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I think scouts are some of the best and versatile units in 40k. scouts with bolters/bolt pistols and combat blades are covered by sniper and heavy weapon teams they are very effective, even better if they are deployed in a land speeder storm with bikes to support them.

actually i think a scout army could be epic fun to use.

It's quite fragile as well, relying very heavily on cover saves that are not always positioned in their favor.

They are 'alpha strikers', doing most/best damage when initiating combats and firefights. The only issues are getting there/surviving to that point.

Sniper Weapons are not that great of a weapon, it's decent when lucky vs. MC equivalents...their worse BS is the primary reason.
Combat is not bad... the problem? They have no fleet without Shrike and do not take Counter Charges very well...nor are that durable with a worse WS and Armor.

They offer alot of utility, but it's hard to work with a whole army that is make up of utility units. It lacks both hammer and anvils and only acts like they have these elements.

I know there's an extensive tactica of the 10th? Company of Scouts over in Bolter and Chainsword.
Whatever the case, scouts are fun to use, but hard counters (that are not necessarily tailors) suck hard for them.

I wouldn't know, BT don't have a dedicated scout unit.

Though the option to make 20 man crusader squades useing 10 scout models as neophytes is very nice.

Define: Neophytes.
n. Please also look up Meatbag, Bodybag, Human Shield.

i'd agree scouts are very helpful, a 5 man scout squad in camo cloaks and w/ a heavy weapon is only 100 pts and it more often than not makes those points back every game. the versatility to outflank, infiltrate or just walk on is amazing, but the land speeder storm is what makes scouts amazing

The only real shame is that the Storms are not a dedicated transport choice instead of a FA...and the increase in alot more cover ignoring weapons in this day and age of 40K.

If scouts had the old stats, ie: S3 T3, WS4 BS4, they'd be worth taking. S4 T4, WS3 BS3 is a joke. Scouts suck plain and simple.

I use a unit of 5-6 scouts in my mech armies routinely and they serve a valuable purpose.

They have sniper rifles, but they almost never shoot them, except sometimes to harass a small, valuable rear-echelon unit like oblits or long fangs when there's nothing better for them to do. It doesn't really matter what they're armed with, though, since they don't really do significant damage with BS3 and small unit sizes. Luckily, that's not their job.

Here's some of the things they actually do:
-Infiltrate in a spot that will prevent my opponent's scout moves from going to the place where they want. This can completely shut down the turn 1 valk/melta-vet demo charge gimmick, the Shrike-infiltrating-with-10-termies gimmick, the LSstorm gimmick, and also the Baal predator in your face turn 1 tactic.
-Deploy in a place that will bait your opponent into responding a certain way. Especially useful in Dawn of War, where you can often draw your opponent's deployment/turn1 movement by putting just the scouts on the table in a spot where they create a problem.
-Outflank and grab an overlooked objective near the table edge in cover.
-Outflank and krak-assault a stationary vehicle near the table edge that didn't move last turn.
-As mentioned above, deploy in an otherwise empty quarter of the board and plink at your opponent's rear infantry.
-Hold your home objective.

40K is 2/3 Hold objective game.

And scout is cheap & good for Hold objectives.

Baal predator in your face turn 1 tactic.

It's sooo special, Flavour Flavious doesn't call it a 'gimmick' to remain consistant , just kidding.

They are utility pieces. Yes, but I think the OP was considering an army made up of a majority of scouts.

@Sir Motor:
They are cheap because they are not really as durable as they seem. Again, the OP is considering an army of them... in which case they don't 'take' enemy objectives very well and can only really rely on contesting the opponent's...which is not a great plan if it's essentially the only one available.

I can't really get on board with an army of scouts. Using scouts as scapel units is very effective.

Sir Motor wrote:40K is 2/3 Hold objective game.

And scout is cheap & good for Hold objectives.

QFT
A small unit of scouts can camp one objective in your back likes for a very low cost. Even if they don't 'Earn their Points Back', they can still win you the game via objectives!
That allows your bolter wielding TAC squad to advance and capture objectives in no mans land or in the enemy deployment zone.

Be careful mentioning Tac Squads labmouse42...
>.> <.< 0.0 <.< >.>

Yea, their seems to be some TAC hate going that way.
Meh, they should just play bike armies. Suddently the TAC squads become much faster and more versatile.

And they figured out how to unlock the storage box to pull out that second melta...and we learned that Hans and Frans really like sitting on the same bike....

I have noticed alot of tacti squad hate on here today, there decent units. durable and very versatile, still dont get why folks are slammin em.

i dont think im going to do a full scout army, i say it like im now considering an army of scouts lol. but no i find them usefull, not just holding objectives and the snipers, sorry but i stand by snipers there great.

I like having at least one unit of Wolf Scouts, though I don't think they count for this thread's purposes.
In general, I'd say scouts were a very good and versatile unit, and it's a fool who underestimates the danger they pose.

I don't know how the Vanilla scouts work.

But the Space Wolf Scouts have carapace armor and all of this.

Acute-sences,ATSKNF,Counter-attack,Infiltrate,Move through cover and Scout.

They can take Mark of the Wolfen, giving the unit rending. They can take melta bomb's Plasma Pistols.

One can even take a melta gun. Yes I will take my Wolf Scouts with me to hell and back.

When SM gets another update i hope they make LSS a dedicated transport because that will open up a whole new world of tactics for SM hell if they FAQ'ed it right now i think they would sell some models with out shifting C:SM balance too much. As they are right now I have no interest in them since they cant take a dedicated transport and it doesn't really fit with my play style.

labmouse42 wrote:

Sir Motor wrote:40K is 2/3 Hold objective game.

And scout is cheap & good for Hold objectives.

QFT
A small unit of scouts can camp one objective in your back likes for a very low cost. Even if they don't 'Earn their Points Back', they can still win you the game via objectives!
That allows your bolter wielding TAC squad to advance and capture objectives in no mans land or in the enemy deployment zone.

A small unit of scouts can be very hard to get off an objective. Cammo Cloaks + go 2 ground=2+ cover save. 100 points of scouts are non threatening enough that it's easy to ignore them for the first few turns, which can turn out to be a big mistake. The last minute decision to dump long ranged firepower into scouts with a 2+ cover save can easily cost a gun line player the game. It just doesn't work, the only things that do work is assaulting them or flamers both of which are obvious tactics that can be countered by the rest of a well played SM army.

Shadowbrand wrote:I don't know how the Vanilla scouts work.

But the Space Wolf Scouts have carapace armor and all of this.

Acute-sences,ATSKNF,Counter-attack,Infiltrate,Move through cover and Scout.

They can take Mark of the Wolfen, giving the unit rending. They can take melta bomb's Plasma Pistols.

One can even take a melta gun. Yes I will take my Wolf Scouts with me to hell and back.

The difference is that your Scouts aren't scoring, cost more, pay more for Sniper Rifles, and can't take Camo-cloaks. Your Scouts are designed almost exclusively to be a back field clearer, while Codex Scouts are better served to hold objectives and act as fodder.

IMHO Scouts are definietly one of the best units in 40k. In all the games ive played ive only had my five man squad of scouts w/t sniper rifles and Missle lancher been killed once, and that time the only reason they got killed was because of ignore cover weapons. Scout Sergeant Telion is also a great upgrade for only 50 points!

I'm thinking of using a unit or two in my Night Lords (read "counts as Blood Angels") to act as Locator Beacons for dudes falling from the sky. Pods and Land Raiders and such...

@darkhound.

Yes, well I wasn't aware of the comparisons of a Wolf Scout to a Marine Scout.

Every unit has it's weakness but I most definitely see a point in them.

DarkHound wrote:

Shadowbrand wrote:I don't know how the Vanilla scouts work.

But the Space Wolf Scouts have carapace armor and all of this.

Acute-sences,ATSKNF,Counter-attack,Infiltrate,Move through cover and Scout.

They can take Mark of the Wolfen, giving the unit rending. They can take melta bomb's Plasma Pistols.

One can even take a melta gun. Yes I will take my Wolf Scouts with me to hell and back.

The difference is that your Scouts aren't scoring, cost more, pay more for Sniper Rifles, and can't take Camo-cloaks. Your Scouts are designed almost exclusively to be a back field clearer, while Codex Scouts are better served to hold objectives and act as fodder.

Totally, agreed, but I don't think that makes them strictly worse than 'Ultramarine' Scouts, they can still contest tho, and considering their outflank, they can easily come in, clear a few with ranged fire, and then charge in. Yes, then can only, at best, keep it out of enemy hands. I'd still always take the Wolf Scouts over Camo'd Scouts, but I'd also like to say that then we're talking about different (but similar armies) all of which makes the difference in their usefulness as a unit choice.

Scout snipers are quite nice.

Sanctjud wrote:

Baal predator in your face turn 1 tactic.

It's sooo special, Flavour Flavious doesn't call it a 'gimmick' to remain consistant , just kidding

As a massive Public Enemy fan, I need to say that made my day

Hey, i was thinking of having an army of SM Scouts.
But how would your tactics work?

JubJubMarine wrote:Hey, i was thinking of having an army of SM Scouts.
But how would your tactics work?

Combat squad your guys, and give the searg a PF. Give 4 of them a CCW and pistol and the other 5 sniper rifles and HB

Have half your army assault like mad on foot and in speeders.

Add support units to take down transports, hey who says scouts can't have preadators supporting them?

Don't expect to win a lot, but you will have a fun, themed army

The way i have used scouts in the past was just as a decoyor to hold objetives but after placing them different and using squads to support one another ie, one squad with bolters rapid fire small units of standard infantry then assault with scouts with combat blades, if theres more left i have one of sniper teams pick off as many as the dice allow first.

I have tried using rhinos as a ded trans but its pointless, may as well take a razorback then you can have some decent anti tank weps in there. i agree with what has been said about the lss i dont get why they haven't allowed it to be a ded trans, it makes sense sein as an lss is ment to get scouts into forward possitions quickly. Tbh i dont think many gamers would be that bothered if it was used as a ded trans. if they are bothere then razorbacks it is lol.

o n spacewolf scouts count in this thread to