The silent assassin. The unseen. The lone wolf. “Pro Sniper”. Ghost. Overpowered. Using the power of the k…yeah I’ll stop right there…

There’s a lot of shit out there on social media about the airsoft sniper role. You’d be forgiven for thinking that an airsoft sniper is some kind of super weapon to unleash onto the field. The ultimate force multiplier. A master of death and destruction.

Except, it isn’t. Really.

Behold, the reality of being an airsoft sniper – you are the weakest player on the field. And as soon as you can accept that, you can start functioning like a sniper. Ignore all the glossy editing and self-promotion you’ve probably seen online – it’s not a role that is going to make you the hero of every skirmish, and given the sheer numbers of wannabe “snipers” (I use the term very loosely) on the field these days, you’re unfortunately nothing special, unless you put the work in. The sniper role isn’t hard to play, as some places suggest, it’s just a thinking person’s game of cunning and tactics. It’s a bit like chess. Maybe with a bit of fly fishing.

The most important thing to remember is that you have one BB loaded. I know you can reload, some of you can probably do it really quickly, some even have HPA setups and probably want to add a comment at the bottom like “yeah but Stip I can get three shots a second out of my setup”. But forget that for a second and just consider that one shot limitation. I recall one of my earliest games playing as a sniper, and our team had been beaten back to our base and there was a very quick retreat to set up a defensive position. Someone yelled at me to “get that sniper rifle on them!” and I ran and slid myself into a prone position with my team and swung round, loading a bb at the same time and throwing the scope on a path the enemy were running down (Hollywood stuff, eh?). I took a deep breath, got my finger instinctively on the trigger and exhaled. As the enemy team suddenly came running around the corner and into my line of sight…a hail of a thousand bb’s came straight at me before I could get my hand on the bolt to load a second shot. I must have taken a few mags’ worth to the face alone. I stood up, bb’s dripping off me, out of my hood, my sleeves, my rig, and my jute ghillie. There were two thoughts at that point :

• Fuuuuuuuck, that hurt…
• I can’t do that again

Any direct contact like that is going to play to your weakness (one shot) and the enemy’s strengths (a lot of shots sprayed in your general direction). Understanding what you can and can’t do, or perhaps more accurately should and shouldn’t, is the first step to becoming a good sniper.

I saw this on another blog somewhere. Not going to name it, it’s thankfully not a sniper one. Long range support is generally ineffective due to bb travel time on the heavier weights, and with other weapons now closing that gap it isn’t the advantage people think, especially given that the enemy is moving towards you so it won’t last long anyway. Are you really going to be able to provide enough firepower to defend key positions? Yes, if you just open a bag of bb’s and throw handfuls at the enemy, but not with a bolt action or pistol. Also, most medics I’ve played with can’t tie a bandage onto your arm let alone provide actual medical support…

The job is to use your stealth. Being a single unit means you’re not attracting attention, and remember the basics of camouflage (7S’s of Camouflage). Once you’re out of sight and out of mind (as in don’t go advertising yourself and your gameplay all over the internet), then you can start picking off lone targets, denying areas by eliminating players that wander in, doing recce work for your team and supplying that intel to HQ, and just generally being a nuisance.

A scenario was posed by one of the guys in my sniper team. If you and a sniper buddy, armed with pistols and bolt actions, were checking a building out and heard some enemy movement in the other side of the building, what would you do? The answer from both Point6 and myself was to immediately exit the building. At that moment, you have no idea how many there are or how capable, but you can safely bet that they have automatic weapons and can throw a hell of a lot more firepower at you than you can in return. Our answer was to exit the building, which will make noise and alert the enemy, and get outside into the open. Find a bit of cover and get that rifle on the doorway you just came out of – it’s a narrow exit where they can only push one player at a time which suits you more than them, and the open ground and cover allows you to engage on your terms.

Just don’t try going for engagements on the enemy’s terms. Play it to your strengths and don’t get tempted by some easy trigger time that puts you at risk just because you want some white stuff slapped all over your face. Box clever, choose your targets carefully and don’t always look for the kill, embrace the dirt and you’ll do just fine.

Airsoft Sniper Tips is a good bit of further reading