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My friend and I had a friendly game last night, and I decided to bring an army that was completely different from any I'd ever played with or against. I didn't know pre-game what army he'd bring, Eldar or 'Nids.

My List:
Commander Shas'O - Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod, Multitracker, 2x Shield Drones, Target Lock
Commander Shas'O - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multitracker, 2x Shield Drones, Target Lock

3x:
19 Kroot
12 Hounds
1 Shaper

2x:
20 Kroot
12 Hounds

6 Firewarriors

3 Stealth Suits (1 w/ Fusion Blaster)

3x:
Broadside Team Leader - 1x Shield Drone, Advanced Stabilization

=174 Models

His List: (Pretty close)
1 Hive Tyrant with 2x TL Devourers, Extended Carapace
3 Carnifexes with 2x TL Devourers, Enhanced Senses all w/ 3+ saves
3 Carnifexes with Venom Canon and Barbed Strangler all w/ 3+ saves
4 Squads of 10 Genestealers

=47 Models

Table Layout:

I have a 4' x 6' Whiteboard on sawhorses, so I drew in a river on one corner of the map (Back Left), with a bridge crossing it. In the River aea there are some ruins with a perch or two at the 2nd floor level. In the Back right corner was an industrial complex with Oil Tanks, pipelines, walkways, and a snipers roost. In the Front right corner there was a fenced in area with some smaller oil tanks (Infantry cannot cross fences unless they get knocked down by shooting or CC - a glance or better at AV10 - or a MC or Vehicle knocks it over. In the Front Left Corner is a giant hill with houses and walkways on it. In the center there were a couple of small forested areas. Other notable terrain is Tank Traps near the middle front edge.

******
We rolled for Kill Points and 12" Deplyment zones. He won the roll to go first or second and defered to me. I set up all my Kroot and Hounds, with 3 groups and the Stealth suits infiltrating as far forward as possible. The Broadsides chilled on the back edge with as much elevation as possible. The 2 Kroot Groups with no shaper joined with the Commanders and set up at the 12" mark, one on the middle right side and the other on the extreme left flank.

He put all his MC's behind the tank traps, so that from ground level they would be getting cover saves. We decided that Infantry and MCs could walk through and on the tank traps with no difficult terrain tests. And charging through them did not infer cover bonuses or penalties.
******
Round 1:

Tau 1 - The battle started with me shooting a wound onto one of his Carnifexes with Stranglers and another wound onto a Dakkafex, using the Commanders Missile pods and the Broadsides, mostly using 4+ Cover. I moved my Kroot up a bit, choosing not to run very far so that I could keep them in the woods. They were'nt spread out as much as possible because the woods were pretty small.

Tyrannid 1 - He kept his bugs behind the traps, backing them up a little bit to stay away from advancing Kroot. He shot the hell out of one squad of Kroot, killing about 10 in all, mostly hounds. He was unable to make them pin or run.

Tau 2 - I ran the squad of Kroot that was smaller up to the next forest. Everyone else advanced some more. For the most part everyone was in Forest cover or out of range. The guys on the left side of the board got crappy run rolls so they pretty much were going to be delegated to left side of the board Outflank protection. The commander with that squad separated to get some range on the Big Beasties. I finished off one of his StranglerFexes and maybe did another wound to one of the Dakkafexes.

Tyrannid 2 - He got in 1 squad of Genestealers, which came in on the right side from Outflanking. He was positioned to assault a unit of Kroot in the Industrial complex that would not be getting any cover bonuses. After shooting and pinning the already blasted Kroot squad in the woods closest to him, he softened up a couple other squads by a couple of models. He was unable to pin my Commander-led Kroot squad that was going to be the counter-attack force to his Genestealer assault. The Genestealer v. Kroot combat ended with him winning combat by 18 (I got 1 kill, he got 19...). I prayed for a Snake-Eyes, but only rolled a 3...FAILZORZ!!! They lost Initiative and died. The Genestealers got behind cover but couldn't get out of sight.

Tau 3 - I Blasted the Genestealers, killing 7. I wasn't too worried about the other 3, so I left them there to take their LD test. I focused some more fire on StranglerFexes and took some potshots at a Dakkafex. I didn't kill anything but got a few more wounds. Most notably my Kroot on the Left side of the board lined up to block the board edge up to the river, lining the bank of the river and the board edges, so that if he outflanked Stealers to that side he would have to assault through cover. The Kroot that were pinned stayed pinned in the woods. The Last squad of Kroot advanced a bit while still staying in the woods.

Tyrannid 3 - He got in 2 more squads of stealers. They both came in from the right, but one of them had to come in on the wrong side of the fence, so they would be out of the picture until he shot at the fence. The other squad of stealers set up to charge my Kroot + Commander next turn. All the big beasties shot more Kroot with 3+ cover saves, killing a few. This was his least productive round of shooting ever, despite a good scatter roll that covered 12 models. He assaulted my Commander/Kroot squad with the 3 remaining Genestealers, killing 4, but losing his 3 in return. My squad consolodated towards his non-fenced in stealer squad to rapid-fire them next turn.

Tau 4 - I Set up to assault the Big Beasties with One squad of Kroot, planning on hitting just one of the Dakkafexes with the first few models. I also shot the crap out of another squad of Genestealers, leaving 3. I also shot some more stuff at one of his Stranglerfexes, killing it, leaving one left. I assaulted the Fex, doing a wound, taking a wound, and remaining in combat.

Tyrannid 4 - Get got his last stealer group in on the left edge in the river, and set up to assault my Kroot. He also shot down the fence with his Venom Cannon Fex and prepared to put his 13 stealers into my Commander and Kroot. Also, unexpectedly, he set up to assault my smaller squad of Kroot that was the target of early game shooting with his Tyrant. Also he charged into my Fex combat with the 2 remaining Dakkafexes. All the combats went my way, more or less, with my Kroot taking heavy casualties, my Commander losing a drone and a wound, but everyone dealing back enough damage to keep a fairly low modifier and stick in combat. I did lose my Kroot near the river, but got 6 kills in return, leaving 4 in the squad. The fexes and Kroot fought a bit, I lost combat, but passed my test. The Tyrant did 3 wounds, but My Kroot were able to roll 2 sixes. He failed both of them in a miraculous stroke of luck for me. I stayed in combat.

Tau 5 - I was pretty much stuck in combat. I shot his Stranglerfex with my Broadsides, finishing him off. I shot his stealers near the river with the Commander and Firewarriors that had been sitting in the middle of the board. My Commander and Kroot killed a couple of Stealers, tying combat and leaving just a couple left. The Tyrant lost another wound, I stayed in combat after passing a test. I killed one of his Fexes, but lost combat and started running.

Tyrannid 5 - He shot and charged my Kroot, finishing them off since they failed their LD check. One of his Fexes from the big Fex/Kroot war charged in to help the Tyrant. Between the both of them they did enough wounds to kill the squad. My Commander and Kroot finished off the stealers they were fighting. We rolled a 2 to end the game, which was probably good for him since most of his big guys were on their last wound or 2, I still had a decent squad of Kroot, 2 Commanders, the Stealth Squad, the Firewarriors, and all 3 Broadsides ready to light him up. The Tyrant and one of his fexes weren't in cover anymore, so they would have eaten a few Rails and Plasma shots with no cover benefits, along with around 20 Kroot Rifle and 6 Pulse Rifle shots.

Kill Points -
Me - 7 or 8
Him - 4

Lessons Learned:
Kroot are pretty crazy when in the woods, 1 unit stood up to 6 Carnifexes and 1 Tyrant for an entire turn, only losing 10-12 models. Kroot are not good at taking a charge from Close Combat oriented units. Since they went last they had their only advantage, numbers, taken away from them before they could roll. I was super glad I took lots of hounds, because they were a cheap way to keep more Kroot on the table for that shooting option.

This was my first ever horde army attempt, I do not like handling that many models. Plus, all the hounds were proxied, using 1" cardboard circles with hound-sized styrofoam blocks hot glued to them. They were hard to keep track of and got knocked around a bit by my clumsy reaching.

I was glad I took the Shapers for the non Commander Squads. their Leadership bonus was nice, but the best part was that when fighting a battle they could soak up an extra wound and keep a Kroot on the table to strike back. This was especially good for the Tyrant battle when he was only getting 2-3 kills per turn, I could reduce that to 1-2 dead Kroot for at least 2 rounds.

The Commanders were great for the Kroot Squads, they jumped ahead of the squad, leaving it at the beginning of the Movement phase. The Kroot then regained Fieldcraft and moved 6" through woods, back into 2" range of the Commander. At the end of the Movement phase he was withing 2" again, and joined the squad. This proved to be a useful trick and kept my Kroot moving full speed ahead. Also, their weapons added a good amount of punch to the squads, and their Shield drones really helped against shooting, I probably saved 5 Kroot with each pair of shield drones throughout the game.

I LOVE KROOT so i love your army list......

I always thought kroot generally blew! But you put them to good use. GG

great report...good use of the commanders in the kroot squads. I play often with 2 or 3 large squads of kroot but haven't ever seen 5 on the board like this, sounds fun so long as there's enough forests.

The most fun is to go to ground in a forest...yes, I'll take my 2 up save on my 7 point models, please, keep shooting me!

Kroot are great in woods.

Yeah, it was pretty fun, although I only have about 30 Kroot and 3 Hounds, so my entire Kroot force was proxyed...

I found myself wishing that I had more punch at range, so I think if I had it to do over again I would substitute the Stealth squad for another broadside, and possibly also trim 3 hounds from each squad to get another 90 points for something nasty. My broadsides weren't even looked at, so it was kind of nice to have 3 railguns that he soaked up every turn, maybe 5 rails would be even better. Also, 20 Kroot and 12 Hounds was tough to get into combat, I doubt I'd miss 3 hounds.

As far as going to ground and forests, I have a problem where I set the table up before my buddy gets there, so if I tailor the terrain to my needs it looks bad and the game is unfair. That said, I did manage to get some forests into my design... . Honestly, a 4+ save for 6 and 7 point models is still pretty good, so the forests are just a bonus.

nice battle. thanks to this i'm going to try out some kroot more. the only time i've used them i had a squad of 20 kroot and 12 hounds, they got assaulted by black templars, i took 10 wounds he took 3, one sweeping advance later and they were dead. I guess you have to be careful with them and make sure you get the assault whenever possible

I was previously a 1 or 2 group Kroot user, usually 2 groups of 10 or 12 with no hounds. They can be useful distractions, they can get a big 2+ saves if they lay down in woods, but they get chewed up by flamers or CC oriented squads, plus they run away so easily...

This new MEGA Kroot list focuses on the weaknesses I saw.

#1: Too Few squads. If you only have a squad or 2, they either don't pose a risk or don't provide value, depending on their use and the opponents perception of them.

#2: Too Small Squad Size. It takes a LONG time to kill 32 of anything with a 3+ save. Add a Commander and 2 shield drones and you have a metric crap-ton of 3+ saves. Its the equivalent of trying to kill 35 Space Marines for each squad, or 160 TOTAL Space Marines (assuming forest cover and no going to ground). If they were all in forests and went to ground you could have 160 Terminator equivalent saves...that's what scientists call re-GD-diculous.

#3: Leadership Bad: Add Shapers for a few extra wounds, a few extra attacks, and a few extra points (not usually cost effective, but if you are going to invest in 200 points of something that gets scared of the dark, maybe 21 points for a flashlight isn't a bad buy. Add Commanders to 2 squads, and not only do you get all the bonuses the Commander confers on the squad (Shooting Ability increases with addition of higher STR, higher AP weapons of your choice, LD goes up to 9 or 10, Shield drones save a few Kroot in shooting, CC divided between 2 squads...) you also get to use the Kroot to soak up LasCannon and Melta meant for your Commander. Its a pretty safe assumption your Commander won't be taking any Saves against anything that will INSTAgib him, at least in the shooting phase.

#4: Tau Options are lmited: Lets face it, your buddy knows what you are going to bring to the table. The Tau options look something like this:
-Bring some stuff that is expensive and can shoot well.
-Bring some stuff that is fragile and can shoot well.
-Bring some stuff that can help some other stuff shoot well.
-Bring some stuff that can protect your stuff while your stuff shoots well.
-Bring some stuff that can jump around, all nambly-pambly, while shooting well at things that need special attention.

When your opponent is bringing a list to play against Tau, he is not thinking, "Maybe Larry Chryslerpants will bring 160 disposable troops this time...". He is thinking, "How can I drop the stankbomb on a Hammerhead", and "How can I get my grubby little mitts on his Crisis suits", and "I wonder if Railguns shoot rails, or is the gun made from rails, and if so, maybe its a gun made of rails that shoots rails that are full of other rails..."

#5: Games get to last forever: Moving all those models takes forever if you are used to just moving normal Tau stuff. Our game lasted like 5 hours. And it ended on turn 5.

Nice job - I'd expect kroot to have a lot of trouble with big bugs and genestealers but it turned out well for you.

I think it's very clever how you attach commanders to the kroot squads. I may have to try that sometime.

lol a Tau Horde army , first time hearing about it ^^
talk about a OMGWTFPWNKROOT ARMY