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For those not familiar, Kroot got their own Kill Team in January's White Dwarf. Unfortunately, despite being in-theory well-suited to the game, they're obnoxiously bad. The core problems being:
Kroot are more expensive than Guardsmen, with a worse Save, no Orders, worse Leadership, and no Special Weapons. On average they're easier to kill and don't hit as hard.Kroot Hounds are limited to four models, and are also Toughness 3 with a 6+ save.The only attack above S4, D1 is available to the Krootox, whose gun and fists still don't break AP-1. Unfortunately, it's limited to one model, and is the most expensive model in Kill Team.Our guns (all two of them) are all Rapid Fire, which means a number of Specialists offer Advancements that have no benefit to us (Heavy, Demo are the only unavoidable ones).Fairly lacklustre Stratagems and no special abilities.
In a way, this was inevitable; Kill Team thrives on customization, Kroot have old models with no customization options, Games Workshop does not offer options that aren't available in the box. Nevertheless, I
Kroot Carnivores need a defensive ability and access to special weapons, without changing their models.Therefore, give them all Fieldcraft (extra -1 to hit when obscured) at no points increase. Dayakh Grekh has it, and 40k Kroot have a Stealthy Hunters rule that vanished for Kill Team.To deal with the lack of Assault/Heavy for Specialists, give them access to two mutually exclusive 1pt upgrades: the Surefoot Charm turns their kroot rifle into an Assault weapon on advance, and the Hawkeye Charm removes the long range penalty from their kroot rifle, like a sniper. No need for conversions; just add facepaint or use existing kroot bits.To deal with the need for special weapons, offer unit upgrades. Kroot Tracker is a one-per-team 1pt upgrade that offers an extra pip of Leadership, a Comms specialty, and an Auspex ability. Kroot Fighter is a two-per-team 1pt upgrade that offers an extra Attack. And Kroot Gunner is a two-per-team 0pt upgrade. No need for new models on these!Kroot Hounds get Fieldcraft and change the limit from 4 to "1 per Carnivore". They could also do with a corrosive vomit grenade option, with high AP and low Strength to help soften armoured units. That's not strictly necessary, however.This allows us to bump the Krootox limit from 1 to 2; on paper the thing's no more powerful than a Lictor or kitted-up Warrior, neither of whom are limited, and it's also our only source of (relatively) Heavy weaponry.Fieldcraft might be a bit much for the Krootox, but the Lictor gets away with it... however, my main recommendation would be the addition of a Mounted Gun rule: Advancing turns its kroot gun into Assault 1. Now it can actually use its Agile Brute rule as well as the Heavy advance.Speaking of specialists; give Comms (spotter hound), Zealot (bad dog), and Veteran (stress dog) to Kroot Hounds, Sniper to krootox, and everything (except Heavy, if you like) to the Carnivores.
We can't offer new guns (despite Kill Team being all about personalization and conversions...), but Deathwatch provides a solution: special ammo! Kroot are ingenious and self-reliant scavengers, certain to have adapted weapons technology from across the galaxy. There's no need to replace the kroot rifle when we can just modify it.
Pech Hunting Sights adds the "mortal wound on 6s" sniper effect to the kroot rifle.Depleted Pulse Rounds adds +2S/-2AP for a discount plasma gun (or maybe +1S/AP, +2 at close range?).Scatterquill Shot turns the gun into Rapid Fire D3 and autohits at close range, giving you a discount flamer.Impact Canisters modify the melee profile of the rifle for +2S/AP/D on the charge, for a variant Guard-level power fist that relies on Kroot mobility.Price these all at about 1-2pts, available Tracker/Fighter/Gunner, and you've got a basic special weapons suite with no need for new models.You could do the same with the Krootox's kroot gun, but it's not really necessary, so we'll leave it for it now.
Still needs tweaked Tactics, but how does this look to you? Workable?
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