Squad Machinegunner

[Forlorn_Hope]

Now, a machinegunner, directed by his squad leader, was the primary firepower for any squads, in real life. I've tried doing so with my squad, having myself spotting targets and commanding my machinegunner, while the rest of my squad, riflemen, would be positioned around us, to protect any infantry that attempts to flank us. With the MG42, it works somewhat well. (especially on maps like PDH) The massive machinegun fire could supress any infantry and kill whoever that is foolish enough to walk infront of the bullets.

However, with lighter machineguns, like the Bren and the BAR, it doesn't work so well. I don't know if it's the same in real life, but in FH2, a rifleman can easily pick off machinegunners who reveal themselves with their tracers. At the same time, their firepower doesn't seem to be sufficient to effectively supress the enemy.

The only thing I can think of is to position the gunner in a well concealed position, and being far away from the enemies as well. Then, I use my binocular to an advantage and spot for my gunner. It worked pretty well once in Purple Heart Lane. I was able to use my machinegunner to supress the enemies with a BAR, although, the supression seems to be more effective than actual damage dealt, not to mention the fact that my gunner had to constantly reload due to the small magazine capacity with the BAR.

So, does anybody else actually use the machinegun with a spotter? It seems that most of the gunners I have seen are alone, or at least, not being assisted by a spotter. Also, is it actually a good idea in FH2? It is quite a fast paced game and sometimes real world tactics like that one simply wouldn't work.

[Ts4EVER]

It works better with the MG42, because the Germans intented it to be the primary source of firepower, whereas the Americans gave every single soldier more firepower with their semi automatic rifles, the BAR being more or less supplementary.

[Forlorn_Hope]

What about the brits with their Bren and soviets with their DP-28's? How did they use them historically?

[VonMudra]

Same as the americans.  IN the western and russian doctrines, all a machinegun was was supplementary firepower, whereas the Germans saw the machinegun as the main firepower of a squad, with the rest of the squad maneuvering with the MG as the center focal point of any assualt and defense.  Considering that the military tactics we use today are basically exactly what the Germans were using, you can see which won out.

[Forlorn_Hope]

IN the western and russian doctrines, all a machinegun was was supplementary firepower

Supplementary firepower? So basically the machinegunner was treated the same way as a rifleman? Perhaps just a few commands for supressing fire here and there? 

[VonMudra]

Basically, yes.

[Flippy Warbear]

Besides, lmg and mg are different deals. Afaik mg's are meant for being more stationary (due to many of them having cumbersome size) while the lmg's are meant to follow the squad and provide support whenever needed.

[Meadow]

British infantry doctrine was, to my knowledge throughout the war, built on the value of trained riflemen firing as a block to put up a wall of suppressing fire. The Bren gun, as Mudra said, was simply used to supplement this.

[von.small]

I've tried doing so with my squad, having myself spotting targets and commanding my machinegunner, while the rest of my squad, riflemen, would be positioned around us, to protect any infantry that attempts to flank us.

Please tell me which servers you play on (via PM) I'd love to be in that squad.

[Flippy Warbear]

Going slightly off-topic but I just love the role of fire support. While I dont really like to cover areas with a mg, but I just love to use BAR and Bren during assaults towards the enemy positions with rest of the squad. Nothing like hitting the dirt, telling your fellas to keep rushing and then you switch that BAR to semi-auto and just pour lead on those krauts, no matter if you hit them or not it still pins them down and adds to the badass factor.

I remember this one time on PDH I just kept on suppressing destroyed bunker with my BAR, magazine after magazine while rest of my squad went from cover to cover, slowly but steady reached the positions and took them.

[Forlorn_Hope]

Going slightly off-topic

Oh, not at all! This topic is, afterall, a topic about how do everybody use the support kit. 

[THeTA0123]

The americans somewhat improved their tactics, by implenting a Bipod M1919.30CAL (the A6 version). But this was implented around september-October 1944.To late for our 2.2 Normandy

The british where very fond of their brenguns. They used it as squad support, in assaults, firing from the hip, or even as long range rifles, switching to semi auto and picking off germans from long distance. To give you an account, they made sure that their was one Brengun every 4 British soldiers.

Sure everyone can take a MG34/MG42 and whore down people easily, but most of the times, these people arent really contributing to a squad. Most of them, go sit alone somewhere, and spawnrape the nearest flag.

[Die Happy]

well i use the MGs mostly the same way,
MGs cover the advance of the res of the infantry.
while th german MGs need to be fired from prone(fixed) locations maneuvering with them takes some time.
the allied LMGs can be used more aggressively.(rambo gunners)

[Lobo]

you can see which won out.

About the topic, would be historically acurate/gameplay interesting/balanced/umbalanced, if we give binoculars to the support class?

[Ionizer]

Giving the spawnable MG classes Smoke Nades (like the pick up MG classes) might be good.  But maybe either Smoke or binocs (not both), you don't want them to become "just a more powerful Recon."

That said, Anti Tank Rifle kits in Africa could use Binoculars (like on Mersa Matruh).