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In my crimson fists list i use them to hold a home objective. So far they have held it pretty well. So my question is does any one else use them like this. Also the fit the fluff of my army pretty well i think.

I think bolter scouts have been shown to be inferior to all other scout types. That said, if its a fluff thing then more power to ya.

How have they been shown? I can't imagine shotgun scouts being better. Never been impressed with sniper scouts. Bolter scouts can be set up mid board with a HW and annoy the heck out of people who play with units that don't have power armor. They often get ignored, so they can even do somewhat well against meqs.

I personally use them to sit out on midfield objectives (I don't expect them to hold it without support) or infiltrate near important movement lanes so my opponent has to deal with them. Nobody like losing a squad of guys to scouts, and nobody want to shoot at a unit as cheap and disposable as scouts (esp since they are in cover and T4 and possibly stealth)

I personally rather prefer not deploying scouts, because I've never had good luck with them. (Sniper Scouts exempted, I don't have any of them). Scout always seem kinda like marines with a 4+ Save and reduced skill if you use Codex: SM. There just seem to be better units for almost any role you could put them in; tactical squads for bolters, assault squads for assault, etc. Unless you argue that they're generalists compared to those other units, but in that case they're mediocre generalists at best.

notabot187 wrote: I can't imagine shotgun scouts being better.

The shotgun allows you to shoot and then assault so you are hitting first more times.

The ccw scouts are used with the land speeder storm to win combat and use lower LD rule the storm has.

Sniper scouts have the range to sit back with a missile launcher

Bolters are not the best weapons, but they are used in more situations. You can move up and rapid fire, or hang back and regular fire.

Personally, I think the best part of the scout squad is the Sargent. They have WS/BS 4 and can take a fist or combi-weapon. You can use this melta/punch something,either outflanking or assaulting turn 1 from a Storm. I think this is the only way the scouts will take out a target worth as much as they are. Otherwise they are harassment and distractions which can be useful.

I am having decent luck spamming Sniper Scouts with a Heavy Bolter (to get access to Hellfire shells).

Give them cloaks, and use em to hold backfield objectives and middle objectives in cover..

Bolter scouts get chewed up fast in my local arena.. opponents realize that the one attack they have in CCW really is not good.

I have heard (apocryphal) that our local Tau player voluntarily assaulted bolter scouts with fire warriors to get a non-critical objective.. just because it was feasible.

porkuslime wrote:I am having decent luck spamming Sniper Scouts with a Heavy Bolter (to get access to Hellfire shells).

Give them cloaks, and use em to hold backfield objectives and middle objectives in cover..

Bolter scouts get chewed up fast in my local arena.. opponents realize that the one attack they have in CCW really is not good.

I have heard (apocryphal) that our local Tau player voluntarily assaulted bolter scouts with fire warriors to get a non-critical objective.. just because it was feasible.

How did a firewarrior squad survive the rapid fire from the squad, take the CC attacks from the squad, and actually still kill something? Scouts aren't the greatest in CC, but firewarriors are far worse. He would have to take a larger than I've seen used unit to be able to say that was a good idea.

@svendrex: shooting first is nice, except when your opponent takes the models closest to you off the board, and now you aren't in assault range. Scouts without CC weapons shouldn't really be in CC, and scouts who want to shoot should dedicate themselves to that role.

notabot187 wrote:

porkuslime wrote:

I have heard (apocryphal) that our local Tau player voluntarily assaulted bolter scouts with fire warriors to get a non-critical objective.. just because it was feasible.

How did a firewarrior squad survive the rapid fire from the squad, take the CC attacks from the squad, and actually still kill something? Scouts aren't the greatest in CC, but firewarriors are far worse. He would have to take a larger than I've seen used unit to be able to say that was a good idea.

Since I was not there.. this is seriously third hand knowledge.. but.. IIRC..

Scouts sitting on an objective.. no cover. Fire Warriors survived a Devilfish wreck.. no better place to go than assault. 10-ish Firewarriors hit 4 scouts.. and rolled better than the marines..

For my Scout-focused army, I have one squad of ten Scouts set up like this:

Sergeant w/ Power weapon/fist
4 Scouts with Pistol/CCW
4 Scouts with Bolter
1 Scout with Missile Launcher

This unit is then Combat Squaded; the CCW guys and the Sarge go in my LSS, while the other guys hustle for position to get a nice side-armor shot or something. Since they won't be too far back, they don't need the range of Sniper Rifles, and Bolters can fire even if they have to move somewhere. I wouldn't bother with a whole 10-person unit of Bolter Scouts, but I don't give any of my Scout squads identical equipment except for my Telion-led sniper squad that always hangs in the back.

In my experiences with Scouts, its better to run either ALL Scouts in a list, or no Scouts at all.

I don't use Scouts with Bolters, but then again I've never thought to. My usual strategy is putting them in groups of 5 in LSS's, and having them either Infiltrate or Outflank (usually the latter).

In Objective Games, my Sniper Scouts would Infiltrate as close as they can to an objective outside my deployment zone, otherwise in a Kill Points game, I'd put them in cover somewhere where they can cover most of the board with their range.

This all being said, I suppose it would depend on the strategy of your list to outfit your Scouts with the right weapons. For me, I'm either up front and ready to assault, or I'm shooting from well beyond 24" away. I suppose that's why I've never used Bolters on my Scouts.

Rurouni Benshin wrote:In my experiences with Scouts, its better to run either ALL Scouts in a list, or no Scouts at all.

I will respectfully disagree. I've had good luck running a single 5-man sniper team or a 5-man outflanking CC team. The former holds an objective and the later threatens armor. The points I save with the cheap scouts can go into beefing up the actual killy units in my army.

And hey, every now and then the scouts do something amazing like when my 5-man combi-melta squad outflanked, wrecked a chimera then killed everyone inside in CC.