This sentence is the most abject bull in the entire rulebook:
A side benefit of the rule in its present form is that it acts as a sort of balancing mechanism; the player getting the majority of the good DR is also likely to be subject to more Sniper attacks as a consequence.
Suggesting that the sniper helps balance things is laughable, at best.
IMO, it’s one of ASL’s worst features, harming balance more than it helps.
The near total lack of control over a SAN event is one of the most realistic simulations in the game itself. The fact that it is linked by activation to lower DR's is one of the most lamentable rules in the game - as Spence says - a sniper is not there to "even the odds" on any battlefield.
Snipers are carefully trained and selected small units. They are given two primary missions- scouting for enemy strong points, and causing confusion and unreadiness in areas the enemy forces consider to be "safe areas". They do not target any one individual or type over another, and will let dozens of rather decent shots go, in order to get and achieve the well-aimed and secure to their own position, "perfect" shot, that demoralizes the enemy enough to allow them to reposition safely.
Their primary mission is their use of the4 telescopic sight, but it is to observe and report, not to take "kill" shots. Worse, ASL triggers those kill shots when the battlefield becomes the most active, a point where snipers will vacate the battlefield entirely- activity is anathema to the concept of "draw no attention to yourself" , that is ingrained in every sniper's training.
That said, the SAN is not representative of a sniper in a combat action. It's the near-total randomness of effect, especially as forces meet and engage like occurs in ASL, is far more representative of the myriad of stray things that fly around on a battlefield that can kill, main, or demoralize, damn near anyone. The "golden-BB" that hits the squad leader falling ( in case you are not aware of gravity- if you stand behind a wall and the enemy fires hundreds of rounds near vertical to a point just over your wall, you are going to learn that falling bullets are as deadly as flying bullets) - or the wildly ricocheting piece of shrapnel that severs the tank commanders forehead off , because he was not buttoned up - or the buzzing and ringing of a heavy concussive effect when that 82mm HE mortar round explodes just beside your pillbox and the roar and ringing is enough to discombobulate you for several minutes - or the odd loose nail or screw in the road that gives the mpty and retreating truck the flat tire, immobilizing it - or the zinging bullet that comes in one side of a half-track, rattles around inside a bit, until it finally stops by hitting some unlucky passenger in the leg, or the driver in the shoulder, - etc ad nauseum.
the SAN does an excellent job of portraying how totally random the line of a bullet in a hot combat situation is - and it goes off far more often as the action heats up, and more DRs are made, period.
The mistake, in my view, of the rule, was wording it a "Sniper" in the first place. It should have been called "Random Events of Battle" and then we would call it a RAN ( random activation number) - and it would be just as logical as it fits - RAN = random. Easy to remember, and far more factual. It remains, if considered a RAN not a SAN, one of the best simulative rules in the ASLRB- IMO.
YMMV
Jon H
