Third in my 12-man far area defence series, it's time for some tasty sniping!

(6:17) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. Third in a five-movie sequence which began with BCM129, this shows three plays of a rockslide megabattle save featuring a squad of 11 Marines waiting for me to join them in a far area defence against 33 covies. This time I have the luxury of a sniper rifle, backed by a pistol. That makes the fighting a bit shorter than normal, so I've made this movie a triple play. Coming next, the final two movies, focusing separately on the AR and pistol.

Released February 26th 2015, gameplay recorded February 19th-25th 2015.

00:02 (Play 1) Taking a cross-field route to the squad and swerving around the tree, a blue Elite gets nicely splattered on the way, and soon I'm ready with the sniper rifle, which is fully loaded. 28 rounds to dish out!

00:28 Although I can see an Elite approaching, I go for the Jackals first, while they're still easy targets. They can quickly damage the Marines from up there. I get a galloping red Elite with one shot, then hurt the blue badly and let the Marines finish him off while I take care of a closer blue on the right.

00:43 There's a red in the distance behind him so that's my next target. I get a Grunt too, but then I switch to the sound of a Jackal attacking the Marines. There's rapid fire and I can hear a Marine in bad trouble, so I take a quick shot but miss. I don't want to wait for a reload so I throw a frag instead, which might at least make him dive, even if it doesn't kill him. In fact he doesn't seem to notice it, but he definitely notices the blast. It propels him forward and I get him with a sniper round. That was quite amusing; one of the reasons I selected this play for the movie. Then I get his buddy too.

00:58 The Marines have let loose three frags at once, and a blast sends a Grunt high. As my reload completes I take a quick shot and score a mid-air hit. Couldn't resist it. After getting a Jackal at the semicircle of rocks, I pick off a newly arriving blue Elite before he can do any damage. Stacker sends a frag out to the semicircle but I somewhat steal his targets, killing two Grunts and a Jackal.

01:20 As I pan left with full zoom, I initially fail to notice an arriving red Elite. I'm about to go for a Jackal instead, but then I hear the rapid plasma fire and I pan back to find the source. I take a quick shot to try and stem the flow of plasma but he keeps attacking. After reloading I throw a frag, but it only gets a Jackal. I finish the red with pistol fire instead.

01:35 For fun I throw a frag at a distant Jackal, but he's moving away before it even arrives. When I pan back to the left, a Grunt seems to've just been taken out by a plasma ball to the back. Pity I didn't see that happen. I snipe a Grunt and Jackal, then pan back and get that earlier Jackal when he rolls. A few pistol and sniper rounds take care of the remaining Grunts.

02:24 (Play 2) The first part of this driving route was something new I came up with to make for better variation within the movie, after originally having another play in mind which used a route too similar to what you saw in the first play. I initially drive straight ahead but then swerve right, then eventually sharp left into the rockslide to release the dropship 3 troops. Good fun. I opt for the uphill fork after that, and when I dismount, a pursuing plasma ball harmlessly strikes the hog.

02:45 After getting a distant Jackal and blue Elite up on the left, I hit an attacking red and let the Marines finish him off. Over on the right there's another red approaching, but I get him before he can open fire, plus a Jackal.

03:02 Here come a couple of Elites through the central gap. I hit the red but my clip is empty, so I throw a quick frag. That only ends up getting a Grunt, but meanwhile I finish the red with pistol fire. Switching back to the rifle, I bring down the running blue with one shot. Another blue comes in from the right and takes two.

03:16 I use sniping and frags on minor enemies for a while but it's not enough to save Johnson. Without any armour he's very fragile and goes down under plasma fire. Just after that a blue Elite arrives but I get him with a nice headshot at 2x zoom.

03:45 There are just a few minor enemies to mop up now. A blue-shielded Jackal approaches from the left but my plasma grenade makes him dive and then I snipe him. Right after that I get a Grunt and shieldless Jackal with one shot (the Jackal lost his shield from my plasma grenade). However, my favourite bit is just afterwards, when a Grunt tries to run away and is cut down by Marine fire, and Stacker says "Yeah baby how's that feel?". A nice comic moment, which is part of why I selected this play.

04:17 (Play 3) For this final drive I take the short route through the nearest gap, but pause to splatter a Grunt with a side-swipe, hee hee.

04:39 After sniping two Jackals approaching on the high left, and a blue Elite in the centre who gets quickly finished by Marine fire, I spot some Elites coming from the distant right. Freshly reloaded, I bring down two reds with a shot apiece, though I annoyingly waste a further round after that, because I wasn't expecting a one-shot kill on that second guy.

04:51 My next shot is wasted too, aimed at a blue Elite but hitting the hog. I switch to pistol and grenades for a while. The Elite goes down, and then when I see his blue buddy behind the hog (and hurting), I throw a frag to blast the hog onto him. He would've been dead in seconds anyway, but killing him this way was more fun.

05:07 A couple of Jackals turn tail and run for it, and I get one in the back with pistol fire. Seeing a large cluster of minor covies at the distant right, I throw a frag which takes out three Grunts and a Jackal, impressing Stacker. Over on the left a red Elite arrives and I bring him down with the rifle at 2x zoom, though it takes me three shots.

05:31 Sensing the opportunity of a fairly safe advance, I initiate a bit of a pistol rampage, assisted by a few grenades. Good Grunt line at about 5:48: "I just wet myself". Just after that line I turn right and head for a Jackal who's started firing at me, but then I see an Elite coming out of the rocky semicircle, which I wasn't expecting. I hadn't been keeping count, and had thought they were all dead. He's only a blue though so I'm not too worried. I get him with a nice tag and he goes flying, leaving just two panicky Grunts to finish off.

Closing remarks Although this movie was mainly about the sniper rifle, I decided to end with a pistol rampage for variety and excitement. There were a few nice headshots in there, and the tagged blue Elite was fun too. But you'll see a lot more pistol work in the dedicated movie coming up in BCM133. Don't miss it!

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