Scouts

[Galdor]

Hi,

I'm going to play a couple of 2000 pts games this weekend in which I'm likely to have to face scouts in the form of Dwarf Rangers and Skaven Gutter Runners. I'm unsure how best to deal with them and worried about protecting my bolt throwers.

Here is my list so that you know what tools I have at my disposal

Archmage, book, shadow, golden crown
Noble, BSB, Reaver bow, potion of strength
18 Archers
5 x Reavers
5 x Reavers
5 x Silver Helms
21 x White Lions, BOTWD, FC
24 x Phoenix guard, Razor standard, FC
2 x Bolt throwers
9 x Sisters

[Ferny]

It's perfectly possible to defend your back-line from scouts simply through deployment - and even if you don't cover your whole board edge, 5 silver helms angled on a flank (or perhaps less solidly, a shooty unit) should be able to threaten any advance, and after that their scout rule is nothing special. If you're facing a big enough unit then it's worth your while diverting one of your infantry blocks to chop them up if they start too close, but I suspect they won't put a large unit forward unsupported.

I think you just need to bear it in mind during deployment and they won't be an undue problem.

[Eirik]

Heck, one of my favorite weapons against scouts was always an eagle. You can drop them and completely shut down a board side from being scouted, even far from the core of your army. It doesn't matter because they fly 20'' and don't need to rejoin with your army anyways. Magic missiles are also great against scouts and skirmishers if you can find room for the ring of fury in your army.

[SpellArcher]

I've found you often lose the eagle but it's usually worth it.

I guess a min-sized unit of Helms could be good for this job.

[Galdor]

Thanks for the replies.

As predicted, my Dwarf opponent took a small unit of 5 x Rangers. They prevented my Reavers from vanguarding, but I shot them down with my bolthrowers on my first turn. I went on to win this game.

The gutter runners were a real nuisance, however, and destroyed my bolt throwers and went on to charge another unit in the rear. This was mainly my fault as I deployed badly that game! He took a very nasty list and I was crushed by the end of turn 4!

[Eirik]

The gutter runners are tough as nails to counter. They do really well against our 2w war machines, and getting the first turn can often decide the game against skaven. Don't forget your 6+ armor save on the bolt throwers mate, it's saved me the unit once or twice before.

[Sinsigel]

Small unit of silver helms and great eagle, as others have suggested, can indeed work.
However most skirmishing scouts I see nowadays sport ranged poisoned attacks, most notably chameleon skinks.
Eagles are free vp for them so minimum sized silver helms fare better here.

However, you can instead fight fire with fire : use your own scouts.
Although shadow warriors aren't the best skirmisher hunters out there, they decimate skinks
and get re-rolls when fighting against dark elves.

Also remember that shadow warrior doesn't necessarily have to get into CC to keep enemy scouts in check.
Counter-deployment is one way to thwart enemy scouts : if your scouts deploy first after roll-off,
you can prevent enemy scouts deploying right in front of valuable warmachines or fast cavalry.
Even if shadow warriors deploy second, they can still prevent second unit of enemy scouts from deploying wherever
they like. At the same time, they can themselves close to enemy scouts who deployed first.

Advent of Waywatchers, the king of scouts nowadays, is one reason why I dropped an eagle for a unit of shadow warriors
in my lists. To make sure not all waywatcher units deploy 12" in front of my valuable cavalry unit, or in more lucky cases
prevent all of them from sitting in front of my cavalry. The importance of scout deployment grows larger especially in dawn attack scenari, where scouts don't follow randomized deployment rules.