Hello fellow Battle-Brothers,

after receiving the new Rites of Battle I discovered the highly anticipated Sniper Rifle.

Now I wonder how to build a sniper marine. On the one hand I agree that this might be rather un-typcial. But on the other hand a player of mine likes the idea of a Raved Guard Sniper.

So maybe you could help me to build some sniper? So far we chose the tactical marine as basis to get a BS bonus in Solo Mode since it seems unlikely that the sniper will enter any squad mode will sitting on his hill one kilometre away.

Further more I wondered what talents. Are there any talents in Dark Heresy which might expand the sniper ability? If yes how to integrate them for space marines.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Cheers,

TechVoid.

I would go for a stalker patter boltgun, bolter mastery, imperial fist so I can get eye of vengeance, astartes weapon specialization so you never have any huge penalties, and the usual shooting talents: mighty shot, marksman and all the called shot stuff.

With eye of vengeance and the accurate stalker gun, you can hit hard with one shot.

Don't make a sniper. Which is to say, don't pidgeonhole your character into only doing one thing, make a shooty tactical marine, but keep in mind the leadership and CQB abilities the character has.

I guarantee you will find the character deeper, more useful, and more fun to play.

As for crunch, Devastators make good snipers because of the huge number of shooty talents available.

The needle sniper weapons are great for dealing with less armored target, use of poisons allowing the Kill-team to take people alive much more easily. They also make no sound and have to report.

The Stalker is much better on a battlefield though.

Thanks for your reply.

I will consider that. But for the Imperial Fists, there is not much choice since my fello gamer has found some interest in the Raven Guard, finding this chapter as a fan work at Dark Reign.

On the other hand you are right that he is quite disappointed since the last mission did not leave much open space for snipering thus he should look for a 'second profession'. I think the stalker model of the bolter is a good idea and I thought about it but compared to the sniper rifle you are not allowed to use it as right from the start.

And further more I wondered why all these sniper rifles (even that in the DW core rules) come with needles? What about a well aimed bolt?

Cheers,

TechVoid.

If you want to use the new sniper rifle, the devestator is the perfect spec in my opinion, because it is a heavy weapon and so the immovable warrior counts.
In addition the Dev has a cheap BS, most of his talents fit and if the mission requires he can still take another heavy weapon.

Apart from that you could either give him an MK6 Armor (perhaps as a deed if you normally roll for type of armor) or he could use a scout armor to be able to sneak around. But in my opinion it's silly that the Scout armor has no helmet and other scout stuff is too expencive. So I would give a Sniper Marine a Scout armor + autosense goggles as a free exchange fpr power armor and treat the goggles as carapace helmet with 4 AP.

About the well aimed boltgun: That is called stalker boltgun and it's in the core rulebook.

Umbranus said:

Yes, I know. Sorry if my question has been misleading!

I wanted to point out that the sniper rifle does not much damage damaged compared to a bolt. Only one d10 and no penetration. I mean if the marine has reached the second reputation rate 'respected' he can afford a stalker boltgun and one step later with 'distinguished' even an Astarted Targeter.

That combination makes for me something like a sniper rifle.

So I just wonder why a real sniper rifle - a weapon that is named sniper rifle - does comparable less damage. Why needles? Why not solid projectiles with some noteworthy penetration and damage.

That is my point, hopefully a little clearer now.

Best regards,

TechVoid.

Take into account that a Stalker is still firing a bolt round. A bolt round is a rocket, as such it will leave an exhaust trail, no matter how quiet, while a needle will not.

ItsUncertainWho said:

To an extent, though the book describes the bolt as having the core replaced with a gas propellant, then goes on to say 'no test can be made to detect the shot.' I'm not sure how a rocket or compressed gas could propel a shot at a velocity fast enough to penetrate a target without being detectable, but then again I live in the 21st century, not 41 M .

Personally I allow for victims to make a roll (difficulty varies based on circumstance) to detect/determine the trajectory of the shot, but not to see or hear it. I don't allow that with a needle weapon.

As for the sniper rifles being needle weapons, it's because that's what 40k uses for non-assassin sniper weapons these days, low pen but toxic.

TechVoid said:

The Stalker pattern does what you want, giving the choice between a high-power semi-conventional weapon (Stalker), and the more specialised needle-gun. You could always use the long-las from DH if desperate. Or if you want to KILL things and don't care about being spotted after taking your shot, just shoulder-up a las cannon!

Into The Storm for Rogue Trade has an SP sniper rifle in it. The rifle still has a pen 0 though but if can take any autogun round so you can increase it with different ammo types. Just bare in mind one of the tables in RAW DW give you a req and renown cost per rarity so you can judge the cost of taking the weapons from the other two systems.

Playing a "sniper" as a whole can be difficult because distance issues always seem to arise when dealing with limited table space. Granted some of these same limitations apply to Devastators or any other shooty character. That being said, there are always ways around this and combat at abstract distances can be done.

In our current group, the GM gave our tactical marine a telescopic sight which increased range by +25% and gave his boltgun the Accurate quality. Only usable on single shot.

Top tip for your sniper:

Stalker gun + Hellfire round + aim

Get to +60 BS bonus (not hard) and pull trigger. Get 4 degrees of success and roll 5D10, choosing 4. Re-roll 9-10 results for rightous fury.

We just did a game where a Mantis warrior snipe blew the head of an Ork warboss (50 wounds) at 300m with two hits (used Strongpoint squad mode to help - the best Squad mode IMHO!).

Alex E

I am playing a Tactical Ultramarine, and make good use of the Hesh Pattern Boltgun. It has shorter range, but so far 150 metres has proven enough (I am not a 100% sniper, but on the other hand I do more things like talk to people and command the squad due to my high Fellowship). Plus it allows bursts, in case you need to spread fire or find dodgy enemies (and comes with motion predictor itself).

Yesterday we were assaulted by some Khorne Berzerkers. After their seargent dodged our Dev's missile, it was my turn to act, so I went with "right, so I aim and make a called shot to the head , with Vengeance ammo". 49 damage with Pen. 9 and nullifying his Unn. Toughness was more than he could take xD

Needle rifles have always been sniper weapons in 40k, combining a decent range with zero muzzle flash and noise. Bearing the name 'sniper rifle' doesn't make them the only sniper rifles in the game though, as we see from the Stalker.

the most evil and op sniper combo would probably be an raven guard techmarine/forgemaster with an lascannon,

as long as he grants accurate tho the lascannon

its an anti materiel sniper though

ExilOstfriese said:

Not to be a total rules lawyer, but fun fact:

The rules for the "accurate" quality state that it is specifically "basic" weapons that receive the damage bonus. Not pistol weapons, not heavy weapons.

Hence the errata as to why the RoB sniper had to be turned into a basic weapon, it literally was not getting its damage bonus.

yes for deathwatch they changed that. one of the fact that makes Exitus Rifels so extremly useless ramming through nearly any armour yes but doin on average 13 points of damage. Wich is not so much considering typical Targets for a Vindicare. else it would "only" be +10 BS, wich heavy weapons still do get, and Proven 3 an the lascan. plus range and all it is still a very precise good long range weapon. else give it volatil as a Tech, make things also funny...

I thought exitus rifle was basic though.

It was to my knowledge just that mark 9 ultima rifle or whatever from RoB that was heavy.

If not you really should house rule the exitus as a basic weapon, because it really still is.

thx for the "heavy issue" info, somehow that got lost on the way

nevertheless its still an evil combo

Hey, I just brought it up as a rules lawyer thing, I haven't really had it come up in game, not sure how I would actually handle it. It really may be more of an oversight on their part.

Remember, just cause the book says it doesn't mean you actually have to play to that. Just that you need to have a fun game, or at least a consistent game. Run it by your GM.

no dmg bonus for heavies just changes this from massive op to an simple nasty as hell, i can live with that

KommissarK said:

I'd liked it very much more if they had given it a special rule to gain the bonus damage while still being heavy.
Would have been cool for a dev with immovable warrior or how it's called.