MGs revisited

[Michael Emrys]

In an earlier thread or two, there were complaints about MGs not firing bursts often enough. I wish to confirm the notion that this might be range dependent. Recently, I've seen them firing quite often. An hour or so back I noticed one of my M1919A4 teams firing rather rapidly, so I replayed the turn and counted. They fired 27 bursts during one minute, each one consisting of about six rounds. I don't recall the exact range to the target, but it was about 50 meters. I had given them an area fire order.

Michael

[akd]

Yes, rate of fire varies with range and other factors.

[BloodyBucket]

Nothing to back this up other than casual observation, but it seems to me that a MG with an area fire order puts out more lead than one with a specific unit targeted. It's almost like they don't spend as much time aiming and spotting, they just point and pull the trigger.

[bodkin]

I've noticed german light mg troops tend to spray their rounds rather high like they were trying to hang on to a powerful fire hose, but maybe it's supposed to be this way.

[LemuelG]

I remember those discussions, I was inclined to believe it since I had so often noticed MG crews barely using their ammo stocks. Since, I have seen s.MG42s really going to town at close range.

Certainly the 'test' which involved a US rifle company advancing toward a German platoon over open-ground was pretty ridiculous. Germans tended not to emplace their guns right out in the open facing superior forces - gee, imagine that weapons in highly unfavorable positions facing much greater forces don't perform so well.

It's also worth mentioning the significant gulf between a belt-fed s.MG42 and a drum-fed l.MG42 in terms of accurate and consistent firepower.

[Michael Emrys]

Nothing to back this up other than casual observation, but it seems to me that a MG with an area fire order puts out more lead than one with a specific unit targeted. It's almost like they don't spend as much time aiming and spotting, they just point and pull the trigger.

Yeah, I noticed that too. Watching from the enemy position, I saw bursts go left, right, and up the middle. But this was something we were told to expect by one of the testers, even before the game was released IIRC.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

I've noticed german light mg troops tend to spray their rounds rather high like they were trying to hang on to a powerful fire hose, but maybe it's supposed to be this way.

I noticed this for the first time last night. The first couple of rounds of a burst were on target, but the rest were increasingly high. You could also see the MG muzzle rising as the burst progressed.

Now if we could just get the same behavior from a Thompson...

Michael