Sniper Elite: The Board Game Review – good rules make for late-game drama

I like my Sniper Elite the way I like my grilled brisket – low and slow. Of course, my biggest question when taking this franchise into tabletop form was how long a session would last. Could I complete a game in less time than it takes me to fight my way through one of the far-death video game’s lavish banquets?

Oh well. From start to finish, which involves learning the board and playing a round on either of the two base maps Sniper Elite: The Board Game, I completed a solo mission in about 90 minutes. With up to three additional players (controlling the sniper and up to three patrols with three guards each) sniper elite, designed by Roger Tankersley and David Thompson for Rebellion Unplugged, can still last an hour or more, but the game has a built-in time limit to prevent missions from continuing indefinitely. If the sniper fails to complete an objective within nine rounds of turn-based activity, he loses.

So the goal really isn’t to shoot and kill any of the officers or guards. It’s simply a matter of getting two points on the board before time runs out. In other words, this is a game of hidden moves, and thanks to some thoughtful rules, the sniper player rarely ends a round completely undetected or unhindered. The net result is that most late-game moves move in Sniper Elite: The Board Game

Photo: Rebellion Unplugged

The Sniper tracks their movements with a smaller dry-erase card and smudge pen. The defenders (btw, there are no Nazi pictures in there Sniper Elite: The Board Game) Use Pursuit Dice to mark areas where The Sniper may be. When the sniper moves two or three spaces – which he must do later in the game – he must notify a defender player that his nearby guards have heard something.

Luckily, defenders aren’t limited to passive tactics to spot the sniper. They can use their turn to announce one of three actions, which can reveal whether the sniper is in their sector, in three adjacent hexes, or in a single hex next to them. When caught in the open, each attack on the Sniper automatically inflicts a wound; two wounds and it’s game over. With two guards within attack range, escaping is nearly impossible; Revealing the Sniper usually turns into a tense you-or-me showdown.

The sniper fires his weapon by calling the number of tokens he wants to draw from the shot bag and then draws them randomly. The Shot Bag’s tokens – Aim, Recoil, Noise, and Suppression – combine to either complete the kill, thwart it, or even reveal the sniper’s position. This means players who pride themselves on being a one-shot, one-kill sniper must maintain a strong awareness of bag odds. The game begins with six aim tokens (required to make a kill), three recoil tokens (can spoil a shot), and two noise tokens (can spoil a shot). and reveal the location of the sniper). These are added and subtracted according to the results of other events leading up to the shot. (The solo version of Sniper Elite: The Board Game

All of this combines to deliver a very strong pace and excitement. In one run, I took out a guard at the entrance to my first objective without even revealing my position. But of course I hadn’t considered the layout of the room, and my exit took much longer than expected. Indeed, as the round clock ticked, I was spotted by an officer standing three squares away in direct line of sight in a railroad car.

It took me three target markers to kill him; I decided to draw five random tokens and only got two of the ones I needed. I didn’t have enough time for a second shot, so I escaped. Luckily everyone else covered potential targets at the other end of the map; I could run to my second target without caring who heard me. If I had gotten up to fight the officer and probably gotten wounded in the process, I probably would have lost.

Photo: Rebellion Unplugged

Playing with friends is preferable to solo play and doesn’t take much longer, even if you’re arguing about what line of sight really means, or losing track of where someone is or is supposed to be, which is what you’d expect a two-map game to be like groomed. The solo rules by Dávid Turczi and Noralie Lubbers deliver the core gameplay loop of the main game reasonably well. But the random, card-drawn manner in which defenders conduct their quest in solo play can make some wins feel like cheap luck.

The maps themselves are well balanced and well illustrated, with surprising chokepoints, slow-moving danger areas, and even elevated terrain thrown into play at times. Once I realized that I wasn’t actually next to a guard; I had climbed a catwalk and the nearest access was two seats behind me, so I was well on my way to escape. The 1 1/2 inch plastic miniatures are individual and richly detailed, with no flimsy gun barrels or appendages; You can attach colored discs to their base so you know which sector they belong to.

As a Sniper Elite fan for almost a decade, Sniper Elite: The Board Game provides the same endorphin rush of satisfaction when I see someone first, eliminate them, and immediately move with the rest of the patrol who are helpless to find me. I’d say it even reinforces some of those valuable lessons, particularly about prioritizing objectives over kills, the next time I pick up the video game. I spent about five hours on the first level Sniper Elite 5 because I tried to kill everyone. Sniper Elite: The Board Game reveals that killing is not necessary to have a good time.

Sniper Elite: The Board Game has been verified against a final retail copy provided by Rebellion Unplugged. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find For more information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy, click here.