Hans & Cunningham – A sniper love story and comprehensive strategy guideA lot of players dont use snipers. A common argument for why they dont buy them is that snipers are considered risky because it cant defend itself very well and that it is expensive. Some players hate snipers and think fielding a lot of them is gimmicky, yet refuse or is unable to employ snipers in a effective manner in their own company.
Most players seem to agree on a sniper being very dangerous when he's allowed to do his job without hassle. Because of this, the majority of players have some kind of plan for dealing with 1-2 snipers, but most do not have advanced plans or so called "guaranteed" methods of dispatching a sniper.
Companies without a plan or units capable of dispatching a enemy sniper will suffer the entire game as long as a sniper is on the field and games like these are why most wehr players have a 3 bike callin regardless of what else is in their company.
I personally think Snipers can turn games... but at what point does the sniper turn a game?
How Snipers Pay for themselvesPlayers usually look at the number of kills when they form an opinion on whether or not a sniper was effective in a game, which usually does not give enough credit to the situational events.
Situational events can be when the sniper decrews or stops a supporting weapon team from contributing to the fight allowing large amounts of infantry to bypass a supression weapon or gives a tank free reign of the fight. Used like this, he can be a lingering annoyance for the enemy.
Some players refrain from shooting at regular inf and use snipers only to decrew mg's and AT guns which is very effective as it puts pressure on the enemy support weapons and its hard to stop a sniper from knocking out a 2 man 57mm weapon for a P4 to roll in immediatly after as it happens so fast and without warning.
Overlooking these situations, he can also kill enemy infantry without taking fire back. This can force them to relocate which can open them up to rushes or leave slow moving weapon teams more exposed. This is especially useful against wehrmacht who likes to take up the best cover position and stay there with tough infantry that regular small arms struggle to overpower. However, it is just as effective against airborne who are resistant to small arms and fully decked rangers who suffer greatly from losing squad members.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, a sniper doesnt need to kill a outrageous amount of enemy infantry. It largely depends on what type of unit it is targeting. If 1 at gun is decrewed and destroyed by supporting shreks/paks/tanks, that sniper already paid for around 80% of his cost in manpower, and around 50% of his munitions.
In terms of killing infantry to pay for the sniper, lets assume you are facing grenadiers with single lmgs and medikits. If the sniper retreats/kills two squads of these, he has caused 480mp/190mun worth of damage. Two bar squads without any buffs in equal cover to the grenadier squads costs only 50 munitions less and will not necessarily defeat two lmg squads. A american sniper can easily rack up 8 grenadier kills without dying in a common game. In fact, a kill score as low as this before an american sniper is retreated is usually considered a failure and much higher kill scores are regularly achieved in EIRR games.
As for the wehr sniper's cost-effectiveness, attacking regular rifles is a waste of his talents and should only be done when it seems overly safe to do for the sake of avoiding too much exposure of his position and giving the opposing team time through killing expendable rifles. Hans should be targeting tommies, airborne, rangers and support teams. While american cheap inf is less vulnerable to sniping, their elite infantry is equally expensive to the grenadiers in terms of manpower and munitions. And while the british support weapons have a cloaked 6p among them, their regular infantry (especialy sappers) are just as vulnerable to snipers as wehr infantry. If a airborne squad is retreated because of a wehr sniper, his munition cost is almost completely covered.
Now that we have covered some good reasons to employ a sniper in your company, let's look at what usually kills a sniper.
Common events and units that get your sniper killed 1. The countersnipe
2. Tank snipes and Crush
3. Mortars and arty
4. Mines
5. Jeep/Bike/light vehicle rushes
6. Fireup
7. «Bad Luck»
8. At guns
9. Heroic armor units
10. Fighting recon sections
Advanced sniper related information11. Advanced anti sniper tactics
12. Supporting your sniper
1. The countersnipe. While fairly unavoidable unless you are somehow psychic or maphacking, there's some small things you can do to keep the likelyhood of this to a minimum.
You can employ a spotter to maximise the range you can fire from and also at least give you a small chance of detecting a enemy sniper before he shoots. Most players will move their snipers in a straight line towards yours when attempting a countersnipe, so having the maximum detection possible in a this direction will increase your sniper's chances. Once you know countersniping is being attempted, the cat & mouse game is on. Falling your sniper back until the enemy sniper has been killed is one way to do it, if you have alternatives to your own countersnipe available.
There's also several types of accuracy reducers available to blitz that can make Hans hard to hit. Keep it moving and Battle Hardened will make snipers miss infantry although not reliably. A blitz sniper with battle hardened and keep it moving moving after each shot should be extremely hard to countersnipe since the chances of hiting him will be around 37%. Some cover types also reduce the chance of being countersniped, mainly smoke and trenches.
2. Tank Snipes & CrushIt is not beyond a player to attempt to shoot your sniper with a tank. A single hit will usually kill him in the open. However, if you are in green cover not only does his damage and accuracy go down, but you recloak faster giving him less time to aim. At any rate you are too close to the enemy if he is aiming his tank guns at you. Move your sniper away or let your at guns force him back. As for crushing, theres several measures you can take, especially one that I think you as a player shuold consider to always keep around in 3v3s when your population is high and theres more room for utility units: a halftrack.
If there's plenty of AT around to support you, having a wehr ht or a m3 available means that your sniper just became immune to crushing and that a lot of weapons will not harm him. In a lot of situations the enemy didnt expect a halftrack giving your sniper a free ticket to survival. That said, sucidal t17 rushes and flank speed armor can come knocking extremly fast. To stop this, all you can do is have a blocking unit (like a halftrack or a bike) allow your other units to come to bear against the vehicle attempting to shoot/crush your sniper. Some players might argue that having this kind of support turns the sniper into a 10+ pop callin. That is correct, but once he has paid for himself all these units which normally dont pay for themselves and just act as expendable protection will be paid for by your sniper's continued survival. He also becomes a serious pain in the ass. Games have been lost and won on players going Green Hulk because they just can't get to a sniper the normal ways.
3. Mortars and artyThis is no joke. Mortars kill a lot of snipers in games I have played. You could almost name it «The Folly of Elitegren», since his sniper always die to a mortar hit. How to avoid mortars? When mortars are firing around your sniper position alot of players dont take it seriously and end up seeing the cloaked body of their sniper on the ground accompanied by a «lol» in the game chat from the other team. Mortars usually 1 hit snipers. Therefore it is crucial that you get out of there immediatly. Unless there are enemies around, decloaking and running can be a good idea if its the mortar barrage ability since that means the shells are coming down fast.
As for artillery, its all about luck. Drift makes artillery hard to predict where the shells are landing. Decloaking and making a run for it is the most common response to this. Since he obviously already knows that your sniper is around there, this is usually the best response at any rate. However it is important that you react immediatly as he needs to gtfo that area. The only artillery that is close to unavoidable are strafes, but cover can save your sniper from strafes and is something you generally should use. A lot of players dont use cover with their snipers when they should.
4. MinesAnother typical DOH moment. If you regularly use snipers as spotters, this probably has happened to you. Having a recon section or other kinds of mine detection/expendable units scour the ground your sniper is going to walk on is always a good idea, you should never use your sniper as a lone spotter without support. Uneccessary loss of sniper most of the time when he dies to a mine.
5. Jeep/Bike/light vehicle rushesA regular way for snipers to die. The solution to this is to have a halftrack nearby to retreat into. If theres only a single bike, you can dance around it waiting for it to be destroyed by your support since the bike cant back up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBe0MT5wezA&feature=relatedAgainst jeeps who have lower damage output, staying in cover or garrisoning buildings can be helpful, as well as popping medikit. If its a jeep supported by a light vehicle or a bike and a puma working together, a halftrack is the usually the only way you are getting out of there alive unless theres tons of AT around.
The damage jeeps do to wehr snipers in cover with medikit is overrated. Ive seen 12 jeeps fail to kill a protected sniper because of medikit and cover. Its the detection allowing other stuff to fire on him that is dangerous.
6. Fireup/sprint Another common threat. If rangers or fallschirms/pe infantry fire up to get your sniper or bar airborne, the halftrack is again the best way. 2 zook hits assuming they both hit the halftrack will not kill it. Jumping in a building gives ample protection from bars and thompsons. Once this effect ends, they are probably outnumbered and without support allowing your sniper to continue his job after they are disposed of.
7. «Bad Luck» If you run from artillery, use received accuracy modifiers that are available, employ cover and always move him after each shot he is hard to get to supported by your other units. If you on top of that have spotting available and a halftrack, its even harder. However you can always have bad luck or lack of coordination get him killed. Sometimes you just get really unlucky and thats part of the russian roulette that COH is. Accept it, and call in your 2nd sniper if you have one! Make sure this one pays for both himself and his fallen brother.
8. At gunsAt guns, especially british ones are nefariously efficient at killing snipers. British ones are particulary dangerous since you dont see them and they have accuracy modifiers. The way to use snipers against at guns is to make sure you are at the outside edge of his firing cone. Attacking three at guns sitting in the open with 1 sniper will usually get him killed, sadly enough. Shoot them from the side so the gun cant track him fast enough or at all before he recloaks. And use cover against at guns.
Remember that a miss against a at gun with your sniper within his cone can het him kill. If you however are attacking the at gun with the sniper from the front, it is not dangerous as long as you hit 1 member as this will screw with the crewing of the gun as long as you dont hit the 3rd guy on the side. Baiting it to shoot on something else before firing is also a good tactic ensuring your sniper will not be targeted.
9. Heroic armor unitsBritish and americans officers have either long range, detection, long sight range or a weapon with crit. Dont attack full health officers close to your position as they can attempt to rush you and get your sniper killed. KCH and terror officers must be avoided like the plague, cause once you are within range of his slow effect the sniper is dead guaranteed. Avoid and engage with flamers or tanks. If you are rushed, a halftrack or a house is your best option.
10. Fighting recon sectionsThese guys have nasty detection, run fast and can snipe you. If you are convinced that theres nothing else available to the enemy and you absolutely need to engage them, using your sniper uncloaked is the way to go. Run away for every shot, have a halftrack available and have a bike or something block them. Bait them into your other units makign them lose squad members until he runs out of recons.
11. Advanced anti sniper tacticsSome of the more clever players employ advanced anti sniper tactics and do not expect a Dumbo rush with bikes or jeeps to kill him. There are several options available on both sides to get rid of a sniper that can be extremely deadly to your sniper if you dont know about them and how they work.
The recon plane is a common advanced tactic. They will either countersnipe during the short second he is visible because of the plane or have some long range unit gib him. Very little you can do about it other than jumping inside the halftrack or running immediatly as you see the plane. The duration he is uncloaked by the recon plane is very short however.
G43 slow is another problem. This limits the movement of your sniper. However the range of it is less than your sniper range and they will not kill him by themselves while this is active. Stay at range and have a blocker and a halftrack ready to bail your sniper out. «Slowed» messages will pop up over his head even when hes cloaked, so dont expect cloaking your sniper to save you. It will only make him move even slower.
Blocking + Detector + Damage dealer. When this is employed, you are facing a experienced sniper hunter. He will have 2 detector units. One that comes head on to detect the sniper supporting a puma or a m8 or another fast unit that have good damage against snipers from range and another unit coming in from the side cutting your sniper off and pushing him into the m8/puma. Very common tactic to use against a commando sniper.
This is very hard to deal with, but it takes up a lot of pop and you might not see it that much. If enough time is given to the player you are sniping, he will be able to have enough units supporting his anti sniper operation to make it very hard to escape. Seeing it coming with your own spotters and having a halftrack to jump into can end up being the only way to survive this.
Cloaked kettenkrad. Name explains it. Support your sniper with a spotter and the slow kettenkrad cant do all that much. Watch out for ATHT with snipe ability activated in combination with kettenkrads who get abilities helping them to support anti sniper operations from 2/3 PE doctrines. The range on this thing is long and it is definitely worth losing to kill a sniper.
12. Supporting your sniperSeveral units have been mentioned already either directly or by roles as blocker, spotter or escape vehicle. If you are in a 3v3, these utility units can mean life or death for your sniper and win or lose for the game.
Blockers – Very useful for stopping infantry from charging. Both sides have these. Bren carriers, staghounds, jeeps and bikes come to mind. They also stop tanks from continuing. They are expendable and they can keep your sniper unit alive.
Spotters – Swimmwagons are only 2 pop and can also block. They have great sight. Perfect support for a wehr sniper. Jeeps and bikes can perform the same role. Recons are also good for this.
Escape vehicles – Sadly the british do not get this anymore and have to rely on spotters/blockers and the smoke ability to save their snipers. Wehr and Americans however have halftracks that the sniper can enter to avoid small arms fire when the situation turns hot.
Infantry AT – Recoilless rifles suck at killing most things that threaten a sniper. Bazookas and a lot of them are great anti bike/puma/armored car/kettenkrad weapons if blobs of detector sniper killers is coming for your sniper. Button and sticky bombs are important as well.
Doctrine abilities – Blitzkrieg allows your sniper to gtfo, running normally when cloaked. FTFL allows him to take a lot of small arms fire. Some doctrine abilities can give your sniper reduced incoming accuracy which is very beneficial in a sniper vs sniper situation. (Infantry doctrine, blitz)
At guns – Good against jeeps and bikes if they are the cloaked type. However dont rely on a 57mm hitting a bike too reliably.
SupressionHaving a BAR squad, a vickers 30 cal or a mg42 covering your sniper is never a bad idea to stop large amounts of infantry from just waltzing in there. If they come from multiple directions, employ a blocker vehicle and get the sniper out of there.
Finally, ideas for rules of thumb on how to micro your sniper ingame.- Always start moving away after each shot
- Keep the spotter in front of him
- Dont take too many shots in a row as it will increase your recloak time
- Notice all cover around in him - is there a house I can run into? Is there a green cover haystack if a tank or a strafe comes?
- Keep the blockers close and turned the right way aiming at a point between your sniper and the enemy
- Never run him off alone
- Hold fire when you are not looking at him
- If you are attempting to countersnipe, make a control group for him
- Attack move orders should 99% of the time make him attack a sniper decloaking if its within range of his weapon because of target priorities
Hold Fire - This should typically be the default state for your sniper. Unless you have a specific reason for having him off of Hold Fire, it will prevent him from taking a shot a infantry that walk into his line of sight, and possibly dangerously revealing himself. Most of the time, you'll want to place all his shots manually.
Free Fire - Typically I use this for countersnipes. If you know an enemy sniper is in the area, and have a pretty good idea as to what direction he is in, then put your own sniper in cover (because his instinct is to take cover before he fires, which can delay your shot, preventing you from getting off the kill shot), making sure he is facing the probably direction of enemy attack. When the enemy sniper takes a shot, this should allow you to take him out. Alternatively, rushing a single detector such as a bike will make your sniper shoot instantly. Be careful of this, however, because another uncloaked unit may wander into your LOS, revealing you position. Don't leave this setup unattended.
Attack Move - This allows your sniper to fire as soon as he achieves a target, while gradually closing distance. Useful for when you want to fire as soon as a target comes into LOS (or range if you already have LOS), this can make it harder for more conventional weapons to return fire while the sniper is uncloaked, because it maximizes his distance from the enemy (also a good thing to prevent rushes).
Big Thanks to leafedge for additional input on fire modes and attack move.
Smokaz
