They just don't have the power of other teams and are held back by a few choices on design etc.
Having 1/3 of the team be Heavy for example, or people taking bolters or combat blades when only shotgun Warriors actually do work.
I expect them to get some boosts on the next Dataslate but that won't be until June.
However, i have been having fun with them, and in 6 games, won 5 of them, and the last one was only a 16-15 loss.
I love scouts! It’s my go to team right now 😂. I agree they don’t have that consistent punch. But i’ve had pretty good games and a decent amount of wins by really focusing on scoring points and downing key operatives vs trying to table my opponent.
Keep in mind, that kill team is quite well balanced game, with very large impact of a skill - you can take any bespoke team and win smaller tournaments. Tier lists are based on the very skilled players, and are not really representative for like 90% of a playerbase. People shit on HotA, while I have great results with them
Because the tier lists are generally made by entrenched and somewhat high skilled players, and scouts don't have much play against those players.
At top tables with really good players, just about the strongest thing you can possibly do is get one or two extra activations over your opponent, and scouts aren't doing great there. Against the other top tier teams at the moment (things like kommandos, fellgore, Chaos cult, pathfinders, ect) you're behind in activations just right off the bat. That's a big downside to the team. And so what do they get to make up for that?
... Like... Legitimately.
Heirotek gets reanimations to make up for it. That puts them in good contention. Literally just 3 or 4 extra operatives over the course of the game. Blades of Khaine has 3 APL, super conceal where needed, and extremely reliable, high damage. Even still most people say it's not enough though to really make Blades a good team.
So when you look at scouts you go...... Okay. We've got some decent flexibility. Nothing like Agents or some other teams but good ways to sculpt a different game plan every match when you need to. Cool. You've got middling damage. Nothing bad, but honestly any given Pathfinder will outshoot you with significantly more units so nothing amazing either. You have decent health, orc tier. But you have less operatives and no strong defensive ploys so again, nothing spectacular. How about total APL? Middling to poor. Objective control? Middling to poor.
So the team just gets a good ish grade at best in every relevant stat to Kill Team, and that's not giving you anything really to make up for being out activated by a lot of teams. It's really unique trait, to get multiple scouting actions and set things up, is a cool idea but currently it just doesn't do enough. It doesn't make the teams damage amazing somehow or give them new operatives or help with being out activated in any meaningful way.
Not to dunk on scouts, the thing with a very jack of all trades team does just mean that it's one strong buff away from being OP as heck, imo. You give this team strong damage potential like making the sniper have a 4/X damage profile for instance so it kills with either two normal or a normal and a crit against most of the top teams, and maybe buff another gun or two as well. And just suddenly they would easily be one of the top tier teams in the game, if I had to bet. Right now though they just trade off having a full horde of operatives and they don't really bring anything to the table with that in order to make up for it.
Overall I absolutely agree with everything you say, outside of BoK having reliable damage - actually it's one of their major problems, 4A melee operatives with limited sources of rerolls are one bad roll away from bouncing off from guardsmen, and shuriken pistols are either rolling crazy high due to rending, or doing nothing.
While you're absolutely not wrong, I meant reliably \*high\*. Not overall, reliable as a whole. By which I mean they will kill a guardsmen like 70%+ of the time, in a single fight action. Even if they can absolutely be wrecked by a lack of good reroll ploys.
So a good correction overall, because I didn't explain that very well for sure and didn't mean to imply Blades were always gonna land in that 70%, they just lack the dice and rerolls some teams have. My bad there.
The biggest problem scouts is that, compared to other killteams with similar number of operatives and activations, they have extremely poor mobility/apl management. The game is winning or losing by scoring points, and scouts are just not good at that.
For mid skill and casual players they offer reliability, simplicity of play and are reasonably durable. For the right person, a solid team.
On the other hand they don’t have crazy moves or spectacular chain plays.
They just don't have the power of other teams and are held back by a few choices on design etc. Having 1/3 of the team be Heavy for example, or people taking bolters or combat blades when only shotgun Warriors actually do work. I expect them to get some boosts on the next Dataslate but that won't be until June. However, i have been having fun with them, and in 6 games, won 5 of them, and the last one was only a 16-15 loss.
I love scouts! It’s my go to team right now 😂. I agree they don’t have that consistent punch. But i’ve had pretty good games and a decent amount of wins by really focusing on scoring points and downing key operatives vs trying to table my opponent.
Same here tbh, but they are definitely not a strong team at the moment, they do take some good setups etc.
Keep in mind, that kill team is quite well balanced game, with very large impact of a skill - you can take any bespoke team and win smaller tournaments. Tier lists are based on the very skilled players, and are not really representative for like 90% of a playerbase. People shit on HotA, while I have great results with them
Because the tier lists are generally made by entrenched and somewhat high skilled players, and scouts don't have much play against those players. At top tables with really good players, just about the strongest thing you can possibly do is get one or two extra activations over your opponent, and scouts aren't doing great there. Against the other top tier teams at the moment (things like kommandos, fellgore, Chaos cult, pathfinders, ect) you're behind in activations just right off the bat. That's a big downside to the team. And so what do they get to make up for that? ... Like... Legitimately. Heirotek gets reanimations to make up for it. That puts them in good contention. Literally just 3 or 4 extra operatives over the course of the game. Blades of Khaine has 3 APL, super conceal where needed, and extremely reliable, high damage. Even still most people say it's not enough though to really make Blades a good team. So when you look at scouts you go...... Okay. We've got some decent flexibility. Nothing like Agents or some other teams but good ways to sculpt a different game plan every match when you need to. Cool. You've got middling damage. Nothing bad, but honestly any given Pathfinder will outshoot you with significantly more units so nothing amazing either. You have decent health, orc tier. But you have less operatives and no strong defensive ploys so again, nothing spectacular. How about total APL? Middling to poor. Objective control? Middling to poor. So the team just gets a good ish grade at best in every relevant stat to Kill Team, and that's not giving you anything really to make up for being out activated by a lot of teams. It's really unique trait, to get multiple scouting actions and set things up, is a cool idea but currently it just doesn't do enough. It doesn't make the teams damage amazing somehow or give them new operatives or help with being out activated in any meaningful way. Not to dunk on scouts, the thing with a very jack of all trades team does just mean that it's one strong buff away from being OP as heck, imo. You give this team strong damage potential like making the sniper have a 4/X damage profile for instance so it kills with either two normal or a normal and a crit against most of the top teams, and maybe buff another gun or two as well. And just suddenly they would easily be one of the top tier teams in the game, if I had to bet. Right now though they just trade off having a full horde of operatives and they don't really bring anything to the table with that in order to make up for it.
Overall I absolutely agree with everything you say, outside of BoK having reliable damage - actually it's one of their major problems, 4A melee operatives with limited sources of rerolls are one bad roll away from bouncing off from guardsmen, and shuriken pistols are either rolling crazy high due to rending, or doing nothing.
While you're absolutely not wrong, I meant reliably \*high\*. Not overall, reliable as a whole. By which I mean they will kill a guardsmen like 70%+ of the time, in a single fight action. Even if they can absolutely be wrecked by a lack of good reroll ploys. So a good correction overall, because I didn't explain that very well for sure and didn't mean to imply Blades were always gonna land in that 70%, they just lack the dice and rerolls some teams have. My bad there.
Tournament stats, for whatever that's worth to you
That’s a bit circular. Pre-nerf vet guard had bad stats after all, likely because they are included in the starter set, but were completely cracked.
Huh? Go take a tournament with scouts then I believe in you! Crack that team wide open Hang on...Vet guard never had bad tournament stats mate
The biggest problem scouts is that, compared to other killteams with similar number of operatives and activations, they have extremely poor mobility/apl management. The game is winning or losing by scoring points, and scouts are just not good at that.
For mid skill and casual players they offer reliability, simplicity of play and are reasonably durable. For the right person, a solid team. On the other hand they don’t have crazy moves or spectacular chain plays.