A14.4 Sniper Check

[ross]

Can a Sniper Check be delayed until later in a player turn? To be specific, in the awesome J33 scenario, my German opponent prep fired on a Russian squad; the squad rolled the GSAN and the sniper activated with a dr = 2. The dir/dist DR resulted in the German sniper targeting a kill stack comprised of my 10-2, HMG/458, MMG/458, and MMG/458. Random Selection fortunately missed the 10-2 leader and instead pinned the HMG squad.

Now the Sniper Check question. I know the rest of that unpinned stack can immediately conduct a Sniper Check, but I chose to leave these units non-TI'd so that they could remain eligible for any possible D1F/DFPh actions that might follow later in this German player turn. In the subsequent MPh, however, my German opponent moved all of his units to locations outside the LOS of this killstack so that now my powerful killstack has nothing to fire at. Can they now conduct the Sniper Check (during DFPh)?

Thanks ahead of time

 

[alanp]

hmm, A14.4 should sure start out, "Immediately after resolving. . . " but it doesn't.

I assume the intent of the rule is to have you decide to take the Sniper Check immediately after resolving it. Has this come up with anybody else?

 

[Larry]

The question is whether "after" means "immediately after" or "any time after." I don't think that any part of the GAME allows that kind of retrospective, "ahh, by the way I will take that shot." That aspect of SL died in the genesis to ASL.

If it were "any time after," could it be in the prep fire phase of the next player turn? After all, that is "after." How about a sniper that activates during the MPh, and you move into the hex to conduct the sniper check; that is after too.

"Any time after" is too cumbersome. It should be read as "immediately after." Just my opinion.

:blab: :blab: :blab:

 

[LDM]

This has come up for me and I take the sniper check NOW. Finish the 'shot' that called the sniper, do the sniper, do the check.

 

[bprobst]

"After" has to be interpreted in the same context in A14.4 as it is used in other rules, e.g., A10.2 says LLMC/LLTC take place "after" the attack is resolved -- you wouldn't wait half a turn to see what the results of those are, why would you do it here?

In fact, in general I would say that "after" should always be read as "immediately after" in all rules sections, unless there's a specific exception granted permitting a delayed response.

 

[J P]

My Rule Book says "following an effective sniper attack" so, in my opinion that means immediately. Remember, the rules will never be perfect, and they should always be interpreted in the spirit in which they were written. A MG unit engaging a platoon of enemy nearby would focus on the platoon before they went hunting for a single sniper.

 

[ross]

Ok, thanks for the consensus that "after" means "immediately after." That's how we played it, which means that my kill stack ended up doing nothing the entire player turn.