#kroot carnivore squad
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New kroot. Noot.
#games workshop#citadel miniatures#warhammer 40k#t'au empire#kroot#kroot carnivore squad#kroot flesh shaper#kroot war shaper#krootox rider#krootox rampagers#warhammer tv#las vegas open 2024
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Hey, T'au players!
You know the new Kroot Carnivore Squad?
Well I like their new paint job a lot! But I think it could be... bolder...
Yeah? You seeing where I'm coming from?
Theres something appealing about this sort of colour variety with uniformity.
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New models revealed! And although I am overall happy I also have some nitpicks to complain about.
I thought the Striking Scorpion Kill Team vs the Scouts was bad because of the mono-loadout of the Eldar vs all the customisation options of the Scouts, but GW did it again! It actually looks like Mandrakes might have LESS options than Scorpions if the squad leader can’t be upgraded. There’s no lore reason this time why 1 in 5 Mandrakes can’t take a different weapon, so what happened?
Now, maybe the models two-handing the blade/Baleblast respectively actually have different weapons, maybe the sickle blade will get different rules to the other blades. But they only mentioned the Glimmersteel Blades in the article, so if there were any other options I think they’d have mentioned them. Was it too hard to add a Bewitched blade? Soul-siphon dagger? Hex-tipped spear? No room on the sprue for one option?
New Kroot look cool though. I really like the Krootox Rampagers. The original Krootox (whilst it’s new model looks nice) is a bit confused since melee/ranged hybrid units can struggle to be good. You’re paying extra points for a unit that can’t shoot in melee, can’t melee from afar, never using 100% of its strengths. A dedicated melee unit in the Rampagers is great for the T’au.
The two new Shapers also look cool, and I like them in concept, but I would have preferred if one was a Psyker. It’s just that I hate redundancy, Xenos aren’t Space Marines so they can’t afford it. The T’au get blasted for being a stationary ranged army, with too many battlesuits and not enough alien auxiliaries. So ranged Kroot or melee battlesuits doesn’t interest me as much as say melee/psychic aliens.
Which is why I’m mixed on the new Kroot Carnivores. In a vacuum I love them, but weren’t the Farstalkers meant to replace them? The kit adds a whole 1 new gun to the range. Instead of that couldn’t we have gotten an entire new alien species? I love Kroot but I don’t want Codex T’au Empire to just be T’au plus Kroot. Personally, I’m happy with Kroot having 3-4 units, then a bunch of other species getting a unit each. You could have a tunnelling species, a stealthy chameleon species, a wall-climbing species, a small teamworking species whose basic units are like Skaven Jezzail teams. Anything that isn’t made immediately redundant by Fire Warriors.
I’m still overall happy with plastic Kroot/Mandrakes, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just a little disappointed with the execution.
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I'm going to say this some kind of new Kroot model. The digits look zygodactylous (two forward and two back, like chameleons and some birds). The Kroot have a similar arrangement. Also the heavy stitching on the underside of the gauntlet is a common Kroot aesthetic. The amount of detail on the painting implies that it's really big though. And the nails are more rounded than the normal Kroot. Maybe a new Krootox, or some other kind of big boy Kroot model.
The Farstalker Kinband box can be used to assemble Carnivores (I think) and it comes with a few Hounds. So a new Krootox would nearly finish refreshing the existing Kroot range in plastic. Maybe they'll be a small-sized squad of 3 models instead of a solo or unit upgrade.
The previous Tau Codex made a point of including rules for fielding an all-Kroot force. The optimist in me hopes that they're going to add a few more units to the Kroot subfaction to round it out. Be a good use of Detachment rules in the new list-building for 10e. New Tau Codex is slated for Spring 2024. I'm gonna start huffing that copium for a Kroot Mercenaries Detachment. I mean, they already did Squats, anything is possible.
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Poll Time!!
I have 185 pts I’m undecided on for my 1000 pt list and am looking for some input. Here are the current options I’m considering:
1) Riptide Battlesuit: A significant number of shots on a pretty durable body. Plus it serves as a good tanking unit and Overwatch target
2) Sky Ray Gunship: This significantly ups my Seeker Missile output and provides an extra source of Markerlights, while still allowing for 55pts to put into a Kroot Carnivore squad or an enhancement for my Ethereal
3) Broadside Battlesuit: I only have the one and I’m open to testing it as a heavy support option, but my biggest concern is it’s lack of durability as an individual model. However, it does leave me quite a lot of extra wiggle room at just 90 pts
4) Pathfinders + Darkstrider: I’ve been looking for an opportunity to field this combo ever since I painted up my Darkstrider. It provides a significant amount of firepower and 2 different Markerlights, but it is a relatively fragile unit and doesn’t typically last till turn 3
You can find my current list below the poll if you’re interested
Thanks Everyone!
Ko’Shi Cadre (815 Points)
T’au Empire
Kauyon
Incursion (1000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit (115 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Battlesuit fists
1x Marker Drone
2x Missile pod
1x Plasma rifle
1x Shield Drone
1x Shield Generator
• Enhancements: Exemplar of the Kauyon
Ethereal (50 Points)
• 1x Gun Drone
1x Honour stave
1x Hover Drone
1x Shield Drone
BATTLELINE
Strike Team (80 Points)
• 1x Support turret missile system
• 1x Fire Warrior Shas’ui
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Guardian Drone
1x Pulse pistol
1x Pulse rifle
1x Shield Drone
• 9x Fire Warrior
• 9x Close combat weapon
9x Pulse pistol
9x Pulse rifle
OTHER DATASHEETS
Crisis Battlesuits (180 Points)
• 1x Crisis Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit fists
1x Cyclic ion blaster
1x Missile pod
1x Plasma rifle
2x Shield Drone
1x Weapon Support System
• 2x Crisis Shas’ui
• 1x Battlesuit Support System
2x Battlesuit fists
1x Cyclic ion blaster
3x Missile pod
2x Plasma rifle
4x Shield Drone
1x Shield Generator
Ghostkeel Battlesuit (160 Points)
• 1x Battlesuit Support System
1x Cyclic ion raker
1x Ghostkeel fists
1x Twin T’au flamer
Piranha (55 Points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Piranha fusion blaster
2x Seeker missile
2x Twin pulse carbine
Piranha (55 Points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Piranha burst cannon
2x Seeker missile
2x Twin pulse carbine
Stealth Battlesuits (60 Points)
• 1x Stealth Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit Support System
1x Battlesuit fists
1x Burst cannon
1x Gun Drone
1x Homing Beacon
1x Marker Drone
• 2x Stealth Shas’ui
• 2x Battlesuit fists
1x Burst cannon
1x Fusion blaster
Stealth Battlesuits (60 Points)
• 1x Stealth Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit Support System
1x Battlesuit fists
1x Fusion blaster
1x Gun Drone
1x Homing Beacon
1x Marker Drone
• 2x Stealth Shas’ui
• 2x Battlesuit fists
2x Burst cannon
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How to rework the T'au Axiliaries as the new cornerstone of the army:
Because let's be real right now there is Kroot and not much else, and T'au deperatly needs them to maintain ANY sort of unique identity, now that the Votann are firmly standing on the high-tech-guns and being a "shooting focussed gunline" definetly is not a unique thing looking at the coming Guard Codex. With a focus on the different species of the T'au Empire however, one can build a clear idenity, one that also means that the army is an absolute blast to collect and paint: for many species means a high diversity of models and visual design within a single army.
Setting the framework:
Right now, that support of Auxiliary Races in the Codex is a pure afterthought shoved into Dalyth Sept. For a load bearing design-aspect of the faction, this cannot stand. So instead, every Sept should get an extra ability like this:
"If all units in your detachment are < X Sept>, <T'au Auxiliary Units> of the following type gain the <Sept> Keyword, and <specific Unit Name> gains the <Core> Keyword"
Here's the list of how I'd spread this over the existing Septs:
T'au Sept: None. This is the pure T'au coreworld military, however they should have at least one generalist buff that also applies to these units as well.
Vior'la Sept: Vespids. The "Speed is Life"-Sept gets the fast attackers.
Sac'ea Sept: Kroot. Sacea is for Infantry hordes, so Kroot go here.
Bor'kan Sept: , more on that later
Farsight Enclaves:
Dalyth: ALL the races. Maybe even with a bonus that for every unit you can include one unit in the HQ slot that does not count towards the upper detchment limits.
Furthermore, for every Auxiliary Race there should be WARLORD TRAITS, RELICS, and on a general note AT LEAST ONE POINT UPGRADE SYSTEM - also known as Prototype Systems - INSPIRED BY THE FACTION. That lat bit is more for reasons of lore, but it would be nice. Just take what we already got for the Kroot, and expand on that.
I also wrote <New Auxiliaries> two times, so please let me elaborate on that. But before I go into the details on what those should look like to compliment the overall design, let me talk about how these models in general should be sold. Because to say it in simple terms:" Many new units also means many new product, and too many proudct make customer go <Decision Paralysis> or <Intimidated>. That is not supposed to happen."
So instead, there should be TWO boxes per race:
The "Many Models Box" including the unit that will get in the quanitity to field a max. size squad plus an unnamed HQ. So by today's rulebook 20 Kroot Carnivores + a Kroot Shaper. Of course you could sell the HQ seperatly as solo models, but remember: "Too Many Product Bad, Few Bestseller Product Good".
The "Few Models Box" that includes whatever "special thing" the race has to offer and that synergizes with the unit. For the Kroot, that would be the Great Knarloc.
Alright, so for every auxiliary race we need essentially three units: one unnamed HQ, one potential <Core> unit, and an outlandish "special" thing. The thing is, to make all of them unique at their little niches, every <Core> unit should sit on a different Battlefield Role Slot.
So we got the Kroot for the "Troops", and the Vespids for "Fast Attack". That means the other two still have to be filled. The "special" unit meanwhile can be literally anything, as I will showcase in my examples below. Let's go through how a "reworked" lineup could look like:
Auxiliary Race #1 Kroot:
HQ: Shaper
Core - Troops: Carnivores
Special - Heavy Support: Great Gnarloc
We all know the Kroot, and given how they already have relics and warlord traits, all they really need is a big hitter unit that also has an buffing effect for their troops.
Auxiliary Race #2 Vespids:
(Look at those old af models first. We NEED an update here!)
HQ: Strain Leader
Core - Fast Attack: Vespid Stingwings
Special - Flyer: Vespid Hive Fragment
Imagine showing up to the table and first thing you do is set down a beehive with some engines on it. I imagine it as a special heavily armored transporter that has special rules for <Infantry> units with the <Fly> Keyword. Naturally syngerizing with Vespids, but also relevant for several flavors of Battlesuits.
But now we are entering uncharted territory, so please forgive me for being a bit vague.
Auxiliary Race #3 Elites. Idea: Psykers
Yeah we know the T'au are not Psykers, but what about their many many allies? By this point it would be weird not to have one of them be proficient in the arts of the arcane.
To promote maximal visual diversity, next to the the avian yet flightless Kroot, and the insectoid yet humanoid Vespids, I propose: marine life-form on land, transported in special "reverse diving suits" or bubbles of water held together by containment fields and/or psykic power. Cephalopods might be the way to go here, but there are quite a number of designs one could get from fish, eel, or jellyfish.
Given how much they would rely on technology to even leave their usual biosphere, putting them with Borkan sounds logical.
HQ: Psyker with powers specifically buffing his allies.
Core - Elite: max. 5 models, absurdly fragile but powerful offensive output
Special: singular big unit with a powerful defensive aura and an increased range on its psykic powers, either HQ or Heavy Support.
Auxiliary Race #4: Heavy Support. Idea: Melee
Now this should be a bit less controversial: all we need is something to sit next to the Broadside Battlesuit, and given how the fields of bird, insect, or marine lifeforms are now all occupied, I'd propose either a gigantic mamalian creature or something more repitloid.
However, that T'au Codex does not make it easy to compete between Hammerhead Railguns, Riptides, and Broadside Rail Cannons, so these auxiliaries need to do something only auxiliaires are allowed to do in this book: which is being good at melee, and what would make them a good fit with the Fasright Enclaves.
HQ: A defensive brick wall to make sure your slow lumbering melee threats get into range. Imagine a "Shield Bearer" of some sorts.
Core - Heavy Support: max 3 models per unit, Melee Monsters with seemingly primitive weapons enchanced by T'au tech.
Special - Fortification: the "ancient" version of these aliens, having reached a size where it can essentially fulfil the role of a Tidewall Fortification, which is to transport units while moving, while possibly being able to attack on its own.
Auxiliary Race #5 BUT WHAT ABOUT GUEVESA?
So you want Fire Warriors but worse? Or a unit that is essentially the same as Fire Warriors with some cosmetic changes? That'd just be pointless, and just being able to splash in Guard would be stealing from the Genestealer Cult's Brood Brothers gimmic.
However, I do like the idea of at least one human model in the T'au range, so here's my last dumb idea for this: give Dalyth, as the original auxiliary sept, a special multiple-model HQ unit like "Gaunt's Ghosts" - except it includes a member of every species listed here before, a human, and a Water Caste T'au diplomat. For further creative options, all the members could be "unusual" members of the species, such as a winged Kroot for example.
I'd call it the "auxiliary team", or the "A-Team" for short. :)
"But is that not way too many new model kits?"
Why yes, yes it is. And I remember what I wrote above about "Too Many Product Bad". This is why I propose the removal/consolidation of the following as individual model products:
Kroot Hounds (pack them in with the other Kroot boxes like drones to the regular T'au)
Krootox Riders (irrelevant in the context of this book, niche for Kroot can be filled by new Great Gnarloc)
Kroot Shaper (put into the Carnivores box)
Piranas (who needs bikes when you got battlesuits with jetpacks?)
Pathfinders (give them a shared box with the Fire Warriors, so out of one box you could build one of three different things. Good chance to update the interaction Strike and Breacher teams have with their support drones/turrets)
Tidewall Droneport and Tidewall Shieldline (No one uses fortifications even on the best of days unless they bring something truly unique to the table, so there's no need to have THREE DIFFERENT ONES. Keep the Gunrig tho, that one's funky and gives a nice nod to T'au's original design of BIG ASS GUN.)
With that I just slashed 7 boxes, while even when counting the meme A-Team unit I mentioned on #5 it only comes to 7 new products to be sold. What a coincidence, its almost like I thought about it a little!
In fact, the one or other box probably would not hurt, so we might as well keep the Piranas. We can have a blob of 5 bikes with a D6+4 damage gun each. As a treat.
So yeah that's my take on it, to move the T'au's design way from being the "Fish of Fury"/"Triptide" shooting-gimmic and more to what it should be: the potentially most diverse looking force in the entire 41th millenium, save for maybe some wonky stuff Chaos can come up with. They still shoot like crazy, but now at least that is not all they can do.
#Warhammer 40k#wh40k#t'au#tau#tau auxiliaries#kroot#vespid#games workshop#would be a nice thing for 10th edition don't you think?
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Kroot Maxing
Or, can you build a 2000pt list in 10th edition with nothing but Kroot?
Right off the bat, maxing out Kroot Shapers with 3 units, and their our only leaders for 50 x 3
Kroot carnivores sadly do not have the battleline keyword, so we max out there at 3 units. To max model count and points, we’re taking 20 model units, so 150 x 3
Next, Krootox. They come in squads of three, and are ridiculously cheap pts wise, so we’re taking three units for 105 x 3
Kroot Hounds, at 12 models a unit and 90 x 3 for the max we can take
And lastly, because it’s the only Kroot unit left, three units of Kroot Farstalkers, for 105 x 3
Precision of the Patient Hunter, as it’s the only enhancement that doesn’t exclude Kroot (racist), for 20
For a grand total of 1520pts. Excluding the enhancement, exactly 3/4ths of a full army. Fuck
Now, you can do this for 500, 1000, and 1500 point games, but sadly Kroot arn’t going to be winning a  tournament anytime soon. Or are they? Let’s say we get sneaky, and count proxies as Kroot. Dinosaur ta’unar is out cause it’s 600 pts, but a storm surge is very affordable at 405. Strap that big gun to a dinosaur and your golden
We’ll also include stealth suit proxied Kroot (paint them green with scales and tails or something) to get us to 2000 pts exactly. Stealth suits give a bonus to FtGG, which Kroot can’t use (racist) but our Kroot proxied stormsurge can. Use that to wipe the big units while you focus on krootmaxing the smaller ones, and you’ve got a decent chance in a non-competitive game
And just for fun, let’s find out how much 1500pts of Kroot would cost in real world points, also known as dollars. I’m using MSRP for sake of this post, but you should never ever buy at store cost. Amazon has a flat 15% discount on all GW models, and you might find them cheaper on r/miniswap, eBay, or your local game store. You can get them even cheaper if your willing to proxy, have a 3d printer, or just use cardboard tokens. Anyways enough soapboxing, here’s the list
Assuming no cost reduction shenanigans, just buying straight from GW, Shapers are $21, so $63 for 3
Carnivores come in boxes of 16 for $64, so to get to 60 (units of 20 x 3 units) you would have to buy 4 boxes for $255, and you would have 4 Kroot extra. If you’re smart you could proxy those as Shapers to cut down on cost, but we’re just looking for one big GW approved number, so I won’t include that
Krootox are easier to count, and it’s one Kroot for one box. At $44 a box and 9 boxes, tht comes out to an eye watering $396. That’s enough to buy a Ta’unar and two arms, or 20% of a Manta
Kroot Hounds are $33 a box, but that’s a bit of a cheat, cause there’s only 4 in a box. For a full 12 dog unit it’s 3 boxes, at $90, which makes a full unit of Hounds only a dollar cheaper than a Hammerhead. For the sake of the list it’s $270, but never on gods green earth should you be paying 30 bucks for a third of a unit of shitty hounds. Just build your extra Kroot as Hounds, or don’t even bother cause they’re not that good
And lastly, Kroot Farstalkers. Easy peezy. $105 a box with 3 boxes is $315, which’s t this point just doesn’t even faze me despite that being a ludicrous amount of money
And now, the total cost of every Kroot unit you can legally play in a game of 40K, using only GW’s prices. You ready? Cause I promise you’re not. It’s $1,237 dollars. That isn’t including shipping, taxes, import cost, the cost of glue and paint, the trip to the hospital from inhaling the glue fumes from 150 models all drying
And for my last trick, that means the Kroot line as a whole, has a dollars to points ratio of 1:.82
For context, to buy a full 2000 pt army for $500s, you’d need a dollar to points ratio of 1:4
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The Dream Intro/Special box GW could do for Warhammer is a T’au vs Guard box, but theme the T’au around Kroot/Stealth teams and the Guard around Catachan.
T’au would be mostly Kroot Carnivore Squads and other Kroot units (ideally new ones) supported by Empire Stealth Battlesuits and maybe Pathfinders.
Catachan for Guard, mostly Veterans supported by Tanks. Ideally with new Catachan sculptures cause the current ones have aged poorly.
Throw in some Jungle/Death World terrain as well.
Could be amazing.
#won't happen#but I could dream#warhammer#40k#tau empire#t'au empire#kroot#imperial guard#I could use the Gaurd models for Gua'vesa untis later
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Fuck, now I gotta come up with lore for my eliksni-I mean “bugmen” squad...
And I also maybe wanna run em as psykers so there’s that
Psykers or kroot carnivores. That’s the question.
#warhammer 40000#destiny#look i’m converting genestealers to ‘bugmen’#inspired by someone else’s piece#eliksni
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So over the last week I played as the Tau and Chaos in Gladius, which is a 4x strategy 40k game. They’re both very distinct factions from each other, and I wanted to compare them. I also wanted to see which one I liked more, and I got to say, I think I preferred using the Tau.
The Tau work like a bliztkrieg in reverse; you start out spaming infantry and grabbing whatever auxiliaries you come across, forming fire brigades to deal with early game threats. You live and die on making sure fire blades and ethereals are in the right position to buff the right units, because the basic Tau infantry die quickly if someone actually makes it in. This doubly critical if you start in a low-food location, as Tau lack the ability to spam cities like Chaos does or just make any tile better for food like Orks do. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed, as your troops lack the durability and equipment at the beginning to make up for their slightly increased cost and upkeep compared to, say, a cultist or ork boy. You’ll probably be scrounging for resources a lot too, trading influence for food or ore. If you can survive the beginning stages of the game and unlock the vehicles, then the gameplay starts to shift. Compared to firewarriors, crisis suits and and hammerheads are fast and capable of going over water features, giving them an unparalleled mobility. The ability to zip across the map and cap critical locations, before quickly redirecting to new fronts means you’ll be leaving the support characters behind, which is fine because they don’t really help you, aside from the commander. Towards the end of the tau game I played I was able to quickly reach the frontline even though it was halfway across the map, do to the speed of my units. That being said, I also found myself not bothering with some of the later game units, like the riptide or stormsurge, simply because they where either too expensive or too slow (cough coughTiger/Maus cough cough). I built three cities, but I probably could have made do with just two.
Chaos is a little harder to pin down. Early game is using swarms of expendable cultists to soak up damage, while your more valuable marines do the killing. Marines themselves are for more durable than I expected, as I was able to hold a point with two marine squads and a unit of havocs against an army triple it’s size, using terrain effectively. The ability to set up a city using the most basic infantry unit can lead to unparalleled growth, and by turn 73 I had 3 cities churning out resources. Cultists doubling as combat engineers means you’ll always be using them, sending them ahead to clear the way, or even drop a city deep in enemy territory, which I did around the midway point. The Chaos army itself works on two principles, which is 1.) kill shit to get boons to get better at killing shit, and 2.) getting as close as possible to kill things harder. I could control large swaths of the map just by sending out combat patrols of 2 basic marines, backed up a havoc and a berzerker unit. In fact, this “roaming warband” style of army actually worked in my favor, as I could come at enemy factions from multiple angles. Something I didn’t like though, was that when it came to war machines, you’re pretty much just researching and building different flavors of rock’m sock’m robots. Chaos is all about getting close, and all their vehicles do just that: get close and punch shit to death. The exception is the defiler, which has some pretty decent shooting, but it still felt like I was just building different scales of melee walkers the whole game, which got kind of boring. The use of characters was also similar to Tau, although I found myself using a Chaos lord for their city wrecking capabilities, much like the ork warboss. While they have durability and raw killing power, Chaos doesn’t move very fast, especially compared to the Tau, and I found myself taking advantage of the fact that I had a city on the opposite side of the map to supplement my forces that were farther afield. The only exception was the Heldrake, which I needed to make anyway, as Chaos lacks anti-air in almost any sense, with the exception of the havoc.
I find that I like Chaos for the raw usefulness of the cultist unit, as well as their durability, but I find the redundancy in a lot of their units to be a bit boring, as well as their lack of a variety of anti-air. It’d be nice if they had access to Helblades or Forge Fiends, or maybe even Noise Marines. Tau on the other hand, will crumple once they start taking hits, but there are numerous ways to mitigate this, so it’s not too much of a problem. I like their variety of units, and it feels like I have some choices to make in terms of what my army composition is, instead of just rushing for giant crab robot and demon turkey. Almost contrary to the nature of the factions, you want to keep your veteran Chaos units alive for as long as possible, even pulling them off the front lines if necessary, as they likely have multiple boons, while Tau don’t really have anything similar (aside from a far more limited suit upgrade system) so the loss of a veteran unit isn’t as big of a blow to your overall army.
As it is I think I want to keep trying Tau out to see how they work against the various other factions. It’ll be nice to see if Chaos gets any mid-tier units that specialize more in ranged combat, or if Tau get something like kroot carnivores or even gue’vesa.
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I wonder if those Kroot from the Killteam will become their own little unit in regular 40k to compliment T'au armies. Like, you got the regular Carnivores as the "basic" troop guys, Shapers as the HQs, and now these as a "Specialist Squad" with lots of gimmics, similiar to how Pathfinders exist to compliment Fire Warriors.
A named hunting-group definetly would fit the Elite or Fast Attack slot...
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Looking over the new Tau rules...
- It’s lame there’s no Mont’ka
- Farsight Enclaves is still in the base rules - You can use Commander Farsight at the exclusion of Ethereals. I don’t see any other benefits yet, though.
At first it seemed like Farsight was kinda lame in this edition - He just has a statblock, the ability to reroll hits and wounds in melee 1/battle, and buffs his squad to add 1 to the Wound Roll within 9″ (Albeit, including in melee.)
Notably, his stat line does not seem to change much for his new model, not even with his in-built anti-psyker Talisman. This seems lame.
However... Battlesuits are now Vehicles again. That that means, he can Tank Shock:
Which... 10d6; more likely 12d6. That’s... A lot. That is going to be remarkably out of it’s weight class.
- Everything is a lot more modest, overall. Weaker profiles, etc. And Commanders (except Farsight) are hitting on 3+ now. But I’d like to point out the Commanders... Each seems to have a role
(Coldstar has Move 12, but pairs well with Strike and Fade to allow everyone to move 24″)
...I’ll note that this means Farsight should be particularly stand-out with a band of Flamethrower guys. Good for me, that’s my MO.
Crisis Suits themselves are about what you would expect... But they do get a surprise in that they can now innately advance 6″ which is very nice.
As was stated, Assault weapons are now way less common and you mostly need a Coldstar to use them. So choose your role carefully.
Note that Gun Drones got a stealth upgrade since they are no longer divided into Drones and Non-Drones (That is, a Crisis Battlesuit now just HAS the drone weapons as part of it’s own profile) and so anything that buffs the Battlesuits also buffs the Drones.
- !!! SHAPERS HAD A FUGGIN GLOW-UP
6 attacks after charge, grants an entire squad of Carnivores 6+ Feel No Pain, and give their squad The Grisley Feast strategem automatically. Not that normal Kroot also get this, but only 5+. If you can eat someone in melee? That’ll be damn good, especially if you can get like a full squad of 20.
Not only that, but Kroot and Shapers both have Stealth - they get an innate -1 to-hit; that seems EXCELLENT.
- Aun-shi is still around, pretty decent, and can now lead some kroot
- Krootox hit on a 3+ at range if they are near other Kroot, and a 2+ in melee. Hounds can get a +1 to wound, which is nice with their 3 strength, but I feel like utilizing that is impractical and prevents you from eating your enemies properly.
- You can now have some battlesuits behind a Tidewall Shieldline to give them cover, which is going to look very cool
- The Farstalkers are here to stay, it seems:
And they’re good! Look at that: Precision, Lethal Hits, and Ignore Cover. The entire squad can now take aim at one character!
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Ooh, Boarding Action rules are previewed...
I’ve been looking forward to this. I love the 500-pt game types, they’re great for niche choices and have weird little metas that develop
The rules of this format is that you have a special Boarding Patrol detachment consisting of 0-1 HQs, 0-3 Troops, and 0-3 Elites, totalling 500pts. No vehicles, monsters, bikes, models that Fly (With a few exceptions - You can bring Crisis Suits, for example,) or Cavalry (Krootox being a specific exception because Monkie.)
And, there’s no faction strategems - You just get Insane Bravery, Counter-Offensive, and a Command Reroll
It is very interesting that you need no HQ; this is probably because you only have one Character per Boarding Patrol so can have your warband led by an Elite if you want.
This whole thing is great for people building up armies, actually. So much freedom for tiny games.
Each faction has special rules for building lists. Here’s the special Tau rules:
So, here’s our actual list, as best I can tell at the moment. Note that we have no unrestricted Elites slots, surprisingly, as far as I can tell:
HQ:
Cadre Fireblade
Sept restricted HQs:
Darkstrider (Tau sept only)
Ethereal; may take Hoverdrone but that doesn’t appear to do anything
Aun’shi (Vior’la)
Aun’va (Tau sept)
Troops:
Breacher Team
Strike Team
Kroot Carnivores *
Fast Attack - One slot for one of the following:
Pathfinders
Tactical Drones
Choice of one:
Commander Farsight (HQ,) Commander in Crisis Battlesuit (HQ,) Crisis Battlesuits (Elite,) Crisis Bodyguards (Elite,) Stealth Suits (Elite.)
Flying units cannot use Manta Strike, cannot fly, and have a speed of 6″, and these units cannot take Drones. Prototype Systems are also barred.
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* Kroot:
If you take at least one Kroot Carnivore Squad, the following options unlock -
Krootox Rider; max one unit of three
Kroot Shaper; Takes Character slot so max 1
Kroot Hounds; one squad per Carnivore unit because they don’t take up a slot
Kroot Farstalkers
Dahyak Grek (Legends character unit)
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I like that you can take Farsight specifically, haha. Though, he’s actually nerfed in this format: He only gets three attacks, and can’t fly so only has a 6″ move speed. Let it be known here: Commander Farsight is a Tau who got his melee nerfed for being too unbalanced
It’s... Odd that Farsight was specified as a unit you can take, since he’s also a Crisis unit. It says “Or,” so it seems like you can only take one of those Battlesuit units, but I feel like that could be read both as “You can choose one of these, to the exclusion of the others” or “You can take this, this, or this as a special option.” Maybe it’s just there to specify that, yes, you DO get to just take Farsight and go on a Char Aznable quest. But maybe you can run a Crisis Squad led by Commander Farsight, thus giving a bonus to the Enclaves who would otherwise not benefit from their ability to field an extra commander and the like.
If you CAN run Crisis Suits with him? Well... A crisis squad and him are a bulk of your army, but man... Rerolling all wound rolls on Flamers, AND giving melee ability to Crisis Battlesuits (4+, rerolling 1s) in a format where 5 Str is a pretty huge amount, AND letting that squad fall back and shoot in a close-quarters game? I feel like this could be the coolest thing ever if that is what is actually intended here. But, I don’t think that is the intended outcome, haha.
Another Battlesuit-heavy option would be to take a full squad of XV8s. 6 XV8s with shield generators on two, an Early Warning Override on one, and an Iridium Suit each would go for about 380 points, and then you can (Probably, we don’t have details on this yet) use the game-specific option to split an elite unit into smaller squads to field two squads of 3 XV8s. This would be... Difficult, to deal with, especially if you give them some flamers (Which, I feel like you should in this format. Maybe I’m just a pyromaniac.)
As in other 500-pt formats, this also means Kroot are unusually powerful because of their detachment shinanigans - One squad of Carnivores mean you can take Kroot Hounds, a Shaper, and Krootox without taking a slot. Kroot Hounds are otherwise impossible to get, and seem like they would be very useful and fun in this format since you get to unleash packs of dogs on your opponents in this space ship. The format restricts you to one character, however, so no running multiple Shapers.
Krootox might ACTUALLY BE GOOD, too. Take a close look - Tactical Drones and Crisis Suits are limited to 6″, and there are no fast vehicles like Devilfish. Kroot are now the fastest thing in this -entire army- and the fastest among them are Krootox and Kroot Hounds. Krootox’ high Toughness actually means something here in the absence of other options, making them unlikely to die immediately. Since Krootox can still open doors and such? That is all-together an ENORMOUS niche, especially with the cramped quarters making a charge from them pretty likely. This is good to think about, because Krootox are otherwise kind of... Absolutely pathetic?
The format is also notable for lacking faction stratagems - Again, this is a punishment that effect Kroot a lot less than others, and while it does hurt losing your ability to eat others everyone else is hurt way more
Anyways... Yeah. An interesting, limited format.
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Right now I should have 40 kroot, 2 Shapers, 6 hounds, and two Krootox (...Kinda. One is a proxy that is not very similar.) So, about 376 points of Kroot.
Which means... I need 20 more Kroot. That’ll give me the most Carnivores I can field in a Combat Patrol-sized game, for 496 points of kroot.
Alternative... One box of 16 Kroot would give me 96 points, then I can round out my Krootox to a full squad of three for exactly 497 points. Krootox are not... Exactly very good?? But like, a squad of them certainly looks cool, and I want something to break up my tide of dudes, visually
Alternative 2: The new unit also came out, recently, and seems interesting. Basically, normal kroot with some decent anti-infantry weapons who can ignore cover and reroll hits against one enemy. Also has some fun weapons, including combining a Sniper with either a Flamethrower or an Anti-Vehicle weapon. If I run with the special weapons, they cost 100pts. It’s also get an extra 16 points worth of Kroot Hounds
Hrrrmmm.... I think all the options would cost about the same, money wise. Decisions...
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I can put Kroot units into reserves using Command Points. Borkan can also drop a Kroot unit into reserve from the battlefield using a Strategem
Maximum size:
Kroot Carnivores - 20 kroot, 6 Power Level
Kroot Hounds - 12 hounds; 3 Power Level
Krootox Riders - 3 models, 6 Power Level
Shaper - 1 shaper, 2 Power Level
It costs more Command Points the higher the combined Power Level of your units are put into reserve; every 10 costs an additional 1, starting at 1. Since Pure Kroot has a small pool of cheap stratagems to otherwise spend Command Points on (They only have The Grisly Feast, A Trap Well Laid, Orbital Ion Beam, Outflank, the “Additional Warlord Trait” and “Additional Relic” ones, and the ones all armies get - Though Insane Bravery is absolutely amazing on them,) and because they are extreme glass cannons, I could see a lot of use out of putting the kroot in reserve
...Putting the kroot in reserves, there’s a really off-colour joke in there somewhere I’m sure. I’m native so I could make it, too, if I could find it.
Of them...
- Krootox are the most expensive, but also have the longest range by far, and are deceptively among the most fragile - combining terrible saves that will do nothing against anything that is reliable against your toughness, a merely-okay number of wounds, poor leadership, and the inability to increase saves meaningfully as other kroot have. Dropping them in to strike when they need could be good, and if you play your cards right doing this will keep them alive.
- Kroot Hounds are the least expensive to put in reserve, and bear an interesting, otherwise-rare possibility: They can reroll charge rolls. Plop them in with a Pack Leader shaper, and you are rolling three dice, taking the highest two, and then re-rolling charge rolls. I would have to crack the numbers on that to see if that means they could pull off a charge reliably, but that would be a rare “Drop in from reserves and charge” kind of unit that would be pretty rare and have an actual niche outside of grabbing objectives. They are also incredibly cheap in terms of both power level and points, so could be used to fill out the chunk of your army in reserves.
- Carnivores are solid. They have solid range and pretty decent guns for their cost, and should reliably be able to attack enemies. However, getting off a charge is unlikely, making them not all they can be. They should be able to keep up a pressure just coming in over and over, though. And, their sheer number of shots bears mention, as well - If you run Kauyon, then starting on turn 3, hit rolls of 6 inflict additional hits.
- Shaper buffs are guaranteed to be relevant. A dropped-in shaper with the anti-cover warlord trait could be real good supporting squads of Carnivores, and a shaper with the Pack Leader trait could make drop-in-and-charge tactics partly reliable - Especially with Kroot Hounds. Ka’Chak’Tar would be a good relic fielded alongside Krootox, making a dedicated anti-marine squad (Getting, all together, 8-10 Marine Killing shots which reroll hit rolls of 1.)
- A non-Kroot Dalyth Sept Character can take a special warlord trait to allow nearby Kroot (And Vespid) to benefit from Markerlights. This nearby a squad - Say, by dropping in two squads of Carnivores, a Shaper, and this guy in round three of a Kauyon? You could be attacking with something like 80 shots, and hitting more than 100% of them.
...This is also like, really thematic to what Kroot are and their whole ethos, so that’s cool. I will need to test them out to see how they actually perform; this is all theoretical.
Edit: Also of note...
This would naturally be amazing with Engage on All Fronts; you can reliably claim enormous amounts of points with waves of kroot pushing in.
Kroot Shapers can also come in on your Reinforcements step, and then immediately start performing actions that begin “at the end of the movement step” - Such as Tau’s Aerospace Targeting Relays strategem, which so happens to be excellent in parity with Engage On All Fronts. Shapers are your cheapest infantry unit, and as a Character can be decently well protected; you won’t miss their modest shooting either. Plop them down from reserves, repair the homers, and let your allied kroot shoot while the shapers farm victory points... This may be effective, as well
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In the upcoming week my friend are having another 500-pt mini-tourney
I’m using the new Tau/Kroot rules. If anyone played this format, I feel like kroot would be unusually dominant... I tried them last time we did this, to surprising effect - Kroot are just fast enough to reliably get their full offense out and contest with sheer numbers. This is because 500-pt games are played on an unusually tiny map; this means melee is essentially inevitable, and jumping out of cover for a melee charge is possible.
But that was the old codex
New Tau Codex give the kroot a bonus to save in cover, a pre-game move, and twice as much melee with a shiny new AP-1. Additionally, they get a Quill Grenade and the ability to take other Kroot units without them taking up a slot in the detachment. So, Kroot Carnivores and a Shaper would only take up a Troops slot; this is great as in 500-pt games you are limited to one Patrol detachment, with very limited slots.
Finally, there are relics and warlord traits for Kroot Shapers; most notably the one that gives nearby Kroot units +1Str and +1 attack. Nearby kroot are hellions in melee; point for point, by that point they appear to be outpacing Khorne Berzerkers (Though you can physically fit more attacks in with them)
I’ve also had the thought that the more kroot you have the more you suffer diminishing returns in larger games. You can only get on Borthan Gland (Kroot near the shaper gain 1 strength and 1 attack;) you can only get three Shapers if you are running multiple squads of Kroot; you can only use The Grisly Feast (Kroot who defeat an enemy in melee gain 5+++ for the rest of the battle) once per turn. If I were to run like, 100 Kroot Carnivores in a larger game, they would not be able to put out the same level of threat, comparatively, as 40 in a game half the size.
So it’s interesting. They said it was possible to run a full kroot army now, but I barely see that being possible outside of 500-pt games... On the other hand, within that format they seem to have some truly unique approaches, building on how they were actually good in that last codex
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