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I've got a fairly significant tau collection (almost all 5500 points is painted even ) now I'm looking to try a different army; given the new SM codex I was thinking this would be a perfect opportunity to make an army for my favourite chapter... The Raven Guard. I want this army to be a little fluffy which means the heavy use of scouts. What I'm wondering is how best to equip and use them, tactics, and the viability of a scout heavy list being somewhat competitive (my group has some very strong lists)

I've actually heard next to nothing on scout heavy lists. I bet if you paired them with TFCs though that they would work well. That would just leave you lacking a counter to MEQ, TEQ, and vehicles. You could build the rest of your list to account for those though.

Best of luck to you I'm also a huge Raven Guard fan but lean much more towards the jump pack and rapid deployment side of things.

I'm in somewhat the same boat, Tau as my first army and a growing SM list with Raven Guard CT (now).

RG don't exclusively use scouts so you don't need to go overboard. Most SM players don't bring any. I plan on bringing one squad of scout snipers and one squad of bolter scouts in a LSS. Both are fluffy but don't directly benefit from the RG chapter tactics, asside from first-turn stealth. Snipers are for objective camping and the LSS outflanks for some drive-by objective grabbing action. You could do CC scouts in a LSS but they have to be a small squad size and they cant assault from reserves or first turn if they infiltrate or scout.

I think it's the other elements that can round out the list competitively but that might be OT from what you requested.

I am also building a fluffy RG army right now. I am running 3 scout squads, 2 6 man sniper squads and a bolter squad deploying in the LSS. My experience with scouts is don't expect too much out of them and you won't be disappointed. They are fantastic for camping on an objective in cover, but not for much else. Still they are fantastically cheap, allowing me to meet the troop minimum and leaving plenty of points to take multiple assault squads and vanguard units.

I love the HOW rule in RG's Chapter Tactics, it's beastly.

See I was thinking 3-4 scout squads in LSS. But my idea depends heavily on if you can fire heavy weapons from a speeder after it moves

I'm not sure how fluffy this is but bring a tech marine or master of the forge for bolster defense so you get better cover saves. You might be relying on them at first.

You could still have them camp behind a defensive line with quad gun. I was thinking of adding a librarian to make them all twin linked sniper rifles.

In that case you meet your troop HQ slots, and can push out more elites or HS.

I regularly take scouts. Now more than ever. I'm running two 5 man squads in land speeder storms. I run them with bolters but I'm Crimson Fists. They are really good for getting down field for line breaker and Blind large template on the speeder has been very handy vs necrons.

I also run a full 10 man squad in a storm raven. I usually combat squad them and then do the special jump while zooming. They have move through cover and pass all dangerous terrain tests in movement phase.. Great for pharachuting onto objectives late games or assaulting out when you need a little extra kick (hover mode, six inch move).

Can you use heavy weapons when in an LSS that's moved?

You can snap fire them.

Thank you

Here's a list I was considering at 1850:

HQ

Tigurius
Command Squad, apothecary, 4 meltagun, drop pod

Elite

10 Sternguards, 2 combi-melta, Drop pod

Troops

5 Scouts, shotguns, combi-melta, meltabombs, LSS+MM
5 Scouts, shotguns, combi-melta, meltabombs, LSS+MM
5 Scouts, shotguns, combi-flamer, LSS+HF
10 Scouts, 9 snipers, 9 camocloaks, Telion

Fast Attack

3 Scout bikes, Homing beacon, combi-melta
3 Scout bikes, Homing beacon, combi-melta
Stormtalon, skyhammer missile launcher

Heavy support

Storm Raven, MM+TLLC
Striker

Aegis line with quadd-gun


I took Ultramarines CT, though I'm not sure they are the best choice with Scouts. I think I could retro-fit Tigurius and Telion to generic versions of themselves, get rid of the Striker (wich feels odd in this list for some reason) and then I could take a full 10 man squad deployed in the Raven to grab/contest objectives like Inquisitor-Dunn suggested.