It is now time for the T’au Empire to receive their 10th edition update and today you’ll be able to pre-order the brand new Kroot Hunting Pack T’au Army Set which contains the new Codex alongside a host of brand new Kroot miniatures previewed earlier in the year. In this article we’ll be unpacking the Army Set contents, building up the new miniatures and of course taking an in-depth look at the new Codex itself.

Thank you once again to Games Workshop for sending Sprues and Brews a copy of the new Kroot Hunting Pack Army Set and T’au Empire Codex for use to review. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself a little money too!

Why not also head over to our Youtube Channel and check out our video review of the new Codex and Army Set contents (those new Kroot models are absolutely gorgeous!).

Kroot Hunting Pack Unboxing and Review

We’re big fans of the various Army Set releases that Games Workshop seem to favour at the moment but it’s fair to say the new Kroot Hunting Pack Army Set is something very special. The £135 set contains 26 brand new miniatures which includes the Kroot War Shaper and Kroot Flesh Shaper, three Krootox Rampagers, a Krootox Rider and twenty Kroot Carnivores! In addition you’ll find Datacards for all units in the new T’au Empire Codex (not just the Kroot units in the box) and the Codex itself – this is all presented in a new style card slipcase in which you’re able to store the Codex and Datacards. The presentation is very impressive, from the blue metallic embossing and edging on the Codex cover and Datacards respectively to the fantastic box art which sees the new Kroot units engaged in battle against some poor unfortunate foe. The card slip case itself replaces a lot of the plastic cellophane packaging we’d normally expect to see protecting the various contents which is good to see. Points wise we’re looking at about 500 points of Kroot which forms a solid basis for a brand new Kroot army or as an addition to an existing larger T’au Empire force.

Let’s take a look at the new models themselves, starting with the two new character models – the Kroot War Shaper and Flesh Shaper. These both come on individual frames with the former providing various build options including two different head options and the full range of weapon options. The Flesh Shaper however can be built in one way with no additional components provided for on the sprue itself (although I suspect you could swap the head itself with another from one of the other sprues).

You get twenty of the updated Kroot Carnivore sculpts (two identical sprues containing ten models a piece). There are lots of options on these sprues though and I’m pretty sure you can make two quite differently looking units of ten from the box contents. The Kroot ‘Long Quill’ (unit leader) in particular has some nice options (including a ‘cute’ little Kroot puppy that can be attached to the base). Overall these are not too dissimilar to the original Kroot Carnivore models and I’m sure you could use both side by side in the same army. The new sculpts are slightly larger and have some much more interesting posing and equipment options when compared to the originals. On the equipment front you’re able to outfit your warriors with some nice looking new gear including the Tanglebomb Launcher and Kroot Carbine as well as some cool little details such as blades, grenades, scopes, pistols and for those Kroot that may get a pick pecky on the hunt, a joint of….well…best not to dwell on where this pick of meat comes from.

The Krootox Rider receives a brand new plastic kit and you get one in the Army Set. This is probably my favourite model from the set and it can built in a variety of ways with multiple head, rider and weapon options. The model itself features some fantastic detail and I particularly like the the various bangles and talismans that adorn the model. The Krootox Rampagers are a brand new unit in the new Codex and the models themselves are very dynamic looking. There are not quite so many options with regards to build here but even so you’re able to build three dynamic and individual looking Krootox Rampagers.

Overall I’m really impressed with the contents of the new Kroot Hunting Pack set and can’t wait put these gorgeous models on the table.

T’au Empire 2024 Codex Review

The Codex itself weighs in at 136 pages and follows the standard format of other 10th Edition Codexes released so far. The first half of the book is given over to lore, background and model showcases. We then come to the gaming section where we first find the new T’au Empire Combat Patrol rules. The Sudden Dawn Cadre consists of a Commander in Enforcer Battlesuit, Pathfinder Team, Breacher Team and Devilfish which is a nice little force upon which you can later expand into a full army should you wish. The Combat Patrol itself shares the same For The Greater Good ability as used by the full army and remains unchanged from the version presented in the Index. The Commander has a choice of two Enhancements which both look quite cool. The Electro-Static Flares option provides a nice defensive bonus for friendly units near a Devilfish whilst also granting the Commander a 4+ invulnerable save. There are two Secondary Objectives to choose from with Ethereal Edict being my favourite (your opponent nominates a unit from their army and you get 12VP if you are able to destroy it). Finally there are three Stratagems available to use providing abilities such as fall back and shoot, improved Armour Penetration and a nice little cover and mobility bonus for the Commander unit.

The Rules

The main army mechanic, For The Greater Good, remains unchanged from the version found in the Index, allowing you to designate spotter and guided units in exactly the same way. Drones too remain unchanged from their Index incarnation. The new T’au Empire Codex contains four Detachments as follows :-

Kauyon

This Detachment remains almost identical to its Index version with the Patient Hunter Detachment Rule granting improved versions of the Sustained Hits ability from turn three onwards. On the Enhancement front we find that the Puretide Engram Neurochip has been replaced with the Solid-Image Projection Unit which allows you to redeploy up to three units after both players have deployed their army, even placing these units into reserve allowing them to enter play later into the game to better benefit from the Detachment rule!

There has been some changes to the Stratagems on offer as well. A Tempting Trap is a Battle Tactic Stratagem which provides a tasty +1 to wound bonus for a single unit when targeting an enemy unit within range of a specified objective marker (although only from turn three onwards). This works really well alongside the Detachment rule and for just a single CP really boosts the effectiveness of a key unit at the most opportune time. Point-Black Ambush (Battle Tactic) is also restricted to just turns three onwards and can be used to buff the Armour Penetration of a unit’s ranged attack when targeting a unit within 9″. Coordinate To Engage (Battle Tactic) improves the effectiveness of a single Observer unit, allowing all other units to benefit from the For The Greater Good ability when targeting the spotted unit. Combat Embarkation (Wargear) allows one of your units to, er, hide in a nearby Devilfish when targeted by an enemy unit during the opponent’s Charge phase – useful for protecting your valuable ranged units from being engaged in combat. Photon Grenades (Wargear) is another really useful piece of defensive tech that can again be used to try and limit how many of your units your opponent can tie up in combat. This Stratagem reduces the charge roll of an opponent’s unit by 2″. Finally Wall of Mirrors (Battle Tactic) allows you to place a Stealth, Ghostkeel or Commander Shadowsun unit into Strategic Reserves.

Mont’Ka

This Detachment provides bonuses during the first three turns of the game, favouring an aggressive and mobile playstyle. The Killing Blow Detachment rule grants the Lethal Hits ability to all ranged weapons in the army during the first three turns as well as the Assault ability if the unit is being guided as per the For the Greater Good army mechanic. `

The Exemplar of the Mont’ka enhancement allows the equipped model and unit they are leading to benefit from the Killing Blow rule during the fourth turn, a great force multiplier! Strike Swiftly is another great force multiplying enhancement allowing you to grant the Scout 6″ ability to two friendly units, really playing into that early aggressive and mobile playstyle favoured by this Detachment. Strategic Commander provides a nice OC boost to units that find themselves contesting a chosen objective marker and finally the Coordinated Exploitation enhancement provides a nice buff to the equipped unit’s Guided unit, granting the Sustained Hits 1 ability!

Stratagem wise there are some nice picks. Pinpoint Counter-Offensive (Battle Tactic) is very ‘Votann-like’ Stratagem allowing you to enact revenge on an enemy unit that destroyed one of your T’au units, providing a a hit re-roll to all friendly units that target said enemy unit. Aggressive Mobility (Battle Tactic) again leans into that hyper aggressive and mobile playstyle granting a 6″ move bonus to a unit instead of rolling for advancing. Focused Fire (Battle Tactic) provides an Armour Penetration bonus to two T’au units when they target a single chosen enemy unit. Combat Debarkation (Battle Tactic) provides a nice wound re-roll ability to a unit as they disembark from a transport and target the closet enemy. Pulse Onslaught (Strategic Ploy) is an awesome Stratagem that inflicts a nasty -2″ movement and -2 charge and advance penalty on an enemy unit for an entire turn if you’re able to at least hit them with fire from one of your infantry units! Lastly we have Counterfire Defence Systems (Wargear) is a nice bit of defensive tech which provides a -1 damage when the selected unit is attacked.

Retaliation Cadre

If you like Battlesuits then this is the Detachment for you! The Detachment rule, Bonded Heroes, provides a great +1 strength and an additional +1 armour penetration bonus to ranged attacks for Battlesuit units provided their target is within 12″ or 6″ respectively!

The Puretide Engram Neurochip reappears here which allows you to re-use a Stratagem on the equipped model or their unit during a single phase. Starflare Ignition System looks brilliant, allowing you to place the equipped unit into Strategic Reserves at the end of your opponent’s turn provided it is not within engagement range (these T’au are slippery!). Internal Grenade Racks is a nice little mortal wound generator with potential to inflict up to 6 mortal wounds on an enemy during each movement phase. Prototype Weapon System provides a bit of flexibility in the midst of battle, allowing you to pick between the Sustained Hits 1 or Lethal Hits ability for the equipped model’s ranged attacks to benefit from each shooting phase.

As you’d expect, the Stratagems on offer here interact with Battlesuit units in your army. Fail-safe Detonator (Epic Deed) allow you to ‘blow up’ your Battlesuit unit as it’s destroyed by your opponent, inflicting mortal wounds on nearby units (friend or foe). Stimm Injectors (Wargear) bestows the 6+ FNP ability on a unit during either the Shooting or Fight phase as required. The Shortened Blade (Strategic Ploy) allows you to deploy a Battlesuit unit within 3″ of an enemy unit when arriving from Deep Strike (allowing the unit to better benefit from the Bonded Heroes rule above). The Arro’kon Protocol (Battle Tactic) is a very nice option when confronted by hordes of enemies, bestowing the Sustained Hits 1 or Sustained Hits 2 ability on the selected unit when they target enemy units containing either 6-10 or 11+ models respectively. The Torchstar Gambit (Strategic Ploy) allows your Battlesuit units to ‘move-shoot-move’ meaning you’ll be able to bring your ranged firepower to bear and then duck back behind cover to better endure your opponent’s turn. The Grav-Inhibitor Field (Strategic Ploy) stratagem may deter your opponent from charging your Battlesuit units if they know that they will have to take a Battle-shock test and also risk suffering mortal wounds if they do decide to charge!

Kroot Hunting Pack

Finally we come to the Kroot based Detachment and it seems really fun. Firstly all Kroot in the army gain a 6+ invulnerable save, improving to 5+ against ranged attacks. In addition all Kroot add +1 to hit rolls when targeting units below starting strength and gain an additional +1 to wound bonus if the target unit is below half strength. This is fantastic set of abilities which will allow a Kroot force to really press home an advantage over the course of a battle. In order to help those players that would like to build a purely Kroot based army this Detachment also allows the player to take Kroot Carnivore units as Battleline.

The Kroothawk Flock is a very tasty enhancement. Firstly it grants the Ignores Cover ability to the bearer and their unit’s ranged weapons but perhaps its most useful effect is that it prevents enemy units from being set up as reinforcements within 12″ – this can really hinder an opponent’s battle plans. The Nomadic Hunter enhancement is a great pick, increasing the mobility of the bearer’s unit and adding the Assault ability to their weapons. Root-carved Weapons is a nice option for the Kroot War Shaper, granting the Precision and Devastating Wounds ability to its weapons. The Borthrod Gland is also very nice, enabling critical hits on a 5+ for the bearer and their unit.

I really like the Stratagems on offer here too. Join the Hunt (Battle Tactic) is a fantastic Stratagem allowing you to recycle units of Kroot infantry or Kroot Hounds over the course of a battle. A Trap Well Laid (Battle Tactic) is a great force multiplier, allowing other Kroot units in your army to benefit from improved armour penetration when targeting an enemy unit that was targeted previously in the turn by another Kroot unit. EMP Grenades (Wargear) offers a nice little trick for Kroot players, inflicting a WS or BS debuff on a nearby enemy vehicle when they are chosen to shoot or fight! The Grisly Feast (Strategic Ploy) can be used to inflict an Battle-shock test on nearby enemy units when one of your own destroys an enemy unit. Guerrilla Warriors (Strategic Ploy) is a useful Strategem allowing one of your units to fallback and then later declare a charge. Finally we have Hidden Hunters (Strategic Ploy) which offers some additional protection against ranged attacks for one of your units.

Datasheets

There have been a small number of changes to the Datasheets when compared their Index iterations and we also see some that have been removed altogether. Aun’va, Aun’shi, Longstrike, the standard Crisis Commander and Tactical Drones have all been removed. Crisis Suits as a single option have also been removed albeit we now have three new Datasheets for the various Crisis Battlesuit loadouts.

In terms of changes they are for the most part fairly minor, the most impactful perhaps being the removal of the triple Cyclonic Ion Blaster loadout for Crisis Battlesuits. This weapon is no longer an option at all for the standard Crisis Battlesuit and is restricted to a single instance on the two Commander variants. I think this is a good change as this particular loadout tended to overshadow most other Battlesuit builds in my experience. Farsight has been buffed slightly, now sporting a 2+ armour save and also has a nifty ability to allow the player to re-use a Stratagem for 0CP. Almost all of the vehicles that were previously equipped with Smart Missile Systems now have Twin-linked versions of the same weapon system. Stealth Suits have seen a slight tweak, their Forward Observers ability now only granting wound re-rolls. Strike Teams looks great in this edition with a really cool ability called Suppression Volley which can inflict a -1 to hit penalty on enemy units they target with their Pulse Rifles! Multiple units of Strike Teams can really inflict some pain on an enemy army.

With regards to Crisis Battlesuits we now get three different Datasheets. Sunforge units come equipped with two Fusion Blasters and have the Sunforge ability which allows you to re-roll the wound and damage roll when targeting enemy vehicles or monsters. Fireknife units are equipped with Plasma Rifle and Missile Pod with the option to double up on either weapon. Their Fireknife ability allows them to re-roll hits of 1, improving to full re-rolls if targeting a unit below starting strength. In addition this unit is equipped with Weapon Support Systems meaning they suffer no hit modifiers when making ranged attacks. Finally we have the Starscythe unit equipped with Burstcannon and T’au Flamer, again with the option to double up on a single weapon should they wish to. Their Starscythe ability provides an armour penetration buff when the unit targets non-vehicle and non-monster units and their Battlesuit Support Systems allows them to fall back out of combat and still shoot. I think it is understandable that some players will be disappointed by the changes to Crisis Battlesuits but overall I think this is a positive change, the different Crisis loadouts each have their own strengths and the fact that they are three distinct Datasheets has its own advantages when it comes to army construction.

Note, on the weaponry front there have been minimal changes from the Index as far as I can tell (the Plasma Rifle reduce range is the only one that jumps out at me).

There are nine Kroot related Datasheets in the Codex, including five new ones! All Kroot units have the Scout 7″ rule which allows for a very aggressive pre-game ‘deployment’ which should put your opponent on the back foot from the get go. A lot of the Kroot units also have the Stealth and Infilitrators abilities further enhancing the aggressive, early game deployment playstyle of the subfaction. The Kroot Trail Shaper is a new Leader unit which allows an attached unit to move up to D6″ in response to an enemy unit’s own movement making the Kroot difficult to lock down. To further emphasis this tactic the Trail Shaper allows the owning player to redeploy this model, its attached unit and one other post deployment – even putting said units into Strategic Reserves. The Kroot War Shaper is your overall ‘General’ type Leader, providing Stratagem/CP efficiencies and providing tools to mitigate Battle-shock for your army. The Kroot Flesh Shaper provides some buffs to an attached unit, such as Sustained Hits 1 and variations on the FNP ability.

The Kroot Lone-spear is one of my favourite new units. It’s very mobiile and provides some nice force multiplier effects for other Kroot units in your army (other Kroot can re-roll hits against a unit targeted by this unit’s ranged attacks). It’s own weapons are not to be overlooked either, the Blast Javelin has the potential to inflict quite a bit of damage with D6 attacks at strength 10, AP-2 D2. Kroot Carnivores have lost their Grisly Feast ability but have gained Fieldcraft (sticky objectives) in addition to some new weapon options and the ability to be joined by two different Leader units when taken in units of 20! Kroot Hounds have seen some changes and I really like their Loping Pounce ability which allows them to run and charge if a Kroot Infantry unit is nearby.

Krootox Riders are much better in this edition. They are tougher, have better saves and more wounds and their weaponry has been buffed slightly too. In addition they have a cool Kroot Packmates ability which allows it to shoot in the opponent’s Shooting phase in response to a ranged attack that targets a nearby Kroot infantry unit. The new Krootox Rampagers are brutal shock unit with some impressive meleeac weapon profiles. In combat they are getting at least 7 attacks each across their various weapons with abilities such as Sustained Hits 1, Lance and Extra Attacks littered across the Datasheet. They also have a nice mortal wound impact hits rule and a chance to inflict Battle-shock tests on the charge as well.

Lastly we have the Kroot Farstalkers which remain unchanged from their Index version.

Overall I think the Kroot roster looks really interesting and offers a unique playstyle. The Kroot themselves are deceptively resilient despite their poor toughness and save characteristics, their prolific invulnerable saves, FNP and the ability to recycle units may catch some opponents off guard. Their main strength though has to be their mobility and unit synergies. The Kroot army can be contesting objectives up the board right from the get go and will be able to outmanoeuvre and waylay many opposing armies.

Crusade

There is a substantial Crusade element to the Codex which is good to see. The main mechanic sees your Crusade force expanding the T’au Empire by bringing star systems containing various different types of planets into T’au control. There is a really cool system for generating start systems on the fly and populating it with different types of planets such as shrine or mining worlds in addition to determining the system’s inhabitants general demeanour (warlike, corrupt, traders etc.). As you play games of Warhammer 40k with your Crusade force you’ll earn military and diplomatic points which you can use to try and claim different worlds in the active system. Each planet you bring into the fold provides various benefits such as the Politcal Centre’s “Belief in the Cause” ability which allows you to use the Renowned Heroes Requisition for free. Once you’ve completely conquered a system you’re also able to activate a supply lines bonus which you can benefit from as your Crusade continues into the next star system. Overall I feel this is a really involved and detailed Crusade system for the T’au and provides a nice little narrative and backstory for your games.

Summary

I’m really impressed by the Kroot Hunting Pack set, from the lovely presentation of the contents (that blue metallic embossing is very cool) to the excellent new Kroot miniatures included in the box. There is so much variety and customisability in the different kits themselves which is important for a ‘horde’ style army like the Kroot. If you’re intending to build a pure Kroot force or just want to sprinkle some of the auxiliaries in your army then I think this box is worth picking up.

With regards to the Codex and rules themselves I’m also feeling pretty positive overall. I can understand that there will be some disappointment over the changes to Battlesuits in particular but overall I think the new Codex offers plenty of variety in terms of playstyle and I think the new Detachments in particular looks really fun (I’m looking forward to trying the Retaliation Cadre out). I think there are probably some issues with the points costs assigned to some of the units and I suspect (or hope) that some of these will be tweaked and tuned over the next few months (something we have seen done on multiple occasions following a Codex release).

The Kroot Hunting Pack set is up for pre-order today (16th of March). Thanks again to Games Workshop for sending Sprues and Brews a copy to review.

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