So recently I have been testing full units of scouts. Honestly because I am tired of strike teams. Which upgrade would you take the sniper or the sab?

Saboteur

Scouts are going to get fewer opportunities to shoot with their ranged 2 main weapon, so they are more likely going to have the extra actions to deploy mines and then move out of the blast radius.

Rebel commandos have a range 3 rifle so they can more often combine fire with the sniper upgrade.

I agree. I was playing with Sabs and just recently tried the sniper. The problem is I feel like I am always moving then dropping rather then dropping then moving. It's definitely been a learning experience. I think I didn't play the sabs long enough. I really wish they gave them an ability like Boosk and Sabine where they get a free move action after dropping.

Both the sniper and the saboteur are too costly in my opinion to make the cut in a full squad since both don't live up to their full potential.

The sniper doesn't bring more or better dice, only range. Either you are wasting the range of the gun, or you are wasting the rest of the squad for not shooting (yeah, they could split fire...).
The mines is just weak in my opinion. Their dmg is quite low and the action investment quite high. I think the saboteur would do more dmg by shooting then by placing mines in 90%.
The result is that you would most likely take either of the heavy weapons just to have a fifth guy in the squad. With this the troop will have 25% more dice, but at nearly 50% increased point cost.

I tried a few games with one or two naked squads and was quite pleased with their performance. They are great flanking units with their scout movement and are quiet cheap for their dmg output. Sure they only have range 2, but a good table should have ways to work around that. I especially liked their potential as objective defenders with standby actions. No unit wants to run into 8 black dice waiting for them.

11 hours ago, BielTanLord said:

Both the sniper and the saboteur are too costly in my opinion to make the cut in a full squad since both don't live up to their full potential.

The sniper doesn't bring more or better dice, only range. Either you are wasting the range of the gun, or you are wasting the rest of the squad for not shooting (yeah, they could split fire...).
The mines is just weak in my opinion. Their dmg is quite low and the action investment quite high. I think the saboteur would do more dmg by shooting then by placing mines in 90%.
The result is that you would most likely take either of the heavy weapons just to have a fifth guy in the squad. With this the troop will have 25% more dice, but at nearly 50% increased point cost.

I tried a few games with one or two naked squads and was quite pleased with their performance. They are great flanking units with their scout movement and are quiet cheap for their dmg output. Sure they only have range 2, but a good table should have ways to work around that. I especially liked their potential as objective defenders with standby actions. No unit wants to run into 8 black dice waiting for them.

Thanks for the advice. Might have to try them naked. Vader is my favorite commander so it will save points that I could put elsewhere. I think I will try sabs one more time then try your idea.

On 3/23/2019 at 6:59 PM, BielTanLord said:

Both the sniper and the saboteur are too costly in my opinion to make the cut in a full squad since both don't live up to their full potential

you can play them naked, but then you'd be better off getting royal guards. The sniper gun is perfect for what its designed for: unmitigated damage. It's hard for most characters to not take damage from a sniper much less a unit leader. The sonic charge does fantastic damage. You're almost guaranteed damage or more. You'd gain a suppression and the radius means you can hit multiple units at once. The problem is most players don't use enough terrain to properly hide a unit and the full unit is not as cost effective as the strike team