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Close combat scouts.


Dbourg

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The big question is how you'll be getting them to combat. Since BA can't take Landspeeder Storms, they'll either need to borrow a transport or hope for good deployment options with Infiltrate. Neither of which seem like a great plan. That said, maybe you'll have better luck with it than I have! laugh.png

I've been thinking about two minimal units of these as an option for a Baal Strike Force to fill the troops requirement. Minimal size, infiltrate, don't expect them to actually do much beyond interfering and causing distractions. Maybe mix a couple shotguns in. I don't know, I'm probably newer at this than you are :P

I've been testing them constantly since the new codex. Granted, constantly means 'five out of six games I've had since the new game'. They've done ish for me so far. Mainly using them as Inflitrators to distract, which they've done well enough. And I've seen some hilarious results using them in CC.

Of course, Anecdotes are still anecdotes, but the one time I ran them, I used them to guard a flank of my Death Company from a 4 man squad of thunderwolves. The wolves chose not to charge the scouts, as they would have been locked in combat to get assault by a big mob of DC. So they hung back, my turn starts, the scouts move out of the ruin they were sheltering in, shot 4 shotguns, 5 BPs, and a single grav pistol shot from the sarge, killed a model. They then charged, killed another wolf and wounded a third. lost about 3-4 guys from the remaining 2 wolves, but held. On his turn, I wounded the other one, lost a few more, and they ran, leaving the sarge and 2 guys. They then of course rallied, and charged an under strength grey hunter squad, and killed 2 more, and made them flee. Ended up losing the game, but they were MVPs.

I have two so far.

 

First episode of notoriety was playing against a Black Templar player. Was my first fight with both CC scouts and the new Grav bikers. During the course of the battle, the scouts make it into CC with a bunch of novitiates. The fight goes quickly, my squad was already down a couple of men and his squad had been hit earlier, so after the first two rounds of combat, we have one scout and one templar trying to prove who is the true master of CC.

 

One game turn goes by as they fight each other, alternating between missing, hitting, wounding, not wounding, but always pulling through with an armor save when needed.

 

It happens on Turn 5. Then Turn 6. Technically, the battle is over, but we couldn't resist seeing who the winner was. I think we were on hypothetical Turn 13 when we finally got an answer as both of them swung and killed each other the same time. Fun times.

 

 

Second episode was against a DE/Eldar alliance. Squad was weathering the first turn, lost a couple of men before they move to threaten this guardian (okay, not guardians, but I can't remember the name of the typical infantry squad. Avengers?) squad with a bright lance. Originally, I was going to support them, but the fire support had to switch to a higher priority target. Of course, by this point, my scouts have already fired, and are standing directly in front of the Eldar squad who lost 1 to bolt pistol fire. Can't get away in time, what to do?

 

Charge, of course! Expecting to be wiped out in Overwatch, I am pleasantly surprised when only 1 scout dies in Overwatch. No real hope of victory, I cross my fingers as my scouts swing, my sergeant challenging their seer. The sergeant not only kills him, but the other scout maxes his attack-kill ratio. Both narrowly die in the counter-attack, but we rolled leadership anyway. Those Eldar ponces would've ran and died! So close!

 

 

So, yeah. CC Scouts, effective? Maybe. Fun? Definitely!

Doesn't mean they aren't effective. 30 S 5 I 5 attacks on the charge is nothing to sniff at. Can also soak up overwatch for death company or sanguinary guard. Like Dbourg said- survivors earn power armor. Win win

Hello, BadDice0809!

 

That is right.

The question here is not their effectiveness on the charge, but how to get them into that charge.

Unfortunately my idea is not working.

Now we have to look for alternatives. Like sitting them on an objective (in very hard cover) and let the opponent close in.

 

Captain Obvious

 

PS Thank you for drawing my attention on this. I strongly prefer you telling me It is illegal compared to my opponent / judge telling me this on a tournament. No hard feelings, dude!

I think CC scouts are one of the most underrated units in the codex. I run them one of two ways:

 

1) 2 five man squads with a melta bomb on the sergeant (sometimes a combi-melta aswell) and they infiltrate. This has done stupidly well in a few games. When there's DC, fast vindicators and other nasties rushing up the table, the scouts usually arn't the main target priority, they can tie up small units and that melta bomb should not be underestimated. It forces your opponent to think twice before moving up his vehicles because you've got that much more melta on the table (like we don't have enough already haha).

 

2) 10 man squad, veteran sergeant with a power sword, melta bomb (sometimes a combi-melta) and they ride in a stormraven. On the charge these guys get 27 Strength 5 Initiative 5 attacks and 4 more of these attacks that are AP 3. For a relatively cheap squad that is incredibly effective assault capability. This is why I don't care for the lack of a landspeeder storm in the codex, because at 10 strong scouts go from being a distraction unit to a hard hitting close combat squad. This to me is actually one of the most ideal units to ride in a raven for one big reason, you don't need to be paranoid about it getting shot down and losing the squad. Sure, it would suck if that happened, but at least you didn't invest in a super expensive squad like hammernators or DC and then lose them before they fight. Even at full strength they're still cheap enough to be expendable, while still being strong enough to put some real hurt on your opponent.

 

The best part about them is that no one expects it, scouts dont spread fear in players hearts like other units do, so when they do hit hard, it throws your opponent completely off guard and it's priceless.

 

Story time: I once wiped out a 7 man unit of plague marines with the second squad loadout that i mentioned. Killed 1 from shooting, charged in, the sergeant killed his champion in a challenge and another marine, and the 2 squads duked it out for 2 more rounds before i eventually wiped them out, i lost 4-5 scouts off of memory, and we're talking plague marines here, a unit that is known for being hard to kill. It was glorious.

I use scouts (10 strong with sarge with power weapon) in land raider crusader with sanguinary priest attached - also once I had librarian with unleash rage power nearby. So they all of the sudden became 4attacks WS4, S5, I5 (also priest would benefit:-) ). My opponent was suprised when 9 out of 10 of his grey hunters died before they were able to swing ;-)

Bare with melta bomb on the sergeant is how I run mine. They do pretty well. When they pay off its awesome!

 

Had a 5 man unit with a melta bomb on sarge charge a bastion with a company command squad inside, the squad threw frag grenades through the firing point killing most of the squad inside and the melta bomb destroyed the bastion killing off the AM warlord! Not bad for a 60 point unit.

So, I have a question. I typically leave my CC scouts barebones, but how many of you give them camo cloaks? Melta bombs seems like an excellent investment, but I'm not so sure about the cloaks.

 

 

I wouldn't bother with cloaks except on snipers.

 

I disagree, I run my CC scouts with cloaks, and it works well. Makes them far harder to shoot off midfield if they have solid cover, makes up for their 4+ save a lot.

But, I always give the sarge a PW and MB, so they are a bit more expensive than a bare bones squad, but I'd rather pay an extra 40 pts to give the unit +1 cover save, an I5 PW, and something to crack armor with.

 

So, I have a question. I typically leave my CC scouts barebones, but how many of you give them camo cloaks? Melta bombs seems like an excellent investment, but I'm not so sure about the cloaks.

 

 

I'd never even considered NOT taking camo cloaks on my scouts.

I use my scouts almost exclusivly to holding objectives, a unit of Scouts with cloaks going to ground in cover makes them harder to kill (at least to shooting) than a unit of terminators.

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