PDA

View Full Version : [BF2] The Lone Gunman. The Sniper.


infidel
06-14-2006, 09:13 PM
Since the invention of the firearm, skilled individuals with specialized equipment have influenced the tide of battle. At times, this effect has been so great as to turn the tide of history. From Leonardo da Vinci to present, the long range rifleman has had a telling effect on the direction, drive and scope of battle. By his discriminatory nature, he has felled the command structure of his enemies, rendered their equipment useless and driven fear into the hearts of their fighting men. The sniper is one of the most effective weapons on the field of battle. He is frugal, and precise. He is not a superman, capable of incredible feats, but he is skilled in ways that many misunderstand. -snipercountry.com


The sniper has special abilities, training and equipment lets face it. A snipers sole job is to deliver discriminatory highly accurate rifle fire against enemy targets. So whats the primary mission of a sniper in a round? Some might say to kill as many people as they can. Others would say to cause chaos, by removing squad leaders and key personal thus causing the enemy to shift fire. Thats what I think in BF2 a sniper should do. Support combat operations by delivering precise long-range fire on selected targets. By this, the sniper creates casualties among enemy troops, slows enemy movement (medic revive), frightens enemy soldiers (bunny hopping), and adds confusion to their movement.

What you could call a secondary mission for the sniper is collecting and reporting battlefield information. Like enemy/squad movements by spotting or passing on the info to squad leader/commander. or requests for artty. The importance of the sniper cannot be measured just by the number of kills he inflicts upon the enemy, he must do more than that. Realization of the sniper’s presence instills fear in enemy squad elements and influences their decisions and actions, like shifting fire to kill the sniper or the request for artty on one lone gunman. Which I can say im honored to have artty wasted on me when im out sniping all by my lonesome! A sniper enhances any squads firepower with the varied means for destruction and harassment of the enemy. Whether a sniper is in a squad or lone wolfing, he will provide extra supporting fire, period. The sniper’s role is unique and should be impraced, im not saying we need more snipers in BF2... lol far from it. Its just that ive been personally kicked out of squads because im qoute un-qoute "A useless sniper". But what other weapons can engage point targets at distances beyond the effective range of the assault rifle? None of them.

With that being said lets move on to some tactics that the normal sniper doesnt follow in BF2.

COVER AND CONCEALMENT

Almost every round Ill see a sniper laying down in the middle of the street or on a roof top in plain view. Now I understand this is a game, and every corner of every map has been explored and exploited. But the objective of a sniper is to be able to do his mission with out being seen. These are tools of the trade and should be used, always. Lets go over what C&C are.

Cover- Cover is an hard object like a wall or car. It provides the stopping power for small arms fire. Its your shield, your savior. But it gives you a smaller area of fire.
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/9262/screen0215qa.th.png (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0215qa.png)

Concealment- Tall grass like on the Wetlands map or a bush like on Karkand. It some what hides visually but it lacks the protection from gun fire like cover does. But you have a wider area of vision.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7991/screen0107mw.th.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0107mw.jpg)

In BF2 i perfer the concealment position, why you ask? I find, for me that I seem to live longer under concealment than cover and also im more effective as a sniper. Most of the time you only have a small sector of fire while under cover. Or you need to pop up to find a shot, TV Station ring a bell? What it comes down to is the added movement you need to make the shot. Now concealment doesnt limit us to bushes and tall grass, no there are more opitions. Have you ever looked around the map with a scope and you come to a dark corner of room or bunker that is completely backed out? Those are great spots if your shooting extremely long distances in the game. Which I perfer.

CLAYMORES

The only thing hated more than a sniper is his well placed claymores! Another asset of the sniper and what he brings to his squad. Where could one place a claymore? High traffic areas? Sure if you want to up your score or get a shinny metal. Locations to cover your 6, or for you non military types your butt. Like ladders, bunker doors or choke points like hallways. To many times have I stumbled upon a sniper by mistake because he was to lazy to use a claymore. Also while taking a a flag deploy claymores near known near threat spwan points to help you. Like Suburbs on Karkand is a great example. Also a side note, if your running with your squad like a good team player would there is no reason not to use your claymores more freely is there is a support element to reload you. So here are some pictures of places to deploy claymores, these are just an examples.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6581/screen0069my.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0069my.jpg)http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4272/screen0088rf.th.jpg (http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0088rf.jpg)http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7991/screen0107mw.th.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0107mw.jpg)http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5761/screen0170gm.th.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0170gm.jpg)

As you notice in one of the pictures I have turned the claymore sideways to the wall. I do this because one of the tasks of the sniper is to go un-noticed. If the claymore was placed facing outwards it going to kill the first passer by'er alerting him and or his squad that there is a sniper in the area. So i perfer this set up over the other way, it allows the normal passer byer to go one and leave me undetected while still providing me protection in the rear. All and all I think its a better set-up.

MARKSMANSHIP

Its hard to hit a moving target, it really is. To become a one shot one kill, you just need to play alot and put rounds down range. Each rifle has its own scope and drop scope, its own recoil and bullet drop. So thats alot to learn and to take in to account when you take that shot. There is a list of key targets that should always on your mind.

1) Snipers - They have the ability to reach out and touch you
2) Squad Leaders - Mobile spawn points IE: Frogbait, nothing more frustrating when you kill a few FR chaps and they come back around the corner seconds later in full force, guns blazing!
3) Medics - Pesky lil medics reviving your kills!
4) Officers - because dang it if real world snipers kill'em we should too!

Always take a shot you can hit. Avoid trying to shoot the clown jumping up and down in the street. Look for stationary tanks with gunners or people in fighting positions. People in the prone or crouching are also great targets. You want to make every bullet count. Speaking of that every sniper rifle will require two shots to the upper torso to drop an enemy soldier. Unrealistic but who said BF2 was? The fact is that every one of the rifles in this game would blow a hole the size of a soccer ball in your chest. So the next best thing to hit is the head and make the pink mist fly! Here is two pictures of proper sight alignment at some ones head.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2079/screen0193up.th.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0193up.jpg)http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5643/screen0141bn.th.jpg (http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen0141bn.jpg)

EVASIVE MOVEMENTS

1. When moving under fire zig-zag randomly. This gives the enemy less time to acquire sight alignment and sight picture.

2. When stopping, do so behind full or partial cover . It makes you harder to find and hit.

3. Move from cover to cover and don't be predictable because all the enemy has to do is aim and wait for you to run into his sights.

4. When firing from behind cover, change firing positions/places to keep the enemy from aiming where you will appear. Confuse him, remain unpredictable.

5. After diving for cover do not return fire from the same place you dived in. The enemy will be expecting that.

6. Lie down or kneel whenever possible. It reduces your silhouette and what the enemy can shoot at.

7. Don't look over objects, look around them. You may see less but it makes it harder for the enemy to see you.

8. Keep moving. It makes the enemy have to look for you and try to predict what you are up to. Besides, if you stay stationary too long he is going to send someone to flank you.

9. Reload only behind full cover.

10. Scan the area to your front as well as sides, rear and up, avoid tunnel vision. The main reason flanking is so effective is because of tunnel vision.

10. Use cover and concealment whenever possible, when running OR taking cover. The enemy can't see you coming if there is a tree between the two of you.

11. When retreating use claymores to slow the enemy advancement.

WINGCOMM
06-14-2006, 09:55 PM
You have some good points man, but the only problem we have is the guns are so incredibly accurate you don't have to wait in one spot and shoot. I've gained enough experience that I can walk around and headshot people that get in my way. The way I see it, if you want to stay alive you have to keep moving. With respawns and two shot kills, they'll be able to pinpoint your location fast and you won't live for long. So keep your but moving if you want to stay alive.:thumbsup:

WC

[W33T] JimmytehHand8
06-14-2006, 11:36 PM
Nice post definately :thumbsup

Do you mind if add some ideas to your guide? I was actually thinking about making a sniper guide, but I never got around to it.

infidel
06-15-2006, 03:34 AM
WC i completely forgot about relocating, thanks for bring that up.

Jimmy, np man just send me what you would like to add and ill edit the post and give you credit!

Bonez
06-15-2006, 05:22 AM
things that you have left out.

1, countersnipers, people that throughly enjoy tracking you down and shooting you repeatedly, ususally use "off angle" locations and shoot extended ranges, more dangerous because they don't care about anything else other then taking out an opposing sniper.

2, noobs, another threat to your personaly saftey, they will rarely shoot from cover, or go prone, avoid being near at all costs.

3, "everyone else", also a threat, and can go along with the countersniper, being around other people may make you think your safe, but you are allways the #1 target of some people. ALSO, you are the weakest link to the people you gather around, an industrious countersniper will use your corpse like bait, kill you, wait for medic to revive, kill you agian, wash rinse repeat. this does a couple things, 1 it ties up the medic from reviving skirmishers 2 it effectively removes your ability to defend yourself and lastly 3 if said countersniper gets bored, shoot you, shoot the first medic, shoot the second medic, shoot the third medic, shoot the 5th medic, reload. you have basically given your opponent 5 easy kills, taking 5 tickets and dropping the effectiveness of your team.

4, extended ranges, your only and most effective form of defense, sure the "easy" shots are reccomended, BUT it also makes you and easy target. shooting 100m and under means you are 1, close enough to be seen 2, close enough to be heard 3, close enough to be shot 4, basically just too damn close. extended range shooting is an aquired skill and each sniper that does not deathmatch rounds can usually hit ranges roughly 300 to 500 depending on map, and usually kill in 1 shot(and i'm not talking just with the unlocks, i'm talking standard rifles too[and yes it can and has been done with the chinese rifle])

5, UAV, PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE THE ENEMY UAV IS. more often then not commanders will not waste arty to kill one sniper out in the field, BUT they will put a UAV over you to point you out to their teams snipers/regulars. you have failed in 2 things at that time, 1 concealment and 2 cover.

other then that, keep trying.

Klickinater
09-08-2006, 11:52 PM
another thing that you might want to emphasize is PREDICTING WHERE THEY ARE GOING TO GO

if you you see the enemy drive up to a base in a jeep then look at the turret and get ready to pull a head shot, so many times have i been taking a base someone runs for a jeep gets in and i head shot them

another example would be, If you see someone shoot a lot from around a corner and then they stop shooting, it doesnt have to be because they are going around they might be reloading try spotting the corner to see if you can spot him.

TIP Windows may be bullet proof but when theres no windows, nothing is protecting them so aim for the sides of the driver's seat in jeeps.

[W33T] JimmytehHand8
09-09-2006, 01:58 AM
And remember, always just up and to the left of the head when going for a headshot with anything but the 50 Cal.

Klickinater
09-09-2006, 08:35 PM
well, i wouldnt aim above the head, just around the top or center, if you want to be safe, just stay away from the neck

[W33T] JimmytehHand8
09-10-2006, 11:35 PM
Well by up and left I mean the upper left part of the head, if you have it in the corner you'll usually always hit.

lamah
02-01-2007, 01:48 PM
in IO, squads are more powerful because of the versatility of the medic class

one thing that i do sometimes is that i place 2 claymores beside each other, but far apart so that one doesn't set off the other one when the dead bodies fall. place them facing away from each other at 90 degrees, usually some concealed location

first one will kill most of the squad, the 2nd will kill the revivers

i've taken out many squads with this technique