USF getting a Sniper

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 03:20 AMVuther

I miss you Brandon Keener

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 03:56 AMMr. Someguy

Technically not realistic, US Army did not utilize Snipers like other Armies did. While other Armies trained Snipers as mostly independent long-range ambushers or assassins (basically, a Sniper), US Army Snipers were essentially what we consider Marksmen. They just took an Advanced Marksmanship class and were given a Scoped Rifle, but they still operated as part of an Infantry Squad.

In-fact, a realistic USF Sniper would be exactly like OKW Jäger Light Infantry are now, one man of an Infantry squad with a scoped rifle that crit-kills enemy models. It's actually disappointing that Relic made JLI's mechanic for an Axis unit and not an American unit. I would love something like that as a USF stock unit, actually. Relic Pls

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:02 AMSnipester

But... Isn't that what Pathfinders are?

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:14 AMMr. Someguy

Kind of, except Pathfinders are really bad at it and their design is counter-intuitive. 2 have close range weapons, 2 have scoped rifles. The scoped rifles do almost no DPS and only crit enemy units below 30% Health, which leaves the 2 Carbines which are only damaging up close. This makes them basically useless unless they're supporting another squad.

Jäger Light Infantry on the other hand, have 3 Kar 98's that are decent at any range, and one Scoped G43 which crits enemy units below 80% health, and they can come out of buildings. This makes them effective combatants by themselves and very effective in support of other units.

The "sniper" rifles that Pathfinders and JLI use to death crit enemy infantry (40% health for Pathfinders and 75% health for JLI) have inverted damage profiles to your normal guns, with the JLI G43 actually having a positive accuracy modifier at at far and the Pathfinder Scoped Garand having only slightly negative (.93) accuracy at far and very negative accuracy at close (.34).

As far as I can tell it checks for the health of the unit after damage has been applied (with both rifles used by JLI and Paths doing 16 damage) meaning if the one shot hits, takes the model below the health threshold it will snipe it. It only needs to hit to do this btw, meaning model sniping works against enemies in cover or garrison who take reduced damage.

So if you want to play around with sniping models using these infantry units, make sure to keep them at range. The reload on these guns as well as the aim is pretty big, so don't count on any 360 no scopes.

This also highlights why BAR's make Pathfinders so insanely powerful, because the BAR's can chip off enough of a models health pretty quickly (high ROF weapons are much better against units with a large received accuracy modifier) to enable scoped kills. Also pick up dropped weapons with your JLI when ever you can, as it also makes them more deadly for obvious reasons.

EDIT: You should also take from this that standing at range using the Soviet sniper against JLI is an extremely bad idea, as you only need to have one of the models at 30 health for it to be sniped.

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:43 AMAlexzandvar

Word to the wise JLI and Pathfinders are actually stupid good accurate a long ranges but most people aren't really smart enough to use them at those ranges. Your chances of hitting and sniping things at close range is actually less by a very significant margin. Note that if you take into account model snipes Pathfinders and JLI have quite good DPS.

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 03:56 AMMr. Someguy

Technically not realistic, US Army did not utilize Snipers like other Armies did. While other Armies trained Snipers as mostly independent long-range ambushers or assassins (basically, a Sniper), US Army Snipers were essentially what we consider Marksmen. They just took an Advanced Marksmanship class and were given a Scoped Rifle, but they still operated as part of an Infantry Squad.

In-fact, a realistic USF Sniper would be exactly like OKW Jäger Light Infantry are now, one man of an Infantry squad with a scoped rifle that crit-kills enemy models. It's actually disappointing that Relic made JLI's mechanic for an Axis unit and not an American unit. I would love something like that as a USF stock unit, actually. Relic Pls

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:55 AMMaschinengewehr

Not entirely true. I watched a documentary a while back about the Falaise Pocket. American sniper teams were used on the odd occassion to clear areas of hidden German crews and scharfshutzen where artillery and airstrikes would have caused too much damage/collateral.

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:59 AMturbotortoise

snipers in any iteration of coh have been my least favourite thing, i think, ever. they actively degrade the amount of fun i'm having, both using or facing them.

Jump back to quoted post30 Aug 2015, 04:54 AMMr. Someguy

Thanks for the correction, my memory was off and I didn't remember where to get the exact numbers from. My point still stands though that JLI are by far the superior unit, with their crit threshold being 75% and their 3 Kar 98's which are much better at range than the M1A1 Carbine. Pathfinders are still armed with 2 short range weapons and 2 long range weapons, which make them feel like a unit that was designed by 2 different people for 2 different purposes, and as a result can barely do either.