favorite scout units

[Dion]

Originally Posted by jp10

Most scout work takes place before the deliberate attacks. It can help scouts if you drop arty/smoke to hide their movement or suppress enemy observation.

I've done that before and it worked real good, though to cover an entire front I ended up expending a lot of smoke at the beginning of the battle, smoke that would become twice as valuable later in the battle. Luckily, I play mostly random battles, so I had the choice of buying twice as much off-map artillery as I would normally have, but when you play scenarios you are greatly limited and can only use what is given to you.

[georgesedlak]

As above, anything size "0", on jeeps or motorcycles if possible. Heavily armed scouts are expensive and not always available but can get themselves out of a tight spot.

[Dion]

Vehicles are easy to spot, so if vehicles are used, its best to pair them up with radio equipped infantry scouts, dropping the scouts off somewhere out of the enemy's field of vision, then sneaking the scout to a position that improves your army's spotting ability.

[Griefbringer]

A bit late to the discussion, but a big favourite of mine at the moment are spotter planes, when available, since they can easily access pretty much any area of the battlefield. Drawback being that they are very vulnerable to any kind of AA fire, even the humble AAMGs, so it is a good idea to start by scouting the edges of unknown areas and then gradually creeping on. If any AA-fire is encountered, a couple of turns of artillery fire may be able to deal with it. In defensive missions, spotter planes flying behind your own lines may be able to spot approaching enemy vehicles a good distance away (depending on visibility), allowing you to move anti-tank reserves or plot artillery strikes to provide a warm welcome.

On the ground, motorcycles are fast and have the advantage of not littering the ground with burning wrecks like actual vehicles, and can try to scoot out when coming under fire (rather than getting pinned on spot). Rather vulnerable to fire, so usually best supported by some dismountable units and/or light armoured vehicles.

For foot units, the one man marksman (simple sniper with bolt action rifle) units can be handy, as they are cheap, difficult to spot and easy to fit into transports. Their speed of 6 is a bit less than for actual scout teams (speed 7), but that is not a big difference and scouts are on their most effective when moving slowly (one hex per turn).

As for foot scouts that can fight in a pinch, I like the six man Foot Patrol in the US TOE, armed with Garands, BAR and SMG. If they can catch the enemy by surprise, they can cause quite some damage until they are spotted, at which point it is usually best to withdraw them - even with six men in team they cannot afford to take many casualties. Sneaking them behind enemy lines to ambush retreating infantry units can be particularly effective, though don't count on them dealing with armoured vehicles with their hand grenades.