Battlefield 2 - sniper's guide
- Learn how to be a top sniper from one of the best -
Written by Juxtaposition

Location

Location, location, location. It's true for snipers too. Where you position yourself is just as vital as how much you conceal yourself. You want to position yourself according to two factors, how noticeable your silhouette is and where the enemy is likely to look.

The first seems easy enough but so many rookie snipers don't practice it. Some ground rules for practicing good silhouette management.

The basic idea of silhouette is you want whatever is behind you to be roughly the same color as you and the concealment you're in.

Never, never ever put yourself on a hilltop for any reason. Many people think they'll be safe if they go prone on the crest of a hill and inch up high enough so just their head and their gun poke out. Their thinking is that if I reduce the amount of my body showing to the enemy, I will be much safer. It's easy
to come to this conclusion because every other class is better off taking cover like this. However, you are a sniper, and you have that fancy ghile suit for a reason. I'm sure you have heard the expression "hiding in plain sight". The enemy is much more likely to scan horizons and the crests of hills as opposed
to the front of the hill or the ground in front of it. This, coupled by the fact that you look like grass makes these locations much better than the crest of a hill. The only exception to the no-crest rule is when whatever is behind the crest is the exact same as what's in front of it. As illustrated below.

If the hill face right below the 111 is the same as the hill face right below the 222 then the spot marked by the 8 would be a very good hiding location. It would provide good protection while not making you stick out.

In that exception when I say the same I mean the same, if the front face has dark green grass and the back face has light green grass then it's a no-go. The reason for that and for the whole practice of silhouette management is because the human eye tends to gravitate to contrast. It's no secret, but not many people think about it. You can try it too, if you happen to live in a suburban or rural area, just glance across a field and notice where your eyes tend to go. I'd bet good money that they are going to almost always follow the horizon or other landmarks, perhaps a line of trees or a stream. This is why I suggest just a grassy field as the best cover you can find.

Let's go over places that are hazardous to snipers seeking concealment:

The tops of hills, especially when the sky or the ocean is behind you.

The tops of buildings, I know that's what you see in movies but building tops are generally bad places to hide both because of the contrast rule (you'll almost always be viewed against the sky or another part of the building and most buildings tall enough to be useful tend to be tan or some other not-sniper
colored color) and because that's where people expect snipers to be. People think that snipers always prefer these high spots with big fields of fire so they can cover more but that's a fallacy. You ought to be able to cover most things adequately from ground level and you will never be able to cover a huge
area by yourself anyway and it's much easier to hit people with a rifle at ground level also.

Beaches, there is usually some grass on beaches but if the ground below the grass is the yellow it can make you stick out to someone nearby.

Right around the corners of buildings and other spots all the other classes use for cover are bad because you are wasting that wonderful ghile suit, there's no reason you need to hide where they do. Especially if you are in a squad combat situation and defending a flag. Attackers are automatically going to come in and cover corners, checking building corners, stacks of crates, wreckage, ect. Generally the enemy expects a person to be places that protects him from enemy fire, not out in the open. Thus, they look out in the open last. Find a grassy place in the open. This gives you the edge you need to dispatch a
few of them. They probably won't even notice you until all your squad members are gone and they get it in their heads there's a sniper they need to look for. Your squad mates make much more tempting targets because they are easier to notice and even if they do notice you most people consider a sniper at close range to be pretty defenseless (Then you can surprise them, more on that later.)

Lone landmarks that can be used as concealment are bad also. There is a Monty Python skit where they demonstrate good hiding skills. The gag is they show you shots of wide open fields with a single bush and ask you where someone could possibly hide in this picture. Then they blow up the bush and you hear someone scream. Well, the same idea applies to BF2, if someone is taking sniper fire and all they see in that direction is a single bush, where do you think they're going to look first?

Follow these tips and I promise you won't be let down. I don't know about you but I have literally walked over an enemy sniper with good concealment. I hear the tinny discharge of a silenced pistol and spin around to see a sniper not five feet in front of me before he finishes me off. You may think that it can't
be that hard to see a sniper sitting in front of you but you would be surprised,especially in levels like Kubra Dam with lots of different elevations to watch it's hard to keep a close eye on the ground in front of you.

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Table of contents

• Home
• Preface
• Introduction
• General Information
• General Tactics
  • How to remain undetected
    • Appearance
    • Concealment
    • Location
  • How stealth is broken
  • How to use secondary weapons
  • What snipers do aside from shooting everyone they see
• SVD Dragunov/Type-88 Rifle Tactics
• M24 Rifle Tactics
• M95 Rifle Tactics
• Tag Team Sniping
• Snipers as Squad Leader
• What's New
• Contact Information