Machineguns are unstoppable - holy guacamole

[Melliores]

Some backstory - I was preparing for the N-Night counter-attack on Port Cacao (K9). Managed to bring the old gang together, trained 8 Veterans, even had to hire Meltdown to have a Psycho on the team (for story reasons if you have played that town). Gave her a fully kitted out HK21 maschinengewehr - extended twisted barrel making her range up to 36, Thermal scope and other choice mods.

Meltdown also has the Heavy weapons specialist trait - firing and setting up Machine guns and heavy weapons costs one less AP.

Now, what does this mean in practical terms - you place Meltdown somewhere with a height advantage. On her first turn you set up the HK21 with Y ( a simple overwatch). The gunner (Meltdown) takes prone stance and has a bonus to accuracy from this position, due to the emplaced machinegun.

 

What happens on the following turns:

- The gunner can shoot normally for 3 AP (it can be lowered to 2 AP if you place a certain Mod on the barrel of the HK21 and sacrifice some range). You can aim 3 times, for 6 AP per shot at range of 36. With the Termal Scope, at 3 Aim levels you remove almost all malus.

- You can have two 6 AP bursts as Meltdown has 12 AP to start with each turn. This means a total of 16 bullets flying towards your enemies.

- On their turn the Overwatch remains active. Anyone trying to approach you from open ground will be gunned down mercilessly.

- Each burst with 7.62 standard NATO does anywhere between 150 and 300 damage. And this is without any additional damage perks for normal or Overwatch shots. An upgraded HK21 holds 180 rounds or enough ammo for 22,5 bursts. This should be plenty to finish 4-5 battles with some support.

 

The machineguns are really, really overpowered. I dread to think what will happen if you can buy readily available ammo from a shop in their thousands. 🫠

Edited July 21, 2023 by Melliores

[BossWeapons]

18 minutes ago, Melliores said:

- Each burst with 7.62 standard NATO does anywhere between 150 and 300 damage.

Was fighting the enemies on the prison map. There was a guy with the FN Minimi. He put a single burst down in my general direction and absolutely tore one of my guys into pieces with a 100 something points of damage instantly deleting him.

I'm not really complaining though. It was pretty sweet all things considered.

Edited July 21, 2023 by BossWeapons

[Skaldy]

Machine guns are not unstoppable. I have been using Grizzly as main mg gunner from start, he burns through your bullets so fast, it just gets worst when you fight against 2-3 squads at once. I had to restart my game because i ran out of 7.62 NATO and WWP. I dont have enough weapons(other than FAMAS which i am not going to use on my main assaulter mid game). I constantly craft and buy bullets and i cant manage at all. If anyone needs to know i play on Commando difficulty .

[Warmonger]

22 minutes ago, Melliores said:

Some backstory - I was preparing for the N-Night counter-attack on Port Cacao (K9). Managed to bring the old gang together, trained 8 Veterans, even had to hire Meltdown to have a Psycho on the team (for story reasons if you have played that town). Gave her a fully kitted out HK21 maschinengewehr - extended twisted barrel making her range up to 36, Thermal scope and other choice mods.

Meltdown also has the Heavy weapons specialist trait - firing and setting up Machine guns and heavy weapons costs one less AP.

Now, what does this mean in practical terms - you place Meltdown somewhere with a height advantage. On her first turn you set up the HK21 with Y ( a simple overwatch). The gunner (Meltdown) takes prone stance and has a bonus to accuracy from this position, due to the emplaced machinegun.

 

What happens on the following turns:

- The gunner can shoot normally for 3 AP (it can be lowered to 2 AP if you place a certain Mod on the barrel of the HK21 and sacrifice some range). You can aim 3 times, for 6 AP per shot at range of 36. With the Termal Scope, at 3 Aim levels you remove almost all malus.

- You can have two 6 AP bursts as Meltdown has 12 AP to start with each turn. This means a total of 16 bullets flying towards your enemies.

- On their turn the Overwatch remains active. Anyone trying to approach you from open ground will be gunned down mercilessly.

- Each burst with 7.62 standard NATO does anywhere between 150 and 300 damage. And this is without any additional damage perks for normal or Overwatch shots. An upgraded HK21 holds 180 rounds or enough ammo for 22,5 bursts. This should be plenty to finish 4-5 battles with some support.

 

The machineguns are really, really overpowered. I dread to think what will happen if you can buy readily available ammo from a shop in their thousands. 🫠

I could live with this. The is difficult enough for in other parts.

[Melliores]

@Skaldy

 

If you use basic Machine guns from the start - MG42 or FN Minimi, then those will be quite inaccurate. You need a bipod, a good scope (I prefer the Termal one), a good stock and if the weapon supports it - a foregrip. Oh, and a basic tip for machineguns - never fire one without a bipod and in prone position! Most of them do not have a bipod installed by default.

The key difference maker is modding out your machinegun for accuracy. Not all shots should hit, you are aiming at least half the burst to reach the target. In the case of the HK21, this is 4/8 shots and they are lethal. With a good merc you can even aim for the head.

[sandman25dcsss]

There is a mod which makes each burst/autofire bullet deal the same damage as from single shots. It is fun when you use AR/MG and not so fun when enemy uses it against you.

[Skaldy]

19 minutes ago, Melliores said:

@Skaldy

 

If you use basic Machine guns from the start - MG42 or FN Minimi, then those will be quite inaccurate. You need a bipod, a good scope (I prefer the Termal one), a good stock and if the weapon supports it - a foregrip. Oh, and a basic tip for machineguns - never fire one without a bipod and in prone position! Most of them do not have a bipod installed by default.

The key difference maker is modding out your machinegun for accuracy. Not all shots should hit, you are aiming at least half the burst to reach the target. In the case of the HK21, this is 4/8 shots and they are lethal. With a good merc you can even aim for the head.

not very correct since rng is a thing. I have been switching between HK12 and RPK constantly while entire team almost never can fire a shot due to bullet shortage, grizzly is just taking out multiple squads in one or 2 zones then there is no more bullets aside 9mm. Accuracy doesnt even matter in my case, dude hits his entire salvo and overkills his enemies anyway. Bonus if few other enemies line up behind main target.

I found HK12 for example directly after Refugee camp in a secret stash somewhere. At that point i had decent amount of bullets. After 3 combat encounters i had to gear up my squad with inferior weapons and after couple of battle it was just my main merc and his knife and silenced smg. Everyone else had to watch besides Barry and Larry since i had ample supply of nades.

Long story short, RNG+Difficulty decides what is unstoppable and what is not. In my exprience mgs are unsustainable, this is why i started a new game with spreading out more weapons variations for my team