Shaper
- – Gordon Ramsay
Shapers are the spiritual leaders of the Turkeybois and are, for all intents and purposes, in charge of what is on the menu. This is because of the Kroot's biological and evolutionary quirk, in which they gain DNA of each prey animal they eat, which than transfers onto the new generation. Nomming the wrong things may lead an entire kindred into an evolutionary dead-end, or even worse.
Overview[edit]
Shapers have two jobs. The first is the aforementioned culinary inspection. Like a hyper-evolved version of Spore, if the Shaper wants his kindred to learn the art of the swole, he would direct to target and chow down on specifically Orks and Ogryns. If the Shaper wants his bois to be a bunch of prancy little knife ears, he would target Eldar. If he wants to show extreme devotion to a certain corpse-ridden skeleton with the most FABULOUS of hair, he will go for Imperials. Whatever is the case, the evolutionary path of the Shaper's kindred is his responsibility alone.
The second job is to act as Sergeants in a battlefield. A large kindred is typically run by a Master Shaper, while a group consisting of multiple kindreds may be headed by a Shaper Council of three to five Kroot, who act as overseers to the other shapers, and ensure that shapers do not lead their warriors down a dangerous evolutionary path. Occasionally a Shaper Chief may rise to power in times of emergency and unite hundreds of kindreds as a single army.
They also have shamanistic powers, like Disney's Pocahontas, but somehow less historically egregious and insulting. This is due to them being the focus of Kroot ancestor worship of their Kindred, practising rituals that seem to fill them supernatural powers, usually involving a sonorous chant and access to the powders, rocks and bones kept within the Shaper’s fetish pouch.
Among these powers are Ancestral Blessing, calling the warrior spirits of his ancestors to aid the Shaper and his allies, Blood of the Stalker, daubing himself and his allies skin with the blood of a local predator and with a prayer to gain the favour of the ancestors and grant helping them with hunts, and Prophetic Dream, visions from their ancestors that grant him foreknowledge of the future that is often difficult to understand, a vision which may relate to something in the next week or even years.
Variations[edit]
With 10th Edition being essentially Krootapalooza, the Shapers got a variants now to show what they want to focus on.
Flesh Shaper[edit]
Despite the name difference and cool model, Flesh Shapers are probably one of the more generic ones, they are masters of ritual butchery who take a strong personal pride in guiding the carnivorous practices of their fellow Kroot and ensuring only the finest genetic material makes it into their pack’s evolutionary heritage.
If that sounds exactly like what a normal Shaper does, it is because it probably is. Now, what makes them different from the standard Shaper-Joe we are not too sure. Although the closest explanation is their way of fighting. As one can imagine from their name, Flesh Shapers are CQC specialists, whereas the stock-standard Shaper is a generalist all-rounder.
As they are primarily close-combat specialists, they are equipped with butcher's blades like Hunting Knives and Axes as well as close-ranged weapons like a Kroot Scattergun.
On 10th Edition, they are probably the closest of the new shapers to the OG, this guy gets the 6+ FNP that upgrades to a 5+ once their unit kills an enemy unit in melee. Fortunately, they're better equipped for the job between giving their squad's melee weapons [Sustained Hits 1] and their own slightly deadlier [Twin-Linked] knives. Stack that with Infiltrators and you might get it sooner than you think.
Trail Shaper[edit]
The sneaky ones, Trail Shapers are responsible for the overall plan of attack. As their name suggests, they prepare the battlefield for their army’s arrival by picking out routes for infiltration, identifying advantageous terrain, and choosing how their forces will fight.
In a sense, they are considered the scouts of the Kroots, which is a feat given that the Kroot are an entire race of scouts to begin with. Due to their role, they don't really wear armour, not even the already light and basic Kroot Armour. They are essentially, butt naked.
Outside of their nudist approach, they are armed in the traditional Kroot manner, with a sturdy Kroot Rifle in hand and several practical blades hanging about their person.
They have rules, one of which is their Trail Finding ability which forces the opponents to get seriously close to have any success on a hit. On the other hand, the opposite is true. If the Trail Shaper is not within Engagement Range of a target, it can make a Normal move of up to D6. An extra move. Nice.
Other more general tactics for these guys on 10th Edition is that their role, however, is more support-based. Alongside being able to scurry away whenever an enemy unit gets too close, they also have the ability to redeploy at the start of the game. This can help you pick out some weak points in the enemy.
War Shaper[edit]
The superlative warriors of the caste, War Shapers are the most action-heavy of Shapers and it shows in their equipment.
Because of this, they are less Shapers and more battlefield commanders than what the traditional role would have indicated; who takes responsibility for the disposition of all Kroot forces in the field.
As they fulfill the role of commander, War Shapers are exemplary warriors in their own right. Their traditional equipment may look primitive, but it’s extremely effective in such experienced hands – these weaponry include things such as Bladestaves, Dart-bows, Prey-hooks, and Tri-blades.
Even their Kroot Armour is more heavily rugged than normal. Of the Shapers, they are definitely the toughest, but as battlefield commanders, they are a horrendously exposed target for snipers everywhere.
On the 10th edition tabletop, War Shapers are the angriest of the lot, free to pick between either a bow and glaive for shooting that can clear out most mobs with ease or more tolerable melee.
Aside from a single-use ability to cure a friendly Kroot unit of battle-shock, they also have the much more appetizing ability to use one stratagem for free each turn.
Crunch[edit]
The Kroot Shaper also suffers by being one of the absolute worst leader units in any T'au army. The T'au are just much stronger than the Kroot are; Kroot exist only to support the big gunlines. So Shapers are usually stuck with decent stats but also buff units that gain nothing from said buffs.
