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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires IV. For the unit in other games of the series, see Scout. |
| “ | Lightly armed cavalry effective at exploring the world, hunting wildlife, and herding Sheep. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Scout is a light melee cavalry unit in Age of Empires IV, effective in exploring the world, hunting wildlife, and herding Sheep. Every player starts with one Scout, except the Mongols, which start with a unique unit, the Khan and Malians, which start with the Warrior Scout.
The Scout automatically regenerates hit points at 1 HP per 4 seconds.
Ability[]
Herd: Any Sheep following the Scout can be dropped off at any building on which the Scout is right-clicked or on which this ability is used.- Scouting Falcon (Active, Mongols only): Release a Falcon that provides vision in the area (10 tile radius) for 30 seconds. Has a 60 second cooldown.
- Setup Camp (Active, English only): Scouts can build Campfires almost instantly for 25 wood. They provide +30% Line of Sight to nearby allied units and also has some natural Line of Sight. The ability has only a very short ~1 second cooldown, but a maximum of five campfires can be active at once.
Tactics[]
Combat[]
The Scout is very weak in combat and not very effective as a harass unit. It can win a 1 versus 1 against a Villager, but not against two Villagers. Even versus only one Villager, it needs 47 seconds to win. However, Scouts have a massive +10 attack bonus against other scout units and siege engines, and the standard torch attack, which helps them serve a niche purpose.
Herding[]
Neutral Sheep automatically follow any Scouts that comes within a 6-tile range. When they follow a Scout, the movement speed of Sheep increases from 0.625 Tiles/s to 1.625 Tiles/s to match that of the Scout. Sheep that are already owned by the player can be tasked to follow any scout or passed from one Scout to another. This enables one Scout to continue exploring the map while one returns to the Town Center with all the Sheep.
Hunting[]
When attacking wild animals, the Scout uses a ranged attack with a bow. This attack does 3 damage per shot, so it takes 2 shots to kill a Deer (5 HP), and 10 shots to kill a Wolf (30 HP). It is not very effective vs Boar (150 HP), which have 4 ranged armor and take only 1 damage from the Scout, and cannot be hit and run effectively due to their fast speed and limited chase range.
Line of Sight[]
The Scout has an exceptional Line of Sight compared to other units and it can see into stealth forests, allowing it to both detect and set up ambushes (examples shown in Gallery). Additionally, it it is the only unit which can detect units such as the Musofadi Warrior in stealth mode, or the Shinobi in its disguised mode.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Biology (+25%, except  French and  Jeanne d'Arc) Biology Improved (+35%,  Mongols) Royal Bloodlines (+35%, French and Jeanne d'Arc) Boyar's Fortitude (+25  Rus)
|
| Attack | Non-Japanese: Bloomery (+1) Decarbonization (+1) Damascus Steel (+1) Additional Torches (+3 fire, Mongols) Additional Torches Improved: (+5 fire, Mongols) Japanese: Tatara (+1) Hizukuri (+1) Kobuse-gitae (+1) Yaki-ire (+1)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged)
|
 Attack speed
|
 Dali Horses (+20%,  Zhu Xi's Legacy)
|
| Line of Sight |  Spyglass (+30%)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+33% from Stable); Improved: (+53%, Mongols)
|
| Ability |  Miltary Wing - Reinforcement (Can build Battering Rams, Siege Towers, Springalds, and Mangonels,  Ayyubids) Trapezites (Nearby units +25% torch damage,  Byzantines)
|
| Other |  Professional Scouts (100% more damage to animals and can carry Sheep and Deer carcasses) Village Fortresses (can be trained from Keeps,  Delhi Sultanate)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Hit points
|
 Chinese (+15% in  Ming Dynasty)
|
| Line of Sight | Chinese (+30% in  Tang Dynasty)
|
 Movement speed
|
Chinese (+15% in  Yuan Dynasty)
|
| Resource cost | Zhu Xi's Legacy (-10% in Yuan Dynasty)
|
| Creation speed | French (+20% from Stable with School of Cavalry) French (+15%/15%/20%/25% faster per Age from Town Center)
|
| Ability |  English (Set up Camp ability) Mongols (Scouting Falcon ability)
|
Unique landmark boosts[]
The Mongols, through the Khaganate Palace, can obtain unique technologies and units from other civilizations. As such, their Spearmen can potentially have access to the following boosts normally not available to them:
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Attack |  Saint's Blessing (+2, Mongols)
|
| Armor | Saint's Blessing (+1 melee/ranged, Mongols)
|
Dialogue lines[]
- Abbasid Dynasty and Ayyubids: /Abbasid Dynasty dialogue lines
- Byzantines: /Byzantine dialogue lines
- Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy: /Chinese dialogue lines
- Delhi Sultanate: /Delhi Sultanate dialogue lines
- English: /English dialogue lines
- French and Jeanne d'Arc: /French dialogue lines
- Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon: /Holy Roman Empire dialogue lines
- Japanese: /Japanese dialogue lines
- Mongols: /Mongols dialogue lines
- Ottomans: /Ottomans dialogue lines
- Rus: /Rus dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, Scout move speed was unaffected while carrying a Deer carcass. With patch 10257, they move 35% slower while carrying a carcass.
- Originally, Scouts cost 60 food. With patch 11009, they cost 70 food.
- With Season Two Update 17718, all melee units now attack siege engines with their melee attack, instead of their torch attack.
- Originally, Scouts had a Rate of Fire of 2.62 when hunting and 3.75 in melee, doing 4 melee damage. With the Season One Update, they have a Rate of Fire of 1.00 when hunting and 2.00 in melee, doing 2 melee damage. With update 24916, they do 1 melee damage.
- Originally, Scouts took 20 seconds to train and healed 1 hit point every 2 seconds. With patch 20249, Scouts take 25 seconds to train and heal 1 hit point every 4 seconds.
- Originally, the Line of Sight of Scouts increased with each Age-up. With update 7.0.5861, Scouts no longer gain this extra Line of Sight, and the Spyglass technology was introduced to replace this.
- With patch 8.2.218, the Line of Sight of the Rus Scout was reduced by 1 tile to match every other civilization.
- With patch 10.1.48, English Scouts now have the Set up Camp ability.
Trivia[]
- The Scout (along with the Warrior Scout) and the Donso are the only units to have three different attack types. The Scout achieves this by having a main melee attack, a special ranged attack only against animals, and torch attack.
- Upon release, Scouts could not be killed via the Delete Unit command. Instead, their hit points were set to 0 and they slowly regenerated.
- The Scout is produced randomly as a man or a woman (except for the Abbasid Dynasty, Delhi Sultanate, and Ottomans, for whom Scouts are always male). The differences between male and female Scouts are purely cosmetic (appearance and voice). In addition, they change appearance and get more modern lines as the player progresses through the Ages.
- In the campaign, the Scout's melee weapon is incorrectly listed as a 'Fire Lance'.
Campaign version[]
Because the campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Scouts in the campaign have the following main differences:
- They can carry Boar carcasses (after researching Professional Scouts)
- They are not available from the Stable
- They are cheaper and trained faster
- They have higher hit points, regeneration, and attack, but a slower Rate of Fire.
- For the Mongols, creating an additional Scout from a Town Center within the range of an Ovoo costs only +30 stone, the only unit which costs less stone than the sum of the other resource costs.
Gallery[]
