Sniper teams, how to use effectively??

[Boche]

Title says it all any good tips on sniper team use??

[Erwin]

My theory is that they have been modeled rather ineffectively in that they seem to get spotted and die just as easily as regular inf. Also, you can't resupply them. You would think they would be able to move more stealthily.

I have been asking your question for years. The only response seems to be "put em in a place with good field of fire and just let them get on with it. They are supposedly good at taking out support teams.

I wonder if they have been downgraded in effectiveness as the military seems to not like them and didn't want them to be seen as an uberweapon - taking out targets at 800m-2Km.

Perhaps snipers should be elite at all times?

[LongLeftFlank]

Agree that it's generally too easy to spot snipers once they shoot, but if you ask me, most of the problem is summed up in the old bumper sticker: IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU'RE TOO DAMN CLOSE.

Would a real modern US/UK sniper shoot if there were enemy infantry within 250m? Perhaps, but at that point he'd simply have become a grunt himself. The idea of modern sniping is to reach out and touch someone from beyond their ability to reply effectively.

WWII snipers on the other hand, seem to be a lot more dependent on cover as opposed to sheer range. One man's view.

[Ryujin]

Being recon units, many of the snipers functions are irrelevant to CMSF.

However they are decent at picking guys off, but 500m+ is best (to be out the effective range of enemy AKs and your own M4s). If you sneak in close it seems like everyone in the team starts shooting and gives away the position. The best for close in shooting are the lone British sniper HQs (you have o be very very slow and careful.

Also the accuracy of CMSF shooters/weapons is reduced to be closer to reallife statistical values. It may be a little too harsh on the snipers, but on the other hand, they may shoot to fast.

If set up in good over watch at extended range, snipers will slowly suppress and kill off the enemy. I've seen some pretty good 800m+ shots.

Your just not going to get them crawling into position the night before, setting up a hide and drawing range cards and such.

[MikeyD]

Snipers stationed at a distance, not moving about and allowed to pick their own targets seems to work best. No, they don't rule the battlefield but they do cause considerable headaches to command units, heavy weapons teams, etc. I've found when I actively issue target orders their chances of being spotted - and missing - go up considerably.

Part of the frustration with snipers is most players are on the offensive, driving into enemy territory to pick a fight. In those circumstances your snipers are at their least effective and the hunkered-down enemy's snipers are at their most.

[Inkompetent]

In addition to what the others have said already they make excellent forward observers if you lack proper one's in a needed position at a particular moment. I tend to see quite accurate fires as result from my sniper teams calling in artillery. This means my infantry squads can focus less on directing fire support (a task they get once in a while if my FO and HQ already are busy calling in support themselves, or are on the move) since they aren't good at it anyway, and go do some real fighting.

[Dietrich]

As potentially valuable as a sniper team is, I tend to assign a pixelscharfschütze a 30-meter cover arc so that it acts more as a spotter than a sniper until a valuable target presents itself, at which point I either cancel the cover arc and let the sniper pick his own target or assign a new, very narrow cover arc which encompasses the unit I want the sniper to take out.

Indeed, sniper teams are almost more valuable as recon assets and forward observers than as merely snipers. In fact, while alpha-playtesting a scenario of mine, a USMC scout/sniper team got an on-station F/A-18 to direct-hit a static tank on the first pass, whereas the scout/sniper HQ unit got either a "dud run" (the air asset lost one tick of an ammo, but no bomb dropped) or a miss from another F/A-18.

However, it should be borne in mind that British sniper teams make good recon assets but do make make good forward observers because they cannot act as such due to their low rank.

[Inkompetent]

I'd even say snipers are better at spotting than spotters are, unless the spotters have access to a proper recon-vehicle with its thermal high-magnification optics. They always seem to find targets that my recon unit have severe trouble seeing from the very same position.

[Dietrich]

This suggests that snipers make good use of the magnified optics on their rifles. But don't FOs have binoculars at least?

Don't certain spotter teams (in real life, that is) have more-specialized-than-binoculars optical equipment and even things like laser designators? Are such devices simulated (if only implicitly) in CMSF? I know that although if a foot-mobile unit has a radio, it is not shown in said unit's equipment list; but, of course, there are a couple ways to tell if a unit has a (functioning) radio.

One thing I would like to see in CMSF2 is more (at least somewhat more) explicit modelling of specialist teams' equipment. For instance, the spotter in a sniper team would be shown with a spotting scope when stationary but with his rifle when on the move. Dismountable LRAS3 units would be great too.

[Inkompetent]

FOs do have binoculars, but might be that snipers inherently are more skilled at detecting targets or count as having better magnification.

As far as I know no spotter-unit (in-game) has anything more advanced than binoculars for optics, and always have to rely on vehicles for thermals. Their only other bonus is to possibly carry a SOFLAM for increased accuracy (only forward air controllers have those, or artillery observers as well?) as far as ranging and laser-designation goes.

If the unit carries a SOFLAM it will be visible in their equipment list though. Try to check the FAC next time you play (might be that they only carry them with good enough equipment level. Seems reasonable to me).