Overview
This guide is the ultimate result of my experience of playing Recon for 600+ hours. It’s main goal is to cover everything you need to know to be a great marksman and a real asset to the war against The Wehrmacht. So far it’s a work in progress and I intend to update this guide as it progresses. This guide is going to be useful to both rookies and advanced recon players.Keep in mind that I don’t claim this guide to be 100 % correct and impeccable, it might be resourceful though. It is also not exactly SU faction specific, the info in this guide might be useful to any recon out there. You are at your own right to disagree with pretty much everything I mention in this guide, but at the very least try to behave yourself and refrain from insults. If you wish to prove something I welcome you to do it on the battlefield.
The Essentials
- №1 RECON IS A SUPPORT CLASS
- №2 TRY YOUR BEST NOT TO DIE
- №3 PUT SOME ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR TARGET
- №4 STAY PRONED AND UNSEEN
- №5 DON’T SIT IN ONE PLACE, CHANGE YOUR POSITION
- №6 STAY ALERT AND VIGILANT
P.S. Good for you if you were able to notice that there are actually 6 principles, you are already alert!
Loadouts
There are a lot of opinions on the best loadout for recon, and I really don’t want to cover all of them because some of them are just ridicilous and not worthy of my time. In general, you would want a loadout that would serve those principles I mentioned before. So with that in mind proceed to read further.
This should be so self evident, but still there are some recons who dont understand that Mosin-Nagant is an absolute must have. Seriosly… this rifle is what makes you a recon ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!
Allow yourself a moment to appreciate this rifle. That is a Weapon of Victory, comrade! It’s so good that it was used to shoot down planes, literally. Love your weapon, give it a pretty name, check all those Auto refill/Auto repair boxes. You are going to kill a lot of enemies with it. A LOT!!!
There aren’t that many ways to go about tuning your rifle. I won’t be bothering you with all of them, I’ll just introduce a correct way. BEHOLD!
This weapon configuration will serve it’s purpose well, all according with the core principles!
Some recons are greedy, they don’t install the trigger update. Well let me tell you one thing – those recons don’t love their Motherland enough!
That few extra rounds per minute (RPM) that Fine Hair Trigger gives you, are actually some extra dead Germans per minute!
Having a rifle as our primary weapon leaves us with just 2 equipment points, so that is where you can get a little creative with your loadout.
- Option #1 – TT-33 pistol
In my opinion, that is the best option. It gives you a fighting chance in case some germans will creep up on you. Do not underestimate this gun, as it would be your “plan B” weapon that will help you to get out of those sticky close quarters combat situations. Max out the RPM of this weapon and always aim for your enemy’s head.
- Option #2 – Anti-Personel mines (PMK-40, M2A3, S-Mine)
The idea behind this option is pretty simple – you use it to either set a trap for your enemies, or ensure a safety of your position, so no one would creep up on you. This idea sounds great in theory, but it actually sucks on practice. Using mines to cover your position would mean that you neglect the 5th core principle. Not to mention the fact that you can endanger the life of your comrades if you place those mines to block certain entrances.
- Option #3 – Anti-Tank grenades (Stickies, H3, RPG-43)
- Option #4 – Handgrenades
Not a very viable option since it also goes against one of the principles. You would want to to stay at least 100-150 meters away from your enemy, grenades are not effective at that range.
- Option #5 – Extra Ammo pouch
This is a good option since it will give you more lead to sling at those Jerries. However you are going to have a hard time defending yourself in close range. Don’t mind that extra trip to the ammo box every once in a while and get yourself a pistol instead.
Combat Badges
Your absolute goal is the Camo badge, but intill you get it you absolutely must use Ghillie, as it will serve our principles well since it will prolong you life by keeping you hidden to a certain extend.
A Camo or Ghillie badge should always be your primary badge, period. Especially if you don’t have a veteran membership.
There are some good options if you do have the veteran membership.
- Option #1 – Heavy Set
It’s a great option since it will give us more survivability, especially if we are being shot from the distance.
- Option #2 – Fast Reload
Works great in duel situations against other recons. Those extra RPM that comes with faster reload will give you the edge you need.
- Option #3 – Nimble
It’s only good for academy trained recons at the beginning of their recon path, as it will allow them to move quitely and hunt those enemy recons.
Basic battle tactics, or what are you supposed to do on the battlefield.
Since you know that recon is a support class you should understand that your main objective is to assist your troops (and kill Germans).
In order to help your team ( and kill Germans in the process) you should pick an advantageous position on the battlefield. Here are some tips on how to do that.
Tip #1 – find a good spot behind your advancing troops!
This will allow you to create a safe buffer zone, as you will be able to pick off enemies, and make your own position relatively unreachable since enemy infantry will have to cut through your infantry in order to get to you. But be careful, since some enemies can outflank you or creep up on you from behind
Tip #2 – get a highground position!
This one is pretty obvious, having a high ground position gives you and edge on the battlefield. But you have to be carefull and you have to keep your profile blended with something. You DON’T want your enemies to see your looming silhouette on the horizon
Tip #3 – use natural environment!
Stick to tree shadows, lie down in the bushes. Be aware of the lightning on the map, overall color saturation of your uniform and your environment. Think about places where you are blending in well. Check out this guide to learn more about camouflage ->CAMOUFLAGING GUIDE by AGNUS_ita
So what are the ways you can help your teammates.
You can be defensive by shooting at all those incoming enemy swarms who are trying to cap your point. Stop them in their tracks long before they reach their destination. Don’t let the enemy creep up on your guys, always try your best to protect them.
Needles to say that enemy recons, machinegunners and those tank drivers who were stupid enough to stick their pumpkins out are your absolute priorities. You don’t have to try and grab the tank if you managed to kill the driver, but it would be great if you’ll be able to warn your comrades if you made a tank available for them.
Shoot those bad guys who dug themselves behind cover and inside buildings. Sometimes you must position yourself in way that will allow you to kill spawning enemies. It’s a dirty trick, but Germans do it all the ****ing time so let them taste their own medicine. Learn the secondary spawning points on various maps and use this knowledge to annoy your enemies. Be the pain in Wehrmacht’s ass!
Aiming advices and tips
There are some rules that will make you a decent sniper in this game. I’m about to share them with you. I wanted to write this part with presumption that you already know a thing or two, but since this guide is called “Ultimate” im gonna have to write about the basics too. You can skip through the first couple of rules if you think you are good shot.
This is one is pretty simple, zero in your scope to the distance of the target, you can do that by pressing SPACEBAR while looking through your scope. Shame on you if you didn’t know that already. You can also use your mousewheel to adjust your scope (it’s slightly faster that way, but requires a lot of experience)
Of course you should try to aim for the head whenever its possible, but a good rule of a thumb would be to aim at the chest. At longer distances (250+ meters) it’s gets hard to land those headshots. And if your target is slightly closer to you than your zeroing setting, then your bullets can land higher from your target’s head. That’s not gonna happen if you aim for the chest/base of the neck area.
This one should be pretty self-explanatory. You are gonna have to shot a lot of moving Krauts and you are gonna have to learn how to lead them. This one is hard to teach, it takes practice, so just play the game, learn to shot in front of your enemy according to the trajectory of his movements and you’ll get better at it with time.
I hope I don’t have to explain what DPI is, you can google it if that’s the first time you are hearing about this. Instead I’m gonna explain you why DPI settings are important to your aim.
When you are zoomed out, you really want to be able to turn your weapon fast in order to observe and change the direction you are looking at, that’s why you need high DPI and mouse sensitivity settings. I’m not gonna tell you the exact number since it really is a matter of habit and your personal preference. When you are zoomed in you want to have a lower DPI setting, because as a sniper you need to bang on your long gun with precision. And you can’t do that when your dpi is to high, you won’t we able to move your mouse by all those fractions of millimetres in order to aim your crosshair at those pixels. It’s just as simple as that.
So my advice to you would be this: If you can afford it – get yourself a mouse that suports either mouse profiles, or a mouse that has a DPI shift button (or so-called “Sniper button”)
There are plenty of those out there, some of them are relatively cheap, you can PM me if you want to know what mouse I’m using. There are plenty of ccriticism regarding the “Sniper button”, but trust me, they are here to stay, and they are useful in some games (like H&G)
Perhaps there is some software that can assign a DPI shift to a keyboard button, feel free to tell me if you know such software.
Don’t scan horizon through your scope all the time. Take it easy instead, zoom out.
Keep in mind that human eye is designed to notice moving objects faster, and you can’t notice all those objects while you are zoomed in all the time. Observe the distance. If you see some pixels moving, that’s when you should zoom in and take your shot.
Popular camping spots to farm that camo badge
These screeshots were taken just a day apart from each other. I only used the spots I’ve marked on the maps below to farm that sweet camo badge. And haven’t played more than 4-5 matches a day. I decided to attach them as a proof that I know what I’m talking about.
This is probably the reason why you came here to read that guide. I’m not goona focus on it much, it takes a lot of work but I will finish it eventually. For now Im going to attach the most popular spots on a Town map that allowed me to grind a lot of Recon exp. Feel free to comment on this and feel free to send me your very own suggestions and spots. I dunno where can I download an updated version of this map, so for now this one is gonna have to do
I’ve marked postions and fire cones with red. I’m gonna do the Mountain town map next
THE A.B.C. RULE
BE
COOL
This one is probably the most important rule to keep in mind. It’s a versatile rule that can be applied outside of H&G. This is just a game, so don’t sweat about it. You are going to die every once in a while, nothing you can do about it really, so don’t hold grudges on those recons who kill you again and again. Don’t make it your personal mission to find and destroy them. Always remember your main goal – support your troops by providing reconnaissance and precision fire. Don’t be a selfish prick driven by the thirst for vengeance. Let go of your ego and stay true to your support role. Remember, there is no “I” in “team”, but there is a “U” in “c*nt”. So be mindful about your playstile, and play in accordance to the principles I’ve outlined before.
GAZ BA-46, a.k.a. “Shoe”, “Clown Car”, “Embarrassment”
This is definitely the biggest disadvantage of a Soviet Recon. GAZ BA-46 is inferior to enemy recon vehicles in pretty much every way.
It has terrible handling, weaponry, open topped turret exposes gunner’s pumpkin and makes him an easy target, and machine gun muzzle flash makes it almost impossible to use it from a distance. Yet it’s your duty to work with what you have soldier, and you better make sure to make the best out of it.
So what can you actually do with this ridicilous car, and how can you use it for reasons other than driving your ass to various places? That’s a good question.
You already know that DT machine gun is pretty much useless against medium and heavy tanks, so don’t even bother trying to shoot at them, you’ll get yourself killed. It can be used to dismantle light tanks and enemy recon vehicles. But make sure that you drive close to them.
That’s where things get interesting. Clown car has a relatively slim profile and it’s pretty fast. Combination of these factors makes it hard to destroy for as long as you don’t stop moving. Allow me to rephrase that – clown car makes a perfect bait and distraction. It’s important to keep this in mind when you have those German panzers camping in a forest somewhere. Drive around those Krauts, make them aware of your presence by shooting at them (you can actually penetrate Tiger armor from the rear if you’ll get close enough, I kid you not) Then drive off and enjoy their clumsy attempts to shoot at you. Keep those panzers busy while your troops can safely advance. These tactics works best if you have a gunner buddy and when you have a good coordination with him.
You can also equip your car with Faustpatrone and stick it from behind.
You can also use your Clown car to shoot down planes in a relatively effective fashion. Make sure you have cover though, forest outskirts and building’s shadows will do nicely. And don’t forget to change cover it to avoid retaliatory fire and bombs.
Recon vs Infantry
Infantry is the most common type of enemy that you are gonna have to face (Duh) and basically it is your bread since is the main source of your recon badge exp, don’t go easy on them.
Infantry is armed with various sorts of weapons and ever since the walker update you can witness a special kind of infantrymen armed with scoped OHK rifles. Those are quite peculiar fellas and I’d like to talk about them in detail.
There is a common belief that circulates in the H&G community that these guys make recon obsolete. That belief cannot be farther from the truth.
You see the problem with these dudes is that they are not really capable to follow through with their role as infantry (I. E. Capturing points, destroying tanks, attacking, defending and etc.) They stretch themselves too thin trying to perform the role of a sniper while failing to do their infantry duties. Recon, by definition has an advantage over those dudes. And that advantage comes in form of a superior 8x scope.
Some of them might demonstrate a more or less decent kill count, but don’t let this fact fool you. You will able to kill them with ease if you’ll position yourself far enough.Stay alert for those guys and I guarantee you that you will be able to punish them for their foolish approach to infantry gameplay.
As for the rest of the infantry – they are basically cannon fodder, you will be able to kill them with ease. But keep in mind that you have to prioritize your targets. Always try to kill those guys with bazookas, panzerfausts, stickies and mines first, since they pose a real threat to our mighty tanks and landleased vehicles. And after you kill those, shoot dudes with machineguns, m1/m2 carbines and STGs because those guys tend to perform better on the battlefield.
When it comes to shooting at vehicles driven by infantry it’s needless to say that you should always aim for the driver first and machinegunner second. With practice you will be able stop those vehicles in theirs tracks with quite a successful rate.
Recon vs Recon
I don’t know how about you, but usually I get a lot of satisfaction everytime I manage to kill enemy recon.
Sadly I don’t see a lot of recons who pose a real threat to me these days.
With that cocky statement being said let me proceed with practical advices on how to counter enemy recons.
Probably the very first thing you should do is to actually do some research. Press TAB key and take a look at enemy recon stats. If those stats represent something like stats of recons in the screenshot below then don’t even bother wasting you time to hunt them. They pose no real threat and chances are they are about to reveal themselves to you anyway.
If however their stats look more or less decent then you should be on your guard.
Chances are that they still don’t have a camo badge, and if that’s the case then you can ask your teammates to tell you an approximate position for them, or try to observe the battlefield for tracers.
Check out bushes and high ground like rooftops, windows and etc.
If you read my guide thoroughly then you might recall the fact that I’ve mentioned how human eyesight works, I.e. our eyes are designed to notice moving objects. So how can you use this knowledge to your advantage? Quite simply actually. You should move slowly! Hit the dirt and crawl to the direction of enemy recon position. He’s gonna have a much harder time spotting you first if you’ll keep your profile low and slow even if you move across an open field without cover.
Things will get much more interesting when you’ll face recons with no kill cam badge.
These guys are dangerous, not just because of their badge, but because having this bage is tipically a sign of experience. I really enjoy playing against these recons because of the challenge that comes with it. I tip my hat to these kind of enemies, and if you read this guide than feel free to write me so we could discuss recon matters.
So what can you do to counter the camo badge? Well first things first, you are gonna have to know whether enemy sniper has it or not. And for that you re probably gonna have to die from his bullet.
H&G unity engine supports a rather fancy ragdoll animation. Your dead body drops in accordance of a direction from which that lethal bullet came in contact with your body. So for example if your head/body tilted to the right when you died, then there is a good chance that that shot was taken from a left side from that place where you died. And that might help you to locate his position.
Another way to locate enemy sniper is to listen. A lot of games support a surround effect, H&G is not an exception, so you should be able to hear the direction of that distinctive sound of German or American rifle from with your loudspeakers or headphones.
Recon vs Tanks
When it comes to tanks there’s only so much you can do. Obviously you can (and you should) kill tank drivers when they stick out of their machines.
But let’s be honest, an experienced tanker won’t give you this opportunity very often. Usually you’ll have a very narrow window before he get hides again, that’s why it’s crucial to stay on your guard and be extremely accurate. Of course you can always get those antitank grenades. But I’d advice against that, because in this case you will have to neglect you important recon duties. Don’t try to do grunt work. Accept the fact that you can’t kill every tank, and focus on the things that you actually can control. So keep shooting at infantry/recons/paratroopers, spot enemy tanks and let you team worry about the rest.
Keep in mind that sometimes tank markers can be very hard to notice at longer distances (400+ meters). So use team chat (enter key by default) to warn your teammates about enemy’s tank location.
If you ever find yourself in a tight spot where enemy tank gets close to your position or his gun is pointed at your direction try not to panic. If you are hidden in a bush or shadow or a combination of both try to hold still for a while. Don’t move and don’t shoot. There is a good chance that he won’t notice you unless you give your position away
Recon vs Paratroopers
Paratrooper is basically a grunt who learned to fly, though It’s hard to kill them for two reasons
1) most paratroopers chose to equip heavy set badge
2) usually paratroopers stay out of the open areas, they dig themselves inside buildings and capture points.
Whenever enemy paratroopers are present in a battle your team will have much harder time attacking enemy (unless you have your own paratroopers) since those pesky fellas will keep dropping from the sky from behind.
Best thing you can do is to spot them in the midair to give a heads up to your troops. You can always try to shoot them in the air but it’s not gonna be easy. Even if you’ll manage to hit them it’s unlikely that they will die cus so many of them have that heavy set badge equipped.
Also try not to chose rooftops of various capture points as your firing position because paratroopers will be landing on those a lot, killing you on the process.
Try to find another spot that will allow you to observe the battlefield, stay on a lookout for paratrooper planes and try to shoot them when they land on those rooftops instead.
Recon vs Planes
SU soldiers shooting at planes, 1941.Fighting planes is an interesting topic. As a matter of fact soldiers of Soviet Union are known to engage in combat against Luftwaffe with nothing but their small arms. They actually had a study guide on how to shoot those damn planes, you can look it up if you want, I won’t be getting into details of this since this guide is in russian and I’m too lazy to translate it.
So is it possible to shoot down a plane in H&G? Sure it’s possible.
But is it really effective? Not really to be honest.
I have personally managed to shoot down planes but I can literally count those occasions on fingers, so those occasions are really rare, but preciless.
Keep that in mind as you read further.
So first thing you need to know is that it’s pretty much impossible to zero in on a plane, I hope I don’t need to explain you why. Just try your best to determine an approximate range and use your mousewheel to adjust it accordingly. Don’t bother shooting an aircraft if it’s farther than 300 meters from you.
Another thing you have to keep in mind is that there aren’t that many opportunities to shoot at it. Basically you can shoot at it when plane dives towards you, from you, or when he exposes his whole surface at a straight angle during sharp turns like on a picture below.
And what about leading?
Leading a plane is also a huge pain in the ass since planes are extremely fast (Duh again)
But it’s possible and with practice you might get better at it.
Imagine an aircraft frame as it flies in the sky and try to lead for a distance of 1.2 frame if it’s at 100 meters from you, 2.4 frames if it’s 200 hundred meters from you and so on. Here is a quick picture that can help you get a better understanding of what I’m talking about.
Your best hope is to hit a pilot of course otherwise you’ll just waste a lot of ammo and a lot time trying to pen plane’s fuselage to a point of destruction.
Overall I think that plane hunting is a fruitless pursuit.
If your team has it’s own planes in the sky then just don’t bother shooting at enemy planes, let them engage in their dogfights and focus on your primary duties instead.
You can however join a staged match and practice shooting those planes just for the fun of it.
Tipical mistakes and how to avoid them
Take a look at the screenshot below. Notice two things about it.
You can see me, observing an enemy point being captured through my scope from the safe distance, and you’ll see another recon who thinks he’s Rambo. Ten seconds later he was sent to a respawn.
That recon made a mistake of getting too close. Dont be like that, you’ll end up wasting those few spawns that recon assault team have.
This one is pretty self explanatory, don’t be like those idiots on the screenshot above. These recons compromise their position by drawing a lot of attention. You will be much more dangerous if you spread yourself in other places around this particular spot, not mention the fact that you’ll be able to cover each other effeciantly if you spread out.
Recons who take positions right next to where another recon is already encamped DON’T GO TO HEAVEN!
This one should be quite obvious but sadly there are a lot of recons who don’t do anything when they are being fired at.
When those bullets start landing near you and you have no idea where that fire is coming from, you’d better move your arse and hide to another place. Make sure that this fire stopped and only then you can advance to another position slowly.
A few tips about camouflage
So I’ve really wanted to write the detailed info on recon camos, but with all due honesty I can’t really do that since I haven’t tried them all, and there are better camo related guides out there
So I’ll keep this section really short and tell you that you should probably get Green Leaf Pattern B Camo
It was voted to be the best SU recon camo in a recent forum poll, It’s overall color is pretty much perfect for low saturated world of H&G, and it breaks you pattern nicely unlike any of those Amoeba camos. It’s pretty much perfect for every environment – woodlans, rocks, open field, urban areas … you name it. Just try it out yourself and I’m sure you won’t regret it.