How you use Snipers in CMBB?

[CaptainCab]

Can some one plse let me know what there useful for as i cant get them to kill anybody!!!! Is there a certain knack to it?

Also how does the pbem work? if theres someone i can play it would be good....

Oh hello btw. This is my 1st post. :cool:

[offtaskagain]

They aren't snipers in the Hollywood sense of the word. They're basically just a guy with above average shooting ability for that unit who was given a scoped rifle. They are best used at mid-range like 400m. They're great for shooting at unbuttoned tank commanders. If you take out the TC the tank has much slower reaction time and a whole lot less spotting ability. This is useful for springing an ambush on tanks. Plink the TCs with sharpshooters and the let the AT guns have at 'em. They can increase sucess quite well if you use this method. Another use is for pinning an enemy AT gun. They can ocasionally cause the crew to abandon the gun entirely. That's mostly what I use mine for. Don't waste them on recon, tank hunter teams and half squads are better at that.

[Silvio Manuel]

Sharpshooters are also good for getting mortar crews to abandon the mortar, or for routing any slow-moving heavy weapons crew while they are moving in the open (i.e. on the attack). They are too valuable to waste for no gain, so don't let them get killed as they are worth about a whole squad just for the one dead-eye rifleman.

[Meach]

Hello to all, new to the forums and new to CMBB but i have found that the sniper does not get kills unless the unit he is firing at is identified. If it says infantry? then he gets no recognition for the kills. But he probably got maybe 4 kills or so, just unconfirmed. It is in the manual somewhere.

[Slappy]

That's true for CMBO. Units only get credit for 'confirmed' kills. In CMBB that is true while the game is in process. After the game ends (during AAR phase) all unit kills are displated in the info boxes. This lets you see the true effectiveness of those units that tend to not get the close up and personal kills like sharpshooters and FOs.

[CombinedArms]

This is one of my favorite features of CMBB over CMBO. It's great to know exactly how many guys your arty has killed, for example. That generally shows up as "no kills" during the game, even if they've been extremely effective.

And, as has been pointed out before, sometime you check on an infantry squad that you didn't think was particularly important and find it had 30 kills, while another squad that was all over the board and seemed ready to earn a medal had just 2-3. I think it's great in CMBB that FOW is preserved through the game but you get full info afterwards.

[incarna2k1]

Full kills at endgame is the one thing I wish CMBO had that CMBB doesn't. But doesn't stop me from playing CMBO either, it's just too good.

As for sharpshooters in CMBB, since I'm really bad at Armor vs. Armor I tend to reserve them for buttoning tanks. Have them force the tank to button up at the beginning of a turn and time it so your Armor does the ol' shoot and scoot on the same turn and you vastly increase your odds of surviving the shoot and scoot (assuming it's a 1on1 tank battle, which it's usually NOT!)

[Slappy]

I've recently finished a PBEM where I had a critical platoon held up for 3-4 minutes crossing a gap in some trees by a sharpshooter I never IDed. He got plinks off at just the right time, pinned some of the squads on the way over the open ground and it took some time to rally and get everyone to the other side. It could have cost me a small VL (hard to tell). Same sharpshooter also took out a commander on one of my KVs. I don't think he got more than 2-3 men, the time was the killer.

As far as I can tell, he was in a treeline on the flank 200-300m out with a covered arc command between the patches of woods. It's a bit of a gamble, but that kind of placement can really make the 22pts pay off.

I tend to use them as spotters who also go for targets of opportunity (guns, FOs, heavy weapons teams and TCs). If you're outside of 200m, no one will ever get more than a sound contact, but don't expect to take down any infantry formations.

[flamingknives]

I had two platoons held up in an assault QB in CMBB by a Sharpshooter. He was in a house not more than 50m form either units, and I only spotted him when I went throught the houis he was in.

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by CaptainCab:

Can some one plse let me know what there useful for as i cant get them to kill anybody!!!! Is there a certain knack to it?

[snips]

I find that sharpshooters are useful for potting TCs in opened-up AFVs before starting an anti-tank engagement, and if you have the stalking time available to get themn in position can be handy for taking out troublesomely-sited guns if arty or mortars aren't available for any reason.

I like to use them as scouts, because I think they have better spotting and spotting-avoidance capabilities than half-sections or tank hunter teams.

All the best,

John.

[Poor Old Spike]

In a game against Maroule,I worked a group of about 7 T-34's into a dominating flank position on a ridgeline,but his invisible sniper took off the head of EVERY unbuttoned tank commander on successive turns!

Even when I ordered them to stay buttoned, they would unbutton as soon as the action phase began,and CRACK!--off would come another head!

I always buy snipers myself now...

[sgtabell]

At this point the following seems like a dumb question, but here goes.

Does a sharpshooter have an inherent better ability to hide, or is it due to his only being a single unit?

In other words, would a squad, who somehow, wasn't broken, that got down to one man, with the same rank, have the same ability to hide.

The reason this is important to me is, is it worth it to have a commander, with stealth bonus, in the area of the sniper, but thus risking discovery due to the fact that a command unit will have 3+ people, offsetting the stealth of the sharpshooter?

SgtAbell

[Jack Carr]

Speaking strictly from a CMBB perspective, check the handbook if you have it. I never used sharpshooters effectively before the handbook gave me an idea I had never thought of.

Sharpshooters work quite well as scouts. If you use the "move to contact" command along with the "hide" command then the sharpshooter will "drop and hide" as soon as he comes into contact with an enemy unit. This works great when you are playing defense. When I want to know where the enemy armored column will be hitting me from then out go the snipers. They are fast runners and can, as the posts above have suggested, pick off the occasional un-buttoned tank commander.

I usually find a good place with a decent view of alot of terrain in a central location on the map and "move to contact" and "hide" my sharpshooter to that spot. Before you know it, here comes the 15 enemy tanks I knew would show up for the dance. I move my armor to a more strategic location and rotate any anti-tank guns I have in the general direction of their arrival and with any luck I will have gotten a little edge on the enemy before the party really begins.

[eif]

Scintilating stories of super snipers, I recall a cmbo battle where my lone gunman took out a hotchkiss from 300m, one shot and it was abandoned!

Shame I can't buy that same crackshot in the pbems I'm playing.

[coldmeter]

I have found that your sharpshoter needs to be at least a veteran before you get your points worth out of him (a crack and you are in business). A regular or lesser sharpshooter and he doesn't have much luck.

I had a sharpshooter take out a whole Platoon HQ, the remaining sqauds fell away easily once they were attacked.

I will always go for at least 1 sharpshooter in QB, just leave him out to wander in the treelines and let him go to work.

[Aco4bn187inf]

Regarding the question about using a command unit with a stealth bonus to help snipers hide- it seems like a good idea to me. Snipers on skis, by the way, are a really good combination of firepower and mobility. The basis of the olympic biathalon, I guess.

[Slappy]

HQ or no, they hide better than any other single soldier. I've had PBEMs where a sniper's position was overrun. He managed to hide for 5 turns within 7m of an enemy squad with 2 more within 15m. This was at dawn in trees, but in winter so not a lot of trees. Try that with your depleted squads.

[securityguard]

I usually always buy a sniper regardless of their skill or not. Their ability to hide and run around unnoticed is impeccable - with added bonus they focus on handicapping tanks. If all tanks are buttoned I usually use remaining ammo on various infantry scattered about.

As stated before they can put a entire squad of troops from healthy to pinned in one shot. They are very good against AT guns as well.

[urefinger]

an important thing to note is that during the battke u really cant ell if he's got anybody - but trust me, veteran and crack sharpshooters are INCREDIBLY usefull for pinning mg's and disabling guns. a tank commander is relatively small - he only has his head and shoulders sticking up through the copula. but a mg guy or someone pushing a gun is incautious and obvious (and i think cmbb simulates this) and if the member of the team isnt killed itll certainly shake them giving a pause in their firing. and if it kills it sometimes causes crews to abandon their guns or mgs to panic. it's not effective gainst whole PLATOONS of men (then u want arty) but ive found it invaluable for weaking defenses

[xerxes]

Sharpshooters are excellent spotters, their binocs give them good long range spotting. Extra HQs are also great spotters.

On defense you can use sharpshooters forward and let the enemy pass by them. Then you can snipe from the rear, very effective. Also since support weapons often lag the main force you can pick these off with a sniper that's gotten behind the main enemy force.

If you're buying sharpshooters it does pay to get the best quality available. Quality greatly effects spotting capabilities.