So I've finally been able to play a few games in 6th edition with my Tau and like most shooty armies I think they have gotten a slight boost. Overwatch can help, especially with twinlinked weapons. One major boost that has actually played into a few games is Tau's easy access to Nightvision for basically everything but Kroot. This leads me to the subject of this post:
Are Kroot mostly useless now in 6th edition?
Sure, Kroot are pretty much our only answer for Close Combat. They have a decent WS and amount of attacks, also the hounds have a good Initiative. But, as opposed to 5th edition, I NEVER want to charge with my Kroot anymore. Any overwatch wounds will auto kill because Kroot's optional 6+ armour save just isn't worth the points. With the new edition, I'd much rather have my Kroot sit tight and rapid fire anyone who charges them.
But, if this is the case now, wouldn't Firewarriors do a much better job? They have better armour saves, better guns with a longer range, and because blacksun filters are pretty much mandatory now, the firewarrior team leader gets a boost in Ld saves. They can also benefit from markerlights and if you want, you can give them bonding knifes so they can always regroup. Not to mention you can give them EMP grenades that are VERY effective against vehicles (though a bit pricey, in my opinion).
I usually ran 10 Kroot with 5 hounds for 100pts in my lists. For that amount you can get 10 firewarriors and for 13pts more you can get black sun filters for that unit. It seems now that firewarriors seem to be the better option with 6th edition.
What do you guys think? Do you find Kroot less useful now that close combat units have been nerfed a bit with Overwatch? Do you have other uses for Kroot that I haven't addressed?
I use Kroot as skirmish screens, things enemies need to shoot down on hack through in order to get to the Tau killing them at range. Kroot are still good at this, in my opinion, although 6e has been a mixed bag for them.
ReplyDeleteOverwatch is good for Kroot; they want enemies to assault them, and any chance for more kills is a good deal. They still can't stand up to serious assault units, but between overwatch and hounds (and many of their common enemies losing I5 on the charge) assaulting Kroot can be a pretty painful experience for the enemy.
Being able to move and still fire at max distance is nice for them, as they often need to relocate to get into blocking positions as enemies advance toward them.
Vehicles being easier to hit, and having hull points. Kroot are strong enough and have enough attacks that they're very likely to wreck anything with rear armor 10 they can get their hands on. You'll rarely get to actually do this, but it can disincentivize your opponent moving his transports too close to Kroot units.
Cover being reduced for Kroot hurts them a lot. It's much more feasible to just gun them down at range, even if they're dug into cover.
Inability to assault from outflank is a nerf to them, technically, although I usually prefer to use them as skirmishers/speed bumps.
This is my experience, YMMV.