Hello there,
Today, I was inspired to finish painting my first German officer for Scouts Out, and I figured it was high time I review the ruleset.
Authored by Chris Kelley, scouts out is a delightful squad - scale wargame. Designed as a quick way to fit in miniatures gaming amidst work and life responsibilities, Scouts out is very much a coffee table wargame.
The basic playing area is 36 inches by 36 inches, and after playing a few solitaire matches I can say
it's a solid favorite for times when you only have a half hour to 45 minutes to play
While the turn system is fairly reminiscent of other
skirmish systems, the beauty of scouts out is the depth of its interactions. There are rules for capturing enemy combatants, with the captured enemy dragged along with your soldier until his captor dies or the game ends.
Similarly, while the game is light on granular detail (weapon profiles are relegated to class-type rather than specific make of a gun) this actually works in its favor in speeding up play.
Soldiers have 3 class levels representative of general training level and experience. You can have veteran troops, regular professional army and militia level troops.
The wide range of specialist types and various levels of experience leads to a game that is easy to pick up and learn, but continues to provide new challenges and gaming experiences with each different list you face.
Visually, the rulebook is very much an army field manual. There are no glaring typos that I saw, and the construction is a ring-binding suitable to quick reference during play.
I think scouts out is well worth picking up as an introduction to historical wargaming. It's inexpensive, you don't need many models or a large table to play, and games are under an hour.
I also think it's worth expanding on. Chris and his team have crafted an incredible base game here, and one that could really benefit with expansions.
For example, short series of narrative scenarios for immersive yet succinct campaigns you can play over the course of a day. I'm envisioning 3 games per campaign, beginning-middle-end style.
Failing that, this game is a beautiful base to expand with a weird war 1 supplement. Because who doesn't like period piece sci-fi?
Earlier, I said I was inspired to paint my first German officer, in fact the one I reviewed last week!
Here he is. The model took both spray primer and then paint well, and as stated in my earlier review there was very little clean up otherwise.
You can pick up the full line of scouts out products from my webstore. Furthermore, during my summer sale that is active until June 22, you receive an extra 5% off your order at checkout automatically.* A link to the collection is below.
https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/collections/scouts-out-raids-and-reconnaissance-in-1914-1918
*Wait times for shipment apply, please see June update blog post for more information.