A 5 men sniper scout squad for objective holding?

[greatcrusade08]

The big problem with Scouts isn't designing a list to work with them - it's dealing with the enemy lists that just outright destroy them.

In a list that uses a small number of scouts, this isnt a problem, a few scouts can be kept away from dangerous units, not only that but youll have more points for cool stuff.

But as its a point in discussion, are there lists that outright destroy scouts? in all my time as a tenth co man, ive only met one person ive been unable to defeat

 

I use a 5 man scout squad for rear objective holding.. But they are armed with Shotguns and a Missile Launcher.

 

I find 5 Sniper Rifles at BS3 are very underwhelming. At least the Krak/Frag are sort of reliable at what they do even with BS3. And if anything comes close I can shoot them IN THE FACE with the Shotguns and the ML.

 

shotguns, really?

It may take 2-3 turns before the enemy gets close enough for the shotgun blast, are you willing to waste those turns of shooting?

It just makes no sense.. add ontop the rending and pinning.

shotguns still use the BS3 you know!!!

 

As for me, who uses scouts alot i dont consider objectives too much in my games.

If its one each my anvil will sit on one and my hammer will target the other.. beyond that i try to kill the opponent leaving me to take obs at my leisure.

I generally win games by controlling them, i always aim to negat enemy movement, this equally works when it comes down to taking obejctives

[Captain Idaho]

Well I have drawn across similar conclusions to Giga, in that I have found that I need the Tacticals supporting the rest of the army, whilst a 10 Man Tactical can be a little wasteful on an objective, but combat squadded loses it's efficiency.

 

So a bare minimum Scout squad for objective hunting appealed to me.

 

Sniper Scouts, 5 of them at least, do not achieve much on the table. Their biggest threat is from things that come up close and assault or flame them, either those that have circumnavigated your army or outflanked, so on this basis I think they would be better served with Bolters. They get double the shots at 12" and still a single shot at 24". They can hurt AV10 and alongside a Heavy Bolters helfire shells, they can fire at outflankers and even the odds.

 

What do people think of this?

[greatcrusade08]

I would never have just 5 scouts sitting alone babysitting an ob, its wasteful as Idaho says anything that circles around your main force will rip through them.

 

But as plans go the bolter one isnt too bad, it beats shotguns thats for sure :D

[Captain Idaho]

I would never have just 5 scouts sitting alone babysitting an ob, its wasteful as Idaho says anything that circles around your main force will rip through them.

 

But as plans go the bolter one isnt too bad, it beats shotguns thats for sure :)

 

I know, I can't figure out what to do though, as I need that unit on the objective and can't afford a 3rd Tactical squad... :)

[greatcrusade08]

Dont get me wrong, scouts on obs are great, just dont leave them alone until enemy outflankers/fast units have been nullyfied.. its basic common sense to not let your opponent divide and conquer your forces.

[Ryjak]

You know, this thread got me thinking... Troops, in general, have two rolls: Holding Objectives, and Taking Objectives. When it comes to holding objectives, Tactical Squads are generally superior to Scouts, mostly because they have a little more offense, and they can withstand assaults a little better.

 

But when it comes to taking objectives... A Tactical squad in a Rhino with a flamer is ok, two is better, but I can't help but think a Scout Squad in a LSS does it better. They can hide in Reserves, Outflank, show up and move 24", and they can do some damage when they disembark, shoot, and assault an objective-holder.

 

Then again, you can get Marine Bikes as scoring units, and Sternguard, and both are probably better for taking objectives, but they both require a specific HQ choice.

[Captain Idaho]

To be honest, the role of taking an objective for Troops is actually more of a support/mop up thing. The rest of the army takes the objective, the Tactical squad assists in this and moves in to secure the objective.

 

Also, when points are tight a 3rd Tactical squad to hold your own objective isn't always possible. I'm thinking of somehow fitting one in, but I'm struggling to drop a Dreadnought or whatever. Which is why a Scout squad for babysitting is needed.

 

Of course that isn't the case for every player, as some people don't have an obssession with Dreadnoughts and the power of Typhoons as me!

[captain sox]

my thoughts on scouts:

 

1) Scouts are cheap points wise (if you don't go crazy with upgrades).

 

2) If buying another Tac Squad is out of the question, then by all means use as many Scouts as possible. While it's not ideal to mix and match weapon types in Scout Squads (excpet for possibly assault based Scout units), adding a few bolter Scouts may not hurt (escpecially for wound allocation.)

 

3) You could also give your Scout Sergeant a Combi-Weapon (ie plasma) if you have the extra points available.

 

4) Scouts with Camo Cloaks in cover are actually pretty tough to kill. Yeah, flamers and heavy flamers will kill them quite easily, but really, if things with those weapons get that close to you anyways, it's likely other things have gone wrong in the game.

 

I always use 10 Snipers now, usually with a missile launcher and Telion.... but that is an expensive points unit.

[DarkGuard]

Used a 5 man Scout squad today and to be honest they were pretty underwhelming. Then again they ended up fighting in a three way game, and there were no objectives to hold, therefore giving my opponents an kill point. I prefer using Tactical Squads to hold my objectives, but Scouts with snipers aren't a bad budget buy.