Kroot Hunting Pack: The 11th-Edition T'au Kroot Detachment

Most write-ups mention one. There are two, and the second is the one that changes how the army feels.

Hunter's Instincts. Each time a KROOT model from your army makes an attack, add 1 to the Hit roll if the target of that attack is below its Starting Strength, and add 1 to the Wound roll as well if the target is Below Half-strength.

Skirmish Fighters. KROOT models from your army have a 6+ invulnerable save against melee attacks and a 5+ invulnerable save against ranged attacks.

And a keyword handout: selecting this detachment gives KROOT CARNIVORE units the BATTLELINE keyword, which is what lets a Kroot list score properly rather than merely exist.

Read Hunter's Instincts precisely, because the two thresholds are different. Below Starting Strength means the unit has lost at least one model, which is a low bar. Below Half-strength is the harder one, and it is what unlocks the wound bonus. So the rule ramps: a scratch on the target makes you more accurate, and real damage makes you lethal.

The consequence is the single most important thing to understand about this detachment: it pays nothing at all against a fresh, full-strength unit. The pack is a finisher, not an opener. Every list-building decision follows from working out what does your opening damage.

Skirmish Fighters is where the durability comes from. A 5+ invulnerable save against ranged attacks on a cheap T3 body is a much larger effect than the number suggests, because it applies to the high-Armour-Penetration shooting that would otherwise delete Kroot for free. It is the reason a Kroot pack survives long enough to reach the fights the first rule pays for.

Six, and five of them cost 1CP.

• Join the Hunt (2CP, any phase, once per battle). Target one KROOT INFANTRY or KROOT HOUNDS unit that was just destroyed, even though it was destroyed; add a new identical unit to your army in Strategic Reserves at its Starting Strength. It cannot return destroyed CHARACTER units to Attached units. The most expensive stratagem here and the one that decides close games on objectives.
• A Trap Well Laid (1CP, your Shooting or the Fight). One KROOT unit that has not attacked this phase; after it resolves its attacks, select one enemy unit hit by them, and until the end of the phase every KROOT model's attacks against that unit improve Armour Penetration by 1, unless the attacking unit is Battle-shocked. This is how a pack focuses fire, and it is why your Kroot units want to activate in a deliberate order rather than whichever is closest.
• Hidden Hunters (1CP, opponent's Shooting). Just after an enemy unit selects its targets, one of your KROOT units that was selected; until the end of the phase it can only be targeted by a ranged attack if the attacking model is within 18 inches. This is the stratagem the Faction Pack's FAQ is about, which is the only place the pack mentions this detachment at all.
• Guerrilla Warriors (1CP, your Movement). Just after a KROOT unit Falls Back, that unit is eligible to shoot and to declare a charge until the end of the turn. Falling back out of a fight you are losing and charging one you can win is the Kroot pattern in one command point.
• EMP Grenades (1CP, opponent's Shooting or the Fight). Just after an enemy VEHICLE unit is selected to shoot or fight, one KROOT GRENADES unit within 8 inches; until the end of the phase, worsen that vehicle's Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill by 1. The detachment's only real answer to armour, and note that it is defensive rather than offensive.
• The Grisly Feast (1CP, Fight). One KROOT unit that destroyed one or more enemy units this phase; in your opponent's next Command phase, each enemy unit within 6 inches takes a Battle-shock test, with -1 if it is Below Half-strength, and affected units take no other Battle-shock tests that phase. It pairs naturally with Hunter's Instincts, because the units you are best at killing are the ones already below half.

The habit to build: use A Trap Well Laid before your best unit swings rather than after, and hold a command point in your opponent's turn for Hidden Hunters on whichever pack is most exposed.

Four, and every one is locked to a specific named Shaper, which is a list-building constraint rather than a preference. You cannot take the enhancement without buying the model.

• Borthrod Gland (15 pts). Kroot Flesh Shaper only. While the bearer is leading a unit, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, an unmodified Hit roll of 5+ scores a Critical Hit. It widens the crit range for the whole unit, so it is worth more the more attacks the unit makes. Put it on your biggest Carnivore block.
• Nomadic Hunter (20 pts). KROOT TRAIL SHAPER model only. While the bearer is leading a unit, add 3 inches to the Move characteristic of models in that unit and their ranged weapons have [ASSAULT]. Movement plus advance-and-shoot on one enhancement, for a detachment whose whole problem is arriving at the right fight at the right time. Usually the best of the four.
• Root-carved Weapons (10 pts). Kroot War Shaper model only. All weapons equipped by the bearer have [PRECISION] and [DEVASTATING WOUNDS]. Ten points to turn a character into a character-killer, and the cheapest enhancement in the detachment.
• Kroothawk Flock (10 pts). KROOT model only, so the least restricted of the four. Ranged weapons in the bearer's unit have [IGNORES COVER], and enemy units set up as Reinforcements cannot be set up within 12 inches horizontally of the bearer. That second clause is a deployment-denial effect most Kroot players forget they own, and against a deep-striking army it is worth more than the first.

One correction, because it is repeated widely: Student of Kauyon is not a Kroot Hunting Pack enhancement. It belongs to the Auxiliary Cadre, and since the two detachments cannot be taken together, that distinction decides which list can Deep Strike three Kroot units.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

If you own Kroot, this is the section that matters most, because the list you are about to write is illegal.

Kroot Hunting Pack (2 DP) + Auxiliary Cadre (1 DP) costs exactly 3 DP, which is a full Strike Force budget. It is thematically perfect: the detachment that makes Kroot the army, plus the detachment that makes Kroot better. It also solves both of this detachment's real problems at once, giving your Carnivores and Farstalkers Deep Strike through Student of Kauyon and letting them shoot from concealment near a Ghostkeel.

It is illegal. Both detachments carry the same Unique Tag, and no two detachments in your army may share one.

Our two official sources disagree about the tag's name and about nothing else. The Munitorum Field Manual v1.3 prints UNIQUE: AUXILIARY on this detachment and on the Auxiliary Cadre. Faction Pack v1.2 prints UNIQUE: AUXILIARIES above the Auxiliary Cadre page and restates it in that rule text, and does not print this detachment at all, because it is a codex detachment. The community mirror reproduces the pack's own internal inconsistency, printing an AUXILIARY badge above an AUXILIARIES rule text on the same page, and its tag index lists both detachments under AUXILIARY.

So we do not state a tag name as fact. Every source that names a tag on both detachments names the same tag on both, which is the only question that decides legality. We never suggest this pairing anywhere on this site, in either direction.

Build this instead: Kroot Hunting Pack (2 DP) + Advanced Acquisition Cadre (1 DP). It is legal, it is 3 DP, and it fixes the problem that actually loses you games, which is that Hunter's Instincts pays nothing until something has already taken casualties. Hidden Pathfinders and Stealth Battlesuits shoot every turn without being shot back, and that is your opening damage.

The other legal option is Kroot Hunting Pack + Experimental Prototype Cadre, which trades reliable chip damage for a long-range Battlesuit Character that can crack a hard target your Kroot cannot touch.

Check the Warhammer 40,000 app before an event, and if you are playing in a tournament, ask the organiser rather than your opponent.

• Kroot Carnivores are the unit the detachment is written for, and the one that gains BATTLELINE from selecting it. Buy more than you think you need.
• Kroot Hounds are the speed. Hunter's Instincts rewards reaching a softened target before something else finishes it, and Hounds are the only Kroot unit fast enough to choose their fight reliably.
• Kroot Farstalkers are the shooting half of the pack, and the unit that benefits most from the Hit roll bonus, because it is attacking at a range where you can pick your target.
• Krootox Rampagers are the melee punch, but Skirmish Fighters only gives them a 6+ invulnerable save in melee, so use them on units already Below Half-strength where the wound bonus turns them into a finisher.
• Krootox Riders are the ranged version on the same chassis, and their Kroot Packmates ability is the subject of the one Kroot Hunting Pack FAQ in Faction Pack v1.2.
• Kroot Trail Shaper, Kroot War Shaper and Kroot Flesh Shaper are each the only legal bearer of one enhancement, so which Shapers you own decides which enhancements you can take. The pack rewrites both Trail Shaper abilities, Kroot Ambush and Trail Finding.
• Kroot Lone-Spear is a solo harasser that fits the habit of picking off weakened units.
• Pathfinder Team is the one non-Kroot unit worth planning for, because nothing in this detachment improves your Kroot against a fresh target and a Markerlight Observer lets a T'au gun open the wound.

One omission to note: the Great Knarloc and Knarloc Riders are Warhammer Legends datasheets in 11th edition, so neither is a matched-play Kroot unit however much the theme suggests it.

Take it when you want a T'au army that plays nothing like a T'au army: mobile, cheap, durable in a way the numbers hide, and built around choosing favourable fights rather than winning head-on ones. It is also one of the most affordable ways into 40,000, because the Kroot range is largely single-kit units rather than expensive centrepieces.

Be clear-eyed about the weaknesses. Hunter's Instincts pays nothing against a full-strength unit, so a list with no opening damage stalls. EMP Grenades is your only anti-vehicle tool and it is defensive. And every enhancement requires a specific Shaper model, so your enhancement options are decided by your collection rather than by the game in front of you.

Sample gameplan: pair it with the Advanced Acquisition Cadre (1 DP). Hidden Pathfinders and Stealth Battlesuits do the opening damage from concealment every turn, putting enemy units below Starting Strength and then Below Half-strength; your Kroot then arrive to finish them with +1 to Hit and +1 to Wound. Take Nomadic Hunter on a Trail Shaper leading your main Carnivore block so it can actually reach those fights, spend A Trap Well Laid before your biggest unit attacks, hold a command point for Hidden Hunters in your opponent's shooting phase, and save Join the Hunt for the moment losing a Battleline unit would cost you the primary objective.

For the fundamentals, read the T'au Empire army guide.