I witnessed the following in a game:

A rebel player had a Strike Team so that the sniper was in the open and the commando min (second min in the unit) was behind sight blocking terrain (a building). The imperial player fired with his AT-ST Mortar Launcher and did enough damage (despite the heavy cover for half his unit being in cover) to kill the sniper. Here is where things get hinky. The Rebel player then replaced the commando min (second min in the unit) with the sniper min as the commando had now become the leader.

Question: Can you replace a fallen heavy min like that?

The RRG pg 25 - Defeated: In the rare situation in which a unit leader is defeated and there are still minis in that unit, the player who controls that unit must immediately choose another mini in that unit to become the unit leader—the player replaces the chosen mini with the unit leader mini.

The Rebel Commando Strike Team unit card reads: Heavy Weapon Team (You must equip a heavy weapon upgrade card. The mini added by that card is your unit leader.)

To me, I thought the rebel player was doing things incorrectly, but according to the rules, it looks like he did everything right. This seems like a really big loophole that can get you two lives on your sniper. If the other min is behind sight blocking terrain, he can’t be killed and just becomes the sniper when the sniper is killed. This seems broken to me.

Anyone run into this yet?

Yep, that's how it works.

It's not a loophole - per the text you quoted, the sniper mini is the unit leader. If they didn't intend for this possibility, they wouldn't have included that sentence.

Yes, if it wasn't that way, you'll be spending 26/28 points in a mini that will always be the first one to die when that unit is attacked.

In the strike team, the spotter is also trained to operate the heavy weapon, and so can pick it up from his fallen (just a flesh wound incapacitated not dead this is a family game thank you very much) comrade and continue the fight!

On September 27, 2018 at 11:30 AM, CaptainRocket said:

In the strike team, the spotter is also trained to operate the heavy weapon, and so can pick it up from his fallen (just a flesh wound incapacitated not dead this is a family game thank you very much) comrade and continue the fight!

Nah. You mean pick it from from the cold dead hands of his horribly mangled and blaster burned comrade, who got murderized by the enemy..... ?

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 1:59 PM, Darth Lupine said:

Nah. You mean pick it from from the cold dead hands of his horribly mangled and blaster burned comrade, who got murderized by the enemy..... ?

Nope. Picked it up from the pile of ash and sushi that was previously a Mon Calmari.

39 minutes ago, Indy_com said:

Nope. Picked it up from the pile of ash and sushi that was previously a Mon Calmari.

And then slowly felt his head start to bulge as his hands and arms began to itch.

3 hours ago, Steck638 said:

And then slowly felt his head start to bulge as his hands and arms began to itch.

False. The other guy is a Mon Calmari wearing a paper mask.

On ‎10‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 10:00 AM, Indy_com said:

False. The other guy is a Mon Calmari wearing a paper mask.

Everyone's wrong actually. A spotter is not there for purely offensive purposes. They also serve to watch out for incoming fire and heroically push the sniper out of the way for defensive purposes. Many a Mon Cal sniper has had to pour out a 40 for their fallen comrades once they get back to base.