3 Commando Brigade

Experienced Squad Marksmen (not snipers)

Usually I play as a marksman in squads(if its needed/wanted). I could give you a hand if you like.

I guess it depends on how one defines this role. For myself he is just a regular member section and nothing really special. He has a rifle that allows the section to engage targets on longer ranges, while still being able to fight along his mates on shorter distances. So one of the most important things is the right choice of the weapon and the equipment. When it comes to the weapon you should keep some things in mind:

Can I actually engage targets over longer distances (600-800m ingame)?
You need to be able to hit these targets and your hits need to be steady. Also is the rifle making enough damage over this distance?

Can I still fight on short distances?
You are a regular member of a section, so you need to right with them (not along them). So also need to be able to fight enemies over shorter distances. So you should make sure you have a rifle that is at least semi automatic, or also allows automatic fire of burst.


Good weapons for you are:
L129A1
HK417
M14
MK17 (SCAR-L)

And of course the vanilla marksman rifles like the MXM, the Mk14 EBR and the Rahim.


You also need a scope that allows you to engage targets over longer but also on short ranges. So you should use a sight that has optics and holo/red dot combination.
Good examples are:
ARCO
DMS
MRCO

Thosre are pretty much actual marksmen sights. However dont underestimate sights like the LDS or ACOG's. They are not bad for this and get the job done. I personally like the MRCO (but it feels a bit like cheating) and the DMS because it has a good old soviet like rangefinder in the optic.

Sure thing, ill be on later today if that works.

Well it depends on what the mission maker allows you. I dont think we really have "fix" loadout yet. But I will post something later about the difference between scope types.

Some info about scopes.

You have three different type of scopes that are interesting for you:

Mil-dot
PSO type scope
Bullet Drop Compensation

I am not a expert on this, so those might not be the official and correct names of those systems, but you will know what I mean.


Mil-Dot
This is more of a system for sniper optics and I dont recall seeing a scope that is using mil-dot optic with a combination of a red-dot or something like that. However I think it is not bad to know how these actually work.

Looks pretty simple and if you have no idea what it is about, it will probably leave you confused.


To make them work you have to do a bit of math, but it is nothing complicated and thankfully every person in ArmA 3 is 1.80m tall. So what you do is cou get on target and see how much mills the target covers. Then you do a bit of math and you get estimate the distance to the target and range your scope accordingly.


You can shorten this calculation by just doing 1800 x covered mills.


PSO type scopes
My personal favourite because you baretly need to zero your scope and finding the range to the target is a bit easier.

Here you have the scope.

In the middle you have bullet drop compensator marks. The only difference to the one you can find a ACOG or the LDS is that it doesnt show the meter marks. At the bottom of it you have a rangefinder that works similar like the mil-dots. The main difference is that it will do the math for you.


You get your target in sight and make it fit into the rangefinding scale. The number show ranges from 200 - 1000m and so you simply have to check the number and you have the range to your target. Combined with the bullet drop compensation marks you dont really have to zero your scope most of the times.


Bullet Drop Compensation
Those dont allow proper rangefinding inside the scope, so you need to rely on your skills to estimate distance or you haveto guide yourself in. Pretty much all of those scopes on the game (as far as  I know) are zero'ed in at 400m. Like in the other scopes the numbers each represent 100m. So the 6 means 600m etc. If you cant really estimate the distance to the target you can at least shoot it and adjust your fire on where the bullet actually landed.

I'd recommend you reach out to Arf next time you see him on. If he is kind enough to run through the role with you - you'll learn a great deal spotting for him regarding marksmen/sniper role :). Consistent 1 to 2km running shots is always impressive to see him land. I'm sure he'd be a wealth of info re. marksman role also.  

As usual, this is my interpretation, not an official statement: Within 3CB, the section marksman is most definitely a rifleman first. As a rule of thumb: Everybody in the section should have a weapon system that allows them to effectively clear rooms.
This means long-range "sniper" rifles and heavily magnified optics are pretty much out. This also means optics must have some CQB capability and weapons must at least be semi-auto+  capable. (i.e. no bolt-action).

For 'proper' british equipment, this pretty much means the L129A1 with an 4x + CQB scope. Alternatively, you could go for the L86A2, but the current CUP one doesn't have the same sort of range benefit over an L85 that the real life one has.
I think brits were also issued with HK417's as a stop-gap urgent operational requirement, but since the L129A1 has been introduced, there's not much point in using the HK417.

EDIT: @MeFirst: Nice explanation of the different sight types, thanks! 

No problem.

This is also pretty much my definition of a marksman.

Regular bloke with a rifle that allows him to engage targets on a longer range, while still being able to act in cqb with the rest of the section.

Well I have to disregard about "always take the carryall" suggestion. The backpack itself has more weight as other backpacks and as a marksman you dont need so much equipment anyway. When I am not actually playing AT also dont walk out of base with something heavier as a AT-4 launcher.  You cant do everything yourself, so I leave that to the people who actually play those roles in a section. That also goes with running around with a sniper rifle. I play a marksman and not a sniper, So I dont (and in my view) should not walk around with one and enggage targets over actual long ranges.

This may sound a bit negative but this statement:


seems to be a bit in conflicht with some of your suggestions here. To me section based gameplay is not about me or a small group of people doing everything. It is more about finding a role inside a section, sticking to it and also give the other people room to do that too. I dont think I can do that when I have select a role like marksman (or any other role) while having a sniper rifle in my backpack and a big AT launcher on my back.

Just me two cents.

I personally think that is a giving a bad example to the public players. When I for a example take the MG role and I see 3 more guys in my Squad with a MG, I am not motivated to actually play the class and why should I?

But we are drifting away from the actual toppic here.