Marksman

Course Details

Instructor(s)

Current qualified instructors:

  • Any AI wearing the Badge
Booking a Course: To book a course, please speak with one of the listed instructors and request a suitable date. Information will also be posted in the Squad Training Academy subforums

Number of candidates

Three candidates maximum per one instructor.

Objectives of the course

The Marksman Course aims to provide participants with the skills required to be an effective and contributing factor within a squad while playing with the marksman kit. This will be a comprehensive course covering all aspects of the kit, including movement, communication and engaging the enemy.

Prerequisites

You can only participate in this course once you've read Squad Core Game Mechanics and passed both Basic Infantry and Advanced Infantry courses.

About the role

The Marksman Rifle (or Designated Marksman Rifle) is a hybrid of the assault rifle and the sniper rifle that fills in the gap between the infantry and the sniper roles. It has less accuracy, zoom and stopping power than the traditional sniper rifle, however it also has a larger clip and has semi-automatic fire. Because of this, the role of this kit is different to both the infantry and the sniper elements.

The job of the Marksman is to engage long range targets that the squad comes across. Because he is able to place rapid and accurate fire, he is essential if the squad is to avoid being pinned down by targets engaging at range.

The Marksman loadout is as follows:

  • Primary weapon
  • Sidearm
  • 1 Fragmentation Grenade
  • 2 Smoke grenades
  • 2 Field Dressings
  • Shovel

Position In The Squad

The Marksman should travel behind the rest of the squad and can also fulfil the role of covering the back of the squad if nobody else has been assigned to that role. As the squad becomes aware of targets requiring long range fire they should direct him where the target is so that he can set up and neutralize the target.

When a squad is engaging a flag, the marksman should hang back out of the cap zone and cover any enemy spawns or approaches that they may use to reinforce the flag. If you do not know where they might be spawning from or where they might be approaching from next, position yourself in the safest spot that offers protection and options to escape, while being able to survey the largest area possible.

Map Usage And Giving Intel To Friendlies

Apart from your main job of supporting squad mates with accurate fire over long distance, you will find yourself in a lot of situations where you will be giving a lot of information not only to your squad leader but to other friendlies within the squad. It is important to master using the map not just the bearing from yourself to the target but also from other landmarks and friendlies to the enemies.

Map Usage

With the Marksman kit, the map is an important tool. You need to have more knowledge than the rest of the squad on how to use this effectively and you will be using this differently than the squad leader so you will need to learn a new set of skills to use this correctly for your kit.

You will be using the map both for shooting accurately to aim for the headshots and to give information to the rest of the squad.

Distance To Target

To calculate vertical or horizontal distance first check the measurements on the lower right corner of the map and this will give you two different lengths. It is best to use the length that covers a whole grid as that will give you an easier time. On the above example a grid is 400M in length. If we want to find out the distance from ourselves to the APC red mark on the map we would find that it is a bit over 400M away from us.

To calculate diagonal distances it is a bit harder but if you want to hit targets accuracy you need to compensate for the extra distance when the enemy is not on a straight line on the map otherwise your bullets will fall short. You can use this link to give you detailed mathematical information on how diagonals are calculated http://ncalculators.com/area-volume/rectangle-calculator.htm. In our case we want to find out the distance between ourselves and the enemy infantry in C6. To do this calculate the vertical and horizontal distance to it and then use the formula to give you the range. This is approximately 400M by 400M but has just a bit more in each case. When using the formula or inputting the length or breadth in that link it gives a total of 565 metres, so seeing as how I approximated to 400 I would assume that the target is within the 580 - 600 metres range. On this type of calculation it is important not to waste too much time and get rough estimates only if time is of the essence.

Bearings From Other Friendlies Or Landmarks

Sometimes you will be in situations where you can see an enemy, but the other person in the squad that is ahead of you by 200 metres cannot see the target because they are on different sides of the building. You need to give crucial information to the friendly fast so that he will have an edge on the enemy. The easiest thing that you can work by is to provide a bearing and a landmark followed by where the enemy is (on the left side of the wall and he is aiming at your corner). Instead of bearing you can use generic left/right/behind communication in order to offer fast information and then guide him from there.

You can also calculate distances from friendlies to enemies using the same concepts as the above chapter with the vertical, horizontal or diagonal distance if they are a good distance away.

Pre-Calculated Distances

As a Marksman when you are in a fixed position and are just scanning for enemies, it is always important to take time to pre-calculate distances to specific landmarks. This gives you an edge to fight as when you see a target, you will already know at what range that target is. This means that you can instantly give information to how far the enemy is, what grid they are in and you can start shooting accurately and immediately if it is needed.

Engaging The Enemy

There are various important elements to consider and to use when engaging the enemy that are different to normal infantry.

Discipline

It is important to practice discipline when shooting. Firstly, ammo is limited and you cannot risk wasting a whole clip just to hit one person. It is NOT your job to suppress, your job is to score hits on target.

Second, and perhaps most important, is that the more you shoot from one position, the better it is for the enemy to figure out where you are and the higher the chance you will get counter sniped.

There will be cases where you will just track enemy movements and not shoot because it will be more beneficial that way to let them pass and either hit a higher priority target or else flank from another direction before engaging.

Movement and Position

When moving always try to avoid enemy sight as if you are seen moving, they can scan the general area of where you were last seen and you will end up being an easier target to find.

Always try to find an elevated position, however always consider safety first. It is useless to go on the highest mountain and then stick out against the skyline and end up getting killed in 2 seconds. Try and look for bushes, trees or other obstructions that can create camouflage or cover against enemy fire. Also consider using the middle or lower parts of a hill depending on your location in order to be harder to spot.

Fire And Manoeuvre

After finding a good location to shoot from, you start shooting and getting a few kills when you suddenly get a bullet in the head. The mistake is that you did too much sound from one location and have probably drawn an enemy marksman or grenadier on your position and you got killed instantly without even seeing a target. When playing a marksman it is important to always move if you have engaged an enemy. Generally speaking, if you have engaged a squad that is already engaged with somebody else, you can probably risk staying in the same position for a while longer to get more kills, but if you are the first person that starts engaging the enemy they will probably return fire in a few seconds so it is important to know when to shoot first and when to wait for someone else to draw fire from the enemy before engaging so that they will not be focused on you but on someone else.

Target Prioritization

Patience is important for a Marksman. If you just shoot the first person that you see, you will get kills, but you will not be getting the most out of what the kit can offer.

Learning to identify kits is important for the Marksman as you will need to make choices on who to shoot first and who you shoot next and who you let live instead of him can spell life or death for the rest of your squad or other friendly elements.

In general always try and eliminate enemies in the following order.

  • Squad Leader - Will drop FOBs and rally points. Kill him and you handicap the whole squad's offensive/defensive power.
  • Grenadier - Can easily wipe out a squad with his 6 grenades. He will generally try bombarding a location from the same spot so try and react fast to where you heard the sound and you will see him exposing himself to shoot.
  • Anti Tank - Can cause huge damage with HEAT and Frag rockets. Easy to gauge the general direction and location due to the sound it makes when shooting.
  • Marksman - Can pin down a whole squad. Listen to the distinctive sound of the Marksman rifle and follow it to lead you to your target.
  • Rifleman (Optics) - Is deadly at medium ranges. He will shoot faster than you so its important to try and aim for a headshot if you are engaging each other at short range. At long range you will have a bit of an advantage on him as your scope has more zoom.
  • Medic - Will revive people that are down. You can draw out medics by killing other people and just waiting for the medic to smoke and get on the body, then track the body and shoot next to it from where the medic came from. You can also see the red cross on the gear that identifies the person as a medic.
  • Automatic Rifleman - Suppression on your squad (this kit have tracer rounds so its an easy kill). Try and kill before he sees you or he will suppress you and make you unable to return fire without risking getting hit by automatic fire.
  • Rifleman (Non-Optic) - Good at close combat with their non-optics and 2 frag grenades. Try and stay at range and they will be easy kills.

It is important to note that every engagement is different and you may need to prioritize other targets than the above, example if you see a grenadier and a medic you might want to kill the medic first because the majority of their squad is down and you want to eliminate the only source they have of getting them up so they will in turn have to waste extra tickets spawning.

Weapons Familiarization

The following are sections on the different Marksman rifles available in the game and how to aim with them. Unfortunately, the rangefinders in the scopes do not currently work as intended and therefore you will have to gauge distances with your map only at the moment. When the range finders become functional it will be much faster to calculate the range between yourself and your target.

Dragunov Sniper Rifle (SVD)

The SVD has a 10 round clip and is in use by Russians, Insurgents and Militia forces.

100M - On tip of first arrow

200M - Between the first arrow

300M - A pixel or two below first arrow

400M - Tip of second arrow

500M - Between second arrow

600M - Between second arrow

700M - Lower part of second arrow

800M - A pixel or two below second arrow

900M - On tip of third arrow, 1 pixel to the left (as it doesn't aim straight at this range)

1000M - Middle of third arrow, 1 pixel left (as it doesn't aim straight at this range)

M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (M110 SASS)

The M110 SAAS has a 20 round clip and is used by the USA forces.

100M - On tip of red arrow

200M - On lower end of red arrow

300M - Red vertical line

400M - The "4" marker

500M - A bit below the "4" marker

600M - A bit below the "4" marker

700M - The "5" marker

800M - Between the "5" and "6" markers

900M - The "6" marker

1000M - Lower part of the "6" marker