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Episode 8 – July 14, 2025.
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Chapter A, Footnote 20: … A side benefit of the rule in its present form is that it acts as a sort of balancing mechanism; the player getting the majority of the good DR is also likely to be subject to more Sniper attacks as a consequence. …
Even the rules makes got this wrong. It’s not what you roll, it’s when you roll it. Rolling a 2 on a 12 TH isn’t a “good DR”. It’s just an infrequently rolled one. It’s not nearly the same as rolling a 1,1 with your Italian First Line Squad on a 3MC. One is the expected out come, one is lucky. Only one could be considered a “good DR” as any other throw of the dice would have yielded a hit. At its core, ASL gets Snipers wrong in this sense.
There is some talent to Sniper placement to yield results but once the thing starts moving around, all of that “skill” is mitigated by the flow of the game. You can bring the placement back into the game by relocating but Snipers are largely down to luck (or lack of it).
The real “issue” is the disproportionate impact the mechanic can have on the game. As Neal said, bad things happen, but catastrophic outcomes should be due to player agency and not some random mechanic because you happened to roll a 2/3 on a PTC. I played a game at Winter Offensive this year. I rolled my opponents SAN Activation number (4) 13 times in the game. He roll eleven 1’s. This eliminated my best leader on the first one, breaking my kill-stack in the center. He eliminated another leader, recalled an AFV, and broke 10 squads. There is no way I could have done anything different absent not rolling the dice. He beat my by one VP despite all the Snipers.
His victory was very much “unearned” IMO. Not that he isn’t a good player (he is), but I don’t see how any reasonable person could suggest that victory was due to player agency. And that’s ultimately the problems with SAN. I find they taint my victories and add sting to my losses when they are game breaking. I hate them and I would never play with them again if I could change one rule.
“It’s not what you roll, it’s when you roll it.”
Exactly right. I’ve never considered the SAN rules any kind of balancing mechanism. Both sides can get screwed at any time.
I like two of the idea discussed in the show: 1) reducing the SAN every time there’s a sniper attack resolution (and just getting rid of SAN checks). 2) forcing sniper relocation if there are no enemy units within X hexes, instead of springing 20 hexes across the board, even from off board, to automatically target something.
I think some scenarios are probably just too small for Snipers.
Small scenarios + high SAN = disaster waiting to happen.