I found myself wondering about this. I know that while the Eldar aren't going to be put in right away, but they have the Striking Scorpions on their basic class list, the Scorpions have always been a stealthy aspect. While I'm not sure if they are going to be giving them some kind of stealth mechanic but it makes sense, as why else would you have 2 classes which otherwise do essentially the same thing (Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions) with the largest difference between them being how they close with their enemies(Rapid charges and Stealth respectively) and the function of their mask. SO it seems like they are going to be adding in some sort of stealth field mechanic at some point. which made me wonder

Where are the Scouts

I understand that it is another model that they would have to devote time to so I think even if they are added it should probably be another class added in later on. I just thought it was weird that I hadn't heard anything about them. While the Eldar Pathfinders provide a similar role they make sense as an elite/hero choice, the stealth elite snipers, but the chapter scouts are generally the least experienced space marines, with only a few chapters(The Mentors are the only ones I remember) fielding units of entirely veteran space marines as scouts. I don't think it really makes sense to have the least experienced marines as elite units and I don't like the idea of the marines loosing out on the sniping and stealth that the Scouts bring to the table.

Then again the CSM stealth, at least on the table top, is entirely given over to upgraded marines in basic armor(only units in the codex with the Stealth special rule are the Night Lords squads) so it stands to reason to make the stealth equivalent for LSM and CSM the Raven Guard and Night Lords respectively as a side grade rather than creating another entire model for Loyalist Scouts. I personally would prefer to see the Scouts added in, but that could obviously wait until they get around to it. Another option is to simply use add in a Mentor Sniper or Scout Sergeant as an elite class to explain their higher skill level, but it would still mean another model.

What does everyone else think?

I don't recall any specific mention, but I'm fairly certain that scouts aren't slotted to be a thing anytime soon.

Scouts may be after launch, depends on how they are implemented really.

scouts are importants classes for certain chapters, Space Wolfs, so i guess they will be in game sometime after launch

There are some veteran scouts who are so good at what they do, they stay in the scout role instead of moving into power armour. Sgt. Telion, for example. So there's a chance they could be an elite.

Maybe.



(Probably not)

EDIT:
Yeah just found this on the "Official Basic Class List" thread, quoting Brent Ellison:

"Other units may center around gameplay roles that we don't plan on featuring prominently at launch - for example, on-the-fly teleporting or extreme sniping. We plan to add these mechanics later, but we already have a lot on our plate putting the rest of the roles in place and making sure they're as good as they can be."

I must have missed that Thanks. I hope that they would be a basic class if/when they get to them less because of the sniping and more because of the shotguns and teleport homers that they use. set up a small hard to find spawn point that only certain units can spawn at that would create some interesting gameplay... i dunno just an a idea.

Yeah, it would definitely be fun to play them and they would open up a lot of avenues for SM when used in conjunction with some of the more durable classes. I do agree that I found it a bit odd it wasn't included as a Basic Class, but I guess they wanted to keep everyone to 4 basic classes (except the Eldar, of course ).

Scout Sgt Cyrus anyone? Or could the game cope with that amount of cheese? XD