Snipers
First things first, sniping is no "über noob shizzle"! It takes a lot of aiming skill, patience and often teamwork for being perfect, or atleast being good. And if sniping isn't performed good, it'll result in your death.
Aiming Aiming is of course the biggest part of sniping. A Sniper needs to pick a sensefull target and then drop the shell on it. By sensefull I mean a target wich is most likely to be still, standing or crouched and not protected by cover such as sandbags or non-shootthrough walls. Because every good player will see that you missed once and use the reload time to rush and pick you apart. If you see an enemy sniper, take him out first! Your teammates will have some hard work with taking him out, you can do it pretty easy (read "Good ol' sniper duel" for further informations). It may also be worth a thought about a doubler - killing two men with one bullet via hit-through or ricochet. But don't force it right there. If you have two men in a flat line but far away and half behind coverage and one sitting in front of the coverage, it's not a good idea to go for the double.
So now you have picked a still crouched target sitting in front of a bunker. It's the point where it comes to the aiming. I like to aim for the torso, because aiming for the head is not neccessary since the Barret kills with one shot anyways. On top it's way more often that a headshot fails being hit-red'd than a shot to the torso. So you are now aiming his chest, ready to knock him out, but wait! How far is he away? If you didn't even zoomed with the scope, then it's time to pull the trigger, since the range then is very close and doesn't affect your shot very much, a shot to the torso will maybe hit his legs but he'd still be dead. But if you zoomed to see the enemy, you may have to adjust the angle a bit for not letting your trusty bullet hit the sand. It is not a big adjustment you'll have to make, just aim a little over the place you want to hit.
Okay, you adjusted the angle a little bit, your ready for nailing the noob, you think! But it's also important to have a view for obsticles in your way. If the shot hits something that stops it, you are screwed like **** when playing against skilled players.
So you did it all, picking him out, aiming his chest, adjusting the angle, checking for obsticles, it's time to kick him out of his body. Hey, not too fast. Maybe it's more sensefull to wait a little bit, but we'll talk about this later.
For this part, it's now time to slice his lungs open with a nice well-aimed bullet.
The Reloading time
Not really a reload time, I just don't know how to call it in english, but I think you'll know what I mean. It's the time after a shot has been fired and the next shot can be rifled off.
This time is the great balancer (together with the bink, see below) against snipers. During this time they cannot fight, unless they get out their secondary. It's the interval when snipers are totally open to other's fire because their trusty Barret needs a break (or so ;]).
So it is important for you too look down during the after shot time. Normally, your player will have his head down at the scope, during AST( After shot time) he'll have it up higher if you don't look to the ground. If you have many Opponetns seeing you, it may also be better to step behind coverage when reloading. I usually take the LAW with me as my secondary, since I am more the style of sniper who camps in a building. So if I shoot, miss and need to take him out fast I nail him with the LAW and maybe drop a nade or two. Same if two are running towards me and I only get one with the Barret. The advantage of the LAW is also that it can easily kill a couple in one explosion and it's good for killing people in holes or bunkers.
The kind of sniper wich is a support at the first frontlines, will do better with a USSOCOM or the Combat Knife, since the Socom is a fast firing and actually very strong weapon, good to keep them away from you, the Knife is self-explainatory ;]
Bink
Snipers are often victims of spraying in TW because the bink will destroy them. If you don't know what bink is, imagine this:
You lay at a rooftop with your Barret. Now suddenly, some bullets are passing by you, one hits into your flesh. What will happen is that your accurarcy for the next moments will be reduced dramatically (of course you cannot compare Soldat with the real-life that good....).
It'S same in the game. When taking hits, your accurarcy will become low, you notice that by the cursor becoming big,bigger,large or even ungodly huge (Spas hits). It's usually not a good idea to give shooting a try when you're binked. The shot will go anywhere but rarely where you want it to go (strange huh?). You should only shoot then if you have no choice, e.g. an opponent comes close range to you and you need to do something for not being killed. If he gets really close to you, your chance is better to hit him. But if you just took two shots and an opponent is coming over the bridge, wait until he's close or till the bink has gone.
Blind-Sniping
Blind Sniping is not automatically Blind Sniping. If you know where an opponent is because he just left your screen, it is not. If you can follow a machine gun spray and trace the sprayer down, it's not really. If you notice people being snipered down close to you, you stay out of his range but know where he is (a window i.e.), it's not.
Blind sniping is just shooting towards the enemy, being happy if you hit somthing, not caring if you don't. It can be useful at tw_paperwar for getting the lowground on the left side of the bridge free, but usually it'S not a good thing. With every shot you shoot blind, you waste one. Maybe there was an opponent hiding, waiting for you to shoot and then come out to pwn you. Maybe suddenly an opponent appears running towards you. All I can say about it is that Blind-Sniping is often considered lame. If there's nothing coming where you are, make yourself useful and move forward carefully.
Teamwork
Snipers are not only lone wolves.Teamwork is not a large part of sniping, but two snipers working together will have better results than a single one.
A good team will be able to stop hordes of opponents from approaching. After one sniper shot, the other one shoots. Then after he shot, the other one's ready to shoot again. Both will always also cover the other's reload, so it's important for you to tell other snipers in your team that you're reloading, but watch for using the team chat . Some teams also like to have a sniper being covered by a gunner with Steyr or MP5. I don't really like that, it often results in teambinking.
It's often an advantage to a team, that the sniper can have a longer view. Tell your mates what you see.
The good ol' Sniper Duel
Two snipers facing each other all alone at a far range is a tough situation. You have to read his movements, and see when he's preparing for the shot. remember, if you dont see him from prone, he doesn't see you either. It's not always the best idea to stay in move for avoiding him. Maybe lay down and wait a sec, than fastly take a roll behind coverage. With a good timing he'll hit the coverage and you can either rush him or try to hit him right away.
It is not much harder against two snipers. If you killed one, the other one will often not do anything because he doesn't want to take the risk of rushing. So he waits for you to come out of the cover. Having grenades will be a great advantage for you, to kill, bink or obstruct your opposing sniper.
The sniper is a defensive player. He is mostly there to hold positions and for stopping opponents to approach. But this does not mean proning down at one position and stay there for eternity. When your teammates get themselves some space to attack, they'll need you for holding the new positions. So don't keep on camping at one point, you need to move. When having a free lane it may also be considered to move on your own.
Be adviced that this is written for Trenchwar games only, but I am pretty sure it will also be a help to other snipers.
I'd like to hear your comments about it.
