The only way I could see it work is that scouts are cheap, have low and don't require research. They also build fast. I suppose you could try to overwhelm someone with scouts if you did it quicky... take out constructors and then focus fire on individual ships. If the opponent gets a fleet you're in trouble though. Likewise if they start building defenses. You'd still need your cap to take out theirs of course.
Here are some numbers for advent (https://www.sinsofasolarempire.wikia.com/wiki/Ship_Types):
Scout LF LRF
Scout 200%/6dps 25%/.75dps 200%/6dps
LF 75%/6ps 100%/8dps 75%/6dps
LRF 100%/18dps 150%/27dps 100%/18dps
The dps shown is base dps (not shown) multiplied by the damage percent, which is shown. So on a pure dps basis, the scout fails miserably to the LF (.75dps compared to 6dps), but you only need 3 scouts deal as much damage to an LRF as that LRF is able to deal back to your scouts.
Looking at armor, the scouts have exactly the same armor as the LFs, except they have light armor compared to the medium armor on the LFs. Since we already took armor type into account, we now look at the numbers (ignoring shield mitigation.. someone else want to work that?):
Hull Shields Cost (converted, 500 credits per 100 resources)
Scout 400 425 200
LF 400 425 250
LRF 620 550 955
Using the value "cost/DPS" we see that the scout by default costs 66.67credits/dps (200credits/3dps). Vs the LF it costs 266.67, and vs the LRF it costs 33.33. The LF costs 41.67 vs the scout, 31.25 vs other LFs, and 41.67 vs the LRF. The LRF costs 53.055 vs the scout, 35.37 vs the LF, and 53.05 vs other LRFs.
From these raw numbers we see certain truths: The scout is horribly ineffective for fighting LFs, but on a pure cost/DPS basis it is better against LRFs than LRFs are against LFs. That is to say, put the same amount of money into scouts and into LRFs, and your scouts will be doing more dps against a group of LRFs than your group of LRFs would be doing against LFs (which is their favored enemy). Also, oddly, it seems as though the LF is more cost effective than LRFs against other LFs, ignoring armor.
Now we take armor into account. Ignoring mitigation it would take 137.5 seconds for an LF to kill a scout at 6dps/second. It would take 8 scouts to kill a single LF in the same period of time. If you can have an advantage of 8 scouts to 1 LF then you can replace your scouts cheaper than your opponent can replace his LFs. Its ok if a second scout takes damage though, so if you can micro your scouts, you can kill 1 LF with 5 scouts and only lose 1 (226.67 seconds to kill the LF, compared to 275 seconds necessary for the LF to kill 2 scouts). Thus, a 5 to 1 advantage with appropriate microing could be enough to beat an opponent with LFs. Fleet supply does not allow for this advantage, and neither does the build time for each ship (14s for the scout, 20s for the LF).
Next up, the scout vs the LRF is a different animal entirely. The scout is better in cost/dps terms than the LRF is, but this doesn't account for armor. It would take 1 scout 195 seconds to kill one LRF (again ignoring mitigation). The LRF kills a scout in 47.22 seconds (if the avent LRF could bring all guns to bear on one scout). 5 scouts will kill an LRF before the LRF kills any scouts. If you can micro the scouts and prevent the LRF from using more than 1 of its 3 guns, 2 scouts can kill an LRF without loss. This is a cost difference of between 1000 (5 scouts) or 400 (2 scouts) vs 955 for the LRF. With a 5 to 1 ratio, the scouts barely cost more than the LRFs. WIth a 2 to 1 ratio, the scouts are clearly more cost effective. Also, the LF takes 26 seconds to build, nearly double the time it takes to build a scout. It also takes some considerable money put into planet upgrades, temples, and research.
All this suggests few (if any) effective scout strategies: Scouts in the very early game can destroy constructors, but an opponent will build LFs to counter. Scouts in the early-mid game could be effective in numbers, if you can get your opponent to build LRFs exclusively. Unfortunately fighters counter scouts as easily as they counter LRFs. You only have safety in numbers (4250 armor for 5 scouts vs 1170 for 1 LRF). So basically, build the LF rush described in the other thread to get your opponent to build LRFs, then counter with at least double the number of scouts. This should be possible since you haven't spent any money at all on ship research. Of course you still have to contend with the enemy cap and with any structures the enemy has already built. If you kill his constructors with this rush though, you more or less have free reign over his planets, as long as he doesn't start building LFs or carriers to counter your scouts immediately when you attack to kill his LRFs..Since you don't need ship research for this, one temple of hostility is enough to research the fleet upgrade. After that you can focus on building your fleet and quickly.
