Author Topic: Being a "sniper"  (Read 22007 times)

Offline Matte

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Being a "sniper"
« on: 08-06-2009, 15:06:54 »
I don't want to know how to hit every shot one shoots in the head, but how to conceal yourself well, sneaking past enemies and stuff like that. That's what I want to learn about.

I'm a bit surprised there weren't any thread about this already..

Not asking for anything in particular, just general tips about being a recon.

Offline Fuchs

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #1 on: 08-06-2009, 15:06:58 »
I was planning to make a thread about being a scout/marksman at a later point but I can give some basic hints.

Vegetation

Vegetation is your best friend as a sneaky rifleman. Use bushes and tall gras as cover to hide in from passing enemies or as a sniper spot. Laying prone on open ground is the worst thing you can do, always go for the bushes.

Craters

Are also a very good friend, don't just run in the open but be sneaky and go from crater to crater.

Buildings

Not adviced but hiding in a building can be very useful, don't forget to leave a Smine for any enemies that are following you or want to take you out from the flank, on Fall of Tobruk there are some very good buildigns to hide in and always Smine the stairs!

Hit and Run

Staying at a spot can be very tempting but try to kill 1/2/3 enemies and then move to the next spot. Never stick to on spot forever, if you do, make sure you have all flanks Smined and watch every corner of the spot and keep your head low.

Smoke

Smoke is very usefull but don't run where you threw the smoke, instead throw a smoke in one direction and sneak out into another direction because the enemy will always look at the smoke and it's area not in other directions!

Just some basic tips, others can add alot too it.  :P
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline Kildar

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #2 on: 08-06-2009, 16:06:10 »
Quote
Laying prone on open ground is the worst thing you can do, always go for the bushes.

Be aware however; low settings = no vegetation is visible to a certain point. Your best bet to make sure you are not spotted when firing is to get behind the view distance fog. You have to practice to hit people from this range and have a fair amount of luck, but that is the only sure fire way to do it without being spotted. The best thing to hide behind is a static, they don't vanish at distances.

A good tip I will give away for free is to stay away from elevated places. They not only provide you a nice silhouette to spot you, but when a person sees Sniper [Sniper Rifle] Target their natural inclination is to look at the elevated positions around them. [Which is counter to real humans not looking up for threats.] Try to stay low to the ground.

Offline Fuchs

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #3 on: 08-06-2009, 16:06:16 »
Known fact, still go for the bushes since 70% plays on higher settings.
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline Fearbefore.

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #4 on: 08-06-2009, 18:06:08 »
I know in FH1 (dunno if it's in FH2) but changing the camera angle can help you out a lot, as you can check your cover. From the first person view, for example, it might look as though you're perfectly concealed but in reality half your rifle is sticking out of the bushes.

I would also advice you skip sniping in church towers and similar buildings, as it's almost a cliche spot for snipers to be. The church flag on Market Garden in FH1, for example, despite giving you a great view of all enemy movement, was a very obvious place for a sniper to be.

Another bit of advice is to use sound to your advantage. If you listen closely you can hear footsteps, which can give you just the time needed to either run or turn around and knife some jackass sneaking up on you.

If you have to relocate over far distances, always take the route less likely to contain enemies. Always. Seems like an obvious tip but it's a very stupid attitude for someone with a knife as their most deadly weapon (not having a crosshair on the scoped rifle) to think they can simply sneak past anyone. 

Also, know when to change to a primary or secondary weapon. In FH1 in particular I noticed that whenever you have to go up or down stairs in a building as a sniper, it's always preferable to switch to your knife (or a pistol, if you have it). You can get three, aimed stabs of a knife in before one unaimed shot from a rifle.

Don't look at every soldier you see but don't kill as 'the one that got away'. It is far better to never shoot on a target until you have a surefire kill than to empty a K98 clip on someone who not only knows you're around but so does everyone else within a thousand feet of you.

The  last tip I can think of at the moment is one any sniper should probably know already, but don't expect to have the highest score or the most kills or any of that shit when the round ends. Don't try to be the hero, the only time a sniper should be trying to cap a flag is when he is a) the last man alive on his team and all flags are held by the enemy, or b) he has a large (2 or 3 at most) group of infantry support.

Offline sheikyerbouti

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #5 on: 08-06-2009, 19:06:53 »
 I disagree with the last part about snipers not capturing flags.

 Why shouldn't they? If a sniper is a recce element and a flag area has been or is about to be captured, would it not be best served to rejoin the element when additional firepower is needed?

 Too often a sniper in FH2 is clueless to what they can achieve.
I find it is best to stay forward and to support a line of advance that provides a mutual cover for your sniper recon and covering fire.
and finally,
The binoculars are the most important tool that FH2 snipers still don't use properly or often enough. You can lead the scoreboard on many maps provided you bloody well use your binoculars. Too often snipers are more concerned about saving their own hide so they never fully exploit the availability of artillery to give them the best cover fire available in the mod.
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Offline Fuchs

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #6 on: 08-06-2009, 19:06:38 »
Then theres a change the sniper gets killed, loses his kit and leaves his team without sniper support. I agree with him, snipers are there to support and pin down the enemy or spot enemy units for whoever needs it, can be artillery or a plane which then eliminates the target and gives you a 'ty'.

But I do agree on your part that the binoculars are underused, maybe they are even the snipers strongest weapon if his/her teammates work together on the data given.
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline Kubador

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #7 on: 08-06-2009, 20:06:18 »
Oh, I think I'm gonna make a tut for sharpshooters. Yes sharpshooters not snipers becouse the thing what I do is more straight forward and ofensive tactic of sharpshooter than concealed and safe sniper moves already listed in this post.

I completely agree with sheik. Binocs can be like rain of fire spell if you know how to spot well. Also taking as many as you can helps your team by moving chaos into enemy ranks and making them spend menpower into searching/dueling istead for taking/securing flags.

Offline Fearbefore.

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #8 on: 08-06-2009, 21:06:55 »
All I meant is that it's rather dangerous for someone very weakly armed in close combat (a sniper, in this instance, but other examples include a Piat gunner (with just a pistol) or a tanker, again with probably just a pistol) to try and take a flag unsupported. Obviously, there are tons of variables - take one of the higher flags on Crete in 0.7, and you could be completely out of sight behind the dunes and hills in 10 seconds. Other flags, however, require you to be much more cautious. Obviously, sometimes there is the nice bonus for a sniper to be able to switch his kit to an MP40/Tommygun kit for the 10-20 seconds he's at the flag, and then switch back to his scout kit, but that is not always an option.

Another, and probably obvious tip is to only use your scope when it is absolutely necessary. Some of us have been tricked by sniper movies to think that you should always be looking through the scope and aimlessly staring around the battlefield, but again, obviously, this isn't the case. You are much better off, when looking in a general direction for a target, to switch to a smaller weapon (remember, the smaller you can make yourself, the better - you should only have your rifle out (i.e the biggest weapon you have, in terms of physical size) when you have acquired a target).

I would also suggest you don't be too proud to, if the servers are too full or too empty, to go into single player mode and find some good spots.
« Last Edit: 08-06-2009, 21:06:16 by FEARBEFORE_ »

Offline Flippy Warbear

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #9 on: 08-06-2009, 23:06:40 »
What defines a good sniper is that when he can pin even bigger flag areas with his undiscovered location. Like for example the mountains next to Mareth Line flag are great for this as its quite hard to spot the bastards up there and you have more than excellent view to the flag area. And if you can avoid being detected by swiftly changing positions between kills, you can really make those anti-tank guns and infantry very useless there.

You can feel cocky after you had been killed by a search party or by a tank, dedicated to find and kill you. Good sniper can keep the enemy facing the dirt and hide until something heavy comes along to help in hunting you down, but by that time your own heavies might have arrived to mob up the remnants of chaos you started with just one rifle. Sniper is a deadly weapon in the right hands.

azreal

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #10 on: 09-06-2009, 03:06:19 »
I would have to say I disagree with using vegetation as cover. Because of obvious lagging, vegetation doesn't render up to certain distances. So while you (the sniper) may think that large bush is covering you, the enemy rifleman may see you plain as day.

Also if you are going to shoot from buildings, make sure you don't pick bad, and obvious locations like church towers. Very overdone. Try new spots and make sure you shoot from back in the room. Sticking your rifle out the window is a bad idea as well.

Remember, don't take bad shots, wait for a slow, or non-moving target with a clear line of sight. Don't shoot at random people to try and get kills. Follow some of the tips in these posts and I'm sure you'll do fine.

Offline General_Henry

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #11 on: 09-06-2009, 07:06:33 »
i have shoot too many people in the bushes, because a lone bush in middle of desert is really something... you know, to us tankers, we drive through of bushes everyday and could really tell if there's a guy there or not.


but good "bush-hiders" hides behind the bush rather than inside it. This makes them very difficult to spot in one direction.

Offline Fuchs

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #12 on: 09-06-2009, 11:06:47 »
I would have to say I disagree with using vegetation as cover. Because of obvious lagging, vegetation doesn't render up to certain distances. So while you (the sniper) may think that large bush is covering you, the enemy rifleman may see you plain as day.
Ok, one question then:

Sherman comes driving toward you, next to you are a bush and a flat piece of ground, where do you go prone in?
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline Die Happy

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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #13 on: 09-06-2009, 13:06:09 »
What defines a good sniper is that when he can pin even bigger flag areas with his undiscovered location. Like for example the mountains next to Mareth Line flag are great for this as its quite hard to spot the bastards up there and you have more than excellent view to the flag area. And if you can avoid being detected by swiftly changing positions between kills, you can really make those anti-tank guns and infantry very useless there.

You can feel cocky after you had been killed by a search party or by a tank, dedicated to find and kill you. Good sniper can keep the enemy facing the dirt and hide until something heavy comes along to help in hunting you down, but by that time your own heavies might have arrived to mob up the remnants of chaos you started with just one rifle. Sniper is a deadly weapon in the right hands.

someone seems to remember a test session where i tied down 6 players of the enemy team searching for the one lonesome happy sneaky sniper killing them over and over and over ...

my favorite part (at least in normandy)  besides sniping people is the goal to annoy the shit out of the enemy team so they send lot of forces to take out out. this way a single soldier can tie down many enemy players . a game like cat and mice where the roles change fluently. first you are the cat take out a few mice and then they start hunting you so you place s-mines on your old location and switch to a new one. they find your mines (free kill) and you then knwo where they are and the game goes on.


sniping in africa is much different then in normandy.
while in africa you often stay at one position and guard one area in normandy you can play very offensive. sneaking though high grass and maybe past enemy lines to take them out from behind. in africa this is almost impossible.
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Re: Being a "sniper"
« Reply #14 on: 09-06-2009, 13:06:15 »
Well yes if you are fairly close to your target go right ahead and use bushes. But I'm talking about when you are shooting from larger distances like between flags.