"Which Modern Ruleset Best Handles Sniping?" Topic

With the challenges of sniping and counter-sniping operations continuing to be felt in recent military operations, which ruleset do you think best handles the presence of snipers on the battlefield?

Hmmm, not sure any do, at least that I've run across.

Usually, a GM can add that in, if desired.

Probably the best take on this is the old boardgame Sniper.

I imagine it has mechanics which could be used on the tabletop, with minis.

That's a good point because sniping has many factors that can make a shot go of course, especially over a large distance. I've heard that even the world turning on it's axis needs to be taken into consideration when planning a shot over a big distance.

I would be interested to see if any rulesets do go in depth in relation to sniping.

Force on Force has special rules for sniper teams. I have not played them yet but remember thinking "that sounds like a good system".

We tend to think of incredibly long shots with snipers on the wargame table. But reading Marine Sniper and seeing Enemy at the Gates, I realize that a lot of shots are much closer.
I might try Ambush Alley.

I quite like the way stargrunt 2 handles snipers.

The problem with snipers is that they're inherently frustrating. It's difficult to design rules which are interesting to play and model reality.

And of course there's the question of who qualifies as a sniper. Some geezer with his grandad's copy lee enfield will often be called a sniper by the guys on the ground.

A post ww2 British study found that many snipers killed at remarkably short range. Operating more as single riflemen.

Firstly, the I found the sniper rules for Rules of Engagement, to be ok for WW2 and worked nicely. But beyond than, there is AA which is ok, but slightly abrstract in its feel, though it plays quick.

What do you really mean by "Best Handles Sniping"?

Most of the challenge of sniping is infiltration, site prep, and exfiltration of the sniper and observer. In urban areas you may very well need to consider security of the position as well.

Picking the target and taking the shot are the easy parts.

Frankly most of that is slow, deliberate, quiet work and may not lend itself well to tabletop gaming.

As for counter sniper ops, what period? We are putting shot locator devices onto vehicles (to include air platforms in some cases) and individual troops now. 'React to a sniper" has been a battle drill as long as I can remember.

FWC and I assume thus CWC use snipers to cause suppression rather than kills. Works quite nicely at the level of the game.

> Some geezer with his grandad's copy lee enfield will often be called a sniper by the guys on the ground.

They probably would call him a sniper, which is part of the problem. A lot of the "sniper" incidents these days are simply some guy with a rifle not being as much of an idiot as the ones running down the streets brandishing a weapon, he waits till he has a good shot and then fires from cover. Against a real, trained, sniper team such "snipers" are going to die.

This one sounds like it should:

TMP link

I always liked how ASL handled snipers. You never really controlled them. You might have a varying level of sniper activity, and you could place snipers to cover certain areas of the battlefield, but you could not order them to shoot. They just attacked as semi-random events whenever and wherever they felt like it.

For Skirmish BattleGround WWII does a nice job, you can go for a generic kill on a unit with a number of bonuses, or you can forgo your bonus and go for specific targets.

For larger scale games, I like the ASL method. As I don't think at a higher level of command you can control what your sniper is doing. He is sort of a bolt from the blue. I have made an ASL style variant for IABSM, so it could be done for any system.