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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. 

Your list is already really complete, but I'll add that the Kroot did also get bespoke Crusade content via White Dwarf, and it's pretty good.

It would continue to be decent if additional units are released, since it's mostly army-wide mercenary mechanics.

I'll try to lay my hand back on the kroot fanddx made for 6th, plenty of nice stuff in there!

You can have your Kroot Vultures (the winged unit) back on one condition - there needs to be an optional alternative head for the unit leader, where they're wearing a fez...

It would be great to see more auxiliaries for the T'au. I would like to see a bear-like species that is similar to ogryns, a slow but tough unit. They could either provide a heavy hitting close combat ability or carry rather heavy weapons. Maybe a unit of five with either melee CCW and shield or heavy weapon, and another unit of a team of three with a heavy artillery piece. Would fill a gab in their units and add to the possible diversity of Tau forces.

I like the idea of bears/ bear people too. A while ago, there was a piece of Imperial Guard artwork that included a bear, and I was stoked because I thought the Guard was getting a beast unit.

It led me to research that uncovered the story of Wojtek- a bear adopted/rescued by Polish forces in WWII. Very cool stuff!

Love to see a Kroot Giant, like an oversized kroot/krootox, that is chained and unleashed on the battlefield.

From a kindred that found a planet of giants they ate into extinction but got dumb in the process.

I wouldn't mind seeing the return of human auxiliaries.

Tougher Kroot infantry would be good too.

Brickfix wrote:It would be great to see more auxiliaries for the T'au. I would like to see a bear-like species that is similar to ogryns, a slow but tough unit. They could either provide a heavy hitting close combat ability or carry rather heavy weapons. Maybe a unit of five with either melee CCW and shield or heavy weapon, and another unit of a team of three with a heavy artillery piece. Would fill a gab in their units and add to the possible diversity of Tau forces.

PenitentJake wrote:I like the idea of bears/ bear people too. A while ago, there was a piece of Imperial Guard artwork that included a bear, and I was stoked because I thought the Guard was getting a beast unit.

It led me to research that uncovered the story of Wojtek- a bear adopted/rescued by Polish forces in WWII. Very cool stuff!

Tau actually already have bear friends: the nicassar. Might be a bit weird to have an additional bear species under the same faction.

I want some of the old "We ate this, and became this," Kroot

 Hellebore wrote:
Love to see a Kroot Giant, like an oversized kroot/krootox, that is chained and unleashed on the battlefield.

From a kindred that found a planet of giants they ate into extinction but got dumb in the process.

I saw one guy who converted a toy T-Rex with a giant platform on its back and put giant Tau guns on it and it looked epic. I'd love something official along those lines as a super-heavy. Would be super cool to just throw a giant Kroot Kaiju on the table.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I want some of the old "We ate this, and became this," Kroot

Yeah, getting that more mechanically on the table would be really cool. The trick is how to do that without having to track a whole bunch of stuff per unit mid game.

You could give them a little bonus like Fabius Bile's army depending on what faction they ate last.

Orks: + 1 Toughness
Dark Eldar: Fights First
Etc.

You only have to track which units "ate" an enemy in melee, and give them a token that shows that they have the bonus.

 Tawnis wrote:


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I want some of the old "We ate this, and became this," Kroot

Yeah, getting that more mechanically on the table would be really cool. The trick is how to do that without having to track a whole bunch of stuff per unit mid game.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
You could give them a little bonus like Fabius Bile's army depending on what faction they ate last.

Orks: + 1 Toughness
Dark Eldar: Fights First
Etc.

You only have to track which units "ate" an enemy in melee, and give them a token that shows that they have the bonus.

This mechanics already exist on page 126 of the Tau dex- It's a 1 RP Requisition called Totemic Infusions.

You buy it after a battle in which one of your Shapers killed a Warlord in melee. Thereafter, when the Shaper leads a unit, the unit gets a buff depending on the faction of the warlord your Shaper killed.

Imperium- Reroll Battleshock
Aeldari- +2 Move
Orks- + Strength
Votann- +1 Toughness
Other- +1 to hit on Melee attacks

There's a bespoke Kroot Crusade article in one of the White Dwarfs, and it might have something similar... I remember Meat being a resource. I'll dig up the Dwarf and post whatever I find, but it could take a while.

Of course, these are Crusade rules, so unless you play Crusade, none of them are going to help you. This is why I'm always saying that since 9th, Crusade is where the fluff is. If you want fluff, play Crusade. If nothing is more important to you than balance, play matched.

That's fun. I don't have the White Dwarf in front of me, but I remember the kroot crusade rules being really charming too. Rolling to see what kind of contract you've gotten yourself into. Complete with chances to betray a shady employer if the contract is looking too sketchy.

 Wyldhunt wrote:
That's fun. I don't have the White Dwarf in front of me, but I remember the kroot crusade rules being really charming too. Rolling to see what kind of contract you've gotten yourself into. Complete with chances to betray a shady employer if the contract is looking too sketchy.

Right?

Loved it. Not sure who is going to hire the Kroot first. Sisters ain't gonna do it (too Holy/ pure/ racist (speciesist?); DE might, but they're shady and just as likely to haul the Kroot back to Commorragh to fight in the arenas. A cunning GSC Magus might hire them to cause mischief so that the Cult's own shenanigans go unnoticed (hey Inquisitors, ignore the four-armed dude in the trench coat, it was the guy with Quills!). EC won't do it, but a Chaos Cult might. The guard might.

Kyria Draxus would totally work with Kroot. Aeldari might hire them to help defend a Maiden World.

I don't think my Kroot are getting job offers until they reach Blooded, so they'll have to play a few games pursuing their own ends in order to build the rep required to find work. I'd say they need to be Battle hardened, but in 10th's Crusade, regular units (ie. non-character units) need to spend RP to advance beyond Battle Hardened, so if I waited til then, I'd need a ton of RP to reap all the benefits of mercenary work.

Kroot almost have as as much unit variation as some of the "full" armies like Votaan. I don't think they'll need as much as many think for variety of play. Tougher unit, sniper unit, and monster unit (Great Knarlock) would go a LONG way for them.

 Wyldhunt wrote:

Brickfix wrote:It would be great to see more auxiliaries for the T'au. I would like to see a bear-like species that is similar to ogryns, a slow but tough unit. They could either provide a heavy hitting close combat ability or carry rather heavy weapons. Maybe a unit of five with either melee CCW and shield or heavy weapon, and another unit of a team of three with a heavy artillery piece. Would fill a gab in their units and add to the possible diversity of Tau forces.

PenitentJake wrote:I like the idea of bears/ bear people too. A while ago, there was a piece of Imperial Guard artwork that included a bear, and I was stoked because I thought the Guard was getting a beast unit.

It led me to research that uncovered the story of Wojtek- a bear adopted/rescued by Polish forces in WWII. Very cool stuff!

Tau actually already have bear friends: the nicassar. Might be a bit weird to have an additional bear species under the same faction.

So ... Does my suggestion work for nicassars? I'm glad if established species finally get model representation.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Kroot almost have as as much unit variation as some of the "full" armies like Votaan. I don't think they'll need as much as many think for variety of play. Tougher unit, sniper unit, and monster unit (Great Knarlock) would go a LONG way for them.

You're kind of right, to use your example, Votaan have 4 normal characters, 1 Hero, 1 Battleline, 1 Transport, and 6 other units. Kroot have 4 characters, 1 Battleline, 4 other units. As a unit to unit basis, the range is pretty similar, the difference really comes down to points and cost of available models.

Votaan have a few larger points synchs like Hearthguard that a single large unit takes up 320 points, the best Kroot can do is Rampagers at 170 points for a max unit, also their battleline units are nearly double the cost of the Kroot Carnivores. This means that while Votaan only have 3.5 more datasheets than Kroot, they do have a fair bit more list building flexibility. Playing all Kroot now, I can run 3 of every non character unit at max squad size, and still have plenty of points left over to toss into characters and additional battle line units. Alternatively, you can go mass infantry spam with more characters. Those are basically the only two lists, not because they are the only good ones, just that they are the only ways you can fill the required 2k points.

The other bit is cost. $ per point, Kroot are very expensive, especially the Krootox kit which aside from the linchpin unit that is the Lone Spear, is the best Kroot unit and they are $45.00 USD per model at 30 points per model. The rest of the range isn't all that much better, but that's particularly egregious. Having more kits (especially one or two with some ranged punch) makes it feel less like 9 Krootox is auto include for any strong list (which it very much is right now).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Brickfix wrote:


So ... Does my suggestion work for nicassars? I'm glad if established species finally get model representation.

That would be a great addition to T'au, but I was just talking about Kroot as a faction specifically.

You've got an excellent list there. It might be instructive to look at what OPR did with the "Jackals" (their canine Kroot replacement) when they spun them off as their own army.

https://army-forge.onepagerules.com/armyInfo?armyName=Jackals&gameSystem=2&armyId=BKi_hJaJflN8ZorH

 Tawnis wrote:

 Hellebore wrote:
Love to see a Kroot Giant, like an oversized kroot/krootox, that is chained and unleashed on the battlefield.

From a kindred that found a planet of giants they ate into extinction but got dumb in the process.

I saw one guy who converted a toy T-Rex with a giant platform on its back and put giant Tau guns on it and it looked epic. I'd love something official along those lines as a super-heavy. Would be super cool to just throw a giant Kroot Kaiju on the table.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I want some of the old "We ate this, and became this," Kroot

Yeah, getting that more mechanically on the table would be really cool. The trick is how to do that without having to track a whole bunch of stuff per unit mid game.

they would be a cool dual release with Eldar Exodites, dino riders reborn.