Scouts form the eyes and ears of early civilizations. These fleet-footed warriors are not supposed to engage with enemy forces - they're supposed to find the lay of the land, discovering any potential threats or treasures. A civilization that doesn't know what's going on in the world around it is blind to both peril and opportunity.
Strategy[]
The Scoutis available from the start of the game, and is designed primarily for exploration. Its ability to move through any terrain without considering its normal movement rules allows it exceptional mobility, especially when crossing vast expenses of forest or jungle.
The Scout has a melee attack, but it is so weak that it's best to avoid combat, instead outrunning the attackers. The Scout also has a unique promotion: Survival, which not only grants it additional healing outside your territory, but also a defensive bonus that allows the unit to survive attacks and move on.
The Scout is vital in the early game for exploring the world, locating Barbarian encampments, and discovering Ancient Ruins, Natural Wonders, city-states, and other civilizations. Remember that the Ancient Ruins benefits are only available to the first civilization that explores them, and that discovering a city-state first grants you double the normal Gold reward. Build at least one Scout as soon as possible; some players will build one first thing after setting up their capitals.
The Scout becomes obsolete with the discovery of Scientific Theory. Scouts are a "special" unit, in the sense that they're outside of the regular upgrade chain - there is no equivalent later era unit to which the Scout can be upgraded with Gold. They can, however, be upgraded by the "advanced weapons" bonus of an Ancient Ruin, resulting in an Archer that ignores terrain penalties. This special unit can then be upgraded by normal means and will retain the path finding bonus all the way through the tech tree.
+1 Movement, and ignores terrain costs while undamaged.
Can be stacked with other units, providing them with the same movement modifiers as the Dogsled while undamaged, and transferring a portion of lost health if stacked with an injured unit (once per Dogsled).
May hunt animal resources and gather edible plant resources which may be traded for a Food boost upon entering a city (The same resource may not be hunted/gathered again until 10 turns have passed).
Discovers Gold on the tile and boosts the production of Settlers when defeating enemies in neutral territory, clearing Encampments, or clearing Ancient Ruins
Buffs adjacent friendly units, gaining culture for each melee battle that you or an friend wins.
Can be upgraded into a Wolf-Clan Warrior at the Gunpowder tech at the cost of food, where it gains lots of combat strength and can move after attacking.
