The sniper is one of the most hated and feared classes in TF (which is why i like playing it soooooo much). The ability to kill almost anyone with a single shot can really make a mess of an offensive rush or a defensive position. The opportunities to screw with an enemy players mind are good also.

A well placed sniper can break an enemy attack before it starts, a good sniper should be able to take out at least 2 people as they leave their base for the open area in 2fort5. On offense they are one shot defense killers and sentry killers. Once in a nice position in an enemy base it's time for some laughs.

General tips

• Keep Cool!! The thing which really makes sniping difficult is the amount of lead thrown at you by every enemy player who catches sight of you. Kill that soldier boy... it takes him longer to get into position than it'll take you :).
• Try and be on the same plane of movement the enemy are.. you only have to aim left and right then.
• Don't aim for a moving enemy unless they are running in a straight line or are unaware of your presence. Place the dot across their path and wait until they move through the point... then let go of the trigger and you have fountains of blood :)
• Keep moving so the enemy don't know where you are.. this will frustrate them and make them nervous... they will be too busy looking for you to be thinking clearly about the game.
• Set up a couple of sniping hot keys.. these adjust the sensitivity of your mouse and switch to the sniper rifle... another one to put you back into dogfight mode. There's an example of the ones i use at the bottom of this page.
• Perfect the sliding shot... this is where you start strafing, hold the fire button down and keep strafing...as soon as you stop moving you will be able to fire. This is useful in sniper fights where sitting still makes you an easy target for an enemy sniper.
• As a sniper you can 'sniper jump' your own teammates a good distance (at a huge cost in their armour). To effectively do this you must be at point blank range and below them.

Offense
A sniper on offense is also an excellent and underused tactic. If the sniper manages to take out even 1 defender it gives the rest of the offense a big advantage.

One good tactic is for the sniper to wait just near the exit of the home base and prepare a shot... when the rest of the offense moves past the sniper slides out to the side and kills any defender who is waiting to greet the offense. This will get the offense across the open area with minimum damage.

If you can manage to infiltrate the enemy base and can hide somewhere near the flag you can wait for the next offensive wave and take out a defender or destroy a sentry. This can really ruin the defenders day.

Defense
This is the role in which a sniper excels. Find yourself a nice comfy spot that is at ground level, is dark, provides cover and has an escape route. If you can take out one of the enemy offensive heavies (soldier, pyro, demoman etc) it will make the role of the other defenders easier.

Another useful place is where you can overlook things such as elevators where the enemy will be standing while you line them up for some .30 calibre therapy.

You can also act as a 'lead magnet' after you have pissed the enemy offense off :)... you have a friendly soldier or two sitting in cover nearby. When the enemy are crossing open ground you kill one and then step into view... the enemy will open fire with everything they have ... as they are about to reload the soldier boys jump out and give em some rockets. This has the effect of either either making them dead OR they stop shooting so much at you next time they cross (dead usually :) ).

Psychological warfare is one of the main reasons for being a sniper... it makes an enemy itchy if they don't know when they are going to die suddenly.. flares are useful for this.. just drop one into a dark area to make em sweat :)..

Aliases and commands

Zoom:
alias sz_on "fov 25; sensitivity 1.5; bind LEFTARROW +moveleft; bind RIGHTARROW +moveright; bind X sz_off; bind X sz_off"
alias sz_off "fov 90; sensitivity 12; bind LEFTARROW +moveleft; bind RIGHTARROW +moveright; bind X sz_on; bind X sz_on"
bind X "sz_on"

Noaim toggle:
alias noaim1 "noaim 1; echo noaim_1; bind X noaim0"
alias noaim0 "noaim 0; echo noaim_0; bind X noaim1"
bind X "noaim1"

Autofire toggle:
alias +auto " impulse 3; +attack" alias -auto " -attack; impulse 2"
bind X "+auto"

Gren timer:
alias primeone1 "primeone; play Gren.wav; bind X throwgren1" alias throwgren1 "throwgren; bind X primeone1" bind X "primeone1" alias primeone2 "primetwo; play Gren.wav; bind X throwgren2" alias throwgren2 "throwgren; bind X primeone2" bind X "primeone2"
For the gren timer to work, you'll need to download this zipped wav and unzip it into your Quake/fortress/sound/ directory

Class binds:
bind X "reload" This will reload your weapon.
bind X "saveme" This will yell for another medic or an engineer.
bind X "inv" This will tell your inventory of grenades.
bind X "discard" This will drop stuff you don't need.

Other resources:
UKFN Tactics for Snipers
TF Guide class strategy for Snipers
The Sniper's Nest
Death from Afar - Netscape unfriendly
Falconeer's Sniper Tactics