Kroxigor Warspawned

Kroxigor Warspawned can do some serious damage, even to some heavily armored enemies.  They are not as tough as Saurus Warriors, or have as many wounds per unit, but their potential to deal wound is significantly higher, especially against heavily armored enemies.

Their bite attacks deal mortal wounds, which is great because they ignore armor.  In Starborne, the bites tend not to add much damage, but in Coalesced, with +1 to bite rolls (or +2 to bite rolls near the Realmshaper Engine), they can have a significant impact.

Kroxigor synergize very well with the spell Hoarfrost from the Lore of Primal Frost.  This spell can give them a significant boost to their damage, and so is excellent to pair with them.

The biggest downfall of the Kroxigor Warspawned is that unless you can reliably trigger their Spawn of Sotek ability, which occurs when your enemy slays a SKINK in a unit that is wholly within 12" of the Kroxigor, the regular Kroxigor Cohorts tend to deal more damage in most scenarios, making the cheaper Cohorts a more appealing pick for most players.

Kroxigor Warspawned have limited combat synergies in Starborne, but they have some significant mobility options.  They are a legal target for the Starborne Skink spell Speed of Huanchi, which can affect non-monster SKINKS and KROXIGOR, which can let them move 10" between the bonus hero phase move and the movement phase move.  If Kroxigor are teleported to 9" from an enemy unit, and then targeted with this spell, they can make an immediate move in the hero phase without any chance for an enemy redeploy.  This lets them advance 5", and although the teleport prohibits a move in the movement phase, they now only need to make a 4" charge.  Kroxigor are also more likely to be around skinks in Starborne, which are able to issue them commands, if slain, trigger the Spawn of Sotek ability that can make Warspawned brutal.

In Coalesced, the Kroxigor Warspawned are stronger and tougher.  Coalesced Kroxigor benefit from Scaly Skin (-1 to enemy damage) and stronger bites, as well as +1 to wound rolls when charging in Koatl's Claw.  And Coalesced armies have several synergies with KROXIGOR units as well, such as the Skink spell Heavenly Frenzy and the Saurus command trait Vengeful Defender, both of which help them with their limited speed.  Sadly, Kroxigor are not legal targets for the Slann spell Empowered Celestite, to increase their rend, so they have to depend on Hoarfrost for that.

 A reinforced unit of 6 Kroxigor Warspawned is a true hammer, and a significant threat.  They can dish out some pretty heavy damage, even to armored enemies.

Against smaller threats, 6 Kroxigor can deal out so much damage as to be overkill, so if that is your intended target, multiple small units (MSU) of 3 Kroxigor may be more efficient.  These small units can spread out in different directions and cause problems for chaff, support heroes and other units that are top-tier threats.  

Units of 9 are possible in Koatl's Claw, where KROXIGOR are battleline.  These large units aren't used often, but when they are, they are a big threat with 36 wounds.  Although they are subject to the more strict coherency rules with 7+ models, their long weapon reach allows them to attack from the second row of the unit; but they do fall out of bite range. 

Kroxigor Warspawned are armed with Drakefang War-picks, but you may upgrade the weapon of one in three Kroxigor to a Starfang War-pick.  With an improved To Hit and Damage characteristic on the Starfang War-picks, and no downside, you should always bring as many Starfang War-picks as you are allowed.

Bringing Starfang War-picks does split the Weapon Profile into two, which means Hoarfrost will no longer be able to affect all of the attacks, but even so, a unit of Kroxigor with Starfang War-picks nearly always outperforms a unit of Kroxigor without (the one exception being when the enemy has a 2+ save and the Kroxigor gain a -3 rend from Hoarfrost).  Even though the Starfang War-picks split the weapon profile on Hoarfrost, it is still better to supply the Kroxigor with these excellent weapons.

The Spawn of Sotek ability is difficult to activate, but it is a powerful enhancement to Warspawned Kroxigor.  If a SKINK model is slain while its unit is wholly within 12" of Warspawned, the Warspawned get +1 to their Attacks characteristic for the rest of the phase.  This is a huge boon to the damage output of the Kroxigor.  However, it's difficult to depend on this as your opponent has a lot of control over this.  Remember, this is triggered by any unit with the SKINK keyword, so includes Skinks, Raptadons, Ripperdactyls, Stegadons, Spawn of Chotec, Hunters of Huanchi, Starseers, etc.  So if you have a lot of SKINK units as is often the case in Starborne, or you use some advanced tactics, it may be possible to force the ability (See DEFENSIVE MANUEVERS and OFFENSIVE MANUEVERS, below)

The main reason this ability is difficult to activate is because your opponent will be careful not to slay a Skink that's too close to the Warspawned.  And this may be the real power of the ability.  If a SKINK screen is defending your wizard castle, for example, and there's a unit of Warspawned 1½" behind them, any unit that charges into those skinks will have to face a slap back from Warspawned Kroxigor with +1 to Attacks!  This configuration is a powerful deterrent to protect your key heroes.

Kroxigor don't have a unit champion and are not elite.  That means the unit is unable to issue commands to itself.  They are not alone in this limitation: it is shared by Terrawings, Spawns of Chotec, Bastiladons and Stegadons.  But it is unusual for a unit of foot troops.

The Skink Guidance ability softens this limitation by allowing champions in units with the SKINK keyword to issue commands to the Kroxigor while the Kroxigor are wholly within 12" of the skinks.  Our SKINK units that have unit champions include Skinks, Hunters of Huanchi, Raptadon Chargers and Hunters, Ripperdactyl Riders and Terradon Riders.  Of course, HEROES and TOTEMS can still issue Kroxigor commands as usual.

The spell Hoarfrost from the Lore of Primal Frost deserves special attention in relation to Kroxigor Warspawned.  Two out of three weapons wielded by Kroxigor Warspawned units are Drakefang War-picks, and have  just 4+ To Hit, and -2 rend.  This means that there's lots of room to improve their To Hit from Hoarfrost, but Rend upgrades will do less for them.  But which weapon profile should Hoarfrost be applied to?  And which characteristic is best to modify?  It turns out the answer is pretty straightforward and consistent, with only a few considerations.

First, apply Hoarfrost's affect to the Drakefang War-picks.  There are more attacks from them than the Starfang War-picks, and there's a bigger improvement to the To Hit characteristic, so mathematically, it's always the better choice.

For the characteristic to modify, it turns out you should always modify To Hit, even if the value you rolled is a 3.  The average damage is improved more with the To Hit of 3+ than by giving it a rend of -3, except against  an enemy with a 2+ save, where the two options break even.  And increasing To Hit increases the maximum possible damage, whereas improving rend does not.

However, it should be noted that if you stack on other buffs to To Hit or Rend, the pattern may change a bit.  For example, if you roll a 3 for Hoarfrost, and you plan to use All-out Attack against an enemy with a 2+ armor save, you'd be better off enhancing rend.  Though if the enemy has a 3+ save your average damage will break even between enhancing To Hit and Rend (but To Hit has higher max damage), and against a 4+ save or higher (worse), To Hit is the clear winner.