Re: Integrating Snipers into DirtSide II

bbrush@rev.state.ne.us wrote:

> Ok, maybe I'm dense or maybe I just don't get it, but DSII is
primarily an armor
> game, and what little I've read about tanks and snipers indicated that
snipers
> just do NOT like tanks, and generally won't stay set up in the same
area where
> there are armor units.
>

That's ridiculous. (Sort of like saying why have vehicle rules in
Stargrunt since
it's primarily an infantry game)  Dirtside has infantry and other units
too, and it
is the successful intergration of all those elements into a  combined
arms force
that makes for challenge and victory.

> The primary example I have of this is "Tank Sergeant" written by Ralph
Zumbro.
> He served in an armor unit in Vietnam, and in his experience the VC
snipers
> would leave the area almost as soon as a tank would show up.	The
reason for
> this was that if there was any sniper activity, the tanks would lay a
couple of
> 90mm rounds into the area where the sniper was set up, or if the
sniper could be
> accurately located, they would take out the tree, and the sniper all
in one
> operation.
>

That assumes, (as was usually NOT the case, particularly with good
snipers that
don't fire more than once or twice from the same location) that you even
know where
the shot is coming from. Heck. Here you are with your tank platoon in
heavy terrain.
The lead TC get's his head blown off, EVERYBODY immediately buttons up.
Now who's
going to find the sniper? (You can't hear him from inside the tank.) The
PBI of
course. But that serves to suppress and take time. There are numerous
accounts of
tank commanders and other crewmen being killed by snipers since the
beginning of
tank warfare, which generally serves to degrade the platoon's
effectiveness
especially in the short term as the platoons gets itself sorted out and
as
individual tanks are forced to button-up and thus reduce control
effectiveness and
situational awareness.) And even if you don't screw with the tanks but
with their
accompanying infantry you end up with the same situations since tanks
that go
forward into constricted terrain without infantry support are asking for
it.

And keep in mind that stargrunt features snipers with heavy
anti-material sniping
weapons. Accuracy combined with punch could serve to kill even
partuially exposes
crewmen regardless of their personaly armor and helmets or accurately
target
vulnerable portions of the tank such vision blocks, sensors, comms
arrays, etc.

It makes for an interesting "flavor" option for the game.
cheers...
Los