Soviet Sniper builds

I was wondering how to utilise the soviet sniper in builds. I invariably choose the Support Weapon Kampaneya over the special rifle command. At one point in the build should one go for the sniper ? I've seen Luvnest commonly go for a sniper as his second unit out which seems rather inadvisable for everyone except the top players.

Sniper 1st only works if you can hit high-MP target like Gren, Sturmpio right in early game, also to frustrate opponents and bait them into mines/MG otherwise wait till you got decent inf, SU sniper works pretty good in late game when everything is a slugfest and you don't have Ppsh on your cons.

Another much easier build to consider is getting frontline infantry first. This way you can screen your snipers with infantry.

An example build I use is 2 conscripts (sometimes second engie), then 2 snipers. Then getting a T70 or su76. After you can back tech for maxims / At guns or go into T4 for katty / 85s. I find this is especially effective against OST - for OKW you may want to consider 3 infantry squads before getting snipers. The sniper creates "winning situations", which your infantry can then exploit.

You can swap out cons for penals for the first two infantry squads, or mix and match as necessary / preference.

General use:

The cons / penals sit in cover and shoot anything that tries to rush the snipers. For light vehicles use either PTRS penals, or AT grenade cons.

The snipers then bleed your opponent's positions. 1 sniper volley should kill two models, rendering any gren/mg squad useless. Thus creating a situation where one con squad can seize ground. If he decides to rush you in an attempt to kill your snipers, your mini infantry blob cab slaughter their advance as you pull the snipers back.

Engineers throw mines on flanks to avoid any surprise light vehicles or flanking squads.

Always retreat snipers if you get into any trouble - the idea here is inducing such heavy attrition such that you can out tech your opponent or capture ground with minimal resistance - thus reducing your manpower costs over time.