Kindred of the Bloody Moon

Dreams-bewaring cocked his head to one side, quills trembling. The butt of his rifle was already pressed to his shoulder, the carved wood textured and familiar.

Slowly, slowly, he eased his head down, 'til his cheek was pressed against the warm wood and cool metal, and his eye ran down the length of the barrel. The flash suppressor formed a solid block at the end, and the kroot eased it up, the tip wavering to marry the movement with the breeze through the wattle-engorged purple trees.

A few yards away, Lurks-within-tent brought up his rifle in like manner as he spotted the target, too – and then half a dozen more as the kindred's quills thrummed in anticipation.

***

Rules

I've decided to lead the mighty forces of the mercenary Kroot to battle for this campaign. In terms of background, the Kindred of the Bloody Moon are an independent mercenary force (rather than indentured to the Tau) – but since they don't have a standalone Codex, I'll be using the Tau Empire rules. 

Fortunately, while this necessarily means a fairly limited selection of choices, it's broader than I was expecting. Kroot now have two infantry units – the Carnivores and the more elite Farstalkers – and the various krootforms (krootox, kroothounds etc.) are either standalone datasheets or available as 'Legends'.

Nevertheless, since kroot are cheap – very cheap! – the models I've got went together to form a modest force of around 500pts. Warmtamale's lore got me thinking about why the kroot might be visiting this planet, and I decided that my Shapers had been approached by the peculiar Zoat known as the Archivist, who was interested in hiring them as mercenaries for an expedition to Paradise XXII. The tales he told of a lush and blossoming world struck a chord with the Shaper Mother-bolt, who agreed to accompany the Archivist to explore, investigate – and eat out.

Including the zoat and an ambull will give me a nice opportunity to paint up these lovely models, and I think it fits in rather nicely with the mercenary theme. As the project unfolds, I might end up bringing in some other counts-as Tau forces to expand the options available to me and bring the points up to 1,000. This would let me bring my Pisceans out to play – though I'll have to have a think on what they'd best represent.

***

Faction: Tau Empire (points)

Detachment rules: Kauyon

Units: 

• Mother-bolt, Kroot Shaper – 40pts
• Precision of the patient hunter – 20pts
• Kroot Farstalkers – 70pts
• 1 Killbroker, 9 kroot, 2 kroothounds
• Kroot Farstalkers – 70pts
• 1 Killbroker, 9 kroot, 2 kroothounds
• Kroot Carnivores (10) – 55pts
• Kroothounds (4) – 30pts
• Krootox Riders (2) – 70pts
• Great Knarloc – 100pts
• Knarloc Riders – 110pts
• Ambull – 85ps
• The Archivist – 70pts

Oi, you're not a kroot!