Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm pretty new to 40k and have been reading the rules about scouts, I know that they have the special rules and everything, but have you ever managed to destroy a tank with a sniper rifle? - or even pin a charging unit of orks?

Yeah, but you can kill a Demon Prince with lasguns too if you want.
They're generally not worth taking, possible exception of Pathfinders.

With their relatively cheap cost, landing beacons and infiltrate they're not to bad at looking after objectives.... surely?

Not really.
I assume you're talking about Marine Scouts, in which case a tactical squad can lay down more firepower with a special/heavy weapon, plus power armour.
Maybe in a very specialised list against lots of monsterous creatures, spamming snipers would be a good idea, but generally no.
Though I have seen my friend waste a preditor by getting side on it one time...unfortunately he thinks that's going to happen EVERY time and therefore insists that rangers are deadly anti-tank shooters.

My marine sniper scouts have always under performed.

i did pop open a chimera, though. Then the occupants got pinned from the explosion. The next round, I killed a few more with the snipers and they were pinned again.

Good times.

I dislike them they killed me trygon on one round of shooting.All 6 wounds.

Telion kills useful things all the time because you get to allocate his wounds, bye bye sgt. With power fist, bye bye melta gun guy, ect.

Without Telion, Marine Scouts with sniper rifles will rarely perform good. You can put a wound or more on a MC, but even though they are cheap, they can't really seem to earn their points back. Put Telion in there and you have a much better squad. I've stopped using them with my BA.

It's also weird that a SM hipfiring a boltgun gets BS4, but a SM with a long ranged sniper rifle with a bipod and a scope, somehow gets BS3. But hey, that's 40K for ya.

They killed my nightbringer (oldcrons). ANGER!!!!!!!!!!!

I then dropped a monolith on them... And well... You know

I use them all the time, and it seems to me like their performance varies wildly. I've had them take down entire units before, and I've also (say, last night for example) go an entire game without inflicting a single wound. I agree that Telion is a must-have (for Stealth if nothing else) and the optional heavy weapon is a smart choice too. Against some of your heavier Monstrous Creatures or crazy-high toughness folks (like, say, Destroyer Lords) the snipers can really shine. Rending doesn't hurt, either.

I only use the scout snipers with camo cloaks.

I always use them to camp an objective in my backfiield they work great for that, and at 90 pts for BA scout snipers with camo cloaks, you can not go wrong. (Just remember to use them when they are not GTG because mine are painted in a camo pattern, and blend into a lot of terrain, i forget about them because they are so well camouflaged.

in KP missions they will do a little damage here and there. I had the last 2 scouts kill a daemon prince in CC before when he charged them. I have also had the last 3 scouts kill 2 terminators when the terminators assaulted them, one before he got to swing, and one on the next round. also took out a squad of long fangs with their rifles.

I've had decent luck with Eldar rangers/pathfinders. They seem to either do a lot, or nothing all game. When I'm not infiltrating them poorly and getting hit by flame templates though :/

No, they're always terrible. They shoot about as well as your average sniper in a pubbie game of Battlefield 3, except with the added bonus of targets being generally hard to kill. Literally the only use they have is as a durable objective holding unit or platform for Telion to character snipe from.

However, assault scouts have served me incredibly well. Shotguns and bolt pistols can do some damage, and they're a cheaper way to tie up enemy units in CC.

To date I've dropped about 20ish terminators, Mephiston and a couple trygons.

Never tried them. I play Dark Angels, apparently, they have good scouts because they are Elites....

i was thinking of taking a unit solely for the locator beacon in a drop pod list. worth it?

kb305 wrote:i was thinking of taking a unit solely for the locator beacon in a drop pod list. worth it?

I would say they are worth it for this purpose.

Meh i saw a MWG battle report and eldar rangers brought down a predator

If you are doing IG I wouldn't recommend taking them. The only way I could see them being useful is if you are fighting an infantry heavy army, with a low/weak leadership rating. As you can pin them down, and keep them down. Besides that I don't see them as useful.

Sparklabar wrote:Without Telion, Marine Scouts with sniper rifles will rarely perform good. You can put a wound or more on a MC, but even though they are cheap, they can't really seem to earn their points back. Put Telion in there and you have a much better squad. I've stopped using them with my BA.

It's also weird that a SM hipfiring a boltgun gets BS4, but a SM with a long ranged sniper rifle with a bipod and a scope, somehow gets BS3. But hey, that's 40K for ya.

Thats because space marines have power armour to absorb recoil and tech in their guns that allow for better aiming, while space marine scouts are generally young marines still gaining experiance.

Makarov wrote:If you are doing IG I wouldn't recommend taking them. The only way I could see them being useful is if you are fighting an infantry heavy army, with a low/weak leadership rating. As you can pin them down, and keep them down. Besides that I don't see them as useful.

Psycher battle squads. Any squad that isn't fearless takes pinning at Ld 2. 9 rattlings gives us 6 hits, 1 rending. So that's a pinning test right there. Probably more risky against anything with an invulnerable.

Space Marines scouts with Sniper Rifles are there to sit on objectives and contemplate their navels.

Scouts with BP and CCWs are a decent assault unit for killing anything that isn't itself an assault unit.

I've seen them kill a god before (Nightbringer, pre dumb ward fluff )

King Pariah wrote:They killed my nightbringer (oldcrons). ANGER!!!!!!!!!!!

I then dropped a monolith on them... And well... You know

My brother did this to the Nightbringer as well with his snipers (and they didn't even have Telion).

Nightbringer HATED snipers.

Son of Nightbringer probably does too, but I don't play Crons anymore.

godthedj wrote:I'm pretty new to 40k and have been reading the rules about scouts, I know that they have the special rules and everything, but have you ever managed to destroy a tank with a sniper rifle? - or even pin a charging unit of orks?

Who the hell uses sniper rifles to kill tanks? Besides the vindicare, anyway.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ascalam wrote:Nightbringer HATED snipers.

Son of Nightbringer probably does too, but I don't play Crons anymore.

Oh he does. Its pretty much the same, really.

Pathfinders can do it with their 5+ rending and 6+ AP1 but I wouldn't rely on it.

I've killed many a MC with my Wolf Scouts. Don't use them in my 1500 list but in my 2000 pt one I've always got sniper scouts. If nothing else they force my opponant to make some choices. To me they're an annoyance/MC killer. I've never pinned anyone with it but in general I've done some fairly decent damage. Nightbringer, Deciever and Dreadknights hate my snipers

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

godthedj wrote:I'm pretty new to 40k and have been reading the rules about scouts, I know that they have the special rules and everything, but have you ever managed to destroy a tank with a sniper rifle? - or even pin a charging unit of orks?

Who the hell uses sniper rifles to kill tanks? Besides the vindicare, anyway.

I have, but the Side of the Chimera was the only thing that was in range of my scouts at the time.

I got a few lucky shots rended twice, penned twice and exploded it.

Will not happen often though.

Well in the last year, I have had a squad of scouts take out a Dreadknight solo (shot then assault), kill a DP (separate game), and kill a purifier squad (yet another game) with sniper rifles and Telion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not too bad, IMHO