Snipers

[Mercury]

So can anyone tell me how to get snipers to kill enemy snipers? I set up a neat little fight involving a handful of snipers on each side in a built up area but they would not fire at each other. Even when standing almost next to each other.....why?

Do they just have great respect for one another in that soldierly camaraderie kind of way or is this a bug?

[Thermopylae]

Try targetting. Also, as countless other posts have explained a lot better than I'm about to, they aren't really snipers so much as "semi-regular soldiers how happen to be good with a rifle and hide in the bush and try to shoot people unawares"(somebody's sig) and thus are programmed more along the lines of engaging things like gun crews, tcs, etc. It wasn't considere dliekly for them to be hutning each other...

[Michael Emrys]

Also, they will not normally shoot at anything that might spot them and shoot back. That includes anybody within about 200 meters.

Michael

[YankeeDog]

There's a reason they're called "Sharpshooters" and not "Snipers". CM doesn't really model the kind of situation where a sniper would be deployed, and therefore does not have a unit named as such. The Sharpshooter is more intended to model the "crack shot" of the Company who was tasked to scout a bit ahead and maybe take shots of opportunity at enemy officers, Unbuttoned TCs and such. The modelling of the Sharpshooters works reasonably well when they are deployed in small numbers as part of a larger force.

Modern Day snipers infiltrate, sometimes well behind enemy lines, sit for hours, sometimes days, and then fire one shot at a very important target and get the hell out of dodge.

I'm not sure if sniper doctrine was this developed in the ETO in WWII, but suffice it to say pitting a bunch of Sharpshooters against each other in CM is pushing the limits of the model - this is not the kind of conflict CM is designed to depict. It's not surprising that a scenario using mostly Sharpshooters against each other wouldn't work very well.

[themaltese]

If you get a chance, guys, try going to the scenario talk section of this forum, and download my new experimental scenario "Ghost". Once you play this (and it's designed to be played PBEM), you'll understand how this scenario relates to this post.

cheers,

[JasonC]

The unit label may be "sharpshooter", but the weapon is listed as one "sniper rifle". So there is nothing inappropriate about calling them snipers.

The reason they aren't shooting at each other is because they won't fire at anything inside 100m that they think might shoot back. They are long range fighters, and they stay alive by not giving away their position to anybody nearby if they can help it.

They are meant to operate on a battlefield with other units present too, of course. The other unit types, who expose themselves to accomplish this or that mission, are the guys they hunt.

[Mercury]

Snipers/sharpshooters...whatever!! I was trying to try something a little different for once. I seem to recall a sniper duel that actually happened at Stalingrad...wasn't there a film made about it recently?

However, clearly this is not the game to do such things.....maybe this will be a little easier with CMBB?

Thanks for the comments

[Olle Petersson]

Originally posted by Mercury:

... clearly this is not the game to do such things...

Well. You can do it, but it requires them to be at least 100m apart and still spot each other.

Cheers

Olle

[xerxes]

I'm playing a sniper/sharpshooter/the guy with the scoped gun only battle. It was very fun until we both entered the same heavy building with a flag. Now we just stare at each other.

Like others have said, they won't fire at "close" range.

A sharpshooter only battle is fun for a change until they close the range.

[Ozzy]

One major reason is also that their ammo is very limited. They will hence usually use it only against "valuable" targets, which are e.g. full squads, HQs, Tank commanders, and support weapons.

I have played a battle with a 2" mortar at 50 meters range and a PIAT at 80 meters range from a sharpshooter. As I had no vehicles close, the mortar was the more threatening weapon. So I targeted the mortar. But the sharpshooter did not shoot at it, but instead chose the PIAT to fire at. After two or three turns I think having found the reason: the enemy mortar was Out of Ammo, as he had plain LOS on my inf. but did not fire (he fired smoke for many turns before). I interprete the sharpshooters behaviour as that he noticed the mortar to be no longer a valuable target, and fired on the PIAT instead.

[R.C.]

The movie was "Enemy at the Gates".

I tried to setup a sharpshooter on sharpshooter duel too. Movement seemed more effective when I included Exit Zones for the "shooters" as well as VL's. But then I noticed when playing the AI if you hold you're position the enemy will come to you. It ends up more or less a turkey shoot.