# Space Marine Scouts Tactics



## sixpakofdwarves (Feb 23, 2010)

I am new to the game, playing regular old Space Marines. My idea for the scouts are this. 
5 Close Combat Weapons and Bolt Pistols
3 Sniper Rifles
1 Heavy Bolter/Hellfire Rounds
And Sgt Tellion

Combat Squad them into sniper team and assault team.

Infiltrate the Snipers, heavy bolter and Tellion into a good cover spot to fire and pin enemy units.

Put the CCW Scouts in a Land Speeder Storm to disembark, shoot and assault the pinned enemy units. 

Wash, rinse and repeat...
A worth while plan or this way lies madness?


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## Cyklown (Feb 8, 2010)

Well, aside from the whole them not getting the benefit of cover thing, assaulting pinned units is a bit of a waste. I mean, they can't do anything next turn anyways.


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## gannam (May 2, 2009)

being new to the game, you should leave the scouts at home period. You will just be feeding kill points to more experienced players. tac squads in rhinos with missile launchers and melta guns are far superior for an inexperienced player.


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## Amra_the_lion (May 26, 2008)

assaulting the pinned unit is a bit pointless as it adds no additional benefit. Assault a unit with the scouts in the storm that you believe you have a very good chance of winning. I like to back an assault squad or terminator squad with them. Watch out though they are fragile, but often that -2 mod on the moral test is a real benefit.

As for leaving them at home until you are good at the game, that's not necessary. Use them, learn where they are effective. 

As for the setup, 3 sniper rifles and Tellion are not going to cause a panic test very often. Rebuild the unit with 8 snipers, Tellion and your heavy bolter or missile. Take a separate unit for the melee scouts, add a fist or power weapon to the sergeant to get the kills you need to win the combat.


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

gannam said:


> being new to the game, you should leave the scouts at home period. You will just be feeding kill points to more experienced players. tac squads in rhinos with missile launchers and melta guns are far superior for an inexperienced player.


Sorry, but wrong. Scouts work perfectly fine. And better than Tac marines in some ways.

First off, you generally shouldn't combat squad Scout units, because 5 Scouts isn't going to kill anything consistently. If you do have to take 5 Scouts (for the Storm), just take a 5 man pistol squad with a Powerfist Sergeant. Against another marine combat squad you should kill 2-3 of them for the loss of one of yours, winning the combat by 3-4 since you assaulted out of a Storm. Cue one leadership test at Ld 4-5...

Secondly, Snipers should really have Camo cloaks, because they'll generally be camping near an objective, and people will try to shoot you off it. A 3+ Invul is really nice for surviving all kinds of firepower. I also tend to station a Dreadnought next to them, in order to stop them being assaulted (it doesn't matter that the Dread doesn't have a combat weapon, it'll just tarpit very nicely).

My current Scout army has 3x 10 Man Pistol Scout units with a Powerfist in each, 5 pistol scouts in a Storm with a Powerfist and a 10 Man Sniper squad with Telion and a Misile Launcher. The way it works is to have Shrike in the army, meaning that all the Scouts are Fleet. This means I am guaranteed a first turn assault with 35 Scouts and 10 Assault marines provided I go first. this has shredded people's tournament armies before, including the new Nids and Orks.

So in conclusion, Scouts are fine. Just use them in units of 10 or don't bother, really. :good:


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## zeroblackstar (Feb 16, 2010)

If you take a tech marine you can bolster defences to give a +1 bonus to the the cover save of one piece of scenery, then take camo cloaks which add another +1 bonus and youve got yourself a very decent save vs incoming fire. If they shoot something really nasty at you, your unit can always go to ground and recieve yet another +1 to the cover save, thats 2+ to save in total! If youve infiltrated or flanked, your opponent now has to divert units away to deal with your scouts because of course you took that shiny rocket launcher 

I play an ork player frequently and the ability to pin then with sniper fire and pick off nob leaders with power klaws in mobs of 20 orks thanks to Telion has proved to be quite useful

so for instance, I take a thunderfire cannon and a scout squad w/Telion. the techmarine lets me bolster defences and the cannon chews up orks like you wouldnt believe. Telion picks off the power weapons or characters hiding in large mobs. after the cannon has killed a good number of orks and theyre down to 10 or less in the unit, they are no longer fearless and can be pinned by sniper fire. This can help slow down the green tide long enough to get another valuable turn of shooting in.


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll (Jun 9, 2008)

If your in blostered cover with Camo Cloaks, chances are you've got a 2+ cover save already


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## sixpakofdwarves (Feb 23, 2010)

Thanks for the tips guys, the techmarine idea is awesome.
So, I need a powerfist in my storm company...where do I get a powerfist? I have so far purchased the Black Reach box, a box of scouts, the Marine battleforce box and Sgt Telion. As near as I can see on the sprues the only powerfist, other than the Terminators in Black Reach, is the one for the assault marines in the battleforce box....


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## primeministersinsiter (May 31, 2009)

Commander box set is cheap and has a PF and a tonne of other bitz.


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## sixpakofdwarves (Feb 23, 2010)

Commander box is a great idea, I wanted to make my own Captain Cato Sicarious because I don't like his model. So I can buy the box, make him and still use that power fist. Thanks!!


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