Company HQ and snipers?

[Swant]

How do I best use my company HQ team? I try to keep my platoon leaders close to the rest of the platoon to boost the various teams but Im not sure what to to with the company leaders.

 

How do I best use snipers?

 

Thx

[Marc Anton]

Comp. HQ needs to stay out of the fight as they are important when it comes to points. They can call in arty and overwatch the battlefield.

Snipers are more or less useless in CM2/3 . They can be used for recon but as soon as they start to fire they are dead ... which is absurd of course but thats BF logic 

[Swant]

Ok thanks!

[MOS:96B2P]

Swant, welcome to the forum:

 

I like specialized teams with binoculars, especially sniper teams.  I try to set up a sniper net of three to five different sniper teams (depending on the size of the map) across the map in observation/listening posts (OP/LPs) to spot OpFor units and feed the information to the rest of my force.  I put them in positions that offer good line of site and/or line of site to an area of interest like a ford across a river, an avenue of approach, key terrain etc.  I also make sure they are set on short target arcs and alternate having them on the hide command every few minutes or when I think an OpFor unit might be able to spot them.  I have the most success with this tactic on defense when the OpFor is moving into my area.  It still works on the offense but can be a little more problematic since sometimes a team will need to advance to a new OP/LP and be exposed to all the dangers of moving on the battlefield. 

 

Also in the top right corner of this page there is a search box.  If you type in sniper and set the topic to forums you will find several discussions/debates about them.  

[A Canadian Cat]

@MOS:96B2P has some good advice there. I don't use covered arcs on snipers though just let them shoot. I will hide and move to a new position form time to time though. It is also a good idea to position them a little away from other forces. For instance I do not have a sniper in the same building as an MG since the MG will attract a lot of attention.

They are harder to find good places in offense but try to find the high ground and let them spend time observing.

[Michael Emrys]

Re CoHQs: I tend to hold them well back and group the company mortars around or at least near them. Make sure they have a radio.

 

Re snipers: I've had pretty good luck with them on offense, even when they need to move. Try to move them so that there is blocking terrain or at least thick vegetation between them and any enemy positions. Then have them drop down and slow move (crawl) into a position where they will have good concealment. If you plan to use them for spotting/observation, make sure they are near somebody with a radio so that the information gets disseminated quickly.

 

Michael

[Hister]

A well placed sniper can do wonders. You just needto use them properly. Nothing wrong with the game as was suggested!

[womble]

Comp. HQ needs to stay out of the fight as they are important when it comes to points. They can call in arty and overwatch the battlefield.

Snipers are more or less useless in CM2/3 . They can be used for recon but as soon as they start to fire they are dead ... which is absurd of course but thats BF logic 

Got any good evidence that a CoyHQ member is worth any more points than any other crunchy?

Even if they're useless in CMx2, which is a highly contentious assertion, how do you know they'll be the same in CMx3? Or are you saying they weren't  useless in version 1 but are in version 2 and 3? Got any good evidence to support that assertion?

 

Company HQs are useful. They can stand in for platoon HQs, which is useful when the C2 chain takes casualties. They can also command a reserve element made up of parts of the Company's platoons, or specialist units. On the attack, I tend to have the AT teams hang well back, and having them stooge around with the CoyHQ means they don't get rattled by incidental artillery and such.

 

Snipers make good observers, as has been mentioned, and they can wreak havoc, when well placed, but they have to be properly employed (at the right range, in the right concealment), and some maps don't give much opportunity for that. Your basic "Regular, Normal, Fit, 0" soft factors also don't represent a sniper who's been to Sniper School. You want Simo Haya on your side, you have to give 'em Elite, [Good or better], Fit, +2 soft factors, and even then you are probably only getting a basic sniper school graduate (or a natural stalker assigned to designated marksman duties in the case of the Allies).

[sypox]

My opinion of snipers is that they are best used as eyes only. If used to target enemys, I prefer to fire max 2 rounds, regroup, fire 2 rounds, regroup etc. I also have had good results with them suppressing heavy assets like an at-guns or mortars.

 

[Marc Anton]

Got any good evidence that a CoyHQ member is worth any more points than any other crunchy?

Even if they're useless in CMx2, which is a highly contentious assertion, how do you know they'll be the same in CMx3? Or are you saying they weren't  useless in version 1 but are in version 2 and 3? Got any good evidence to support that assertion?

 

Company HQs are useful. They can stand in for platoon HQs, which is useful when the C2 chain takes casualties. They can also command a reserve element made up of parts of the Company's platoons, or specialist units. On the attack, I tend to have the AT teams hang well back, and having them stooge around with the CoyHQ means they don't get rattled by incidental artillery and such.

 

Snipers make good observers, as has been mentioned, and they can wreak havoc, when well placed, but they have to be properly employed (at the right range, in the right concealment), and some maps don't give much opportunity for that. Your basic "Regular, Normal, Fit, 0" soft factors also don't represent a sniper who's been to Sniper School. You want Simo Haya on your side, you have to give 'em Elite, [Good or better], Fit, +2 soft factors, and even then you are probably only getting a basic sniper school graduate (or a natural stalker assigned to designated marksman duties in the case of the Allies).

 

 

I never said that the CompHQ is worthless or worth any more points, must be a different posting ? 

But i forgot to mention that they can take control in case of killed platoonHQ - mea culpa  

(@  swant - you wont see any red lines in that case)

 

and the sniper thing .... yeah i guess you better try them yourself ... they will rock the battlefield, for sure 

Edited December 22, 2014 by Marc Anton

[niall78]

 

and the sniper thing .... yeah i guess you better try them yourself ... they will rock the battlefield, for sure 

 

It depends how you expect a sniper to achieve in the timescale of a Combat Mission game. If you are expecting Private Daniel Jackson in Saving Private Ryan you'd be disappointed. If you are expecting a sniper to contribute like in real life accounts you'd be not so disappointed.

 

If you draw lots of small arms fire something has gone very wrong with your deployment of your sniper team.

[YankeeDog]

Ya... if you aren't getting your $ worth out of your sniper team, the problem is the commander at the keyboard, not the sniper team modeling.

 

Their good spotting and high stealth can sometimes mean the best use of sniper teams is simply to put them in a spot with good concealment and observation, slap on a short cover arc, and see what they see.  But if you do decide to engage, with intelligent placement it's quite possible to have a single sniper team take out a half dozen or more enemy without ever being spotted, and often valuable enemy (e.g., TCs, Infantry HQs, HW team members) at that.

 

That's a pretty darn good return on a 2-man team.  If you're expecting more than this you've been watching too many Hollywood war movies.

 

As for Coy HQs, as suggested, sometimes it's worth the risk to push them forward and use them e.g., as artillery spotter, or to provide another local command HQ for some of the subordinate units -- especially on the defense this may allow you to cover more ground with the Company. But you need to keep in mind that the Coy HQ is a very important C2 link -- spotting info is passed between subordinate platoons by way of the Coy HQ.  So it's often best to have him sit somewhere safe just be a comms hub.

Edited December 22, 2014 by YankeeDog

[womble]

I never said that the CompHQ is worthless or worth any more points, must be a different posting ? 

I used the quote function from the forum. You said (you can see it in the original in your first post):

 

Comp. HQ needs to stay out of the fight as they are important when it comes to points...

My bold. That's the bit I was querying.

 

And no, snipers probably won't "rock the battlefield" because they're a relatively cheap two man element. But they can cause significant casualties. I've had snipers completely erase ATG crews without being spotted, as far as I could tell. I've had snipers on the enemy side send columns of 251/1 APCs into conniptions by plinking the gunner at 600m and bollixing the movement orders because it makes the stricken APC back off. There are other anecdotes of their effective employment which are sufficient to disprove any hypothesis that they are 100% ineffective. The other side of the coin comes up often enough, too, of course, and inappropriate, wildly optimistic deployments of expecting snipers to all be supermen will bias the curve towards that end of the scale.

[LukeFF]

Snipers are more or less useless in CM2/3 . They can be used for recon but as soon as they start to fire they are dead ... which is absurd of course but thats BF logic 

 

Nonsense

[Marc Anton]

Feliz Navidad my fellow Fanboys    

[Pak40]

An unsuppressed sniper unit is extremely deadly. Once there is sufficient firepower on the sniper then their accuracy goes way down.

 

Edit: I should also add that a lone sniper unit will not cause a unit to seek cover or cause much delay in the enemy's advance. So even though it may be very deadly they don't tend to be good at holding a flank on their own. A lone MG team, by contrast, will cause units to hit the ground quickly causing delays. This is all based on some suppression tests that I ran a few weeks ago.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Pak40

[Artofwar]

I think the Company HQ team is good to use too when ..... well I hope this hasn't been already mentioned ... but to use if the Platoon's HQ gets wiped out or severely weakened or it you want to sneak a squad  out away from the rest of the platoon you can send the Company HQ with them to keep them warm and fuzzy but probably many tactical combat strategists would frown on this. 

[John1966]

Playing a scenario right now and I've just taken the main objective (the town centre). Now I have some observers up on the 8th floor of the church I've noticed three German pixeltruppen several fields away and what is now a long way to my rear. Stragglers I expect but I don't fancy leaving them there. However, the only units anywhere near them are a Company HQ and the Batalion HQ itself. Let's hope the Major is Clint Eastwood because it looks like that's who gets to go and deal with them. So there you go, that's what I use Company and indeed Battalion HQs for: tidying up. Let's hope it doesn't all go horribly wrong. I knew they were armed for a reason.

[Doug Williams]

"Comp. HQ needs to stay out of the fight as they are important when it comes to points. They can call in arty and overwatch the battlefield."

 

I agree.

 

 

"Snipers are more or less useless in CM2/3 . They can be used for recon but as soon as they start to fire they are dead ... "

 

 

I disagree. I make it a point to buy at least one Elite/Crack sniper team per Company. Since I tend to like smaller battles, I sometimes have one sniper team per platoon. Their kill ratio, and value as recon/overwatch is superb, IMO.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2015 by Doug Williams

[John1966]

Playing a scenario right now and I've just taken the main objective (the town centre). Now I have some observers up on the 8th floor of the church I've noticed three German pixeltruppen several fields away and what is now a long way to my rear. Stragglers I expect but I don't fancy leaving them there. However, the only units anywhere near them are a Company HQ and the Batalion HQ itself. Let's hope the Major is Clint Eastwood because it looks like that's who gets to go and deal with them. So there you go, that's what I use Company and indeed Battalion HQs for: tidying up. Let's hope it doesn't all go horribly wrong. I knew they were armed for a reason.

 

It was a huge anti-climax...

[GhostRider3/3]

How do I best use my company HQ team? I try to keep my platoon leaders close to the rest of the platoon to boost the various teams but Im not sure what to to with the company leaders.

 

How do I best use snipers?

 

Thx

I use my Snipers pretty good.. its usually artillery that ends up killing them.  I have them on over watch, or in ambush.. hiding.  When I get enemy contacts I release them from hiding, and then move them to a different location.. not toward the enemy.  I normally try and use them defensively or use them as scouts.  you may get a couple kills, but it also depends on the skill level of the Sniper... but a Squad with LMG, MG, and Rifles can suppress the sniper pretty effectively.. and then blast the area into oblivion.   That's what I do... HE rounds work wonders.

[Melchior]

Their is no single right way to use any unit in CM. That's the beauty of the game. Units may be biased towards a certain kind of result or behavior but it's never a guarantee. Personally, I find snipers extremely useful as long as one remembers what they are (scout teams with more reach) than what they aren't (anything Hollywood told you). Like others have said i've depopulated anti-tank guns and machine gun teams with them. They are best used against targets of particular importance and not just every rifle squad you encounter. 

 

Also i'm not sure, but I bet the TacAI remembers where your snipers are if it gets wind of their position. So move them if they start taking fire, or even if they've been at the same point for a while. 

 

I regularly lead Platoon HQs into battle, usually keeping them near my fire team elements with the CoyHQ not far behind. If i'm near the end of the mission, or really striving for an objective and the commander has a positive bonus, then i'll push the CoyHQ into the fight too if I must. Lead from the front!  

[womble]

Also i'm not sure, but I bet the TacAI remembers where your snipers are if it gets wind of their position. So move them if they start taking fire, or even if they've been at the same point for a while.

I'm pretty sure the TacAI doesn't remember anything much. And the other executive levels of the AI don't remember much more than that (though BFC are, IIRC, working on giving them more than the memory equivalent to the proverbial goldfish...), which means if they're not being fired on the AI isn't considering them. I don't think I've ever had a sniper team both be spotted and enough of a nuisance to warrant the AI spending mortar rounds on 'em and I'd be surprised if it ever did. Maybe if the FO came under fire and survived and spotted the sniper back So, vs the AI, if your sniper team does come under fire, getting them completely out of sight will mean the AI thinks about them no further and they can sneak back or pop back up later.