T1 land scout

• UEF
• Cybran
• Aeon
• Seraphim

UEF T1 Land Scout:  Snoop
Fast, lightly armored reconnaissance vehicle. Armed with a machine gun and a state-of-the-art sensor suite.[ e ]
Build costs	-80  -12 80
Max health	29
Speed	4.5 (Land)
Veterancy	2  (+1/s)
Intel (radius)	Vision: 24 Radar: 45
Weapon: Tom Cat Machinegun Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	1
Projectile damage	2
Reload time	2 seconds
Range	25

Cybran T1 Land Scout:  Mole
Fast, lightly armored reconnaissance vehicle. Equipped with a cloaking field.[ e ]
Build costs	-80  -8 80
Consumption	-10
Max health	15
Speed	4.8 (Land)
Intel (radius)	Stealth: Self (cloak only) Vision: 24 Radar: 45

Aeon T1 Land Scout:  Spirit
Fast, lightly armored reconnaissance vehicle. Armed with a laser and a state-of-the-art sensor suite.[ e ]
Build costs	-40  -8 80
Max health	23
Speed	5 (Hover)
Veterancy	2  (+1/s)
Intel (radius)	Vision: 24 Radar: 45
Weapon: Light Laser Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	1
Projectile damage	2
Reload time	2 seconds
Range	25

Seraphim T1 Combat Scout:  Selen
Light, fast mobile reconnaissance unit. When stationary, deploys cloaking and stealth fields.[ e ]
Build costs	-80  -20 80
Max health	35
Speed	4 (Land)
Veterancy	2  (+1/s)
Intel (radius)	Stealth: Self Vision: 24 Radar: 35
Weapon: Phasic Autogun Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	12
Projectile damage	4
Rate of fire	3 Projectiles/s
Range	16

A land scout is the most basic unit, primarily useful for their radar range. Scouts are cheap, and their rock-bottom build times and prices are second only to wall sections. However they are extremely weak in combat (despite their basic weapons, although the Cybran land scout has cloaking instead) and unable to stand up to even any other combat unit, even a T1 light assault bot or an engineer's reclaim damage.

Land scouts only exist in tech 1. They are both the fastest and cheapest land-based units. The are also the cheapest way of accessing radar, although at a faction-universal 45 range it covers only 15% of the circular area of the T1 radar installations (115 range).

Tactics

All land scouts are fast and have radar of a reasonable range, so typical uses for T1 Land Scouts would be keeping them in a battlegroup to allow units to fire before the enemy comes into range, or using them as an early-warning radar system instead of producing T1/2 radar to cover a base. This should only be used in the early game when producing a radar installation is often more difficult and time consuming than producing scouts.

During early land battles, they primarily allow friendly T1 mobile light artillery and other units to shoot farther by offering radar spotting and good view coverage for their price and availability. By sending them with the arty (or any other unit whose weapon out-ranges its vision) into battle, the artillery gets a range advantage over unsupported enemy units. This also makes them a viable means for supporting basic base defences early on. This provides the PD turrets an early warning of what's to come,

They can also be used for early game base scouting by simply sending them into the enemy base to observe their construction order, without wasting too many resources on another unit. This is particularly useful for Cybran cloaking, as the enemy may not build scouts or a radar early on, or forget to whatsoever.

They all have extremely low health and because of this they are not recommended for doing anything offensive without support from other units. Their tiny gun which is only really useful for scaring enemy scouts or inexperienced players (who may be surprised by the projectiles and blinking units on the strategic view and panic into thinking the scout is actually a LAB). While they can destroy unarmed units like T1 mass extractors, it is dangerous to attack engineers to their reclaim ability (the default FA AI cannot do this, while Sorian AI and players can). LABs or tanks are much more worthwhile to use as raiding units instead.

Risky tactics

Land scouts can still serve a function even into the late game as living shields and diversions against autotargeting, as well as maintaining their radar during an energy stall, however they tend to be replaced by the far faster T1 air scouts for scouting overall, as they are too fragile on land.

As a distraction, building a large mass of them (which is very, very easy) and advancing them towards the enemy can be a very effective distraction while a real assault force hits elsewhere. Or if this fake army is moved within radar range of an outpost or base, the opponent may move their ACU away from the area, so bombers or gunships could attack it. However it is more likely that when your opponent is aggressive, they will attack the army with one of their own that isn't made up of scouts. In that case, the scout army will be slaughtered and the enemy will gain veterancy. A counter to that scenario is by self destructing the units so they don't become free kills.

They can also become bait for enemy defense structures to attack first, forcing overkill and allowing your main force to hang back and bombard the enemy structures. Said structures may gain veterancy but as always time is more valuable than anything in Supreme Commander.

Finally, another confusion tactic could involve a large amount of scouts surrounding a factory. If the opposing commander has radar of the area, they will possibly believe that there is an army of engineers building an army of units, while in reality, it is building scouts.

Factional differences

The Cybran land scout does not have a weapon at all, instead having the ability to cloak itself, meaning that it is only detectable by radar and Omni. This makes it exceptionally vulnerable to other scouts in the early game, but until your opponent has radar set up, it can be left at mass points or other strategic locations to watch for troop movements without the enemy realising that you are watching them.

The Seraphim combat scout is really a general purpose unit. It has both cloaking and stealth, meaning that if it remains stationary and does not fire, it will be completely invisible to anyone without Omni. It can also be used for flanking, and ambushing, as its weapon does reasonable damage (although is still roughly 1/3 that of other T1 light assault bots).

The UEF and Aeon land scouts have almost identical stats - the UEF one costs more and has more health, whereas the Aeon one can hover and moves slightly faster, allowing it to be positioned over water, increasing its effectiveness.

History

As of patch 3603, the UEF land scout has its damage doubled to 4 damage per shot, the Aeon land scout's health decreased from 23 to 20, the Cybran scout is built by default with its cloak deactivated and turning it on costs 5 energy per second, and both the Cybran and Aeon scouts have their radar range increased by 5. Although this increases the effectiveness of Cybran and Aeon scouts to do their job of collecting intelligence, this allows a UEF scout to consistently beat away both enemy Cybran and Aeon scouts without light assault bot support and survive longer to provide intelligence, even if it's range is slightly shorter.

See also

• Land scout list
• Air scout
• Scout list
• Intelligence unit
• Intelligence unit list