Battlefield 1 - The Martini-Henry Sniper Variant (2021)

BF1 has a great selection of rifles from the era, and pretty much all of them feel unique to use. But the standout rifle - or at least, the most 'notorious' (in a good way?) is the Martini-Henry. Locked behind Scout Rank 10, a nicely aggressive (and generous!) sweet spot range, and a sound that's almost unmatched by any other weapon in-game. Today, I take the Sniper variant out for a spin - because it's a peculiar variant that's a whole lot of fun. Why put a scope on a rifle whose sweet spot it so close quarters?

For the longest time the gun just straight up ignored limb shots altogether, constantly doing its max damage regardless of where you hit on the body. This was one of the main reasons why it was so damn effective (and revered) in the earlier parts of BF1's lifespan. Then it got 'fixed', and the Martini-Henry sorta got shafted and somewhat shunned by the community afterwards - after all, you had a single-shot rifle with a supposedly aggressive sweet spot range... but because characters in BF1 often hold their arms in front of the chest, you'd hit them in the sweet spot but because the arm got in the way you'd often 90+ damage them instead of killing them outright.

DICE saw this, and eventually tweaked the rifle into its current state; the weapon will do up to 112 damage instead of 100 between 42m and 68m - meaning that even at these ranges if you nail a full-health enemy in the upper arm, it'll 'bypass' the limb hitbox multiplier and deliver a one-hit kill. With this little bit of love, players returned to using the rifle ever since.

#Battlefield1 #MartiniHenry #Sniper