what is the best use of the scout?

[sboog]

How many different ways do you use a scout? Only for exploring?

sboog

[Ethelred]

Exploring and popping goody huts.

Can't think of a better use for them. Or any other at the moment.

Its a very good use early in the game. Later other units are as fast. Even early for some of the civs unique units.

[ydiiby]

Originally posted by Ethelred
Exploring and popping goody huts.

... and block enemy settlers

[Inverse Icarus]

can scouts pilliage? (i never play expansionist)

[Ethelred]

I have only played an expansionist civ twice so I had never thought of using them to block. By the time I run into other civs I am usually using warriors to block at least.

I like blocking. The AI doesn't seem to have a clue that it is being harrassed. Maybe Soren should fix that. He fixed the partial block trick. Now they give up after a couple of times. I can still herd them though.

I have been playing a game on a tiny Pangea and somehow I was on a huge section of it with no one else and only 4 tiles to block off. They finally made a landing by boat. So much land I am having corruption problems without taking anything. The main challenge was to avoid war early and herd the settlers when they did get through.

I didn't tell them to leave because it might have started a war. I was so busy building settlers and infrastructure I was rather weak.

I don't know if scouts can pillage. Never had them when the AI had anything to pillage. I hear that Explorers can but maybe the person had modded them.

[Beren]

I sometimes play expansionists in tiny world maps with sixteen players. You get to know every one quick enough and you could be the first to trade techs with them.

[Kingof the Apes]

Scouts can pillage. What I usually do with theem is after I have popped most or all of the goody huts, explored most of the continent and in a war, I send scouts around pillaging their roads behind their troops.

[Aeson]

I play expansionist civs often. Obviously the larger the landmass, the more important the Expansionist trait becomes. I like to play on Huge maps. These are the uses I've found for a Scout. Many of them apply equally as well to smaller maps.

1. Goody Huts. Expansionists get better results from the huts, and more of them. Can mean every ancient era tech + settlers on some maps, on others it doesn't help at all.

2. Exploration. Find the layout of the map early on. Meet the other Civs. Very helpful in forming a strategy early on. On some maps this makes Expansionists worthwhile just on it's own. In a couple of games I have played, building the Great Lighthouse was the most important decision. And knowing I was on an island early on made that possible.

3. Pillaging. You can pillage any improvement outside the AI's borders. In the early game this can slow down their expansion a bit. They keep rebuilding the road.

4. Pre-emptive pillaging. Scouts can stay in AI territory for a long time, usually more than 40 turns before they have to be removed. The length of time the AI will wait to demand that you withdraw them seems related to power. If a Scout is sitting on a resource, the AI can't build roads on it. It's possible to keep everyone on your landmass without Iron this way. Very powerful, if not exploitative. In some situations you can hold the AI's Gunpowder or Horses too. Usually the AI has roads there before anyone can see them though.

5. War time diversions. The AI love chasing around "defenseless" units. As a scout has a good movement rate, the AI has trouble catching them. I've fought "Scout only" type of wars, where my Scouts had the AI's troops running around in circles until they were ready to surrender. If the AI doesn't have Horses (or Jags), you can pillage at the same time. Pillage, Move, repeat. Of course this works best on the fringes of their empire, and away from roads used for troop movement.

6. Restricting AI movement. As I mentioned previously, Scouts can stay in AI territory. They can be used to block major traffic areas, say an isthmus that divides the AI's empire. Also you can head off AI Settlers, allowing yours to build on the prime city sites first.

7. Scouting AI troop movement. With Scouts inside the borders of AI territory, a sneak attack is easy to notice coming. Especially useful in the Ancient Era, when a line of units will be seen trudging their way towards you.

8. Restricting AI attacks. Usually the AI won't declare war until their first troops are near their objective. If you use your units to block the AI's stacks of troops from moving towards your cities, they never get a chance to declare war. Scouts work best as they are cheap, and can even block stacks of Horsemen/Knights. 3-6 Scouts can keep a huge number of AI troops at bay. The AI sends all it's troops in the same line most of the time. A few more are needed to keep 2 movement troops from slowly making headway.

Overall I find Scouts to be one of the most cost effective units in the game. Only Settlers, Workers, and Captured workers are more valuable. I'm sure Explorers offer many of the same advantages, just not early on when they are most useful.

[Capt Dizle]

Scouts can be used for many things. Basic base garrison and police work. They are effective for worm defense especially if given the trance special ability. With intellectual integrity they can be given the police special ability and therefore suppress two drones. Scout can be given the empath ability and can hunt mindoworms as well.

The primary thing is that scouts can be upgraded as needed later in the game.

Edit: Oops, wrong game. Sorry.

[John Paul Jones]

...and trance scouts cost the same as regular scouts which is a big bonus, although you'll still have to pay 10 creds to upgrade your old scouts to trance. Hell, I even build trance-formers just cause i like the sound of them.

No Edit required Jimmy - you're still playing the right game

[Thrawn05]

It depends on the map size. For me, on tiny and small maps, scouts are cannon fudder for my army.

[Spec]

Disband.

[steelehc]

Fourteen reasons to use scouts:
1. Huts
2. Huts
3. Exploring
4. Huts
5. Pillaging
6. Huts
7. Huts
8. Huts
9. Blocking off key routs
10. Huts
11. Huts
12. Disbanding for shields.
13. Huts
14. Huts

Steele

[dikwhit]

steele BTW you forgot huts