HIDDEN OJOTNIK (SCOUTS)

 Most of the infiltrator ariadna units have weak stats but they are very cheap and useful. In ITS missions, if you have a cheap infiltrator with any specialist skill, it really helps alot. They push the buttons and you dont expect them to kill things most of the time.

One of the best examples is the foxtrot forward observer for that. 18 points is nothing and if you loose him at the end, you are not worried at all. Zero from Nomads is an other good example.

Scouts are not among those troopers. Most of the variants have ojotnik in hand which is a long range weapon. Lets evaluate the options.

 SCOUT AP Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 25)

 SCOUT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)

 SCOUT (Lieutenant) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29)

 SCOUT Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29)

 SCOUT Ohotnik, D-Charges, E/M Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29)

 SCOUT (Forward Observer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)

 SCOUT (Minelayer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)

To evaluate the options better, lets check the ohotnik first.

Ojotnik is a very good weapon between 8-32 inch bracket which it gets an extra +3bs . Armor piercing  - 14 DMG with 2 burst. It is like a basic sniper rifle. 1 point less in dmg with slightly better in close range and AP ammo instead shock.

This makes scouts different from most of the infiltrators.

Main ability, which makes them interesting is the BS Attack (shock) ability. Any weapon that a scout wields becomes a shock weapon. So, they have shock pistols burst2, shock boarding shotgun burst2, shock AP hitting ohotnik, AP-Shock sniper rifle 

When can we use them ? Especially if we believe we will be facing units with nowound inc. and with higher arm values. 

Phoenix in Steel phalanx has nowound inc. and arm2. Against this weapon, hir arm becomes 1 and he dies even with one unlucky army check of 13 or less. 

Sujian is a great opponent for that. If we can wound him twice, it dies suddenly. Arm5 becomes 3.

For instance, Zhencha with immunity (shock) resist this ability. Same with unidrons. We cant kill them with ease.

Malignos,shrouded,noctifier and speculo could be good targets for that. So against combined army bring one since we see these units in meta oftenly.

So. the effects are situational but scouts can directly kill soft targets. Doctors wont be finding any body to heal in the battlefield is a nice thing.

Dcharges on the profiles help to make classified missions, but cc15 is poor to kill something. Well not impossible ofcourse you can try, but dont expect much.

Most fruitful option seems to me is the really cheap sniper variant. Spending 25 points on a Bs12 sniper that has camo and that you can put anywhere in your side, seems a good deal.

Scout Fo is not very bad. Minelayer and even the lieutenant option. But are they expensive ? When you compare with other options in Ariadna, they seem so.

Boarding shotgun with shock it could be good against Deva link, which is never used in meta or against any soft link.

I will not lie to you. I even used the shotgun of Scout to convert a strelok by thinking, i would never field a shotgun scout.

CONCLUSION

The game is not like, as it was used to be. Immunity(shock) is everywhere. Scouts are expensive with their situational abilities. They are not optimised at all. Are they bad ? Well no. You can take one, time to time. Scouts need something. If they have a better wip of 14 for this costs, if they had heavy pistolx2 ,if they had better CC like 20, if the shotgun variant has Forward observer skill, if the minelayer version has E-M mines, i could make them 4 stars instead. Also why dont we have ojotnik mini,Corvus Belli ?

See you next time.