Crew Served Weapons and count

[HirooOnoda]

Playing a PBEM game of SAW, I had one of those Soviet AB units which has a radio, two men, and two AKs. I dropped my equipment but was still unable to take over a DSHK which I had just overran.

What is the "portage" capacity for each man?

[McIvan]

[HirooOnoda]

Sounds logical, but I was playing ES today and had one of those MG42s with the tripod-a true heavy weapon.

It was down to just one man and the warning,"undercrewed" was on the "fireteam." He was still able to move and shoot.

Thus two men should be able to move and shoot a DSHK.

Just my two cents or I might be missing something.

[McIvan]

I'm too ignorant to tell, truth be told. It might be that the last weapon can be undercrewed but not subsequent ones.

[Ozgur Budak]

You can fire and move the heavy guns undercrewed but cannot grap one from ground.

[HirooOnoda]

"...cannot grap one from the ground"?

Do you mean that if you come into a hex with a crew-served weapon which has been abandoned one cannot take over the weapon?

In SAW, the Muj are using mostly Soviet Weapons. Thus, if some Soviet squad comes upon a DSHK they would know how to operate that weapon.

This, IMHO, should be changed to allow 2 men to operate something like PKMS or a DSHK. Make it hard to move, yet, but fire no.

[McIvan]

Well, I had a squad of six Germans with two HMG MG42s, each requiring three crew. This is in an Eagles Strike scenario, Fear in the Fog.

I didn't move the squad but nevertheless as soon as they took one casualty, they dropped an HMG........which contradicts Ozgur's post...??

[Jeff Conner]

Gentlemen:

From my experience, McIvan is correct in his first post. If a squad has more than one crewed weapon, it will drop one when it takes a loss. My guess is that it can not address one weapon being undercrewed and the other being fully crewed. It's something to keep in mind as a scenario designer.

Ozgur is also correct in that you can not pick up a crewed weapon unless you have a squad with unencumbered men equal to or greater in number than the crew of the weapon. In Hiroo's post, he used an example of a squad with two men. They should have been able to pick up the DHsK if they were not carrying anything else. I often have my squad drop everything and then pick up items one at a time until I get the mix I want. I can not explain why Hiroo's troops could not do this without more information. Also remember that when a unit drops a weapon unintentionally, it loses half of its effectiveness. You should make sure that you really want the weapon before dropping yours.

[HirooOnoda]

Thanks Jeff. I can assure the list, the two men had no weapons or other gear on them when I attempted to pick up the DSHK.