Dark Crusade

I have watched many games from this website showcasing Tau players. A recurring thing I have noticed is the way people continually under use their Kroot squads or simply disregard them after T1. Sure if you just have one squad in T1 and are concentrating on a Firewarrior based force there is not as much need to beef your Kroot squads up. However if you have more than one squad you really need to optimise them, using all the possible tricks available.

In this mini guide I will attempt to outline the usefulness of upgraded Kroot Carnivore squads and the best way to use them at all tiers in a game.


Kroot Carnivore Squad – Statistics



Here are the bare stats of a Kroot squad taken from Relic Wiki:


Build Cost 180 req/ 0 power/ 2 pop cap
Build Time 24 seconds
Built From Tau Barracks
Squad Size 4/10
Requires Nothing
Limit None
Reinforce Cost 45 req/ 0 power
Reinforce Time 8 seconds
Hitpoints 310/1
Armour Infantry High
Morale 300/10/150
Unit Mass 10
Move Speed 20
Sight Radius 25


As a T1 unit their cost is decent considering what they can do so early in the game; a combat unit with good speed and the ability to increase its own health for 180 requisition is a good investment. Furthermore their reinforce time and cost allows them to keep up squad numbers at a quick pace to overwhelm larger forces.

Faster than standard infantry a Kroot squad can chase down most T1 squads. However against Jump Troops such as Assault marines and Storm Boyz they are at a disadvantage and fighting toe to toe against one of these squads is inadvisable without ranged support or superior numbers.

On Ranged they do not do a great deal of damage in low number squads however when reinforced to 6/7 squad members their ranged damage is significant enough to finish of weakened capping squads that are fleeing combat.

Pound for pound Kroot are one of the best combat units in tier one; they can fight Raptors and Banshees with enough numbers and due to their reinforce time and DPS make an excellent addition to any Tau army. Just be careful of units with knock down as Kroots body mass is low making them easy prey for such units as Necron Warriors and Heroes.


[b]Kroot Carnivore Squad – Upgrades/Abilities


Cannibalise



Available for use straight away on the units construction, Cannibalise allows a Kroot squad to eat the remains of fallen infantry units to both regenerate and boost their own health. The maximum this can boost your Kroot squads to is 300+ health per squad member. This applies to all Kroot squads you have too.

The best way to use this ability is by just having one squad Cannibalize while the other harasses or defends etc. Keep an eye on the squad also as they will find any piece of remains available; it can be rather disastrous when your Kroot suddenly decide to have a picnic in the middle of your enemy base! Remember also to use Cannibalize straight after a fight; it allows your Kroot to regenerate at a much faster pace getting them ready for the next encounter. The remains look like this (on medium/high graphics):



The Health boost this ability is giving to your squads is displayed in your tray beneath the unit icon as shown here:



There is really no excuse for not using Cannibalize when using Kroot. It is a free ability that can only benefit your infantry. Even if you have only 1 squad of Kroot is it not better to have 1 squad with a large health boost? Just be wary when using it and make sure your Kroot do not run on a suicide mission for their dinner.


Feral Leap



Available at tier two from the path to enlightenment for 75 req and 50 power, Feral Leap allows Kroot Carnivore squads to jump into combat performing a powerful knock back strike on impact. Once researched this ability is passive and has a set cool down with a maximum range of 15 and a minimum of 10.



This ability is a must at T2 if you are still using Kroot squads; it’s not expensive and is a really great addition to your Kroot. If you are encountering mass ranged infantry or squads with setup times, feral leap can be used for Disruption and to quickly negate longer ranged weaponry.

Another tactic is to put your Kroot behind your Firewarriors for protection; with the Feral Leap ability they can quickly surprise attacking combat units and knock them back allowing the Firewarriors some extra volleys.


Kroot Shapers



Available at tier two from the Kroot Shaping Centre the Kroot Shaper is a must for your carnivore squads especially if you have more than one unit. As a single hero unit the Shaper is pretty useless; its real worth is when attached to Carnivore squads for the bonus it provides. Increasing health, regeneration rate and speed the Shaper acts much like normal leaders of other infantry units.



The health bonus is roughly 119 per squad member and although this dose not seem like much, it is a welcomed boost and combined with Cannibalise your Kroot squads can soon have 6000+ HP.

The Shaper can be attached to both Kroot Carnivore and Kroot Hound squads; either way you should be using them when focusing on a Kroot orientated force. For 100 req, 50 power and no impact on squad cap a couple of Shapers are a cheap addition to your army.


Kroot Micro

When using Kroot squads the main aim of course is to tie up enemy units giving your Firewarriors or Tau Commander valuable shooting time and keeping combat units from engaging your ranged troops. The idea in this is simple, execution at times can be hard. Keeping distance between your Kroot and other units is vital; if all your force is spaced closely together then it will really make your Kroot redundant as a tying up unit. Whereas if you have your Kroot a short distance infront of your ranged units (roughly 3/4 of Firewarriors range) then they become much more effective as both a meat shield and as a barricade for your Firewarriors who can sit back and shoot.

If you are sending a Kroot squad in first to harass you should reinforce the squad by two members; this gives it sufficient damage capabilities to quickly take down such squads as scouts and cultists. Reinforcing to full is not needed unless you are taking on larger squads such as Tactical Marines or Necron Warriors; the requisition can be used in other areas such as LP construction or generators. Kroot building damage is low, so attacking listening posts and generators unless accompanied by Vespids using Shred is fairly useless. Kroots speed and infantry damage make them much more viable for killing builders and capping squads when harassing allowing you time to bring in Firewarriors/Tau Commander to inflict economy damage.


Uses of Kroot after T1

A lot of people prefer to simply replace Kroot squads after T1 because they deem them redundant and ineffective. This is true if they are not used properly, if scaled with the appropriate upgrades and bonuses your Kroot can still play a vital role in your game after the initial harassing phases.

Broadside Defence: we all know Broadsides are vulnerable to combat? Solution: keep a Kroot squad guarding the Broadside. With Feral Leap they can fend off units allowing the Broadside to make the real damage and afterwards the Kroot squad can Cannibalize the remains. Basically a progressive defence for your Broadsides that gets better with every unit you kill.

Firewarrior Defence: same matter in principle as the Broadsides. If you plan on setting up a Firewall with several Firewarrior squads it is advisable to keep a Kroot squad behind your squads as well as a snare or two. This way you can make a really smart trap for oncoming close combat units.

Tri Kroot Force: quite a strange tactic which I have used several times to good effect. Basically you have three Kroot Carnivore squads each with an attached Shaper. Preferably these squads need to have Cannibalize boosts from tier one and the Feral Leap upgrade. This can make quite a good attacking force and with appropriate anti vehicle units and a Pathfinder squad for marking you can inflict a lot of damage.

This post has been edited by Uriel-: Sep 1 2007, 23:24 PM

Awesome Guide!

Should help alot for the Tau players who leave their Kroot hanging around ^^.

One minor thing I would like to point out thought on the 'Broadside Defence' is that most players would rather 'Be rid of the kroot and B'side' and bring in 2x FW squads.

Other than that, nicely done


-Raggy

Great guide!

I've been finding what happens is when playing the Tau people want to focus on their range 100%, but the race works a lot like the philosophy the Tau have, everyone using talents to have better results. In this sense, Kroot are, and always will be the main melee characters of the Tau and without them your Fire Warriors and other ranged units are vulnerable to melee attack. So even if you think you want to have more range than melee, its always a good idea to have some Kroot Carnivore squads around to make sure your range dosen't get swamped.

Yup thats true, A full ranged force is good but sometimes it can be too one dimensional and mixing up your Tau units can be a great tactic.

I find out that vs space marines u can go for a no gen built and get three kroot´s out in no time, and soon backed up by ur TC or FW´s the figt will soon be over befor t2. ^^ not the best rep ever but it shows what kroot can do in with just being "numbers"

This post has been edited by Seija: Aug 14 2007, 16:23 PM