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Now whats all of your opinions on them. yes I knwo they got nerfed fomr what they use to be but how do they fair now. (disregarding what they use to be). Im thinking of throwing in 2 or 3 units of 5 snipers in my tourny list. Maybe with tellion.

Just wanted to see what you all thought on it.

i have telion supported with 5 scouts with sniper rifles and a missile launcher, he is a great addition and which comes in handy with the ap2 bolter, it can take down godfex's with 1-3 turns. so yes scouts are helpful if you put telion with them. now regular scouts - maybe cannon fodder?

Scouts useless? No way, dude.

1. They're one of only two scoring units for the SM army. Tactical squads almost force you to take them in 10 man groups, and the cost starts at 170 at that point.

2. Unlike Tac squads, they understand how to wield two CC weapons. This makes them better(still not great) than Tac squads in CC.

3. A 5-man sniper squad with cloaks and a ML costs 100 points, can infiltrate into a terrain objective at the start of the game, receive 3+ cover saves, and fire a BS3 or 4(if you use the sgt's BS) krak missile...ALL while holding the point. That's good value.

4. With infiltrate, scout, move through cover, and Shrike giving them fleet, you've got a bunch of relatively cheap first-turn assault units, with decent punch, that can also score.


Scouts are tremendously versatile, it just depends on how you wanna use them.

The problem is, a scout firing a sniper rifle has a 4% chance to put a wound in. Yes, 5 scouts firing for the entire game will put 1 wound out. Or, you can take Telion and a heavy bolter with those poisoned rounds. Telion gives the heavy bolter BS5, so 3 2+ hit, 2+ wound AP4. Not bad, and then the snipers try their luck at doing any damage.

Scouts make good fodder, good early objective capturing units. They have some interesting combos (Landspeeder Storm, Telion's HBolter trick above), but don't expect them to smash other units or anything.

I usually use 2x10 scouts with missiles and sniper rifles. (no cloaks)
This comes out to 130 pts per unit i believe which is fairly cheep and good at holding an objective. They go wherever and they make monsters cry (they can down fexes prety fast when you start hitting it with 18 snipers + 2 missiles).

Mainly they are cheep objective holders. They can be removed but it takes an effort as opposed to 5 marines walking to it. And with long range they can sit on one ojective and support the army's main push.

Just some stuff to clear up:

I don't think you can give the sarge the ML or heavy bolter, codex says only a Scout can take it.
Stalker pattern boltgun is ap5 not 2.
Poisoned shells have no AP value so enemies still get their save.

I think scouts are useful overall. Sniper scouts with cloaks sitting on an objective near your edge will give you some moderate long range firepower which marines really lack in their infantry. 4% is only if you're shooting TEQs and it doesn't take into consideration rending. 50% to hit, 50% to wound on any toughness, AP6, rending and pinning, at 36" -not too shabby. Probs somewhere around 15% chance to knock off a wound against most enemies. So if you have 7 that's 1 wound and one pinning test a turn and that doesn't take into consideration the heavy weapon you may be packing.

Telion though I do not think is worth it. Too pricey and his gun is not good enough to threaten the target he picks out. 50 points to give your heavy weapon BS6 is too much.

Tellion can forego shooting to give his BS to another member of the squad, which is what I meant. He is another body, better LD and you only have to use the ability when it you really need it. YMMV, I suppose