What do you do when you're being shot at by a sniper? You get behind something. Snipers in this game don't work like that: they ignore cover.
But what if they didn't?
If snipers followed the usual cover rules, they'd miss half their shots against units in cover. Units in heavy cover would also take half damage, meaning a single shot from a sniper wouldn't kill them.
Say we apply that. That makes snipers weaker, so we balance that out by cutting their manpower cost to 240 MP.
What are the consequences of this?
- Snipers become reverse mortars.
This makes the sniper very strong against exposed units, and less effective against units in cover.
Mortars flush you out of cover with long range AoE attacks. Snipers become the opposite: they force you into cover to mitigate their damage output.
It also creates nice synergy with other units: anything that gets enemy troops out of cover has strong synergy with these snipers.
- Snipers become cheaper.
The sniper's no longer a strategy unto itself: you can afford to build one as a spotter if you want.
This mitigates the extreme risk-reward dynamic that makes sniper gameplay so frustrating for all involved: if you lose your sniper it's no big deal. Furthermore, as you can counterposition snipers by sticking to cover, it's not "wipe the sniper or die" for the opponent.
- Snipers become very effective against exposed units.
You know what doesn't use cover? Blobs. Against a blobber, this 240 MP sniper is just as effective as the 360 MP sniper.
They're also stronger against team weapons (what they're ostensibly for), which tend to set up in the open.