Sniper! (board game)
Sniper!, subtitled "House-to-House Fighting in World War II", is a two-player board wargame about man-to-man combat in urban environments during WWII, originally released in 1973 by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI).
was released by SPI in 1973 as a two-person combat boardgame designed by James Dunnigan, with additional material provided by developers Hank Zucker, John Young, Ed Curran, Bob Felice, Bill Sullivan, Angel Gomez, and Hal Vaughn, cover art by Rodger B. MacGowan, and graphic design and cartography by Redmond A.
The game was significant for being the first commercial tactical board wargaming treatment of man-to-man combat in the Second World War.
[2] The game came in three formats:[2] The 1st edition came with: Each counter, usually representing an individual soldier, has 10 Movement Points (MP) per turn.
and sister game Patrol, was designed by Steve Winter, with artwork and cartography by Linda Bakk, Doug Chaffee, Tom Darden, Kim Lindau, Rodger B. MacGowan, and Colleen O'Malley.
"[5] In 1987, TSR released the first "Sniper Companion Game" titled Hetzer (named for the German Jagdpanzer 38 light tank destroyer).
As indicated by its subtitle, "Game of Man-to-Man Combat in Europe, 1940-45", Hetzer returned to the Second World War setting of SPI's original Sniper!.
called Bug Hunter, designed by Steve Winter, with artwork and cartography by Kim Janke, Dennis Kauth, and David C. Sutherland III, and cover art by Keith Parkinson.
rules set, the game focuses on "the popular science fiction theme of embattled humans threatened by vicious alien creatures in space and on the ground.
"[10] In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer commented that "with a counter for each individual ... you can't get more tactical than that!"
"[13] In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented on the use of this game in the classroom, saying, "This is a very accurate simulation of the danger and activity in city-fighting situations.
He concluded by giving the game a perfect score of 5 out of 5, saying, "Bug Hunter is not without a few rough spots but [...] it is fast, fun and contains enough variables to keep players interested for some time.".
[7] In the May–June 1991 edition of Fire & Movement (Issue 73), Terry Rooker reviewed TSR's Special Forces, and was not overly impressed, saying, "it fails to capture some of the most important aspects of [modern] LIC (Light Infantry combat)."
"[15] In the December 1998 edition of The Wargamer, James C. Gordon reviewed Hetzer, and found that it "fills a [niche] in the hobby with a challenging view of ground level combat situations in World War II.
[...] Managing forces of sometimes questionable reliability, weapons systems with various strengths and weaknesses, and reacting to the opposition requires the skills of a chess player."
