use of support weapons

as with all these things, it's a balance of realism and enjoyment. There's no point in setting up and policing draconian ammo and supply rules if it does nothing except spoil everyone's fun. We try these "realism" things in an effort to enhance the enjoyment, not to detract from it.

At the end of the day we're a bunch of grown men playing with toy guns.

the fine tuning off ammo limits is really out of my line thought for this thread as that's down to the game's author and organizer and the scenario involved .i do think we have some general guidelines that may be of use ,most agree to...
1 gun team of two or three
2 distributed re-supply in section
3 down time during simulated loading/barrel changing
4 deployed use only
that's probably all that it needs ,i think you can dwell on ammo ratio's too much ,at ill Giogo pass the limit was 2000 and that was with my bren but i'll tell you i was pushed to the limit laying down fire to help the others move up,not a real situation but it was needed to do the job and that's the point of a support weapon.

Late to the party as usualy but my attempts to reply keep getting interrupted. Anyway:

I'd agree that MGs should have much higher overall ammo limit since that is their only true advantage over other weapons. I'd say sound where around 1000/1500 round mark would be ideal (in a game of 100-200 rounds for everyone else). That way there is plenty of firepower but far from unlimited so the gun would still need to be resupplied to hold a position long term. I'd say a 50/50 split of ammo between the gun and the squad would be a fair reflection of the break down of the ammo distribution and ensure cooperation between the MG and the rest of the squad.

I would definitely say there should be gaps in the sustainability of the fire though, representing reloads and barrel changes. That way the opposition have a chance to over come the weapon if its in a particualerly strong position. These could be it simulated in the form of pauses with drum magged weapons or actual reloads.
This being airsoft I probably wouldn't suggest real steel limits on mags (apart from anything its tricky to do with large mags) but maybe 3x real steel in the typical airsoft ratio. Enough to lay down some fire but still needs to be watched. Real steel limits simply wouldn't offer much in the way of support fire, especially with the likes of Brens & BARs- by the time you're on target you'd be out of ammo.

I would support Yith's idea of differentiating between light and medium/heavy Mgs. With the right ammo limits there is no reason to restrict light MGs to only able to fire when deployed, something which can often be an issue that limits the usefulness of MGs. Belt fed MGs get the benifit of more ammo, both in overall capacity and mags size but with the restriction of lowered mobility and needing more crew. I think in this situation a higher FPS would be ok as well, not 400 but perhaps up to about 370 with a small MED of 5-10m to give them a bit more punch. The MED wouldn't be much of an issue since a that range the crew probably couldn't bring the weapon to bear properly and would have to resort to secondaries, if they were still alive at all.

Crew wise I think 2 men is fine for light MGs. Sure it only takes 1 man to actually run the gun in airsoft terms but having a second to assist is always useful as well as more realistic. As has already been pointed out they can aid in spotting, defending the flank, medicing and even taking over the gun entirely if the gunner is KiA; adding a limit to the mag capacity will only increase their usefulness. As to whether they carry the extras like ammo boxes & spare barrels, that is up to them but it does look good. Heavy MGs should have a bigger crew to reflect their increased ammo capacity & importance. Three would probably be enough although exact number would likely vary in accordance with the importance of the position they occupy- if its very important then there is likely to be alot of people about to help out. As to who the crew were- well the gunner could coerse friends into the role or else ask for willing volunteers. Nobody should be assigned anything they might not want to do for an extended period of time.

I would definitely say there should be gaps in the sustainability of the fire though, representing reloads and barrel changes.

The .30 cal had loads of gaps in fire on Saturday.... more tweaking.....

Crew wise I think 2 men is fine for light MGs. Sure it only takes 1 man to actually run the gun in airsoft terms

You think? Two people is a minimum to manage the 30 cal, even when static as it requires a loader to operate the feed and moving it with only two is a huge ballache because someone has to manhandle either the weapon and the tripod together or the ammo box, belt and tripod together. One person on their own? forget it.

I don't think any of us would class a tripod mounted MG as 'light'.

At Il Gigio both the ground and AA tripods for the MG42s got left behind by the afternoon, they were hard enough to shift around on the broken ground in their bipod configuration.

Portas Maxim is also a team effort to move, despite the natty little wheels

Cheers
Martin

The .30cal at the weekend really could have done with 3. Gunner, loader and a commander to direct the fire. The gun is so low down you need someone who can stick their head up to say "they're over there."

Unfortunately the people trained in that job were all busy commanding squads and so it was a job left undone and the gun was less effective than perhaps it could have been.

The .30cal at the weekend really could have done with 3. Gunner, loader and a commander to direct the fire. The gun is so low down you need someone who can stick their head up to say "they're over there."

Unfortunately the people trained in that job were all busy commanding squads and so it was a job left undone and the gun was less effective than perhaps it could have been.

you don't realise most of the time how low you are when prone and how little view you get,not to mention less field of fire.someone standing to sight targets or choose a better position is a real bonus.