Learn about and get more out of your Scouts
Scouts are primarily used to infiltrate enemy villages to determine their troop types and count and to see their levels of development.
They also serve defensively (although not that well) and can be good fakes for cavalry attacks.
Let's take a closer look at Scouts.
Note: These statistics don't always match up on different worlds, but the strategy and tactics would remain the same.
Scouts - Vital Statistics
Cost
50 wood, 50 clay and 20 iron
Villagers 2
Speed 9 minutes per field
Carrying Capacity 0
Required Tech
Level 1 Stable, which requires a Level 10 Village Headquarters, Level 5 Barracks and Level 5 Smithy.
Like all units, Scouts must be researched in the Smithy when the above requirements are met.
50 wood, 50 clay and 20 iron
Villagers 2
Speed 9 minutes per field
Carrying Capacity 0
Required Tech
Level 1 Stable, which requires a Level 10 Village Headquarters, Level 5 Barracks and Level 5 Smithy.
Like all units, Scouts must be researched in the Smithy when the above requirements are met.
Level
Offensive Strength
General Defense
Cavalry Defense
1
0
2
1
2
0
3
1
3
0
3
1
Scout Mechanics
When Scouts attack, if they survive and return to base (only need one to do so), then you get a report of the village you scouted.
What is reported depends on how many of your scouts return. You will always see the village's number and types of troops as well as other information depending on how many scouts return.
50% of the scouts returning displays the defending village's resources.
70% of the scouts returning shows building levels as well.
90% of the scouts returning tells you how many units of the defending village are stationed in other villages or are between villages.
On some worlds, this is done automatically, while on other worlds, you have to upgrade your scouts to get better performance.
Level 1 - Troops and Resources
Level 2 - As 1, plus building levels
Level 3 - As 2, plus troops in other villages or in transit
When Scouts attack, they can only be stopped by other Scouts. Scouts can fight defensively but are not very strong (we'll discuss this later).
As a rule of thumb, it takes 2 defensive scouts to defeat 1 offensive scout. If the defender has this ratio of scouts, there is a 50% chance that the attacker will survive the attack with at least one (but not many more) scouts.
An equal number of scouts will probably wipe out the defender's scouts.
What is reported depends on how many of your scouts return. You will always see the village's number and types of troops as well as other information depending on how many scouts return.
50% of the scouts returning displays the defending village's resources.
70% of the scouts returning shows building levels as well.
90% of the scouts returning tells you how many units of the defending village are stationed in other villages or are between villages.
On some worlds, this is done automatically, while on other worlds, you have to upgrade your scouts to get better performance.
Level 1 - Troops and Resources
Level 2 - As 1, plus building levels
Level 3 - As 2, plus troops in other villages or in transit
When Scouts attack, they can only be stopped by other Scouts. Scouts can fight defensively but are not very strong (we'll discuss this later).
As a rule of thumb, it takes 2 defensive scouts to defeat 1 offensive scout. If the defender has this ratio of scouts, there is a 50% chance that the attacker will survive the attack with at least one (but not many more) scouts.
An equal number of scouts will probably wipe out the defender's scouts.
Scout Strategy and Tactics
Attacking with Scouts
The main purpose of scouts is to see what your opponent has in his village, so sending them is critical.
There are two ways to send them:
Send them by themselves in bulk to quickly scout a village.
Or send scouts with an attacking force/raiding force to get intel after you've picked up the haul.
Sending them alone is good when you want them to get there faster, twice as fast as axes. If a scout attack hits and you like what you see, you can send a nuke and noble train right after.
The only downside of sending a scout attack first, is after it hits, and alert player can start putting the call out for support, because he knows the next attack will be big.
Sending scouts with a force is good if you know you have more troops but still want intel.
This serves to disguise your scouts, and make players think a first attack is just scouts or something else. If they can calculate well, they may figure out you have troops attached too.
The only downside to combining scouts with your attack force is if you are wrong about their buildup, or the village gets support from elsewhere, you might lose the entire attack, scouts and nuke.
Defense
Besides defending against other Scouts, Scouts themselves don't have very high defense, but they can still be useful defensive units against damaging units.
When attacks come in, damage is applied in such a way as to deplete an equal percentage (not number of troops) from each type of troop in place defensively.
This means that the scout's defensive value is used to calculate a smaller percentage for other types of more valuable and more expensive troops.
Although Scouts should be on the move, or at home to defend against other scouts, if you know or think an attack is coming that you will survive, but don't want to lose more valuable troops, keep your scouts in place to take some of the damage. They are cheap and quick to rebuild.
Fakes
Scouts have similar travel times as light and heavy cavalry, so they make good fakes for attacking horses.
This frees you up to send cavalry from one village as an attack to one village, and scouts as fakes to a second village (or more).
Keep in mind, the more attacks you send from the same village indicate diminished troops, so try to send your fakes from different villages than your attacks/nukes.
Quantity
I consider an ideal quantity of scouts to be around 1000. This is a lot for a small-medium sized player to deal with as they may not have gotten around to making 500 scouts. Even with 1000 scouts, there's a chance you'll get the intel you went for in the first place.
1000 Scouts will also be a good defense for you, because an attacker will have to send at least that many to be a nuisance.
Upwards of 2000 scouts is just wasteful. 4000 farm capacity is a lot of for troops that do no damage. Granted you will probably unscoutable and will be guaranteed to see whatever you want when you scout, but another 2000 swords/spears, 500LC, etc. are more worth it.
If someone sends more than 2000 scouts, you KNOW that village has 4000 less farm it can use for offensive or defensive troops. That gives you an advantage if you have optimized your villages.
Also, when you send a city's scouts, send them all. You might be able to snipe much smaller players with 200 or so scouts, but for bigger players, they WILL have at least 500 scouts and probably closer to 1000.
The main purpose of scouts is to see what your opponent has in his village, so sending them is critical.
There are two ways to send them:
Send them by themselves in bulk to quickly scout a village.
Or send scouts with an attacking force/raiding force to get intel after you've picked up the haul.
Sending them alone is good when you want them to get there faster, twice as fast as axes. If a scout attack hits and you like what you see, you can send a nuke and noble train right after.
The only downside of sending a scout attack first, is after it hits, and alert player can start putting the call out for support, because he knows the next attack will be big.
Sending scouts with a force is good if you know you have more troops but still want intel.
This serves to disguise your scouts, and make players think a first attack is just scouts or something else. If they can calculate well, they may figure out you have troops attached too.
The only downside to combining scouts with your attack force is if you are wrong about their buildup, or the village gets support from elsewhere, you might lose the entire attack, scouts and nuke.
Defense
Besides defending against other Scouts, Scouts themselves don't have very high defense, but they can still be useful defensive units against damaging units.
When attacks come in, damage is applied in such a way as to deplete an equal percentage (not number of troops) from each type of troop in place defensively.
This means that the scout's defensive value is used to calculate a smaller percentage for other types of more valuable and more expensive troops.
Although Scouts should be on the move, or at home to defend against other scouts, if you know or think an attack is coming that you will survive, but don't want to lose more valuable troops, keep your scouts in place to take some of the damage. They are cheap and quick to rebuild.
Fakes
Scouts have similar travel times as light and heavy cavalry, so they make good fakes for attacking horses.
This frees you up to send cavalry from one village as an attack to one village, and scouts as fakes to a second village (or more).
Keep in mind, the more attacks you send from the same village indicate diminished troops, so try to send your fakes from different villages than your attacks/nukes.
Quantity
I consider an ideal quantity of scouts to be around 1000. This is a lot for a small-medium sized player to deal with as they may not have gotten around to making 500 scouts. Even with 1000 scouts, there's a chance you'll get the intel you went for in the first place.
1000 Scouts will also be a good defense for you, because an attacker will have to send at least that many to be a nuisance.
Upwards of 2000 scouts is just wasteful. 4000 farm capacity is a lot of for troops that do no damage. Granted you will probably unscoutable and will be guaranteed to see whatever you want when you scout, but another 2000 swords/spears, 500LC, etc. are more worth it.
If someone sends more than 2000 scouts, you KNOW that village has 4000 less farm it can use for offensive or defensive troops. That gives you an advantage if you have optimized your villages.
Also, when you send a city's scouts, send them all. You might be able to snipe much smaller players with 200 or so scouts, but for bigger players, they WILL have at least 500 scouts and probably closer to 1000.
Return to the Tribal Wars Guide Main Page
- Tribal Wars Guide
- This link returns you to the Main Page
