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So why are there no chaos space marine scouts? I understand a lot of other tech is new and they don't have it. But scouts simply are not.

 thepowerfulwill wrote:
So why are there no chaos space marine scouts? I understand a lot of other tech is new and they don't have it. But scouts simply are not.

Well Legion astartes didn't have scouts, and they didn't seem to like the idea; I think it's implied that neophytes would be given a suit of PA and went straight to baseline troopers. So that's why no chaos space marine warbands that descends from one of the nine legions has any.

As for why there seems to be no mention of scouts in a CSM warbands that used to be part of a renegade chapter... one would assume their scouts either got killed off by the Imperialists/Other CSM/Daemons in the EoT, or long ago made his way to be a "rightful" marine and procured himself a suit of PA.

All methods used to create new CSMs seems to be linked to stealing gene-seeds, daemonic possession or mutation, something something sorcerous, or that one fabulous fellow; despite all the time-bending effects of the warp, daemonic resurrections, etc., there has to be a tremendous amount of casualties on the traitor marines, so one would assume there are more PA suits laying around than there are marines and marine equivalents. So there is no point having scouts, and they can just use traitor guardsmen or traiter IGs to do that kind of jobs.

Mainly because the majority of CSM aren't restricted by or follow organized methods taught through codified things like the codex astartes so the few recruits they do get via slaves are likely more trained alongside the lines like that of the Black Templars where their newbies fight amongst them. That or daemonically accelerating their growth. Don't forget recruitment is inconsistent for a lot of CSM forces and a lot of it comes from additional traitors from the loyalist side.

Also due to their lack of reliable infrastructure and often chaotic/ever-changing environment in the Eye of Terror it means that things like this are impractical to maintain especially since espionage/infiltration is already handled by experts like the Alpha Legion or Night Lords whereas more generic forces like the Black Legion have plenty of insurgents via cultists/heretics instead.

Other factions like Iron Warriors have an easier, mass-produced version that allows them to skip past the pesky stage of scouts through things like the Daemonculaba.

Just thought of a scout turning, killing a loyal marine form his chapter, stealing the armor and replacing him. Tzeencth!

 thepowerfulwill wrote:
Just thought of a scout turning, killing a loyal marine form his chapter, stealing the armor and replacing him. Tzeencth!

Black Carapace issues.

Otherwise, cool story.

The First Founding Legions did have recon assets. Although they weren't the young scout the SM chapters use now days. They were of age and some were sharp shooters.
As far as in the codex...who knows. Maybe CSM don't like snooping and pooping. They are more inclined to get down and dirty.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 thepowerfulwill wrote:
Just thought of a scout turning, killing a loyal marine form his chapter, stealing the armor and replacing him. Tzeencth!

Black Carapace issues.

Otherwise, cool story.

Read Storm of Iron.
An Imperial Guardswoman steals a Khorne Berzerker's armour after she is possessed by a demon and then walks around in it.

Difference there is that the Berserker's armour is already warp-twisted and half possessed, so it probably bonded to her directly through the sheer power of Chaos.

The rogue Astartes scout won't have enough Chaos in him yet to pull off the same, unless he's a psyker.

That's because the she/armour was possessed though...

As to snooping, traditionally we used our Veteran squads for scouting and infiltration. They used their immense experience to close with the enemy, and unleash a torrent of special weapons fire on them.

For some reason, Chosen don't seem to be as experienced as our Veterans were... That's why I'd like to see a few 'veteran skill' upgrade options for Chosen. To get some of that feel back.

 Dark Apostle 666 wrote:
That's because the she/armour was possessed though...

She wasn't /strictly/ possessed. She'd come under the influence of the Red Rage when cleaning his armour and I think killed him with his own chainsword before getting in his armour and going to battle in it.

 Slaanesh-Devotee wrote:
As to snooping, traditionally we used our Veteran squads for scouting and infiltration. They used their immense experience to close with the enemy, and unleash a torrent of special weapons fire on them.

For some reason, Chosen don't seem to be as experienced as our Veterans were... That's why I'd like to see a few 'veteran skill' upgrade options for Chosen. To get some of that feel back.

I agree 100% with all this.

Huron and Ahriman.

The only infiltrators from the entirety of the Traitor Legions and their Renegade successors.

Another spectacular oversight from C:CSM.

 GuardRalph wrote:

 Slaanesh-Devotee wrote:
As to snooping, traditionally we used our Veteran squads for scouting and infiltration. They used their immense experience to close with the enemy, and unleash a torrent of special weapons fire on them.

For some reason, Chosen don't seem to be as experienced as our Veterans were... That's why I'd like to see a few 'veteran skill' upgrade options for Chosen. To get some of that feel back.

I agree 100% with all this.

Make your own 'legion'. Chaos chapter tactics. I like it.

They left them with their whirlwinds, landspeeders, conversion beamers etc.