MGs in the attack

[Dan Weaver]

What's the best way to use MGs when you're attacking? I tend to let them trail behind until the riflemen make contact and then rush them up to the front line, but this approach doesn't seem all that great.

Dan

[WendellM]

I like to move foot MG teams up somewhat behind infantry in the approach phase, then place them in semi-forward protected terrain (like woods) to cover the infantry's further advance into enemy territory. That said, *mobile* MG's are great (though they *do* draw fire). In this case, I like to send a T8 scouting ahead. If it isn't fired on, I move a Halftrack into its position, then move the T8 further up and repeat. (Similar tactics could probably apply to nationalities other than American.) I also like to keep at least one Halftrack as a reserve - the ability to turn the tide of an infantry shoot-out with a fast-moving, semi-armored MG is often significant. Anyway, that's my take, for what it's worth.

Wendell

[David Aitken]

You'll probably find that in medium-sized maps, your average MG has the range to hit enemy positions from the start line, provided you have LOS. Therefore, the ideal employment of MGs is to stick them on a hill, or a tall building, so they can overlook your advancing infantry and immediately bring fire to bear if they run into trouble. Obviously this wouldn't work in enclosed terrain, though.

As far as I'm concerned, MGs are firepower in the same sense as infantry - they're just bigger firepower, and therefore less mobile. So you send your infantry forward to contact, and then bring up the MGs when the enemy has been located - as you've said.

It's good to remember that on a battlefield, you don't have squads nicely grouped and defined as you do in CM - you just see different groups of men with different weapons. Just because an MG is a separate unit from the infantry, doesn't mean he shouldn't be right up there with the infantry.

As with a lot of things, the way something looks isn't a hint as to what it should be doing. The only factors you need consider are the physical constraints of a unit - if you can use the unit effectively within those constraints, do it.

David

[Peterk]

You usually want to hold them a little bit back in cover to support your squads as Wendell suggested. Getting them up in a 2nd story of a building will sometimes give you a good field of fire and you won't have to move them too often. A MMG, HMG can still do it's job effectively at longer ranges, so don't always be tempted to move them up if they have LOS to the enemy. A turn in which a MG is moving is a turn that the MG can't fire (or fire very well), so find a good posting early and keep them there until they're not doing anything useful any more.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that you want to keep them out of the way of your squads. If you have an MG sited in back of your advance with squads up in front you're probably begging for friendly fire and at best your MG is going to be silent because he doesn't want to hit his own guys. If you have 2 HMGs supporting an advance, consider keeping one at each flank so they can fire towards the middle of the attack without fear of hitting your own guys.

p.