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Tactics Sniping...How to

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oldsoldier173

Grizzled Veteran
Sep 19, 2012
284
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Ceresco, NE
#1
First question, What is the role of the sniper/marksman in infantry operations?


Answer: Provide accurate direct fire on important enemy personnel (leaders, crew served weapons crewman, etc), provide intelligence information to command, provide physcological direct fire limiting enemy movement.


Now how is that done?


First off understand the role, you are NOT a rifleman with a scope, you should NOT be in the middle doing standard rifleman tasks. You need to be on the flanks, infiltrating to the enemy rear to over-watch important positions (radio's and the usual enemy hides). Also be the eyes for your commander in the enemy rear, let him know what is going on and where.
Give info based on a good alpha numeric grid with keypad location. Example grid Alpha 4/keypad 5 (dead center of Grid A4), or a known map location "Bakery'G'".


You can be far more effective doing your 'job' than rushing up the middle with the 'mob'. Get to the flanks, get behind them as far as you can, cut off reinforcements to objectives, take out the hunched over running target (human), find and take out the LMG's and mounted MMG's, take out the tank TC when he pops hatch to see, harase and interdict the enemies movement, and keep commander informed.


Laying down behind your troops as they advance and hoping to see a target is USELESS in the greater mission, and eliminates a great asset to your commander.
 
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#3
I can not really agree to everything written in the first post.

At least in in realism mode, snipers are in general not very effective. Because of the shift zoom, every rifleman is nearly as a good as sniper when it comes to finding targets and hitting targets. They also have a bigger field of view, because no scope is in their way.

So in vanilla RO2, there is no huge benefit in playing a sniper in general. In the IOM it is a lot different. But I guess some people want to play it like a sniper. So here are my few cents about it.

You are in fact a rifleman with a scope. You have no excuse not being in a cap when you are needed. So when your team is launching a attack, or is defending and in need of people inside the cap. Get your lazy *** off the flank or wherever you are sitting and get back in the cap.
 
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#4
I think you can role-play it as you wish, infiltrating and sniping reinforcements and commanders at radios and such.


But realize that another way you can be effective is to take out hardpoints from a distance, and this in fact is what your teammates will be clamoring and whining for you to do. "damn useless sniper, take out the MGs!", etc. Snipers will not likely have good shots on enemy MG nests from anywhere but at a distance in front of them.


So hanging back and plugging defenders who man MGs, infiltrating and sniping from the flanks, whatever... just be effective.


Personally, when I get sniped behind my own lines, I find and kill the sniper, period. So it might be better in some cases to just use your range instead of trying to get crafty.
 
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#5
Again you people misunderstand. From flanking positions I have no problem scanning, finding that pesky machine gunner and putting one in his 'brain housing group' and it is far easier when I am not in his field of fire as well.
Shooting at his muzzle flash as well and down he goes. Ask those I play with where I am, on the flanks initially, coming in from the enemy's rear taking out reinforcements to the objective, and sometimes sitting in the cap waiting for the bud's when they cap, then off to flank the next objective and repeat. This game is NOT just hey diddle, diddle charge down the middle, die, respawn and repeat...unless you are that limited in imagination and that unknowing in Infantry tactics. And by the way I do the same with a rifle or smg, no matter, any idiot can run up the middle, die, respawn, repeat, repeat, repeat, and feel they are 'winning'.
 
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#6
Except they may actually be winning...


The thing is, and I'm sure you know this because you're experienced at this game... you usually won't have any chance of hitting a fixed MG operator from the flanks because his position usually provides side-screening cover. Most fixed MGs are in bunkers or windows. Usually you have to be in his field of fire to be able to hit him... not that it's all that difficult but there it is.


I don't mean to discourage flanking, I'm just saying you can be a very effective sniper from the middle OR the flanks... and usually your teammates will be expecting you to snipe the long-range enemies covering the middle.
 
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#7
Flanking or fire from flank is just a way to get me out of the direct vision or field of fire of that machine gunner tunnel visioned on all the troops in the middle. I rely on that tunnel vision aspect of players, too focused on mass targets and kill counts.


Example attacking Kurgen, I advance on far left, position either from the first ruin or right next to burning house again far left. Can take out MMG gunner in second bunker (head shot) with ease as he is too focused on the troops to front. Advance to building with wrecked JU52 next to it, again from flank usually unobserved as everyone is focused on the 'middle' too easy as everyone 'assumes' no one can get there except by charging up the middle. Once in awhile I drag a troop or two with me but that tends to attract attention more than a solo moving cover to cover rather than 100m dashes. Enter the trench/bunker resupply and then take out troops in rear bunker then grenade front bunker.


Bridges advance far right, cross river lay prone and take out LMG gunners on enemy side bridge abutments, and in that 'hole' favored by LMG gunners defending bridge.


I can go through all the maps, but gotta keep a few 'secrets' on what I do and how.


The troops on the servers I play on understand what I am doing, and see it as an advantage, rather than a why are you not out here in the middle dieing like the rest of us. If you know the 'hidey holes' their field of fire and coverage area, and how to get there unobserved you can raise hell with the defenders or attackers depending. I rely as well off my real world training and combat expierience as well, object of that exercise was to kill the enemy not yourself and I was pretty good at it since I am still here.
 
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#9
OP just bolt rifle is way more effective than the sniper when it comes to taking out mgs and other important role, the only way your effective with sniper if u know all possible best hidden spots on every map.


I'm speaking of spots that no one would even think of checking it out with the iron sight let alone going to sweep it personally.


There are maps where is very hard to spot on a sniper, but once I see the secret place I memorize it and next time I hear the shot coming from sniper (sound is different than any other rifle) I just point at the spot I memorized and start shooting like a mad man at least to surpress him and then kill him.


Snipers are easy to kill, but good sniper can screw up your game not the whole match, a good mger can screw up the whole game let alone your match lol
 
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#10
One of the first things a 'real' sniper in the real world does is sit and study the map of the area he is to work in, map recon, before he even steps out of the wire. Basically what you describe.


Again my techniques is no different, I know where I need to be, and doing what where on the maps based on the same idea. Now this is where it gets to me 'funny'. Most snipers and or marksmen in the game tend to use what I call 'hollywood' positions because that is what they do in the movies. That is the first place I scan, and guess what 99 time out of 100 there he is. Going high is not always a good thing, most of my 'hidey holes' are low and places the average troop would never look for a 'sniper'. Another thing I look for is the profile or the standard 'rifle out the window' at the favored spots. If I am in a building I am way back from the window, yes it lowers the angle of my field of fire, but if all I got to do is reposition a little back there to see the 'favored' spots of LMG's and such, still you do not see my muzzle flash, nor my 'profile' in the window.


In your map recon pick positions that cover avenues of approach, egress, where the enemy is going to be (if you have played long enough you are going to know who is going to be where when). When you pick you position always ensure you are in shadow, you do NOT profile your head, have something dark and large behind you, and there are so many dips and 'holes' in the terrain stop going to the 'hollywood' sniper holes and getting the how did he see me question as well as bullet in your 'brain housing group'.
 
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#15
(I have killed 2 men with 1 bullet but with an ordinary rifle a few times.)

As to the topic, I think RO2 maps do not offer the sniper the best movement opportunities. Most times flanking does not allow you to go too far to the side, and also the terrain/buildings get in the way so you don't get to see very far.

You probably give useful advice, but most times when I choose sniper, I only see the enemies for a second or two, and almost never manage to actually identify a SL or TL to target them. More often an MG, but they usually get taken out quickly anyway by other teammates.

I usually find the actual scope gets in the way of observation, and paradoxically the zoom makes me less accurate than a rifleman (I believe in most of my one-on-one encounters with a rifleman, my (first) shot has gone stray while their shot has killed me lol)

Probably I am just a useless sniper!!
 
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#16
I've actually had a lot of success (relatively) by keeping low and not using the standard "Hollywood" spots like oldsoldier suggests. On Spartanovka, for example, as a Russian sniper I like to hang in the left side of the housing blocks and just outside of the church to sniper and harass the Germans as they rush through the gullies to get to church. Once the fight moves past the church, I tend to either lay low in the destroyed housing blocks, or once the Germans advance far enough, hide out in the town hall. While I'm still discovering new positions, one of my favorites is to watch out the windows of the town hall on the second floor. I keep my field of view narrow as far as lateral movement is concerned, but I can keep that area under control and make every Nazi pay to move through the leftmost housing blocks.

One of my other favorite maps to play on as sniper is Red October Factory. I've gotten a lot of MGer's heads just by hanging out on the flanks, laying low and scanning windows every so often.
 
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#18
The Marksman class is not nearly as useless as people seem to wanna make it out to be :/
Whenever I get my hands on the Marksman class, even in a full 64p server, I almost always end up on the top of the scoreboard, especially on Bridges of Druzhina.
Why is the scoped rifle better than a standard rifle? Well, you see, it doesn't take nearly as long to line up your shot and it's much easier to lead your shot up with your target, and you'll also have a much easier time spotting prone and camoflaged enemies that are hiding at above 150m.
I should also mention that my playstyle when playing as the marksman, is that of an actual marksman. E.g. on Druzhina, I mostly lay down about 40m forward from Allies spawn, and snipe from there until C is capped, then I move to the river until D and E are capped, stay anywhere in the woods (usually on D side) and snipe from there until F and G are capped, and from there I improvise in the urban environment.
Never underestimate the marksman, kids. They, like me, have many ragequits on our conscience.
 
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#19
Hello,

I want to add my opinion, even if the post is already an old one.
I play a lot of sniper and i think you have to make a difference between attacking an defensive sniping.
Best example for me of defensiv sniping is Stalingrad.
Usually i go upstairs in the middle house, there i have control of everything going from russian spawn to B, from A to B and from A to C and the sniper windows on russian side.
What i do is checking all the points and give information to my teammates (what is easier if you play with your own clan). So i can redirect my team for example to C if i see 4 people going A-C. I try to kill some of them but this is not the main purpose of my position, i want to inform about enemy movement first.
When you see 2 guys running from russian spawn to B, you can inform the guys in A that they will get a visit from B direction, still you can try to take down the russian flanking over B.
Also by taking down the enemy on the same spot several time, you have som major psycological advantage:
1. they try to avoid those points at all costs reducing their attacking opportunities
2. they try to take you down, spending manpower on "kill the sniper" instead on "cap the zone"
To stay alive as long as possible you have to be on the move, from C-side window to B-side window, checking spots of possible enemy positions, a good knowledge of the map is a great help.

As for the sniper on the attacking side i think you have to play different as the situation (for yourself) is changing constantly, you have to move quick, get 2-3 shoots to enemies, trying to get out the big MG-'s first. I can locate a MG42 by sound on every map, as always map knowledge is the greatest advantage you will have.
On attackers side movement is the other key to survival, get the shoot, relocate, shoot, cover, shoot, move, relocate, shoot, shoot, relocate, shoot, cover, shoot, etc...
I think the information about enemy movement is more difficult on attackers side as you have to relocate yourself more often but still a precious advantage to your team.

BUT: don't try trench-combat with a sniperrifle :-D
 
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