• '18 '17 '16

    That would be problematic since each piece on the board represents a number of units. I think that an infantry would encompass many different weapons including snipers. The problem with having snipers is that they would have to kill a whole division of infantry to take off one piece from the board.

    I like the thinking though. Maybe if you played with Leaders it would take a sniper to take one of them out.


  • @GeneralHandGrenade:

    Maybe if you played with Leaders it would take a sniper to take one of them out.

    In general – no pun intended – high-level officers and political leaders don’t get too close to a fighting front, at least in modern warfare.  There are exceptions, of course (Rommel, for example, was a general who valued having a first-hand view of the fighting), but by and large the rule of thumb is: the higher the position of the leader, the further away from the front he tends to stay.  Snipers, on the other hand, are only useful at the front.  There’s no job for them in the rear, because there are no enemy targets there.  And in WWII you didn’t usually find them “ahead” of the front – meaning in enemy territory – because that would usually have implied some sort of parachute drop or infiltration mission.  Perhaps this was done in some special-forces types of operations in WWII, but my guess is that this wasn’t commonplace.  And this raises a related point: assuming that a sniper was (for example) parachuted into enemy territory with the express mission of shooting a specific general (or worse still a specific political leader), would this qualify as an assassination rather than as a military operation, and if so would it be legal under the laws of war?  I don’t know the answer to the legal point.  The US military did spend some time debating this issue when it was planning the P-38 mission that specifically targeted a plane trip that Yamamoto was going to take (and which the US knew about in advance), and they ultimately decided that he was a legitimate military target.  (And they did manage to shoot him down.)  Rommel was similarly the personal target of a British commando raid on what was supposed to be the house where he was residing in North Africa – it’s dramatized at the opening of the movie The Desert Fox – but he turned out to be elsewhere and the raid only served to enhance Rommel’s reputation as an elusive and unstoppable general.


  • @GeneralHandGrenade:

    That would be problematic since each piece on the board represents a number of units. I think that an infantry would encompass many different weapons including snipers. The problem with having snipers is that they would have to kill a whole division of infantry to take off one piece from the board.

    I like the thinking though. Maybe if you played with Leaders it would take a sniper to take one of them out.

    Yes General, this was my thought also on the size of inf divisions.  I’ll just have a a another special inf added to game or list where the sniper gets a preempted shot into the next territory or better yet gets for every round of battle a A2 D2 M1 C4 and defender gets no return fire whether the sniper is attacking  alone or with a group of ground troops. Can retreat at anytime. Only 1 on map per country at all times. Still thinking of giving the sniper a no defense shot. just give him the retreat option do to cover.
    On 39 setup I will give 1ea sniper to Fins, Ger and Russia. 40 setup 1 sniper to Ger and 1 sniper to Russia.
    I know Japan had a few but how good were they ?

    @CWO:

    @GeneralHandGrenade:

    Maybe if you played with Leaders it would take a sniper to take one of them out.

    In general – no pun intended – high-level officers and political leaders don’t get too close to a fighting front, at least in modern warfare.  There are exceptions, of course (Rommel, for example, was a general who valued having a first-hand view of the fighting), but by and large the rule of thumb is: the higher the position of the leader, the further away from the front he tends to stay.  Snipers, on the other hand, are only useful at the front.  There’s no job for them in the rear, because there are no enemy targets there.  And in WWII you didn’t usually find them “ahead” of the front – meaning in enemy territory – because that would usually have implied some sort of parachute drop or infiltration mission.  Perhaps this was done in some special-forces types of operations in WWII, but my guess is that this wasn’t commonplace.  And this raises a related point: assuming that a sniper was (for example) parachuted into enemy territory with the express mission of shooting a specific general (or worse still a specific political leader), would this qualify as an assassination rather than as a military operation, and if so would it be legal under the laws of war?  I don’t know the answer to the legal point.  The US military did spend some time debating this issue when it was planning the P-38 mission that specifically targeted a plane trip that Yamamoto was going to take (and which the US knew about in advance), and they ultimately decided that he was a legitimate military target.  (And they did manage to shoot him down.)  Rommel was similarly the personal target of a British commando raid on what was supposed to be the house where he was residing in North Africa – it’s dramatized at the opening of the movie The Desert Fox – but he turned out to be elsewhere and the raid only served to enhance Rommel’s reputation as an elusive and unstoppable general.

    This may give me another event card I may add to each countries deck. “One enemy General killed in bomb explosion.” or something to that effect.
    Just a thought.


  • Too high of a detail unit for this huge scale IMO…


  • How about you only get 1 sniper per game and have to buy ?


  • Ok here is the gist of it… you want a unit that can “target” another unit for removal? This is the domain of either armor units ( tank destroyers, SPA, or even heavy artillery)

    Infantry would only have it in terms of a commando or special forces unit that goes in and takes out an installation or special tech unit. Use my rule for SPA or allow a unit like a commando unit to choose what it hits if it rolls a one.


  • They only way you can work a sniper rule is if you draw a new unit that can ONLY hit infantry.


  • @Imperious:

    Ok here is the gist of it… you want a unit that can “target” another unit for removal? This is the domain of either armor units ( tank destroyers, SPA, or even heavy artillery)

    Infantry would only have it in terms of a commando or special forces unit that goes in and takes out an installation or special tech unit. Use my rule for SPA or allow a unit like a commando unit to choose what it hits if it rolls a one.

    I could go your way IL and give a commando or special inf troop a kill on a 1 or a head shot kill on a 1 against a motorized piece to where it cant move on next turn.

    @Caesar:

    They only way you can work a sniper rule is if you draw a new unit that can ONLY hit infantry.

    Yes may go this route to only.


  • @Caesar:

    They only way you can work a sniper rule is if you draw a new unit that can ONLY hit infantry.

    Not necessarily.  A variant of the sniping rifle which is aimed (literally) at equipment rather than at people is the “anti-materiel rifle” (AMR), a concept which dates back to WWI and which is still used today, though on a limited scale and in a specialized role.  The concept generally involves a high-precision bolt-action or semi-automatic rifle that’s equiped with a telescopic sight and is chambered to fire heavy machine gun ammunition (such as the venerable .50 cal Browning Machine Gun round).  The ammo used typically comes in several versions, including armour-piercing versions that can punch through the light armour of an APC.  A sample application would be to use such a rifle at long range (over a thousand yards) to damage an important component of a valuable ground target, such as the engine of a parked aircraft.  Needless to say, an AMR can also be used an exceptionally powerful antipersonnel sniping rifle to shoot human targets over 2,000 yards away.  The biggest drawback is that such a weapon makes a lot of noise, so the only shot that comes as a complete surprise to the enemy is the first one.


  • @Imperious:

    Ok here is the gist of it… you want a unit that can “target” another unit for removal? This is the domain of either armor units ( tank destroyers, SPA, or even heavy artillery)

    Infantry would only have it in terms of a commando or special forces unit that goes in and takes out an installation or special tech unit. Use my rule for SPA or allow a unit like a commando unit to choose what it hits if it rolls a one.

    Forgot to mention this will be in my D12 games so the hit on a 1 will work.
    Elite Guard Inf, SS Inf, Bravo Inf or Black Shirt Inf, Veteran Inf, Commando, and a Marine, A3FR A2 D4 M1 C4 A roll of a 1 can pick target first round only. Can build 1 per turn only.

    I think 2 a turn may be to strong. I can put a token under a inf piece or stack showing how many get the special shot if you can build 2 a turn but only 1 gets the special shot.

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