Matrix Games Forums

Hello...

According to Hart, only about 10% of the soldiers in combat fire anything.

Unlike normal troops, who fire in the general direction of the enemy, the sniper shoots at a specific person.

He must not only be an exceptional shot, but must be able to take a bead on another human and shoot him dead and do it without excitement or passion. In other words, this odd duck must be a cold blooded killer.

In Stalingrad, the war actually stopped for a couple days while a famous German sniper and an equally famous Soveit sniper stalked each other.

In Italy, a German sniper pinned the advancing American Army for two days. The Americans called several artillery stikes and even carpet bombed the mountain side, before the sniper ran out of ammunition and left a number of American soldiers dead on the road.

Originally posted by O de B:
I would think at last one per section, maybe on per group. I know it's high but when i made my military service a few years ago, each sergeant was designating an 'Elite firer' (as we say in french, i guess this would be translated by 'sniper' in english/american) under his command. But it was still equipped with the standard FAMAS. Never seen a scoped rifle through my whole military service. No more used ?
The point is : in WW2 were there enough good scoped rifles to equip so many people ?

In World War II, the USA line company had 1 scoped rifle per company in the table of equipment. There was no billet as "sniper". If any one was a good enough shot and was a loner type, he became the sniper. They were an uncommon breed.

We may adjust the cost for these creatures in the orders of battle.

Bye...

Michael Wood

About snipers and knocking out vehicles. Anyone ever do a study on the use of big bore hunting rifles in war. I have a picture of South African and Ethiopian troops in Ethiopia in 1941. A few of the South Africans and two of the Ethiopians are carrying what look like elephant guns. Wonder what the effect of those would be on lightly armoured vehicles. I know what the effect is on people. It's not pretty

troopie

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Pamwe Chete

re: "I don't know if you've ever tried to fire a scoped weapon at a moving target (much less a fast moving one) but it's not all that easy to hit, much less hit a Jeep in such a way as to blow it up." by sjuncal

Remember JFK's asassination

re: "My problem is with snipers and crew close assulting a Tiger tank and killing it." by JJU57

I read a book by Wolfgang Paul called "Erfrorener Sieg" (Frozen Victory) about the history of the 18th Panzer Division he mimself served in during the war. He wrote about a delay battle in which infantrymen had to fight russian armor (T34). In this battle some soldiers who had no mines left climbed on a T34 whose driver had stalled the engine. When the tank rotated its turret to use the MG, they held on to the turret to get rotated with it, and covered the vision slits/periscope with mud. Afterwards they opened the engine-cover and used an axe to cut the cables to prevent them from restarting the engine. This done they poured gasoline over the tank and set fire to it.

There are ways to immobilize/destroy a tank without grenades.

Hans

[QUOTE} Hitting a fast moving target using a scoped bolt action rifle is hard I didn't say impossible. Hitting a Jeep moving at 30 miles per hour, in such a way as to actually destroy it in one shot, is a feat more fit for hollywood movies and TV cop shows than a war game.

Well, what is the crew of a recon jeep? if its only one and its driving straight forward or away from you, it seems that shooting the driver of a fast moving jeep is the easiest way to wipe it out.. probably using a rifle would be easier than using an AT weapon, at least a rocket maybe not a BOYS or something..

Originally posted by Hans:

I read a book by Wolfgang Paul called "Erfrorener Sieg" (Frozen Victory) about the history of the 18th Panzer Division he mimself served in during the war. He wrote about a delay battle in which infantrymen had to fight russian armor (T34). In this battle some soldiers who had no mines left climbed on a T34 whose driver had stalled the engine. When the tank rotated its turret to use the MG, they held on to the turret to get rotated with it, and covered the vision slits/periscope with mud. Afterwards they opened the engine-cover and used an axe to cut the cables to prevent them from restarting the engine. This done they poured gasoline over the tank and set fire to it.

There are ways to immobilize/destroy a tank without grenades.

Hans

SO one or two tanks during the entire war were taken out this way. But two to three tanks a day! No Way.

Famous Quote: "To a New Yorker like you a hero is some type of wierd sandwich, not some nut who takes on three tigers"

Contrary to popular belief, a tank is a piece of mechanized equipment and can be somewhat fragile in combat, or in movement.

I think we sometimes attribute to much invulnerability to tanks.

While a powerful mobile weapon, there were ways to immobilize and neutralize them.

Vehicles when destroyed show an explosion. I would like to see a tank or other vehicle killed without always seeing an explosion. Some did not explode.

A jeep destroyed by a sniper need not explode. Don't get me wrong, I want explosions. I'd rather have too many than too few, but kills could also be shown by smoke curling from the vehicle to indicate its destruction.

WB

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Actually, I know this would be a lot of work, but it would be nice to have the vehicle actually look destroyed. Maybe if hit by something large a jeep could become a crumpled little thing on it's side, tanks could lose pieces, etc.

Vehicles when destroyed show an explosion. I would like to see a tank or other vehicle killed without always seeing an explosion. Some did not explode.


Hey WB, any possibility of working back in the 'animated' graphics of destroyed tanks as shown in SP-I and II?

SP-II mixed things up by providing both an animated burning tank icon and a smoking tank icon. I'd love to see this somehow written back into the SP:WAW code. (along with the moving dust cloud when a tank was disabled)

I would like to see a non-exploded destroyed vehicle icon. I once had the misfortune to see a Rover that had been knocked out by bullets, not by snipers but riddled my LMG fire. The inside had burned but nothing else. It did not explode.

troopie

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Pamwe Chete