Deathblade1065

I personally favor the stock rifles (mostly the Park 52) because of their clip size. The only map I use the Zeller on is Liberation of Lipzieg (sp?) because it allows you to see enemy sillhouttess through the darkness. The reason I favor the Park 52 over all of the rifles is because it almost has it's own little silencer on the barrel. Of course you can still hear the gun firing, but it makes less noise than all of the others. Like someone else said, the Zeller is basically just a loud noisy and shiny gun. But that's all in my opinion. Also, if you're sniping it's equally important to find a good spot to snipe from. I've had a lot of games where if you just get into the right spot and start taking out the enemy, you can keep the whole enemy team back under cover, allowing the rest of your guys to get through. Don't forget trying to sneak through sometimes and start sniping from behind them if you can, that can really get a team distracted.

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As I walk through the Valley of Death, I shall fear no Evil.
For the valleys are gone and only Death awaits.
And I am the Evil.

Theron: It is the law, my lord. The Spartan army must not go to war.
King Leonidas: Nor shall it. I've given no such orders. I'm here, just taking a stroll, stretching my legs...
[pauses and looks back]
King Leonidas: These 300 men are my personal bodyguard.

Guardianx11x

First, I'm skeptical that some of you have actually tried these tactics. Shooting at very long ranges 400+ is nearly impossible in 2142. Shoot me a PM and I'll get out on the 3rd practice server and prove to you how hard it is even when you have the target HELPING. That being said, taking these shots is just bad judgement. You are wasting ammo and a spot on your team.

**Aiming note: These shots start just above the second hash on the vertical axis. At this part on your sights the line is very thick and it is hard to properly line the target up on the horizontal axis.**

Now the long-range shots I'll call 200-400. Personally, I rarely bother shooting at moving targets at this range. These are special circumstance shots...like if you know exactly where a guy is running and he is doing it at the some speed. Standing still for a long time or lone worfing. I dont shoot at squads at this range, waste of time/bullet. Why? because the only thing that changes is you get a kill on YOUR score, but the bullet does nothing to help your team. Easy revive. Easy escape.

**Aiming note: These shots happen right above the first hash on the vertical axis and down to the second. This fact is very valuable knowledge if you are shooting at prone snipers.**


You cant shoot someone halfway across tampa. You will never land a shot by guessing the distance. In fact, you have no way to tell if you have true LoS. Lucky, if you can actually SEE what you are shooting at, all the rifles have a range finder built in to the scope. This makes compensating for bullet drop VERY easy in 2142.

If your spotter is close enough to see the target in this game (because nobody but snipers have advanced optics) he should go ahead and kill the guy. Lord knows it would be faster and more effective.

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SKsniper128

True, thats why I almost never do it. Accuracy is an issue as well as you pointed out. Useful if you're bored, though. As for shooting halfway across tampa that is quite obviously an exaggerated amount.

The real point is for two (or more not recommended though your team should the space for better purposes) snipers coordinating fire to quickly take down targets. With two diffrent positions they can cover two diffrent angles and when and enemy walks out of his kill-zone or is too difficult a shot, then call out his position, mark the guy, and let your teammate take the shot while you concentrate on the others. By taking out priority targets (ie:Rocket whores, 'nade spammers, MG's, medics, and other snipers) first, then knocking out the normal troops, you can save your team a lot of tickets.

The Zeller just lets this be done at longer ranges (for me at least).

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300 to 1? No problem. Might need more bullets though...

MDFubar

This probably works great in a real life situation, but I can't really see it being effective in our game..let alone the TG server. If you are setting up with even one sniper and one spotter then you have taken two people out of your squad. In this game, it is really too fast-paced to take that kind of a tactic, in PR it probably works well. With UAV's, IDS's, Rockets, Clark RDX, and all of the other tools you are just asking to be killed. As Lyra put it, at long range it is a good kill point for you but does nothing for the team. A quick revive and everyone is up and moving on because you can not fire accurately enough nor fast enough to take more than one down at the range.

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- General George Patton Jr

Bagheera

The most important targets on armor maps (such as Tampa) are enemy engineers, PERIOD. Them, and guys in AA/railguns. By keeping them dead (or hiding) you allow your friendly armor to live, which equals a win for the team.

Your friendly armor drivers will never notice, and will never thank you, but THAT is where a recon sniper is supportive to his team on an armor map, and NOT a waste of a ticket.

SKsniper128

Oh yea, forgot to mention engineers.

Thanks.

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300 to 1? No problem. Might need more bullets though...

SKsniper128

Truthfully it depends on the situation though.

Engineers first on vehicle maps.

Support and snipers on infantry.

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300 to 1? No problem. Might need more bullets though...

Tarenth

In the bigger picture it would be support/medic on infantry maps. Snipers will generally get rocketed fairly quickly and the impact they have against your team is negligible for reasons stated before.

You take out a medic, however, and you also take out all their potential revives and cost the other team important tickets.

Though an arguement could be made for engineers on infantry maps as well. On infantry maps the number of engineers are generally lower than on armor maps (the reverse is true with medics) so every engineer you take out will have a larger impact for the slim resources you have on the field. If you've taken out 2 of the 5 engineers to keep your walker/APC running then that's a greater impact than taking out 2/14 engineers.

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My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Bagheera

Exactly. I always go for visual cues as well. Anyone with a box in their hand (especially on infantry maps) gets taken out IMMEDIATELY, as it's usually a medic. Anyone with a defib in their hands, consider them dead.

Tarenth

Defibs in hand is a harder cue to spot since most people whip them out right before the revive, however to expand on the box idea you need to see if they're holding the box and running or making an active effort to follow someone.

If they're holding the box and running odds are they're injured and a bullet from ANY gun center mass will send them down.
If they're holding the box and following someone then odds are the person they are following is injured and above statement would hold true for them. Once they go down the medic will probably switch to the defibs and you have a split second to try the ever touted (and rarely pulled off) double kill and you hit the medic as they revive.
Alternatively just put another bullet in the revivee since they're prone to knock their health down and you can clip them a 2nd time as they stand up.

All that is rather impossible with a Zeller and only 3 rounds of course.

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My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Razcsak

Because the other five medics in the squad won't pick them up, naturally. Vehicle maps are the only ones where combined arms are actually effective. On infantry maps, the medic reigns supreme.

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SKsniper128

Not really, just forgo the ever elusive double kill and just shoot the medic before he gets the revive. It's easy enough and easliy done, though an MG is better suited to taking both the medic and the revivee out.

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300 to 1? No problem. Might need more bullets though...

Guardianx11x

Maybe for you. I've just spent a little of time sniping is this game and I've concluded that shooting the medic before the revive is actually an extremely hard shot. But if you find that shot easy with repeatably good results. By all means continue to dazzle us.

What annoys me, and its not really SKsniper128. But the same guys who advocate using the Zeller to make body shots...are the same guys that say: "Oh a medic going for a revive, just shoot him. It's easy." Now I'm assuming they are talking about KILLING him because just injuring him results in a revive and quick move to cover while you're reloading (with the zeller).

So you're telling me that you shoot the unaware guys in the chest because head shots are too hard. But when it comes time to kill a guy who is TRYING to avoid you...that head shot practically guides itself?

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Tarenth

That would be a double kill. Congrats, you have just contradicted yourself in the same sentence. Forgo the double kill by making a double kill? Does that even make sense?

And yes, shooting a medic making a revive after you've downed someone is VERY hard in the small window you're given after the first kill. Its easy to say "Just shoot the medic" and its a lot hard to actually "Just shoot the medic". Thus, why its called the 'elusive double kill'.

Even more difficult with the Zellar really because you just don't have enough rounds to finish the job.

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My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Bagheera

Damn straight, that's why I use the stock rifles 90% of the time.

With medics, it's not necessarily what's in their hand at long range, it's their body posture. If you notice, when someone gets a defib in their hands, their posture changes, and their head goes to a certain position, at about neck level or lower. That's how you spot defibbers from a distance, it's all in the stance.

I have about 50/50 success rate in killing the reviver, if I make killing the reviver my goal. The trick is to spot the body language first (as noted above) then set your sights a bit lower than you normally would for a headshot, due to the "defibbing posture." It is possible to score a headshot on a defibber, especially if you can predict where he'll stop to do the actual defib. No double-kill necessary, if you kill the reviver before he revives.

Now, the double-kill, that's a helluva lot harder. It's really not worth it to wait for the guy to get revived, kill him AGAIN, then try to kill the defibber. Revivee kills are only done by people trying to rack up their points for a Sniper Pin, or only because that's the only shot you have. It's always better to go for the defibber first.

Shooting to maim is just plain dumb, unless it's a snap shot and they're moving damn fast, or if you only have a body part exposed that is not the head.

I love it when other players use the Zeller, especially on Gibraltar and Sidi. Those tracer rounds from the Zeller are too damn easy to spot. Using those tracer rounds to find the enemy sniper and kill him without skipping a beat is very easy. Plus, as mentioned a while back in another post, even if I'm facing a team of 2-3 snipers, they're usually packing Zellers, and after they miss and are reloading after the 3rd round, I'm still firing at them with 2 more bullets in the chamber. It's fairly easy to take out a 2 or 3 man Zeller packing sniper team, with a stock rifle and 1 clip.