Solo Scouting

FIXME - experienced solo scouters are encouraged to add to this

The Ultimate Guide to an Early Grave

Solo scouting is extremely dangerous, and you should not even consider doing it if **any** of the following is true:

• Your Gang's Fame is less than 100, or
• Your Gang's Reputation is less than 100 (or greater than -100), or
• Your Gang's Morale is less than 100, or
• The scout you are going to use has a Scouting skill of less than 30, or
• You are going to have only one person in your car, or
• The gunners you are going to use have less than 30 skill with the weapons in your car, or
• Your car has no room for reloads, or
• Any of the characters you are going to have in the car have a Courage of less than 40,or
• You can't afford to lose your car, or
• You've never scouted before

If you are fairly new to scouting you are highly advised to scout with a larger group. If you want to scout alone, the safest bet is with at least two vehicles. But if you feel inclined... read on.

Vehicle Selection

When solo scouting, having the right vehicle is not optional. Without any support to fall back on in a pinch, your scout vehicle must be able to:

• Do a reasonable amount of damage
• Take a reasonable amount of damage
• Escape if necessary

If your car can't do all of these things it is not the car to solo scout with.

Generally, the mid-sized chassis will be better suited to solo scouting than the SUV chassis. You will want the largest unexposed engine possible; in normal supply this will probably be the 3.2L

Mount whatever weapons you are comfortable with, and be sure to leave space for gunners and reloads. With no other vehicles shooting you will be solely responsible for killing the enemy, so you will use more ammo than you would in a group scout.

Tactics

It is almost guaranteed that you will be outnumbered and outgunned. With very few exceptions, your best course of action will be to split the enemy up.

Divide and Conquer

How you divide the enemy should be apparent based on the map you are placed on. For instance, if you were on the Once Upon A Town map, driving around the buildings to get the enemy separated is often a good choice.

In most cases, the best way to split the enemy is to run. When you run away, the enemy follows you, obviously, but not usually at the same speed and acceleration. This is how the enemy starts to get spread out.

If you run long enough, some of the enemy may fall back far enough (500m) to auto-escape. This reduces the number of vehicles you have to fight, which is not a bad thing.

NOTE: The developer considers this a minor exploit so the ability to split enemies this way could get much more difficult or all-together impossible.

NOTE: Be careful not to go beyond the 500m distance yourself, or you will also auto-escape.

When you have the enemy either reduced (down to a single vehicle is probably prudent) or spread out to your liking, pick a good spot to turn and engage. Hilltops and ridges are always good choices.

Know When to Fold 'em

If you have armor reduced on any side to less than 5 points, seriously consider fleeing. A good HMG hit, or a pair of lighter weapon hits, will cause penetration damage, even though some armor may remain, potentially causing driver/passenger injury, or worse, setting your engine on fire. Fire causes stress to skyrocket, can damage your engine each turn, or even cause it to explode. All three things can cause a solo scout to end quickly. Even though it's tempting to try and turn the fight around, or finish off that last bandit, get out and save your characters and car, and come back another day.