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Thursday, June 17, 2004

Snipers - Other Options 

Snipers are fun and frustrating. They increase the uncertainty of combat and can play a huge role in some scenarios (city fighting would be significantly different without them). In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget sometimes what can be done with snipers besides just rolling to determine the target hex and applying the effects. The two things many players overlook are sniper checks (A14.4) and repositioning (A14.2).

Don't forget that whenever you roll as successful sniper activation (dr of 1 or 2), you can forfeit the attack (prior to selecting the target hex) and reposition the sniper counter (under the same restrictions given in A14.2 for initial setup). On a mobile battlefield, your sniper counter can be left behind by the advancing enemy (or a retreating enemy performing a fighting withdrawal). Once that happens, a sniper activation is likely to hit troops in the enemy's rear. Often, these will be broken units or other units too far from the front line to significantly affect the outcome. Consider forfeiting such an attack (especially after a less effective sniper activation dr of 2) to reposition your sniper closer to the front line, where future activations are more likely to result in attacks against higher value targets.

Do you remember the modifiers for a sniper check? Most players probably don't, and they don't come up very often. However, if you've just suffered a sniper attack against one of your units and other units are in the same Location, think at least briefly about whether a sniper check might be to your advantage. The disadvantage of making a sniper check is that those units will become TI and forfeit any other fire/movement/advance opportunities for the remainder of that player-turn, as well as being more vulnerable to CC. However, if the units are not in a vulnerable position and are unlikely to contribute anything to your attack/defense plans during that turn, a sniper check might be worth considering. If your opponent has a high SAN, reducing that SAN for the duration of the scenario could be of great benefit, so keep this tactic in mind.

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