Games Workshop has revealed updated models for a classic Warhammer 40k Tau Empire unit, the bestial Kroot Hounds. A preview on the Warhammer Community website shows off new models and rules for the four-legged fiends.
If you’re new to the T’au Empire, here’s the score: the Kroot are one of the lesser Warhammer 40k factions, usually serving as auxiliary units alongside the technologically advanced T’au. Their genome is tremendously flexible, able to incorporate genetic material from anything that they eat – a trait that has created many different Krootiform subspecies.
Kroot Hounds are one such offshoot of the Kroot race, four-legged predators that hunt in packs. The Kroot use packs of Kroot Hounds as warbeasts, exploiting their rapid pace to bring wily enemies to heel.
The WarCom article, uploaded on Monday, reveals some of the rules for the Kroot Hounds that will appear in the T’au’s next Warhammer 40k Codex. The ‘Loping Pounce’ ability will allow Kroot Hounds within 6” of a friendly Kroot Infantry squad to make a charge even if they advanced in the same turn.
Additionally, the ‘Hunting Hounds’ ability grants them an Objective Control score of one as long as they’re within 12” of a Kroot character – not much, but better than the OC score of zero that they start with.
The new Kroot Hound kits replace models released in 2001 with the very first T’au codex. Games Workshop already revealed several new Kroot models at the Las Vegas Open convention in January, and promises in Monday’s article that there’s still “more to reveal”. We spotted the silhouette of a Kroot character riding a large feline Krootiform in Games Workshop’s winter teasers, which has yet to be revealed.
If you’re a returning T’au player lured back to Warhammer 40k by these new Kroot, check out the latest Balance Dataslate winners and losers – the T’au have had a few points changes since the start of 40k 10th edition.