Scouts

[Brother Kovash]

Just curious if anyone is using scouts in their armies. With the ability to deep strike in so many models, I'm sure a locator beacon would come in handy. I still have some left over from my Ultramarines army, and I would love to get some use out of them.

[TheHarrower]

I used to use them all of the time in the PDF Codex. The beacons would certainly be nice, but there is just so much good stuff in the new Codex that I haven't found a need for them yet. Take this with the caveat that I'm still playing smallish games (1,000 points and under).

[chewielight]

I take them in EVERY army I build. I normally use 3 snipers 1 ML and sarg with combi melta. Cheap throw away squad that if played well can help TONS. These guys have helped me win more than game and have almost always made back their points time and time again.

[Morticon]

The first reply kinda hit the nail on the head as far as what my concerns are - they are workable, but we have so much cool stuff to fit in already.

 

The only thing I can suggest is that make sure you have a priest nearby. The FC turns the cheap scouts into something fearsome.

 

If you had a 10man scout squad with fist a Rage Libby and a priest in a raven, it makes for one hell of a hard smacking unit.

[Wildfire]

The only thing I can suggest is that make sure you have a priest nearby. The FC turns the cheap scouts into something fearsome.

 

I've been toying with the idea of a priest on bike with biker/attack bike squadron, and a scout squad or two. Turbo-boost would give the priest the ability to quickly move that bubble to wherever the scouts happened to come on, turning a cheap unit into a decent assualt squad.

[SnorriSnorrison]

I use a small squad, 5 guys with camo cloaks(which will actually be painted on...my next project), combat knives, Sarge with Locator Beacon, and either PW and Meltabombs or PF and Combimelta. Should be around 130 pts, cheaper if I use the former version.

 

 

Snorri

[Morollan]

I've used a small unit of scouts with a locator beacon and camo cloaks on a couple of occasions. I generally try to inflitrate them into a nice location in cover somewhere and then use the locator beacon to DS something nasty, like a LRC full of DC, right next to them. I also give them sniper rifles so they can take the odd shot at anything that moves nearby.

[lunchb0x]

5 man with BACON!! :) works great...give em camo cloaks to really annoy. And use that scout move, so that your drop pods/deep striking units land where they need to be. :)

[Rybnick]

I like taking scouts from time to time. I usually take 4x sniper rifle and ml all w/ camo cloaks. They are excellent for sitting on an objective and if they take too many wounds from shooting they can go to ground and usually survive. With the 4 sniper shots and ml they offer fairly decent long range support as well (usually perform very well for me against Nid MC's), and at only 100 points it's a fairly manageable point investment for what they are capable of.

 

The only trouble I've had with them as objective campers is with outflanking units that grab them into assaults (genestealers :D ) or deepstriking units that can either negate cover saves (Sternguard although this was fine by me as they really had better targets on the board than my little scouts :D)

[Deschenus Maximus]

I loved my Scouts when I played vanilla SM. What I would do is use my Godhammer LR with the squad inside and an attached Captain or Libby to act as a counterassault unit. Sadly, since LR are dedicated transports in the BA book, my fun little trick doesn't work. Besides, AS as troops make scouts look pretty poor.

 

I'm wondering how I should arm the 10-man squad I just bought (the aforementionned scouts are the old metal figs). I have a 10 man sniper squad with ML (not sure I believe the cloaks are worth the cost), but for my regular scouts, I'm having trouble finding a role not better filled either by Assault Squads or Tactical Squads.

 

Any ideas?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I like Morticon's idea - 10 scouts with combat blades and bolt pistols plus a sergeant with a power fist and combi melta. Attach a Sanguinary Priest with a power sword and run them in a Stormraven. It's a hard hitting unit that is very cheap for the points. Taking a locator beacon can turn them into a fire magnet though and with our DoA special rule it's not something you absolutely need.

 

0b :pirate:

[Brother Kovash]

Thanks all for the replies.

 

I know we have the DoA special rule to use, but even with it I've watched other people have problems deep striking in. Since I already play CSM, I love being able to use my icons to drop in what I need, exactly where I need it. Attaching a priest to the squad seems like a good idea, might have to try that out once I start building.

 

I already have a squad of 4 snipers with ML painted up, just need to change the armor color. I also picked up a CC squad, so I'll be able to toy around with both. If only they had given us scouts with BS4...

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

The reduction in ballistic skill kind of blows to be honest and that is a good reason for me to simply run them as a shock troop for sudden assaults. Just think if you had the Sanguinor within range for his +1A aura... That would be be 36 attacks at S5 I5... really solid stuff there for sure. Then the power fist goes off swinging 4 attacks at S9... Simply devastating. You could even throw in a chaplain to reroll hits. Sickness indeed!

 

0b :P