Vathailos
Posts: 346
Joined: 5/13/2003 From: In a van, down by the river. Status: offline
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Ahem... I may be to blame for the bad taste in Viking's mouth for snipers. I typically buy 6-10 of them. Why? I use them in rear areas for protecting valuable assets (semi-invisible spotters overwatching my ammo dumps for example). Also, they round out the load in a schwimwagon very well. One 4-man recon squad and a sniper sped forward to spy on the enemy are my primary set of eyes forward. In our 10000 point game, I think I have 10 (?) of them, which equates to 1% of my force. I learned a tough lesson though, that pushed my “formation count” well over 100, so that reinforcements won’t be available for me. All things considered, I’d trade them all for a few of those M-9 bazooka teams riding Greyhounds. ;) You’re killing me with those! Since the Germans don’t have squads with small mortars in them, I like to pair Recon Squads with 50mm mortar sections. If I were to get lucky enough to get a fast (experienced) FO, a 0.2 delay on them will make it tough on infantry, MGs, or AT guns. I hate purchasing good “ride-on” infantry, and then getting a ton of 10-man squads that you automatically have to lose 2 men from just to put them on a Panther. Back to snipers though, very useful in scouting forward and rear areas. Excellent against the US for eliminating fast-moving Jeeps, and other non-armored recon assets. I think their two-shot maximum and inability to take VHs balances them well. I wouldn’t have 30 of them, just like I wouldn’t have 30 Motorcycle squads, because that’s historically skewed and serious gamesmanship. But 1%of your force? Yes. Perhaps even 2% :D
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