Sharpshooters or AT rifles

[Corvidae]

ok a sharpshooter has 15 shots at most,

his range is 400 or so meters, and he is kinda expencive,,

but the german AT rifle has 60 shots, and a range of 800 meters

Italian Marzochi AT rifle has 100 shots, and range of 800 meters,

both are fast enough to keep up with infantry,

both have high concealment rating,

and are cheaper than a sharpshooter,,,

So ummmmm.... who do you want as your sniper?

[The Hapless General]

I am a great fan of AT riflemen. The Brit ATR has 100 ammo in a regular QB too, BTW. However, I would not rush to conclude that they are more valuable than a sniper. An ATR will not even tickle most medium tanks while a sniper, killing an unbuttoned TC will all but disable the tank...

In addition, snipers cause suppression effects far stronger than an ATR, just try suppressing an HMG with both and see which works better.

Cheers

[BigDork]

The sharpshooter should be far more accurate. Also the AT rifles are made for KOing light armor and the sharpshooter is there for taking out men.

I've found sharpshooters to be invaluable. I usually will by them as high experienced as possible. Put a couple of them back a little so they aren't as vulnerable and let them have at it. They keep tanks buttoned and usually get a TC or two. Keep crews pinned down. They spot pretty good.

AT rifles are great against halftracks, armored cars, and very thinly armored tanks like Marders and such. JasonC wrote up a good tread about it not too long ago, I suggest checking it out. While AT rifles can be used against infantry they won't be as effective as a sharpshooter for killing troops at long range.

But then again I could be completely wrong. I'm sure Jason or one of the other guys will set me straight.

[s3333cr333tz]

Im not sure on ATR's, but one of the advantages of a sharp shooter is also its insane natural stealth ability. On defence I will often employ a couple of max experience snipers and send them out as recon. If you keep them in the open with no cover(Move to contact + hide, then unhide next turn), and keep them stationary as soon as you see the bad guys coming they are virtually impossible to spot.

It is pretty handy to be able to sort through the enemy infantry for MG's Mortars and FOs and trail them at a healthy distance. You gotta love it when they begin to prep for an attack and you suppress or outright route parts of his support before anything really happens ;p

I don't think many people fully understand just how undetectable a passive sniper is. To illustrate just how stealthy they are here is a little anecdote from a few days ago.

I was playing my friend and had spotted an FO with my sniper. So I waited for the infantry to pass over my position and then proceeded to follow the FO in hopes of picking it up and eliminating it before it could rain nastyness on my positions. Well, I found it, it appeared in front of me not 10 yards away and not alone, there was a pioneer squad moving forward not much further away. My opponant let out a squeel of glee(we play with ventrilo, a voice chat system to allow for real time taunts ;p) so I knew instantly he had seen me. What I didn't realize was that as soon as I stopped moving it became merely a sound contact. FIVE-TEN yards away from an FO and the sound contact was somewhere to the SOUTH of the FO, when in reality the sniper was 5 yards to the NORTH of the FO. So im thinking this is bad news. Do I try to pistol the FO down or make a break for it. Well the pioneer squad the next turn turned its attention on the sound contact and began lobbing satchel charges a good 20-30 yards from my actual position, RIGHT next to his own FO. My Sniper died unfortunately, I can only assume as soon as my sniper moved his FO drew a pistol and shot him. There was no fire as far as I could see, he just got up ran a step or two then died ;p

In anycase, had I just left the sniper there he probably woulda been fine to sneak away. So there you have it, Im aware of how well the sniper moves unscene and I still underestimated one ;p