"The Sniping Game" Topic

Has anyone heard of anyone playing a 'pure sniping' game with miniatures?

Has anyone ever produced a ruleset for a game about snipers?

Wasn't there an old bookcase game called "Sniper"?

Boardgame called unsurprisingly, "Sniper".

There was a sequel called "Hetzer Sniper" too, IIRC.

Ironically, it seems that Sniper (the SPI/TSR boardgame) was not about snipers, but was a man-to-man WWII combat boardgame. link

It was a dumb game. Only because it attempted to quantity EVERYTHING. You had to roll for walking down stairs.
I played in a D&D game like that. Once. Oddly enough, it was guys associated with the SPI crowd.

But getting back on topic. I don't see how you can make a game out of sniping. Roll a D100. Game over.
Who do you play against?
Possibly a minor rule in a much larger game, but not a stand alone game.

Which reminds me. I need to make up a rule for "amusettes" in my AWI TSATF bash up.

We did a participation game about sniping, although it was from the pov of the people being sniped (based on the casualty rescue scene in Full Metal Jacket).

As noted, Sniper was a Tactical WW2 Skirmish game. I've still got a copy. It wasn't all bad, but the asymmetrical buildings were wierd.

But getting back on topic. I don't see how you can make a game out of sniping.
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Possibly a minor rule in a much larger game, but not a stand alone game.

I agree. If anyone has produced an interesting game about snipers, I'd love to hear about it. I'm unwilling to say it's impossible, but I just can't see how it would be any fun, or even how miniatures would be relevant.

A few years ago I tried to make some rules for adding snipers to RF&F. Never tested them.

- Ix

I can see it working. But don't we have to quibble first about what is meant by "pure sniping"?

So the table is full of terrain and you have several squads of troops on one side. The other player has a sniper, hidden, no miniature necessary. I, the ref, know where the sniper is. You need to move your squads across the board, searching for the sniper. Your only clue is that the sniper just shot the general off board, so you have some idea. The sniper needs to escape. Of course, the sniper can shoot some of your guys, but that would give you more clues to his location. The sniper's support team should probably show up at some point – they're close enough to the escape edge not to be in too much danger, but they can provide suppressive fire. Lots of tension and detection rolls. Might work.

I'm ready Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper – excellent, excellent book. Lots of Eleanor Roosevelt in it.

Featherstone has a great scenario in his Peninsular war book where a single British rifleman in a refereeed game with hidden movement took on a squad of French voltiguers, individually played,who had no idea that they had only a single opponent.

Maybe a game called "Counter-Sniper" where you need to eliminate a pesky sniper with an infantry squad and a sniper team in overwatch.

Wolfhag

I didn't know Eleanor Roosevelt was a sniper at Stalingrad.

You can roll for wind direction, wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc.

What's the old board game where one player is "Agent X" trying to escape London and the rest are Scotland Yard detectives trying to trap him by deducing his route? That sort of system would work, without needing the referee. The sniper has to move from one of several known starting points to one of several escape points. The other player has to move limited forces to intercept. The sniper may choose to move in a turn, or stay in place and attempt to eliminate one of his pursuers, but this will reveal current location (or at least expose clues). A possible complication could be "kill points" for the sniper to reach victory, based on the opponent's individual soldiers or protected civilians, leaders, etc..

Would require some effective terrain set up and a hidden movement system for the sniper (could even have opposed snipers), but it's certainly doable. Think Enemy At the Gates.

Here are a couple of ideas for a scenario:
link

Wolfhag

So, there's a bid on this lot of minis that I want on EBay, so 15 minutes before it closes, I open 20 windows and enter successive bids in increments of $1 USD but don't start clicking the button into five minutes before the auction closes …

etotheipi,
Do you wear your Ghillie Suit when sniping?

Wolfhag

No. That would be silly. You need something that blends in with the specific environment for eBay sniping.

Not silly at all, now, eh?

OK, you win!

Wolfhag