Weapons

[McIvan]

Don't disagree with you about the effect of the .50cal when hitting someone. The thing is that you've got to hit them first, and beyond close-ish range I think you're more likely to hit them as a factor of sustainable ROF and ammo carried.

You can see that the game takes this into account (I think) with the quad .50 cal halftracks...plenty of ammo and a great mount equals an absolute anti-infantry monster.

What I was thinking is (not that the scale of the game would allow it) that the .50 cal/12.5mm/14.5mm MGs could get a bonus when shooting at troops in cover...eg woods, village....in that the percentage reduction for the cover should be reduced. The big MG rounds should tend to make a mockery of a tree as cover, although concealment would mean there should still be some reduction....say half normal.

Although the US army made extensive use of .50 cals on vehicles, I understand they only had a couple of cans of ammo each at 100 rounds per can (although I bet crews routinely stashed more away). IIRC a US battalion's heavy weapons company had a platoon with 3 x .50cal...they would have had a fair bit more ammo......but the .50cals were outnumbered about 6-1 by .30 cal machineguns in the battalion overall, the reason being that supressive area fire is far better delivered by smaller calibres with plenty of ammo. If it wasn't they'd have switched to .50cal. Defensive position with plenty of ammo; fair enough, although you're still running up against the low sustainable ROF....I tend to think the 3x.50cal platoon in CS represents this ok.

I wouldn't have thought the .50 cal would be as hard to shift as you think? At least compared to other MGs. But then again I've never lifted one and tried to lug it round...