[rider_eragon]

Hi there,

It's been a while since I've posted here (and no, I haven't forgotten about the nanosuits - I just need time.) I snapped this up in about 10 minutes while painting a piece:

Name: Kroot Lord

Origin: While the Kroot Mercs were fighting for the Imperial Guard against the Chaos United, a young Shaper ate a Possessed Space Marine live (don't ask me why). The Kroot began to transform almost instantly. He sprouted wings from his back and an arm began to warp. He then flew above the battle and said "Let thy battle be decided!" and all the humans became possessed. Even the Mercs were posessed. When the Mercs returned to their homeworld, and the daemonic Shaper was to present his mutation to the Master Shaper himself, the daemonic Shaper murdered the Master Shaper and the Shaper Council, and declared himself the "Kroot Lord" (he didn't like the name "Master Shaper"). All Kroot became possessed after his rise to the throne.

[table][tr][td] [/td][td]Cost[/td][td]Ws[/td][td]Bs[/td][td]S[/td][td]T[/td][td]W[/td][td]I[/td][td]A[/td][td]Ld[/td][td]Sv[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Kroot Lord[/td][td]100[/td][td]5[/td][td]3[/td][td]4[/td][td]3[/td][td]3[/td][td]5[/td][td]3[/td][td]10[/td][td]4+ (Invulnerable Save of 6+)[/td][/tr][/table]

Unit: Infantry, HQ

Special rules:

A Kroot Lord gets all Kroot Shaper and Master Shaper special rules.

Kroot Posession: All Kroot units gain a +1 stat at +5 points per model.

OR

At +2 points per model, you may use the Posession chart (listed below)

Human Hatred: All Kroot units may use the preferred enemy special rule when fighting the human races.

Tau Force: The Kroot Lord threatened the Tau with pulling out all Kroot units and destroying 80% of their armies (demons sometimes get that ability of cockyness) if the daemonic Kroot couldn't fight in the Tau Empire.

Chaoticness: All Kroot units are now frenzied (they've got no order whatsoever) and to move them, you require a scatter dice. When the frenzied Kroot are able to attack (i.e. within range of shooting or charging), they must do so, whether friend or foe. If multiple units are within attacking, you must divide the squad into x groups (x representing the no. of groups needed), and have them attack the closest squad. If there is an uneven number of Kroot, some are discarded for this turn. E.g. I have 7 Kroot Carnivores that are within range of shooting 2 squads. Only 3 may shoot each squad, and the last Kroot is ignored. Charging gives the Kroot a +2 initutave bonus over 6", and when finished attacking, they return to their original charge point.

Daemonic flight: I believe this is in the Chaos codexes. Please see there for rules.

[Damian_Alpha]

What the bejeezus?

Really know, possessed Kroot? C'mon, this is just sad. I'm really hoping you wrote these rules as a gag, because otherwise I will have to dreadsock you just on principle.

Your explanation for this unit definately looks like you described; whipped up in 10 minutes. Shapers don't just randomly eat anything that pops up. In fact, they are responsible for making sure that the rest of their kindred DON'T make that very mistake, so the likelyhood of him eating a very obviously contaminated being is non-existent.

Furthermore, the rules for him suck big blue Tau *photon grenades*. His rules are rediculous just stat-wise (WS6, BS6, T5, I6, and three wounds?), and that alone is worth more than his current points cost. At those stats, he should already cost 150 some-odd points. Unfortunately, then you took the block of cheddah that you started with, and poured velveta on it: altering the stats of the entire army, a pointlessly complicated reaction to his death that for "some reason", gives his entire army a leadership boost?

This entire thing needs to be toned down. Instead of doign all this pointless stat-boosting, give him a normal Master Shaper statline, but make his armor save invulnerable and maybe up his WS and Initiative to 5. Instead of altering the army for free, he should only allow the OPTION to upgrade squads to Possessed Kroot at +2 pts per model as their Genetic Adaptation(which would allow them to roll on a posession chart at the start of the game), with the following options;

1: No effect, other than gradual mishaping of the features
2: Tendrils and spines estrude from the kroot's body, hampering the enemy. Negates enemy's bonus attacks for charging.
3: The unit's minds have been over taken by daemons. Unit is fearless.
4: The Kroot are consumed with bloodthirst, and their bodies mutate with claws, talons, and mutant strength. Units gain furious charge.
5: The energies of chaos drive the Kroot's bodies, making them faster and more deadly. The unit gains the Fleet special rule, or if they already had it changes their unit type to Beast/Cavalry (this will even affect kroot hounds/krootox)
6: Hardly recognisable, the kroot are completely posessed. Roll twice on this table.

If you want something to represent his death, just use the Ethereal's rules. It's far simpler, and it works. And get rid of the "VIRAL ARM!!!"

[rider_eragon]

OK, I'll fix the stuff soon (unable to do so just yet), but as for those options, are they all applied at once, or one at a time?

[Damian_Alpha]

Roll for each squad, and they only get one (unless they roll a six)

[rider_eragon]

I've removed the Viral Arm (is it just down right crappy or could it be used as a rending attack? - not being push, just want to know). I've fixed the stats of him, and have allowed for one choice for kroot abilities.

As for the chaoticness, it's just loss of co-ordination or de-possession.

The cheer for death! is simply: A man walks up to a guy and his family. He points a gun at his head and says "co-operate or you and your family are dead." So the man and his family are put into slavery. Then, after a few months of pain, the slaver dies and the man and family are all rejoycing because of his death and their freedom.

If you still think that the last two points are stupid, tell me, and I'll rectify them.

Anyway, hope this makes it better than before.

[Wargamer]

Cheer For Death doesn't even make sense... what the hell is "leaderlessness"?

Ditch the whole rule.

[rider_eragon]

All right (grumbles...).

But just... never mind, it's going.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

Originally Posted by rider_eragon

Origin: While the Kroot Mercs were fighting for the Imperial Guard against the Chaos United, a young Shaper ate a Possessed Space Marine live (don't ask me why). The Kroot began to transform almost instantly. He sprouted wings from his back and an arm began to warp. He then flew above the battle and said "Let thy battle be decided!" and all the humans became possessed. Even the Mercs were posessed. When the Mercs returned to their homeworld, and the daemonic Shaper was to present his mutation to the Master Shaper himself, the daemonic Shaper murdered the Master Shaper and the Shaper Council, and declared himself the "Kroot Lord" (he didn't like the name "Master Shaper"). All Kroot became possessed after his rise to the throne.

The only time where Kroot have eaten chaos forces, both the Tau and Kroot destroyed the mutating kroot, and burnt the corpses, something unhead of for Kroot.
Since then, chaos are one of the races kroot will not touch, for fear of taint.

Master shaper is not like the ruler of all Kroot - each kindred has a Master Shaper and Shaper Council.

They don't really have a throne, per se.

These aren't criticisms per se, just so you know kroot fluff for an instance like this

[hr]

Kroot Posession: All Kroot units gain a +1 stat at +5 points per model.

You've not specified which stat... or is it the whole shebang, wounds, LD, Sv, etc.

Human Hatred: All Kroot units may use the preferred enemy special rule when fighting the human races

Fair enough, I can't see any problems with this.

Tau Force: The Kroot Lord threatened the Tau with pulling out all Kroot units and destroying 80% of their armies (demons sometimes get that ability of cockyness) if the daemonic Kroot couldn't fight in the Tau Empire.

Firstly, there is no overiding Kroot hiearchy, he could not pull out all kroot (ignoring how they would have put him down and burnt the corpse) the most he could do is pull his kindred away, which the Tau usually turn a blind eye to anyway.
Not only that, but the minute possessed Kroot approached Empire forces, they would do as they did in the Slaanesh fight, and destroy them and allow the "normal" kroot to torch the bodies.

Chaoticness: When the Kroot Lord dies, roll a D6. If you roll a 4+, all other Kroot units have -1 stats (they're no longer posessed) . If you roll a 3-, all other Kroot units are now frenzied (they've got no order whatsoever) and to move them, you require a scatter dice. When the frenzied Kroot are able to attack (i.e. within range of shooting or charging), they must do so, whether friend or foe. If multiple units are within attacking, you must divide the squad into x groups (x representing the no. of groups needed), and have them attack the closest squad. If there is an uneven number of Kroot, some are discarded for this turn. E.g. I have 7 Kroot Carnivores that are within range of shooting 2 squads. Only 3 may shoot each squad, and the last Kroot is ignored. Charging gives the Kroot a +5 inisutive bonus over 12", and when finished attacking, they return to their original charge point.

Youi're right, that is very chaotic Its a bit of a mess, to be honest. I would think of a single ability and use that, rather than lots of little things.

And I hope +5Initiative is a typo..... I8 kroot? I10 Hounds?

Cheer for Death! When the Kroot Lord dies, all non Kroot units do not suffer from leaderlessness and all ain a +1 Ld bonus.

I'm not even sure what you're after here. What is leaderlessness?

Daemonic flight: I believe this is in the Chaos codexes. Please see there for rules.

Kroot can already fly - Vulture Kindreds.

[hr]

I think you've got a decent idea, but it needs a lot of work. I reccommend reading up on Kroot fluff, to look at eating habits, what they do with Chaos, things like that. As it is, the fluff doesn't really work for Kroot. They are very particular about what they eat - they don't just munch and hope, they have an instinct for what to eat to gain abilities. And after First Contact with Chaos, the kroot do not eat them - any tainted kroot will be put down and the body incinerated to preserve the rest of the Kroot's DNA.

[rider_eragon]

OK, about the Initiative, yes it was a typo, and perhaps it was just a little (ok, maybe a lot) too high... I'll fix that.

EDIT: The chaoticness has been narrowed down to no co-ordinated attacks.

As for the Kroot Possession, I'll fix that too.

As for the story, unless you can come up with a better way to get Kroot possessed (the Supernatural way ISN'T very practical...), the MIB neuralized the whole Tau Empire and Kroot (perhaps they were chaos too...) and my story comes into place.

The cheer for death was already gone, so don't worry about that.

I will brush up on the Kroot, and like you said, it does need moulding, but I knew that from when I posted it. If it was perfect, I would have gone straight to the GW and said that it should be in the chaos and kroot/tau codexes (I'm not having a go at you, I'm just saying that I knew it had around | | x 1000 room for improvement when I posted it).

So it's going to be a big and bad monster in the end, but like you say (and already knew), it needs a lot of improvement.

[Wargamer]

As a point of reference, I've dug out the Kroot Mercenaries character from the Golgothan Campaign.


Master Shaper Taro'k:
Bloody hell! Where'd that Kroot come from!?
-Last words of Captain Nathus, 4th Nirogen Skirmishers.
What exactly Taro'k is remains a mystery. Though he appears to be a Kroot for all intents and purposes, the Ordo Xenos believe he is evolving into something else.

This reportedly came about when Taro'k faced off against Inquisitor Firen. The Inquisitor noted that the Kroot Master Shaper and his kin had consumed the population of an Adeptus Mechanicus research facility, studying potential bioweapons. One of these weapons was a cross-breed of Catachan Barking Toad, genetically altered to have psionic displacement powers. Feasting on these wyrd and unnatural beasts, Taro'k prompty vanished, reappearing in the middle of Governor Ulus' garden party on Hycronos Secundus.

Since then, Taro'k has been popping up all over the Segmentum Obscurus (literally!). His body continues to evolve in strange and unpleasant (not to mention unwanted) ways. Nobody knows where this rampant evolution will end, but it will probably be in a large crater somewhere...

[table][tr][td] [/td][td]Cost[/td][td]Ws[/td][td]Bs[/td][td]S[/td][td]T[/td][td]W[/td][td]I[/td][td]A[/td][td]Ld[/td][td]Sv[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Taro'k[/td][td]80[/td][td]4[/td][td]3[/td][td]4[/td][td]3[/td][td]3[/td][td]4[/td][td]D3+1[/td][td]10[/td][td]5++[/td][/tr][/table]
Wargear: Kroot Rifle.
SPECIAL RULES:
Ate Something Funny: Whatever Taro'k consumed, it changed him significantly. His body has undergone massive mutation, and he has shown astounding capabilities that surpass any of his kind. To represent this, Taro'k has the following special rules:
Taro'k has a 5+ Invulnerable Save.
All attacks made by Taro'k have Rending.
Taro'k makes D3+1 attacks in combat. Roll the number of attacks at the start of each round. Taro'k still receives bonus attacks as normal (ie: +1 A for charging, +1 A for two cc weapons, etc).
Taro'k has the Psychic Power The Gate (see Codex: Eye of Terror).
Kaboom! Because Taro'k is now part Barking Toad, he shares the race's ability to self-detonate, whether he wants to or not!
When Taro'k is killed, place a Blast Marker over him. All enemy models under the template (his allies know to get out of the way!) suffer a Str 5 hit with no AP. If killed in combat, wounds caused by the explosion count towards determening which side wins the combat. Partials are hit on a 4+ as normal.


The Gate essentially works like a Viel of Darkness from the Necron Codex. More or less.