Poisonous Kroot Headhunter
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10th Edition Kroot
So I just played my first game with the new Kroot rules (using the points in the codex which I know are likely to change after release date) and wanted to share my takeaways as a veteran Kroot player on the myriad of changes and improvements we’ve seen.
My friend brought a very heavy infantry and vehicle based list, something that I had a lot of trouble dealing with in the past with my Kroot, yet not only did I win reasonably handily, I felt in control of the game the whole time with how manoeuvrable, and not (comparatively) hard hitting the Kroot are. I’ll go over the game and lists at the end, but here are my overall thoughts on the rules and units first.
Detachment Rules
Both the detachment rules we get for Kroot (or rather the two and a half detachment rules since we also get Carnivores as Battleline as one) are both fantastic, enhancing the (only) existing Kroot play style of moving fast ans swarming objectives, as well as adding a new one of being able to gang up on targets in a way that feels thematically similar to the Tau’s marker light ability, but is still very Kroot.
Hunters Instincts gives us +1 to hit on units below starting strength, and +1 to wound against units below half. I wasn’t expecting the latter ability to come into play too much, but leaning into the Kroot’s new play style about having multiple units gang up on a single target, it came up a lot more often than I expected. The amount this increases the Kroot’s damage output blew me away. It was always a struggle to down a single vehicle or monster before, this time, I took one down on turn 1, another on turn 3 and almost a 3rd by the end of the game, in a 1k point match.
Skirmish Fighters provides a massive boost in survivability, in addition the Stealth already reducing damage, the 5+ invul at ranged is huge for keeping your army alive. I’m now no longer worried about scouting up the board if I don’t have the first turn, I just push everything up, take a few lumps and still have most of my force alive to fight. The only downside to this is that it makes cover for most Kroot units irrelevant now. While it’s nice to now have to keep your hordes behind walls when that’s not always possible, using that for position in the past was always a fun challenge, and I’m a little sad it’s gone. The bigger Kroot going up to a 5+ save does mean it occasionally matters against AP 0 weapons, but it’s rare.
Obviously Carnivores getting battle line is fantastic, more bodies are great and the unit got a large buff in addition to that.
Strats
Damn I’m impressed with this. Having gone through the last two editions with 1-3 usable strats for my entire army, I’m suddenly spoiled for choice. 5/6 of the Kroot stats are good-great and it’s wonderful to finally have that kind of tactical decision making instead of just spamming the same ones over and over again. Though two do stand out as easily the strongest, so I’ll rate them in what I think are best to worst:
1. Hidden Hunters: Being able to just straight up protect a unit is great in any army, but it’s extra good here. There are a lot of bigger key units that you’ll want to be able to keep alive, be it a unit of Krootox to be able to cover your infantry, a squad of rampagers you want to be able to close the distance, or a big infantry blob you sunk two characters into, there is always something that will benefit from this.
2. A Trap Well Laid: So this is one of the many abilities that plays into the Kroot’s game plan to ambush and eliminate a single target. You target one of your units before shooting and then one of the targets it hits (and it has to hit so there is some chance to wiff if you’re not careful) is “marked” and any additional Kroot attacks this phase get an extra pip of AP to them. The neat thing about this is that since it targets your unit with the strat, you can double up on this with the free strat from the War Shaper to give -2 AP to a single target you’re trying to bring down. This also works in close combat as well, if you’ve got multiple units mixing it up.
3. Guerrilla Warriors: Fall back, shoot and charge is always good, especially with a unit like the rampagers that can do mortals on the charge.
4. EMP Grenades: This will be better against some armies than others, but giving a full enemy units -1 WS and -1 BS can be huge, especially because it stacks with Stealth because you’re not modifying the hit roll. The 8” range makes it situational, but it can be used in melee as well, which is nice.
5. Join the Hunt: I was SUPER excited about this strat when I read it, bringing back a full blob of 20 Kroot Carnivores would have been crazy strong in the gum up the board sytle that Kroot were always forced into before. The thing is, all game, I never got up to the point where I had two spare CP to use on this. Maybe I’ll make more use of it in the future, but Hidden Hunters and a Trap Well Laid (as well as the Grenades strat to make sure you trigger the +1 to hit on a fresh unit, or the +1 to wound on an injured one) are so powerful, that I was never left with the availability to try this. I think it would be great in some lists, but isn’t as ubiquitously OP as I originally expected since it’s costed (fairly) at 2CP.
6. Grisly Feast: Okay, so they can’t all be winners. After killing a unit in close combat, you can force every other enemy unit in 6” to take battle shock. MAYBE this sometimes helps secure an objective, but it’s not a guaranteed pass, and Carnivores are all OC 2 now, so I’ve you’ve killed a unit on the objective, you’ve probably secured it already anyway. VERY situational, and even then a gamble.
Units
Lone Spear: I’m going to just briefly touch on this because I didn’t actually try it out in my list, but everyone can tell it’s really strong. Giving re-rolls to hit on top of something that’s already +1 to hit is going to be a lot of damage. I can see this possibly working well with the Farstalkers Marked Targets so they can double up on their change to get lethal hits. Perhaps with some overlapping fire and buffs they could even finally snipe a character. There is a slight risk here with using them for a Trap Well Laid, is that at only one shot on the sniper at 2+ and D6 on the Javelin at 4+ the miss chance is small, but not insignificant, so you could get some fell bads on whiffing your strat here. Even if they stay at 110 points, I think they’ll still be great, either a solid manoeuvrable back line sniper or a mid range elite hunter.
The Kroothawk Flock enhancement is best here giving them a 12” deep strike denail which protects this lone operative very well and is great for screening.
War Shaper: Easily the best Shaper, even if it stays at 60 points, I think every Kroot army should auto include one. The free strat you get every turn is just so valuable. On top of that, if you take an extra 10 points for the Root Carved Weapons enhancement, giving them Dev Wounds on their Anit Infantry 3+ 2 damage Dart Dow with throw our a reasonable number of wounds.
Flesh Shaper: The Flesh Shaper turned out a fair bit better than I was expecting. The 6+ FNP has always been a reasonable buff and stacking that with the 5+ invul is very nice, and the Sustained Hits 1 in melee is pretty good too if you can keep the unit safe and large with something like Hidden Hunters. The addition of the Bothrod Gland taking them up to crit on 5’s in melee really lets them pump out the damage, especially if you can give them a pip of AP from another unit attacking first. I managed to get them into close combat and finish off a Dreadnaught on turn on and having the 5+ FNP on top of all their other defences made the unit ridiculously durable. If they stay at 65 points, I’m on the fence if I’d want to run more, but it is the Shaper I’m most inclined to double up on.
Trail Shaper: More situational rather than an auto include, the Trail Shaper still has some solid benefits and is the cheapest of the three. Re-deploying 2 Kroot units is a great ability, and (unenhanced) he works best among the Farstalkers, infiltrating up, and then pulling them back if needed. The downside is that the Farstalkers sadly aren’t that good right now, a far cry from the always include 3 they were in the Index. This is just based on their points though, so that could change. Another use for him is with the Nomadic Hunter enhancement. He gets +3” move and all weapons in the unit gain Assault. Pairing him with a Bothrod Flesh shaper is a great way to get them quickly up the board and eating face fast, you can also re-deploy the blob to the best possible spot to take advantage of eating something quick to gain your better FNP. More than the others, this is the Shaper I’d probably only ever take one of.
Carnivores: The backbone of the Kroot got a lot of love and while I initially thought that the MASSIVE points increase from 55 per 10 to 85 per 10 was too much, after playing with them... it kinda feels fairly costed. I know these points aren’t final, but I’d be surprised if they change much. Gaining OC 2 is huge and allows them to bully almost anything off an objective. Sticky objectives is fantastic too, getting them off of points and back into the fight was a big turning factor in my game. The new tanglebomb launcher is fine, the amount of firepower it adds is technically an increase, but it’s very small. There’s not reason not to take it, but you don’t really loose much having all the old rifle models. Same with the leaders new gun, basically a side grade. With +1 to hit being almost constant, and easily being able to tack on a pip of AP to their attacks, the volume fire fire the carnivores should not be underestimated, especially if you manage to get the +1 to wound as well. I had one squad of them them take 5 wounds off a Dreadnought in a single turn. (with the aid of a Flesh Shaper in close combat).
Farstalkers: Sadly, the points increase on the Farstalkers was less warranted than the Carnivores as they didn’t change at all aside from streamlining the Tau gun they get. They were auto includes at 70 points, but feel very underwhelming at their new 110. They are stronger with all the new Kroot rules to be sure, but I think around 90-95 points is a more fair costing of this unit and I hope we see them go down. They are still useful to put forward and make sure enemy infiltrators can stymie your scout moves, but that’s really the only reason to take them over more carnivores at this point.
Rampagers: I was a little underwhelmed by these guys. They aren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, they’re just kinda okay. Only having a 7” move makes it hard to get them up the board, but not terribly so as their 7” scout move does help. I managed a turn 1 charge with one of my units, while the other ended up just sitting on an objective all game, too removed from the fight to do much. The comparison though has to be made to the much similar unit in the Krootox which I’ll get to in a second. While they certainly hit hard and their charge ability is good, especially with the Guerrilla Warriors strat, you don’t just want to windmill slam a bunch of these in your list. I’m not even sure yet it a unit of 6 is worth it because you are MUCH less likely to get the full charge buff, MSU’s might be the way to go with this one. Time will tell.
Krootox: Once again, this might just be the best Kroot unit (as it has been for the past two editions) aggressively costed at 40 points per model (3.3 less than the rampagers). This is a solid increase from their previouls 35 points, but they went up to tough 6 and 5 wounds, plus output twice as much ranged firepower with an extra pip of AP. More than worth the extra 5. These loose the sustained hits and charge bonus of their aggressive rampager cousins for a deceptively powerful ranged attack. You’ll almost always be hitting and wounding on 3’s with this, or even 2’s if you’re finishing of a unit. At damage 2 they chew through space marines pretty easily, and their reactive fire when being near carnivores should not be underestimated either. Solid all around fighters, one unit of 3 is an auto include to babysit your infantry, but I fully expect to be running 9 of them in any 2k list for Kroot.
Kroot Hounds: In addition to being the great screening unit that they always were, the hounds have picked up an extra bit of utility. If they help a unit gang up on someone in close combat, you can have them active A Trap Well Laid to give your stringer unit an extra pip of AP. While I don’t expect to be running them in squads of 10, some 5 hound units will certainly be useful for penning units in, doing secondaries, or buffing allies.
Knarlocs Riders: Not going to leave out the Legends units either. The Knaroc Riders were a reasonably well costed choice in the army already. The reduction in the save for the extra toughness seemed like a side grade before, but it’s almost pure upside now that they get the 5+ invul at range. Between the very likely +1 to hit and Lance on the Charge these guys will very often be both hitting and wounding on 2s. Another unit that’s a great target for Guerrilla Warriors. With the new Kroot buffs, if you own these old models, they well make a great addition to your cavalry charge backing up the Rampagers and Krootox.
Great Knarlocs: I was pretty sad at the dawn of 10th that these big beloved dinos went from aggressively costed to basically useless. Back in 9th they were only 65 points and were moderate damage dealers, they didn’t live long because they were easy targets for anti-tank and they weren’t all that tough. Even so, you didn’t loose much when they went down. Now their damage has been nerfed and they shot up to 100 points making them essentially unplayable. However, it’s the new rules to the rescue again. While the two combat Great Knarlcos are still sadly hot garbage this edition, the addition of Hidden Hunters makes the use of a single baggage Great Knarloc a solid option. It has a 3” aura of Sustained hits 1 to Kroot ranged attacks. Previously it would just get deleted turn 1 every time, but now that you can protect it with hidden hunters, pairing it with a few units of Krootox and perhaps a Lone Spear will be a pretty substantial damage multiplier.
Overall, every unit has it’s place which I really like, some are far better than others, but there is a solid reason to take at least one of anything on this list, which speaks to a really well designed rule set to me. I’m really happy with what we got, it very much feels like a codex within a codex and I’ll be playing the hell out of my Kroot this edition. If I were to rank them all based on their current points, it would be something like this:
Characters:
1. Lone Spear
2. War Shaper
3. Flesh Shaper
4. Trail Shaper
Units:
1. Krootox
2. Carnivores
3. Knarloc Riders
4. Rampagers
5. Hounds
6. Farstalkers
7. Great Knarloc
Misconceptions
So, as I said previously, I tried out a 1k game last night using both the new rules and new points to see how much better Kroot are now after the codex drops. My friend specifically brought a list that I had a lot of trouble with using just index Kroot. Full of elite infantry and vehicles/monsters. Here’s what we had:
Kroot:
- 1 War Shaper
- 1 Flesh Shaper with Bothrod Glad
- 20 Carnivores
- 10 Carnivores
- 10 Farstalkers
- 3 Krootox
- 3 Krootox
- 3 Rampagers
- 3 Rampagers
Space Marines (Gladius Strike Force)
- 1 Roboutte Guilliman
- 1 Redemptor Dreadnaught
- 1 Ballistus Dreadnaught
- 3 Agressors
- 3 Outriders
- 5 Heavy Intercessors
Now playing against this list pre codex, I got my ass kicked pretty hard. I was able to eventually chew through the infantry, but even throwing my whole army at Guilliman and I was only barely able to down big G, and after he came back to life, it was curtains. I could do nothing against the dreads.
This time however, it was very different.
He got the first turn and moved up aggressively into my army which I’d brought everything forward in a scout move expect the 10 carnivores I had on the back field objective. He tried to split fire his Ballistus between the Krotox guarding my carnivores and the unit itself, but using Hidden Hunters on both (once for free because of the War Shaper) I negated that. The Redemptor in the centre only managed to down 4 carnivores after several invuls and took 3 wounds back from Krootox return fire when he didn’t respect the Ap-1 and chose not to AoC it. No other damage went through, I’d positioned my army in a way so that onle the unit of Krootx and Carnivores could be seen and nothing else was within 12” of them.
Not used to having a full army left after taking a capitalized on it fast, throwing everything into the Redemptor. I chose to go with grenades for my 1CP over A Trap Well Laid since he reduced damage by 1 and I fully expected him to AoC this time. I took 3 wounds off bringing him to half and chipped another 3 off with combined fire from the rest of my army. With three wounds left, I made the call to throw my infantry at it, Between +1 to hit, +1 to wound, and sustained hits on 5+, I managed to score 20 wounds, of which he failed 4 2+ saves, so even a re-roll wouldn’t spare him. Just like that, I’d downed a unit that I would have previously considered unassailable. In addition, I got the 5+ FNP for killing a unit in melee with my Flesh Shaper.
On the left flank my Rampagers downed a pair of outriders and on the right, my other Rampagers took an uncontested objective. End of turn 1 I had every midfield objective and had take out the second largest threat on the table.
Even so, he still had a lot of firepower to bring to the table. His aggressors chose to support Robbie G in the middle rather than contest my rampages on the right flank, but when opened up on the carnivore squad, only killing 3 models after the -1 to hit, 5+ invul and 5+ FNP, they lost 2 whole aggressors to the Krootx return fire. The Ballistus picked of a few 3 more with a frag barrage, but again, all the damage reduction mitigated a lot. The split fire from the lascannon though did down two of my Rampagers on the left flank while The Outriders and Hvy Intercessors cleaned up most of my Farstalkers that were supporting them.
Guilliman and the last Agressor got into combat and despite my damage reduction manages EXACTLY enough wounds to clear the squad. Even so, the amount of firepower that carnivore squad absorbed was crazy. They soaked the majority of his entire army for 2 full turns.
On my turn, I picked off the aggressor at range, and threw basically everything I had left into Guilliman, taking him down to 4 wounds. My lone Rampager on the left took down the outrider while my 3 surviving Farstalkers tried to make a break for it. Tossing my Krootox into close combat with Big G, they managed to finish him off with the +1 to wound for him being below half, however he did pass his revive roll and stood back up. My other unit of rampagers was basically stuck on the right flank now, not fast enough to do anything but sit on the objective.
Space Marines turn 3, the ballistus and the Hvy Intercessors cleared the left flank, finishing off the lone rampager and the last of the Farstalkers while Guilliman chopped through a full unit of Krootx, though he only downed them all because he managed to take 4 wound off of one in shooting first.
For Kroot turn 3, with the aid of three mortals from Grenades my last 10 carnivores and 3 Krootox, I managed to finish off Guilliman and secure the midfield.
The rest of the game was pretty uneventful, trading a few blows here and there with a lot of manoeuvring. In the end I was left with 1 remaining carnivore in close combat with 2 surviving Hvy Intercessors and my 3 surviving rampagers in close combat with the Ballistus, having brought it down to 3 wounds. Final score was a win for the Kroot 78-61.
Overall, I’m very happy with how everything went, it really shows that despite what it may look like, the Kroot do in fact have the tools to take down larger targets now, just not in the traditional big guns way. It fells very thematic too, with the ambush style of the Kroot, they jump in, dozens of them overwhelm a single target, then they move on.
Anyhow that’s all I have for now. Looking forward to more games and I’ll happily share my insights when they come along.
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