Scouts, How to use them?

[blastboy113]

Hi guys

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for using scouts in a general army aspect

All advice is welcome

Cheers
Blastboy113

[Charistoph]

Several things. Meatshields for your Initiates. Sniper Teams. Outflankers. What do you need them for?

[Ursa]

I use them quite a bit. Snipers are very goof at taking down high toughness creatures. In addition I have a lot of luck with a combat squad in a land speedier storm. Give vet Sgt a power fist and melts bombs. Rest of the squad either shotguns or ccw/bolt pistols.

[biffster666]

I've seen scouts used mostly with Sniper Rifles and a ML, although I've got one buddy who likes to use Bolters and a Heavy bolter. In the right spot, they can be nasty and hard to get to. Since most are troops they can snag objectives in no mans land right from the get go, but you have to support them quickly. My biggest army is Biel-Tan, but I dig Illic and Pathfinders. I've played since RT and I've never owned Eldrad or Yriel, let alone fielded them as a 'counts as'. Illic is a BAMF and him + pathfinders are gnarly snipers. He's the only Special Character other than the Phoenix Lords that I could see being fielded with any Eldar force, not just Alaitoc. My second biggest army is my Wolves and I dig my wolf scouts also, the best SM scouts IMO. Scouts can be awesome, but they can get chewed up quick if you don't have them in a good spot or support them.

[Obispal]

I agree with Ursa, a Combat squad in a Land speeder is a great use other then that I use them as a high ground infil unit with sniper rifles and camo cloaks

[mysterex]

I equip mine as a 5 man squad with sniper rifles and camo-cloaks. I use then as a resilient distraction that goes to ground any time someone looks at them funny, otherwise they just snipe away.

A friend of mine uses a 5 man squad with combat blades and pistols and the sergeant upgraded with a combi-melta. He tends to outflank them to either take unprotected objectives or pop vehicles.

Like others have said, how you equip and use them depends on what gaps in your army you need to fill.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Snipers
Snipers fill a role that nothing else in the standard Marine list does, esp with extra precision shots picking off those pesky meltas/plasmas etc.
Also as has been mentioned here, MCs with high toughness do not like sniper rifles.
Shotguns / BP and CCW
Assault scouts are good at the job, and your only scoring assault unit. And a storm makes them better.
With the storm they're also your only fast re-deploy scoring unit in a vanilla list that doesn't require you to buy them a non-dedicated transport.
Bikers
The bikes have their charm too.
They can bring down drop-pods, assault marines and teleporter units no worries, and they're more survivable.
The astartes grenade launcher is pretty mean too.
Bolters
Marines do this better. BUT against high AP armies the scouts are slightly more survivable, and they get the edge in deployment.
So they have their place.
Heavy weapons
Don't forget the reduced BS when handling these, it seriously impacts the effectiveness of both when not templating.
The flipside is that if you're smurfs then Telion provides you with a counter to this issue.
Sarge Equipment
Think of him like a standard marine sarge in whatever role and he'll do fine.

Chapter Tactics
Personally my army is based around close range fire and drop-pods (Manders), so I deploy mine (either as a ten or as 2 squads of 5) at the start of the game along with a thunderfire to lay down covering fire and as a way of controlling enemy deployment / movement Turn 1.
Think hard about what your army does well, and what chapter tactics will do for you, then use that to maximum effect.

[krispy]

i normally use them in sniper squads,
but now with the imperial fist tactic maybe heavy bolter and bolter armed squad would be a more useful setup - rerolls of 1's for bolters aint to be sniffed at..

[Arkhan Land]

Infiltrate and outflanking, getting right in there with an inexspensive unit. also now in C:SM you can have them take Flakk missiles. I think its about 160 pts to tack on two sqauds with flakks to any situation, two of those further up on the board with another AA or two in back can cover the entire field.

[Chris*ta]

I don't know what's changed in the new codex, but two things:
1) Scout bikers are cheap, and because they're twin linked, effective at shooting. Plus they get infiltrate and scout. Largely better than regular bikers.
2) With Sniper Rifles, take a Heavy Bolter. They've the same range, and the Hellfire rounds are effective against MCs.

For generic use, I'd say BP + CCW is best. WS 3 is less of a handicap than BS 3, so may as well maximise their ability for hand-to-hand. They're good in games with a lot of terrain, like Cities of Death (people still play Cities of Death, right?).

The only pity is they can't take a special weapon. I have no idea why ...