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Are 5 sniper scouts with camo cloaks and a locator beacon a good way to invest 115pts in a DoA blood angels army?




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I liked the idea of snipers and I think the pinning rule could be pretty handy. They can sit on an objective and if anyone gets too close, drop some assault marines on them for support.

Scouts don't really suit the background of my chapter which is supposed to be dying and having had no new recruits for centuaries. Plus i never really liked the scout models which has put me off using them. But with the anvil industry sniper parts I can still make them look like veterans, only veterans who like to infiltrate and snipe. I can attribute the bs of 3 to the fact that they wear lighter armour with less targeting gadgets and wargear than the other marines.

Anyways, does anyone value them?

Not sure why you'd need the locator beaking with DoA, since it's only a d6 scatter anyways.

As for sniper scouts.. I used to be a fan and sorta semi still am for a 4th troops choice butt... bs3 really hurts.

At least with my rolling I cant hit the broadside of a barn with them, so they become a troops choice that's great at not dying but also not contributing at all to my game. Sniper scouts are great at sitting on a home objective, but that also kind of wastes their infiltrate abilities, so they're just a unit that can be difficult to find a role for.

Cause remember with camo cloaks they are the same cost as regular marine bodies :/ Thus at 1500 I ended up just going with a 3 10 man tactical squad for 70 points more.

Base 5 man + Telion

He gives them Stealth (equivalent of Camo Cloaks, but it does stack) and focus on taking out special weapons (not characters due to LOS!) and I think you'll find they do okay. Not great, but okay.

Problem with that is, Telion isn't available for Blood Angels. You COULD take him as allies, however.

The idea is sound - camo cloaks can be really hard to shift off an objective sometimes, and the rifles are handy for the occasional special weapon kill. But ultimately I think you'll get more use from Tacticals toting BS4 bolters and a special/heavy weapon. As Largo39 said, the locator beacon is a waste of points thanks to DoA.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Doubt I'll take allies just to get telion, though I have heard a lot of people rave about him.

I understand what you're saying about home objectives and the infiltrate rule. Ballistic skill 3 also hurts, so I can understand taking 5 tactical marines instead for more or less the same cost.

Just thinking that pinning and rending could really slow down advancing infantry or help limit enemy fire power while my assault squads advance. Obviously, this depends on hitting them in the first place. Also, maybe the camo cloaks would make up for the lighter armour.

You think, given the low bs, they'd only really be effective in squads of 10? And then they're 180 points, no longer a kinda cheap filler.

They're ok, no more, no less.

I generally use sniper scouts with a m/l, so as a unit it offers some flexibility.

They have varied between taking down a Razorwing first turn with a rending sniper rifle hit to being utterly annihilated turn one, even deployed inside solid cover.

They're not a bad way to spend a spare 100 points on another scoring unit, but they're not top of the list either.

Pinning and rending are like tax rebates - they're nice when they happen, but don't rely on their appearance. Pinning is all too often negated by a passed Morale test, and rending is outweighed by a placed shot to begin with.
10 Scouts, though... hmm... statistically you're looking at a placed shot every turn. That'd be nice to have.

But at 10 scouts i'd much rather have marines. Same cost (with camo) but 1 extra special weapon and WAY better accuracy and 3+ armour.

5 sniper scouts is what ive found to be the most efficent use of them and ive been convinced that a HB may be the way to go instead of ML, you get more shots to hit with and you do get single shot with special ammunition.

So yeah, if ur at 1750 points and need a 4th cheap troop than go for it, otherwise.... meh.

If BA Scouts had hellfire shells then I would take HB everytime, but bizarrely they don't, which undermines them slightly in this codex.

It's another reason to take Tellion and allied scouts.

As it stands I think the extra utility of the ML outweighs the extra shots of the HB, but it's a margin call. I have a unit of bolter scouts with the HB and that can be equally as useful.

Plus with the new rules for forests and lakes, even objectives sniper scouts work great.
Infiltrate them in, find out what it is, then scout them out if it is bad.
Really gives them a scouty role.... Odd huh

If I recall correctly, the scout squads can only take a teleport homer not a locator beacon. The scout bikers are the only ones able to take the beacon. This is in the vanilla marines codex though it might be different in the BA dex.

Yeh, BA codex says locator beacon. Deep strikes within 6" don't scatter.

At least one if not two five man scout squads with cloaks and a ml. For 100 points, they make a great back field objective holder, 2+ cover save going to ground. Yes please. The fire power is just a extra bonus, you may get a couple of lucky 6s on your sniper rifles, kill the odd mc or transport. Plus 2 more missile a turn is never a bad thing, if you combine them with a couple of dev squads in the back field as well.

I rather like playing my sniper scouts, their uses as a backfield objective holder is great and they are also useful for holding up any units which could become an issue with pinning.

silvu wrote:
I rather like playing my sniper scouts, their uses as a backfield objective holder is great and they are also useful for holding up any units which could become an issue with pinning.

Yeh, I think it's the pinning rule that appeals to me. Do you find it comes into play often, or does the BS 3 let you down a bit? Also, how many do you generally go with, 5 or more?

Haven't used sniper Scouts much since my Marine army is Dark Angels and my Elites choices are best saved for the Deathwing, but I can tell you that my 120pt five-man Pathfinder unit has never failed to be a useful investment in my Eldar army.

telions stealth doesnt stack with camo cloaks by the way.
camo cloaks give the stealth special rule.

taking telion just saves you the points cost of the camo cloaks for the squad

Actually, the camo cloaks got FAQed to state that they simply grants +1 cover saves, which works for everything, even night fighting. So camo cloaks + Tellion is +2 to cover saves



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O and in that faq they gave Tellion a camo cloak as a piece of wargear

nice , i like that