Does the current sniper implementation actually improve the game?

Robin Reeve

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If you persist in thinking that the Sniper represents a man holding a rifle and nothing else, that's a failure of your imagination, not a failure in the game's rules.
I persist and I don't see a failure in the rules.
My imagination works well when a jeep is immobilized by a sniper: he shot the brains of the inherent driver out. Or punctured the radiator. Or...
 

Servius

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Does anyone have a review of the SAN of 7 for the Soviets in Scenario 1: Fighting Withdrawal?
 

bprobst

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I persist and I don't see a failure in the rules.
You were the one just lauding the storytelling power of the sniper, but you only want to use it to tell one type of story? Suit yourself ... but you are not exercising your imagination to the fullest.
 

rcarter

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Jon,

that (post #8) was one of the best explanations of SAN I have heard. It is more explicit in the night rules, but I like expanding that understanding to the non-night SAN.

I really think the randomness of the dice are what foils many of my fool-proof plans anyway. When I gak a MA trying to lay down SMOKE for my advance in a short SP scenario, I am frustrated. And that frustration is a lot more common for me than the SAN activation that loses the game honestly.

Rick
 

Robin Reeve

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You were the one just lauding the storytelling power of the sniper, but you only want to use it to tell one type of story? Suit yourself ... but you are not exercising your imagination to the fullest.
I was not only lauding the storytelling.
I was basing it on the idea of not diluting the Sniper rules into an undefined randomness.
That my imagination is limited - or that I limit it - I do agree in that case.
But, you know, it is like writing or composing: you can develop a story within some constraints (grammar, rhymes, musical key, etc.), which can make it better than having no rules at all, cofveve like. :D
 

Rock SgtDan

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The fact that the rule can be "managed" to reduce its effect proves that the rule is a failure -- it claims to be a random event. The rule could have been created with far less complexity. Nice concept, failed implementation.
 

ecz

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given its very good balance rating, I don't see an issue with it. Same with Urban Guerillas SAN 6. both are well balanced scens.
I know that for some reason scenario 1 have an excellent reputation for balance, but I still think that Russian should not win against a competent attacker and needs other than a "simple" SAN 7 to have a fair equal chance to win.
 

witchbottles

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I know that for some reason scenario 1 have an excellent reputation for balance, but I still think that Russian should not win against a competent attacker and needs other than a "simple" SAN 7 to have a fair equal chance to win.
The main issues I typically see in the attacker in ASL1 is that they do not move fast enough- it must be a push every counter to its maximum MF potential, shrug off the occasional breaks as they can and do self-rally, (the Russians having to fall back to slow the advance, cannot keep DMs on broken units as they do so), and ignore the odd lost unit to a KIA or a K/# result- and using their excellent point blank Adv fire to remove pesky defenders, not prep fires. If any one scenario in the system illustrates the old axiom " If you are PRep Firing, you are losing..." it is the Finns in this one.

For the Russians, the single largest mistake I see made is not kindling buildings before they fall back. There needs to be two lines - the main line of resistance that falls back correctly in stages, and the reserve line, where leaders take reserve MMCs and newly rallied units and put them to work with matches and torches to burn the place down. fires prevent the Finns from having TEM to occupy, and the smoke and drifting smoke slows them with extra MF costs. Using a fallback defense is the crucial element, but most players of the Russians understand that part fairly well- its the not kindling everything as you do that is the major mistake I see made.

The scen favors the Russians - very slightly. that changes back and forth over time, and the favoring is negligible.
 

GeorgeBates

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So here's a little illustration of the RAN from a tournament match I played this morning:

I'm running a German Pioneere half-squad on my opponents flank to draw some fire/commitment before the bigger units decide where they will go. Poor guys certainly did draw fire - a DR2, leaving a grease spot where my 3-3-8 once stood. But my RAN is 2, so with a subsequent dr 1 and a favorable direction and distance DR, suddenly a sharp piece of metal moving at high velocity flies through the eye of the French 9-1 leader. His sudden demise so dismayed the elite half-squad accompanying him they dropped their MMG as they fled in terror. Suddenly the French left wing is nearly completely unmoored.

Not a bad trade considering that I had no choice after I set things in motion, but I'd have felt better about it if my OB wasn't limited to 5.5 squads.

And I RAN, I RAN so far away...
 

witchbottles

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Just re-reading Mark Nixon and Bill Sisler's game of Khamsin in the 90 Annual last night. An excellent example of a RAN/SAN sending shards of flying steel debris into the face of the Marder commander's face on a stun ,"2" dr result. that panzer commander was picking pieces of shrapnel from a near miss bullet out of his sand goggles and facial tissue for the rest of the game. (the +1 counter when it flipped at the end of CCPh3a).

Ian Willey and I had a heck of a game of Sowchose 79, where his RAN/SAN went on a spree - killing every Russian SMC on the map, including the Russian SAN - but some of that was due to target selection - not too many left by the end of the game for it to choose from, so it really could fly across 2 mapboards to hit the closest eligible target in range. We had a blast, and the German sniper was ceremoniously retired at the end of that game, for being such an outstanding shot. Nothing like watching a sniper make a 47 hex range "1" kill on a SMC. (1.880 meter shot - damn good, really). :D
 

hayman

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I 'like' SAN because it one of the randomising factors within the game, akin to HoB or RS of a stack.

It appears from the majority of responders to this thread that they consider the attack as not literally a sniper attack, but a random event; and that we seem to have just accepted it as part of the game we love (like strangely linear OBA deviations).
 
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