Are BA Scouts worth it?

"Dib Dib Dob Dob CC Monsters..."

OK so most fellas will tell you that the only way to run BA Scouts is to camp on an objective whilst toting sniper rifles.

I on the other hand want my neophytes blooded in the most glorious fighting on the battle field!

Here's some bullets as to why:

• Infiltrating Scouts with a locator beacon can bring a Dante-esque precision strike right into your opponents backlines.
• Combined with a minimum of 3 drop pods you're guaranteed to bring in 2x units of reinforcements on your first turn.  A little more susceptible to dice rolls but you can also get off the Heroic intervention a little easier.
• They can get 2 (3) Attacks base, boosted to 3 (4) with either Chapter Banner or Sanguinor
• At WS3 Str4 Int4, this means they hit on 4's, wound on 4's vs marines, exactly the same as an Assault squad.  With a powerfist on the Sgt thats WS4 Str8 Int1 to pile in late and snipe those bad guys.
• They can carry a combi-melta and powerfist
• Yes they only get a 4+ save but can get +1 cover save if equipped with camo cloaks, together with a Librarian they can nearly always get a 4+ cover save thanks to the Shield of Sanguinias psychic.
• Yes you can't attach a priest if they infiltrate but with DOA and a 75pt priest you can precision strike on in from reserve or my preferred method of bringing one in first turn in a drop pod.
• They still get red thirst so can be fearless, though they have ATSKNF anyway.
• They have the same Ld as marines, with Tycho they're leadership 10.
• They have Move Through Cover

So the biggest negatives to infiltrating scouts they shoot worse than marines and they can die quicker than marines, particularly in cc as vs shooting they have the cover buff.

This doesn't need that much mitigation, scouts shooting before the charge isn't really so important, they will die though.  In the old days of an Int5 furious charge this could be gotten around.....now its a straight up fist fight they will die faster than Assault marines.........this just means you need to take more of them!

A ten man scout squad with locator beacon, combi weapon and powerfist is 200 points, it's an extra 30pts for camo cloaks, I tend not to do it on the assault guys, if I bring a squad with bolters as support they might get the upgrade.

200 points sounds like a lot, 600 points for three squads is also not cheap.  But it does give you a precision strike to the rest of your army.  If you want to play Russian roulette you can save 50pts by just taking one locator beacon and rely on your drop pods to act as the homing device from turn 2, and actually with the 3+ from reserves it's a lot easier to bring stuff in before that pod goes boom.

The power in this list is what you bring in from reserves, Furioso Dreds are great for getting attention, you could also deploy something eye catching like a vindicator on the table.  Scouts can literally become invisible to your opponent until he's dealt with the greater perceived threat.

Interesting Allies for this are other infiltrating units, Cpt. Shrike and a unit of Termies, Devastators or Sternguard........From GK an assassin or two, 30 scouts would provide a decent meat shield for a Vindicare assassin, if not a little over kill.......

I'll have a go at thinking up a list and put it up here later.