Greg

He sent that reply to my query in May 2019.

I asked this question several years ago.  Here’s Lorenzo Pala’s reply:
Good afternoon. Yes you can decide to fire with the rifles instead. No, the whole squad fires at the same target. Kind regards, Lorenzo

On
Sun, 5 May at 2:16 AM
, herbstine <herbstine@earthlink.net>…[Read more]

I use one occasionally.  The biggest drawback I’ve found to the Lone Sniper is that if he gets hit by an arty strike or by small arms that gets a kill (but not exceptional), there’s only the sniper, no assistant to dump the kill on.  He could be lost on a 6 in a preliminary bombardment for example.  Just something to consider.

The LMG adds 10 pts.  Cheaper & more effective as sniper IMO.

The Lone Sniper doesn’t take the -1 for no assistant as he is not a Team element.  He also ignores the 1st pin he might have in the orders phase.

As an LMG, he takes the -1 for no assistant.  No exceptional hits (unless you roll 6 twice to damage).  Range is the same as any other LMG.  No benefits.

Better to use him as Sniper.

Thanks for the clarification.  The narrative mentions point blank, but I’ve learned to ignore the narratives as the actual rules and characteristics don’t follow them.

There’s also the Nationalist Chinese sniper (Sgt Tung I think), who is also alone sniper & kills on a 2 no matter the targets skill level!