Scout

"What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge."

— Sun Zi, Art of War (Ch XIII)

In game

Scout — Vital statistics
	Ranged infantry unit with medium-powered range, able to take out slow-moving melee targets with good hitpoints and armour but slower than normal archers. Strong versus heavy infantry, light ships Weak versus siege weapons, buildings, melee cavalry
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades to
	11.6s (175t)	110	11	16	2s (30t)	23
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 50 : 40;	: 1; : 1	1		1	1–12	Strong versus heavy infantry.

Overall strategy

Scouts are special mercenaries which are recruited from the Outpost. While they have no armour and can't attack, they have one advantage: their knowledge of the lay of the land grants them the ability to outrun most units. Indeed, not even cavalry can catch up with the fast-running Scout. Because of the existence of Spies and other Agents in Rise of Kings, the Scout is a very useful unit to have, which can be used to locate and eliminate Spies and/or other cloaked units. In the Castle Age, they can be upgraded into Explorers, who not only continue to share the same abilities as Scouts do, but can also cloak themselves if not moving. Unlike other units, a Scout's LOS can be improved by increasing your Science Research, which also improves the results from discovering ruins, which are bonuses scattered around the map.

At least two factions in Rise of Kings have bonuses that deal directly with Scouts and Explorers. In most games, you will begin with only one Scout, unless you are playing as Spain, which, if the decision to begin a game with the map being fully revealed was taken, will begin with additional Scouts instead of the normal single Scout. Spanish Scouts are also better at harvesting resources from ruins whenever they are encountered.

The other faction worthy of mention is Wales. Unlike other factions, however, Welsh Scouts are not trained from the Outpost, but are instead received from the Barracks. These Scouts are known as Helwyr and while they cannot be upgraded to Explorers, they have three special abilities. The first is that each Welsh Barracks constructed spawns a new Helwyr party, population caps willing. The second is that they are capable of short-range archery fire, while the third is that they can hide in trees. These units are thus meant to be used as ambush units since they run very fast, and coupled with the Welsh propensity for stealth, are ideal for defence and guerilla tactics.

Unit summary

• Mercenary unit which cannot attack, but can outrun most units and eliminate Spies. 
• Scientific Inquiry — A Scout's LOS can be improved by increasing your Science research.
• Salvage Ravage — Scouts gather more resources from ruin patches, whose yield is improved with each Science research level undertaken. Spanish Scouts perform better at this task.
• Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition! — Spain, if the decision to begin a game with the map being fully revealed was taken, will begin with additional Scouts instead of the normal single Scout.
• Helwyr — The Welsh do not train Scouts, but instead train Helwyr which unlike normal Scouts are capable of missile attacks, and can hide in trees, making them are ideal for defence and guerilla tactics. Each new Barracks built by the Welsh spawns one Helwyr
• Pontiff's Inquisitor — The Papal States train Pontiff's Inquisitors, which unlike normal scouts, are trained from the House of Worship.

History

As the crises of the Early Middle Ages abated, the Old World would witness significant cultural exchanges across continents, facilitated by extensive trade networks and the movement of peoples, with the Silk Road of Central Asia, the so-called "Spice Roads" of the Indian Ocean as well as contacts between Europe and the rest of the world through Iberia, the Black Sea and Russia being significant from the viewpoint of European Christendom. While embassies, religions missions and explorers travelling from one part of the world to another were indeed not unknown in the Mediaeval Old World, the bulk of this contact was kept up mainly by merchants, who participated in cultural exchange by establishing business contacts in foreign lands. This led to the spread of Christianity and Islam through missionary and trade networks, as well as the deepening of Islam's presence in Asia and Africa through trade and diplomacy. W

So for centuries, great troves of information on these interactions, both peaceful and belligerent alike, would be written on the state of affairs both east and west across the Old World before the dawn of the European Renaissance, yet of the people who wrote these, two names are often mentioned in our time: Ibn Battuta, and the Polo family. Considered one of the greatest travelers of the pre-modern era, Ibn Battuta's travels covered an estimated 75,000-117,000 km across three continents and over 40 modern countries, with his Rihla providing us a snapshot into the culture of Asia and Africa and the greatest political trends of his time — most notably, the rise of the Timurid empire under Tamerlane.

In the West, the Polo family — consisting of the Venetian merchant brothers Niccoló and Maffeo, and Niccoló's more well known son Marco Polo would also make trips to Yuan China, almost a generation before Ibn Battuta himself, and it is through Marco Polo's narrations in Il Millione that Europeans would learn more of the outside world, particularly Asia beyond the Middle East — most notably, the existence of China. Although most European kings and churchmen were probably aware of the existence of China, Il Millione did what diplomatic correspondence and missionary accounts meant mainly for the Catholic Church could not: it raised awareness of this new world amongst the general public of Europe once printing presses were introduced in the 1400s. Edited for legibility and entertainment value by Rustichello da Pisa, Il Millione would eventually inspire a new generation of European fantasists, intellectuals and explorers — among which was a young Genoese mariner by the name of Cristoforo Colombo — today better known in the anglosphere as Christopher Columbus).

Chronicles	Bronze Dawn