Talking about the ability of the snipers, all soldiers are individually rated for various types of skills in Theatre of War, and gain experience and improve their skills individually as well. This opens a very strong roleplaying element in the game which will be appreciated more and more as you move through the six main campaigns and will require more experienced soldiers.

From the two snipers, one is a top-shot with an extremely high marksman skill, great scouting ability and high intelligence, all skills needed to spot and shoot at targets and learn from it. The other sniper is a newbie in all areas, and I decide to use that sniper as bait, while master sniper Serzhant Timur Larlonov sneaks in for the kill unseen.

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I order the newbie to crawl up the dirt road towards one of the burned out tanks littering the landscape, while Timur crawls to the left to get a good side shot from the tall grass field there.

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Moving out!

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Timur uses the bush as cover...

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...while his partner contnues forward, trying to get the attention of the gun crew focussed on him.

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Then Timur moves forward in quick dashes and crawls in position. Can you spot him in the following image?

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Awww... the icon gave him away, didn't it  Luckily for him, the virtual soldiers on the battlefield do not see little icons hovering about their heads...

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The trick works and the German gun crew takes the bait, rotating the gun towards the other sniper.

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That's the perfect shot for Timur, and he doesn't take long. Bam...bam... and two German crewmembers lie dead on the ground. The third guy immediately panicks, crawls away from the gun and breaks for cover.

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The only remaining task is now to capture the anti-tank gun.

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A Russian gun crew appears on the scene and storms forward. A quick pause to take out the fleeing German...

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...and then forward to capture the gun.

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This is achieved in exactly the same way as with the MG earlier, except that the anti-tank gun takes a three-man crew - with one gunner, one loader, and one spotter (usually the gun commander).

In TOW, soldiers automatically try to assume the role for which they have the best skills, but the player is able to change around the crew to his liking, as well.

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This completes task two.

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