This weekend I used the mk2 sniper in a local league we have here, and I must say that model alone held in place the whole enemy army. In 2 of the 3 matches I used her with great results, holding up against anything the enemy could throw, although I have to say that my rivals didn't have lots of MSV2 units, so I could abuse using her that way. All in all, a superb profile unjustly overshadowed by the hacker one, I'll try her out more at my next matches.
@Nenyx No one else brought up "depends on the Mission" yet (unless I missed it). The one tourney where I ran Aleph (German Masters 5 Games over 2 days) was very Objective heavy. List one had Achilles to do stuff, Atalanta to cover long Range as well as a Dasyu KHD and the MK2 AHD for pushing buttons with like 14 Orders. List 2 had a Marut and the MK2 Sniper specifically trimmed for one specific Mission. Unfortunately the table had a lot of rather small terrain pieces, too small to hide a TAG, so I ended up running the other list all 5 games, which still at least got me 3rd place. Thing is, I'd tell you that the MK2 Sniper is the better deal on paper any day of the week. Setting up multilayer Gotcha Traps and covering your long Range as well as ARO needs is great. He is better than the Dasyu at this thanks to BS 13 for almost half the cost. Also lets not forget that a lot of people don't expect you to run him at all, a surprising majority (including non Aleph Players) considers the MK2 AHD the cookie cutter choice. Disregarding the cost, I prefer to run a Dasyus KHD over the MK2 AHD. A Combi is simply a better gun for a Specialist to get rid of a few things on his way to an Objective or to hold it with SF. The KHD is almost always an additional offensive asset, while the AHD often turns out to be a double edged sword. When I run the MK2 AHD the list almost automatically included a Killerhacker to back him up as well. The MK2 MSR is the cheapest and the best Marker State Sniper in the game. He has NWI, BS13, can be hidden in a 10 Order Group 1 and doesn't cost you an Order if he dies. On paper alone the value is insane. To sum things up: Aleph has plenty other great (Infiltrating) Specialists to replace the MK2 AHD. The MK2 Sniper doesn't require additional support and is the best of it's kind by a mile and then some. So unless you really need another Infiltrating Specialist for the Mission, he is always a solid and very competetive choice.
I had the case in my last game with a friend. We were playing pillaging and sabotaging and he had a Seraph as a datatracker. He didn't moved it during his first turn, since he was expecting me to have a mk2 hacker (i ran a Marut list). In fact i had a mk2 sniper. Since i expected him to have a strong hidden ARO (it was in fact a swiss ML), i positionned it so that it could cover the places where i expected it to be. I forced him to reveal the swiss, then i revealed my sniper on his very last order for turn 2, which was "recamo the swiss". The sniper continued to pose a big threat during turn 3, preventing anyone to come near the AC2 or the Marut. In the end, both mk2 hacker and mk2 sniper did their job, the first by being a threat even when it didn't exist at all, and the second by pinning most of his army during his last turn. BSG has it's pros too, but i agree, combi is easier to use and can also do suppressive fire, which is very good on a TO - when the specialist has done his job he can become a nice speed bump. I see the mk2 hacker more as an assassin who can be a specialist, rather than a pure specialist.
Your opponent forgot to count your SWC ? With a 1 SWC difference between the hacker and the sniper, it's usually easy to guess which one you have I agree with this. With his BS, the mk2 hacker can act either as a rambo unit (if your opponent was foolish enough to keep his troop together) or hide near an objectives to cover it/do it. On the opposite side, the mk2 sniper is a formidable ARO unit, able to force -12 shots on the opponent. His only weakness being MSV2/3 : if your opponent has a MSV2 or 3 with a long range weapon, your mk2 sniper will go down, usually in one shot.
I don't think he bothered counting SWC, plus, since i was running a marut list, i was also short in points, so running a 5 SWC list wouldnt have been that surprising, especially since i don't like fielding many netrods (in fact i fielded none, i took a warcor as my 10th order - something of a gamble i wanted to try for some times. Turned out it was worth it, i used 2 command tokens on turn 1 and 2 to have regular order, and used his irregular on turn 3 to move him into ARO position. He then blinded both a seraph and a locust ... 3 pts wonder)
