RE: An idea for spotters for snipers

Hello everybody! I am new to this discussion line. My companion, Tom
Barclay, suggested that I become involved, as I am interested in
learning
and playing Star Grunt. 

>> Yeah, like the suggestions Tom. From my experience specialist
Infantry
>> snipers do work in Teams of 2 or 3 men, unlike the lone rifleman (a
>> soldier with no specialist markmanship or fieldcraft training) often
>> incorrectly labelled a 'sniper'.
>
>Precisely.
> 
>> May I suggest the modification to penalise the Sniper acting alone
>> rather than reward the Sniper that you provide with	a No 2?  ie
Sniper
>> with No2/Spotter receives the full bonus as is. Sniper without the
>> spotter receives the penalty of down shift in range die.
>
>My only defense of a positive shift is not changing the existing 
>sniper. I too like this better. I already think the sniper is quite a 
>devastating figure... so yes, this would be better. 
>
It is refreshing to see a suggestion to tone down modifications to the
game.
All too often, modifictations seem to sky rocket out of control.
Although I
am not completely versed in the game, I think that penalizing the sniper
for
lacking a spotter is a good suggestion.

>> This sounds okay; personally I'd arm the No2/Spotter with a SAW or
some
>> other weapon with a little more Firepower than the FP3 Impact d10 of
an
>> Advanced Assault Rifle with GL. Consider that today the standard
>> Infantry rifle is somaething like the M16A2 and the No2 may carry a
203
>> or M249/Minimi.
>
>Los makes a good point. Most of the time, you see sniper spotters 
>armed with either a normal rifle, a scoped rifle, or an assault 
>carbine. The ultimate thing for a sniper team is mobility, and SAWs 
>will eat up ammo fast and so the ammo and the SAW would weigh a lot - 
>and we all know that sucks if you have to carry it for the distances 
>sniper teams have to. And they often have to operate with stealth, 
>which is hard when fully kitted out.  And if the spotter has a scoped 
>AR and they are sniping at 'usual' ranges (200-600m), it is possible 
>that if the sniper gets an IA and his weapon won't function, the 
>spotter can take the shot (I know guys who can hit a man sized target 
>75%-85% of the time at 500 m using iron sights on a standard 
>non-accurized 5.56 AR). 

 I concur with both Los and Tom's logic on this. The sniper team should
be
attempting to avoid all contact outside of their respective target. The
spotter (and for that matter, the sniper) should only have to engage an
unexpected enemy at extremely close range, and only after detection.
Otherwise they should use their concealment skills to avoid such an
encounter. As already pointed out, the spotter is normally more burdened
than the sniper. Radio, optics, wire cutters even may weight him/her
down. A
carbine, such as the Canadian C-8, would be effective. I also agree with
Tom's suggestion that the spotter may need to be called upon as a backup
should the snipers weapon become damaged some how.

						Gary