their low points costs, the models look great, the army is really fun to play, and it's pretty strong on the table too. So I wanted to go over my thoughts on where the Kroot range could expand in future years and hear if there are any things I may have overlooked either thematically or mechanically. 

The Easy Choices: 

- Knarloc Riders are an old staple of the Kroot and were made back in the day by FW. They still have a Legends datasheet and are fine on the table, though a little overcosted in comparison to their Rampager and Krootox counterparts, as usually happens with Legends as editions go on. (They were even at codex launch, but stayed the same with Krootox and Rampagers got points cuts). They serve a different flavour as more of a light skirmisher unit, trading a bit of the Krootox's durability for stealth. It throws bunch of S:6 Ap-1 D:1 attacks with Lance that shred light infantry, but don't punch up as well as it's Krootox counterparts. The only places I'd make improvements on to the unit is giving it an actual unit rule (it is currently that it gets Lance on the charge, you know, like any unit with a Lance weapon already does by default) and to increase it's squad size from 3, back to 3-6. 

- Great Knarloc's are the other old FW staple from Kroot and they served a multi-purpose role with a lot of different options. A new version of this model could really use a scale up to make it a bit bigger, but otherwise the design is great. Their current Legends datasheet is sadly quite underwhelming, but they were really good in 8th and were solid even into the power creep of 9th, so they certainly had their time in the sun. This is one of the units that could do with the new GW style of break it down into 3 subtype units so that you can field more of the same model. I would do it as such:
A) The Melee Version: This would cover the existing Bolt Thrower Great Knarloc that can hook onto monster and vehicles to make better charges. There could be an alternative version of this as well that does increased melee damage and/or has increased durability (an armoured variant?), but at the cost of the hookshot that gives the charge buff.
B) The Ranged Version: This would cover the existing Twin Repeater Gun version (though I'd argue to add a second Twin Repeater Gun to the profile) and would sever as general fire support. There could be an alternate to this one that mounts some kind of bit anti-tank gun on it's back to finally give the Kroot something big to shoot. 
C) The Support Version: This would cover the existing Baggage Great Knarloc, though I would increase it's aura of Sustained Hits 1 from it's tiny 3" to 6" and make it effect both ranged and melee attacks instead of just ranged. The alternate version of this could be one with a big troop carrier platform across its back with a High Firing Deck LOTR Oliphaunt style. 

- Cavalry Leader: Be it mounted on a Knarloc, a Krootox, or something else, a mounted character that can lead those units would be a great addition to the army. Giving it support abilities that the Kroot are lacking like Advance/Charge and Lethal Hits would both be great leader choices for it. 

 

- Kroot only have two real named characters in the lore, and since they have lifespans not too dissimilar to humans, it's very likely that Angkhor Prok is long dead. That said, Dahyak Grekh is still very much around and is a pretty cool character in the lore. He also already has his own model from Blackstone Fortress and even had rules in 9th. I'm really surprised he wasn't actually in the codex as he would make a great Lone Op Character. 

- "Assault" Infantry: This could be done with a simple upgrade sprue to the carnivores, but adding a second infantry unit, (my suggestion would be to run scatterguns on them over the Kroot Rifles so they have Assault) would give the Kroot infantry line some much needed diversity. They could have a more fighty ability rather than sticky objectives (the popular re-roll 1's to wound, or all wounds if the target is on an objective comes to mind) to make list building more interesting. 

 

If this was all we received, it would still be an excellent shot in the arm for the Kroot. With only 3 new kits and an upgrade sprue, they would be giving us 7 new datasheets, more than enough additional units to make far more flexible and interesting lists. However, there are a lot more units that could fill gaps in the range if that went well and they could easily expand Kroot to be a larger force. 

Beyond the Obvious: 

- A Bulkier Infantry Unit: Currently there is essentially no middle ground between the standard T3 Kroot and the chunky T6 Krootox. Having a T5 infantry bruiser would be a good fit for the army. These could be based of Kroot that were shaped by eating Orks, Ogryns, or even Astartes and could eschew any ranged firepower for melee punchability. 

- Winged Kroot: Aside from their obvious avian look, the Kroot did once upon a time have the option to take their models with wings (provided you could kitbash them). These would function similar to a melee version of the vespid, jumping around and pouncing on key targets or doing objectives. 

- Sabotage Squad: Back in the day once again, Kroot could lay traps across the battlefield. While it's not as easy to make flavourful rules like that in modern editions, a small unit similar to the Krieg Combat Engineers, or the Reductus Saboteur would be a great addition to Kroot.

- A Precision Unit: Kroot have had snipers all through their history, but currently, the Lone Spear's long Gun is the only one we have, despite the Farstalkers coming modeled with one. A unit of stealthy snipers would be very thematic and give Kroot a little more ranged punch. 

- Psyker Kroot: Kroot do canonically have some Psyker kindred, with abilities that focused on hallucinations and sensory disruption. This would be great buffing or debuffing unit to have as part of the army and fits well into their overlapping buff theme. In addition, we could also get a Psyker Kroot character to lead them. 

 

- Specialist Infantry: The Farstalkers kinda filled this role in 9th before their weapons got homogenized, but a Kroot Veteran unit that could bring a bunch of special weapons' to bare. They could be T4 2W units due to their consumption of more advanced foes. They could take full squads of heavier options like the Londaxi Tribalests, the Dvorgite Skinners, Tanglecannons, and the Accelerator Bows, or possibly other weapons and tech scavenged from other races (though a scavenger type unit could be a whole other unit in and of itself). 

- Kroot Vehicle: While not common, we know the Kroot do have space ships in their massive War Shperes, so it stands to reason that while not common, Kroot do have some vehicles as well. I'd always imagined these would look like something out of a chop shop, similar to the Brute vehicles in Halo. 

That's about all I can think of at the moment, but I hope it shows just how much design space there is still available for the Kroot and if anyone from GW ever happens to read this, hopefully gives them a few ideas. 

[SlickSamos]

This is really comprehensive - I don't think I've ever even thought about Kroot vehicles before!  You might be interested in this old thing: https://archive.org/details/codex-kroot/page/39/mode/1up

[Tawnis]

1 hour ago, SlickSamos said:

This is really comprehensive - I don't think I've ever even thought about Kroot vehicles before!  You might be interested in this old thing: https://archive.org/details/codex-kroot/page/39/mode/1up

Yeah, that's a good one, I remember reading it a while back. Though once upon a time, Kroot actually did have their own sub-codex back in 3rd edition, similar to the Catachan for Guard https://www.scribd.com/document/557083042/Kroot-Mercenaries-3rd-Edition