Super snipers???

[DRG]

My feelings are that snipers are SUPPOSED to be a PITA and their cost is just fine the way they are.

The bargin basement US "sniper" with no "fire control" or "RF"
or "vision" gear is an unadjusted 12 points. If you are buying infantry that the same price as an entire squad ( if you want to check I'm looking at the following units in MOBHack
414
416
417
419
431
432

Those are just basic rifle squads that have a 12 base cost in MOBHack so all this will cost a bit more in the game but so will the sniper.

Now..... that 12 cost sniper is the low end of things. He's not really going to do much and he costs the price of a squad. Do you really think he needs to be worth more? The next sniper up the ladder costs 28 points and all he has is 5 FC and 5 RF..... hardly a terrorist and he costs more than two squads. By the time you work your way up what could be called a super sniper in the "Hvy Abn Sniper" ( unit 252 ) who has full vision gear and really IS something to worry about he costs an unadjusted 129 points. ( 155 points by the time you add in moral and experience modifiiers ) Even at 129 points that's the cost of 10 regular squads. It's nearly 13 at 155 points.

If you are betting the mortgage on the results of one game do you buy 13 squads or one two man team?

Admittedly most snipers that could be considered a PITA cost around 45-48 points. That's still 3 - 4 squads of men or, in the case of artillery.... the price of 1 US 155mm LW FH. Should ONE sniper be worth more than a 155 FH??

I'll give you a test to run. June 1970 USA vs USA ( call this a MILES test in training ) on one side by a HQ and three of the best snipers you can get for that era then in opposition buy as many "Rifle Platoon VN" as you can. You will have most likely 10 squads ( plus a HQ ). Put them all on a 40 x 40 map and let me know who wins. I'm not betting on the snipers unless they are in skilled human hands ( and that would be long shot odds )

Here something else to consider. A 1970 era US off map 155 battery costs 360 points in the game. ( 60 rounds per gun ) That gives you two platoons of 155's and 120 rounds of ammuntion. That about 20 turns of shooting. ( I used up 9 rounds per battery in my test in 3 turns ) 360 divided by 20 is 18 points per shoot. The best sniper for the era costs 42 points ( these are unadjusted base OOB costs )so for the price of just over two turns of 155 fire you can buy one (1) sniper. I'll take the 155's any day.

So no, I don't think snipers need to be more costly. What I think is players need to review their tactics for dealing with snipers

Don