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Welcome to the Ultimate Scout Sniper guide. This document will try to be a living document in order to acomodate changes and incorporate more wisdom. Part 1. Why Play with Scout Snipers? The answers are: - Everybody loves Snipers. - Scout Snipers usually collect dust. - Add a new/different layer to the game play. - Because! It's a known fact that Scout Snipers are underused throughout 40K editions. They're rules have been less than stellar but now in 8th they have the chance to shine a bit more. Usually people pick them because "Snipers" but after not using them against the good targets or not in the right way, they put the "They suck" label and drop them . Well, they can suck, true, because they are dependent on luck more than other units but in this edition we have the means to get the luck on our favour and the only thing we have to do is to provide them the correct targets to shine. They will never be infantry killers or anti-tank killers, but in this edition they can do something few other units can: Target characters, thus eliminating buffs and other nastyness. They can also focus on small elite units, making them less efficient and less of a threat. Part 2. What is the role of the Scout Snipers? The Scout Snipers role is to decapitate. Kill a Character and not only the buffs will be gone, the extra Ld will be gone and the Close Combat power as well (depends on the army). Even if you don't kill the Characters for some reason you will still make the opponent play more cautiously with them, because they know their luck can run out. Forcing the enemy to change his plans is also a good way to thwart his general strategy. How do we go about it? The first thing we have to remember is that Scouts are a unit that the more you invest in it, the greater the gains. Having 5 Scouts with Snipers will take too many turns to accomplish something. The minimum for faster results is 10 Scouts with Sniper so that whataver you target disappears in two turns maximum. Ideally you'll want 15 ( one unit of 10 and one of 5 or three units of 5). Once you get the scouts, you have to buy them camo cloaks because cover are their friend. Any other upgrades or special weapons are not necessary. They don't need CC gear because Ideally they won't be in CC and other weapons will only take away one precious sniper rifle (and won't be able to single out characters) What else do you need? Like I wrote previously, scouts are more dependent on luck so to make the luck count less we need two more aditions that you will probably already have in your army. A Captain (or equivalent) and a Lieutenant. The Captain will give re-rolls to hit and the Lieutenant gives re-rolls to wound. If by some reason you can only have one within 6" of your Scout Snipers, then choose the Lieutenant because re-rolls can provide the extra "6s" you need to get the job done. Part 3. Your army. Your army will also have to take in account you have the Scout Snipers.That mean you need a sort of castled up army and a defensive posture. That will mean that your buffing characters will have to baby-sit the Scout Snipers, but good news is that if you have Predators, Devastators or any other shooty squads nearby, the Characters won't be "just" baby-sitting the Scouts. The battlefield. Scout Snipers can be used for area denial so, ideally they'll be on the flanks. But don't split them up too much because you need to keep your characters nearby and if the Scout Sniper squads are too far apart they probably can't shoot the same targets and/or benefit from character buffs. Set up those Snipers as cliche as possible. Use the 36" range to your advantage and put them in cover and high as possible so tehy can get a good overlook of the battlefield. If you can't place them high, try to place them with at least 2/3 good fire lanes so they don't have to move to search for targets. Get that Captain and Lieutenant close to them for the re-rolls. If you can and the mission has objectives, keep in mind that the scouts can setup on top of them thanks to their deployment ability. Ideally you need both characters (Cpt and Lt) close but if you can't manage then pick the LT, because any re-rolls are more likely to get extra 6's for mortal wounds. Don't forget that the Mortal Wound comes as an extra. The enemy still has to save that 6! So for example : You get two 4's, three 5's and two 6's against a SM Character, he get's two mortal wounds and still has to make 7 armour saves. If he won't die this turn, he'll bite the dust in the next. Choose a target. Ideally you'll want to target the enemy characters first. Choose the one that can give you headaches and shoot some toxin coated lead dowrange. If you don't have a character you can shoot, select a small elite unit so you can at least cripple the unit , giving them less chances to hurt your army. Disclaimer: Again, this is a guide for using something and trying to get the best out of it. It is not a super-duper competitve set up. It's a guide to help you use those cool models you have... If you use them , have fun with them and instead of "They suck" you start to think "They're okay" or "They're fun" my objective has been achieved. If you have something to add, correct, share, etc, go ahead and post it. We need all the wisdom to make those Sniper Scouts fashionable again. Have fun and enjoy the headshots! Thanks to dtse, Cpt Bannockburn and Major_Gilbear for the input!