Machine Guns

[Fusilier9]

My impression is that MG's aren't that effective in CMBN. Seems their rate of fire is too low which does not represent their ability to suppress. I have not found those MG 42's that great and easily out gunned by an American infantry squad.

Anyone else feeling this or maybe I am doing something wrong?

[Siffo998]

My impression is that MG's aren't that effective in CMBN. Seems their rate of fire is too low which does not represent their ability to suppress. I have not found those MG 42's that great and easily out gunned by an American infantry squad.

Anyone else feeling this or maybe I am doing something wrong?

i have had the same feeling about the rate of fire at the start...but the rate of fire ingame depends on a lot of factors such as range, experience of the crew, surpression etc.
take a look at this video showing an mg42 in emergency situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2s1A4sShsU
...seems pretty realistic to me when it comes to rate of fire. :)

the thing is that hmgs were used mainly to surpress over long distances and in this situation it fires in rather slow bursts to achieve a higher accuracy. the level of surpression ingame seems absolutely ok. it is no problem to surpress a whole squad with only one hmg.

[Siffo998]

by the way the most efficient way to use a hmg or smg is to area fire on the position or the direction of advance of the enemy infantry. it isnt that effective to just fire on targets that are clearly visible. instead fire and surpress every "?" you see. this way the mg doesnt stop firing when the target is out of view and you get the biggest surpression effect. the mg (at least hmg) usually has a lot of ammo so you can fire and surpress the same position even for multiple minutes.

[Fusilier9]

Thanks for the responses. So, do I just order my MG to area fire at a suspected enemy position "?" ? I set up a defense with an MG42 on each flank, set up a covered arc and engaged a couple of platoons of advancing American infantry. My MG's fire a couple of shots but then were shot up and routed by the return fire.