Imho, the only "bad" aspect about kroak is that his melee profile has no minimum number of attacks, which leaves him in a bit of an odd position when he's forced to fight a non-horde unit. It'd be great if attacks like this got a minimum number of hits, especially when it's the only attack the model has. It's a minor gripe, but you're going to hate it whenever he loses a duel against a lone hero cuz he simply has no attacks. Apart from that, he's quite amazing in the new tome.
Yeah, but if a hero is in melee range, they are also very much in range for deliverance, so their chances of survival are not all that great.
That's one solution. But it remains weird to me that the attack doesn't have a minimum amount of hits since it's all Kroak has. On the bright side it also has the weird interaction that if Kroak is surrounded by a horde of grots & 1 grot hero he can pour a bazzilion attacks into the hero as it says "enemy models in range" not "models in the target unit" like the flamethrowers do. The kroxigor actually has the same odd phrasing where if multiple units are in range he'l get extra attacks. It's overal just a bit of an odd attack. Especially as it's the only one he has. I would almost want the guard to just be part of him, must like how the bonereaper general shows up with an entourage. Mwha, 3D3's are nice, but most combat oriented heroes should survive that. Hell, just look at our tome, aside from the minor skink heroes everything we have has a reasonable chance of surviving that (albeit badly mauled). And most of our heroes aren't particularly sturdy.
Used this wording to make a bonus attacks against Endrinriggers unit, becuase Gunhauler was near, in my last game. Pretty useful. But, actually, if Kroak survives a combat phase against single hero, he is, indeed, will just blast it with Deliverence. So, minor heroes should think twice before charging Kroak.
Honestly the reason I'm mainly using Kroak is two fold. First off he is just amaze balls. Especially if you give him a guard contingency of 3 units of 5 Guard to spread around wounds and avoid losing any one unit early. (plus extra leader attacks). Then just march him, an astro, and his 15 guards into the middle of the battlefield and challenge anything to take it from you with your wound mitigation and amazing damage output. Second off I'm going to be running a custom Koatl's Claw list I'm dubbing the Remembrance of Itza. With a Saurus SunBlood leading a unit of 40 Saurus Warriors, two Skink Starpriests, a Scar-Vet on carno, and some knights to travel with the carno. So having Kroak is thematic with the list. Plus between those two threatening blocks of doom and my theropod hunting pack I have plenty of room to use a squad of Salamanders to pepper the enemy and flee if the heat gets to be too much.
I use as slann in my KC list where I play 2 carno’s and 2 other wizards with 4 endless spells rampaging. I need the points for bodies and endless spells. And hopefully a slann will have a smaller target on its head that Kroak. And I just cant play kroak without balewind and AB, and most of the times 5 guards
The problem with Balewind in Coalesced lists is that Slann/Kroak cannot move at all and cannot garrison the realmshape engine., which is kinda limiting...
With a bearer and a BwV you've got 22 inch range on Kroaks spell. If he's deployed centrallish and a little farther up then maybe you would otherwise that gives you pretty good board coverage. Kind of creates a "killzone" that people won't want to enter.
Running kroak in coalesced isnt that great. You can make it work. But hes extremely slow and more or less I see him being used in a saurus guard heavy starhost. Running a slann imho is way more efficient in coalesced just because of cost(bring me more skinks baby). I always thought the rules for the realmshaper engine were incredibly stupid but i do like that only a seraphon can operate it
I still like Kroak for Coalesced. The main issue is fitting the 3 Saurus Heroes I want to bring, and the Skinks with Slann. I feel like there is less room for the Saurus Astrolith Bearer in Saurus heavy list.