What kind of play style should i have with the MG ?
Here are some basic small unit tactics that everyone should be aware of.
In a typical infantry company, there will be several platoons of various makeup. One platoon will be standard infantry, while another would be a support platoon. That platoon would have light mortars and heavy machine guns with tripods. They would set up at some distance, say 1000m away from the target, and would provide indirect and/or sustained MG fire in the way people seem to think. Long bursts and smoking barrels and so on.
That is NOT how a squad gunner in a typical infantry platoon will use his gun. For a start you have neither the sights nor the platform to fire at targets over say 500m away effectively - that is, killing people. You can spray a field at up to 2000m, but in that case you're not aiming at an individual. But most infantry platoons will not end up in such long range engagements. Their whole reason for existence is to "close with the enemy" so staying that far away is pointless.
In a game like RO, the gunner is far more mobile and deceptive. When I ran drills with the gun in training, we for example would constantly be running to the top of the next little hill or rise along the path of advance. It is called "bounding overwatch" and your job is simply to cover the movement of your squad for a minute or two at a time. This is while you are NOT in combat. Once combat breaks out, you will be looking to find the nearest "dead ground" - a space where the enemy con not observe or directly target you. This may be no more than putting a distant object or mound between you and the enemy, or even just dropping into the lowest bit of land you can see.
Always think "when in doubt, prone" if you are moving and you come to an area where you can not see any activity of friendlies, go prone and stop moving and just listen for a few seconds. Listen for shots and shouts and footsteps and try to get a mental picture of where any movement is, and plan your route accordingly. Move from prone to prone using the sprint key so that even if you just let go of the keyboard, you will be ready to fire aimed shots in a few moments. That may be all you need.
Keep as much stamina as possible. Only sprint if you are exposed. You may need it to just run away if things get hairy. If you are not able to hit a guy, and he knows where you are, don't keep trying to hit him, simply displace. Move 10m in a perpendicular direction, go prone and wait. Do it right and he won't even see you move. Then you have the advantage again.
Don't be afraid to just back off and try coming at it a different way. Often times a feint can do wonders. Run to one side of an area you want to attack in dead ground, take a bunch of shots at the target and bug out to the other side. They'll all be looking for the gun in the wrong place, sometimes making them easy targets.
Always place the gun on the side of the squad that is closest to the expected line of contact. You never want the gun firing over the squad's head if you can help it. After awhile everyone will be deaf and they may not hear you firing and stand up, getting killed. In this game you don't go deaf at all except when suppressed, so keep up as much fire as you can that doesn't needlessly waste ammo. You don't have much, even when being resupplied. If you only shoot at known targets, or to keep heads down for a few specific seconds while a squad crosses open ground, and then immediately displace, you will have more ammo if things go really wrong, your barrel won't overheat, you won't expose yourself so much and it also makes you think aggressively.
You're not trying to miss the enemy (the so called "suppression" is about that, but realism isn't), you're trying to kill him if he moves. It's not just about making him THINK he will die if he moves... its about actually making him DIE if he moves. Long bursts destroy accuracy and thus mean you are not trying to kill the enemy, which is the other part of the infantryman's role:
"To close with and kill the enemy." was the motto I was taught.
You will notice that very little of what it means to be the gunner has anything to do with how you aim or fire the gun. It's all about where you put the gun, when you fire the gun, and making sure that if the gun's location is known, the gun is moved as soon as possible to prevent it being lost.
The rest of the squad needs to remember the gunner can't move fast so if they want MG support they need to slow down so the gunner can do his bounding overwatch. The squad should cover the gunner when the gunner moves, and the gunner covers the squad when the squad moves.
Within the squad separate teams will do the same, one moving while the other covers. Always in pairs.
Basically, if you want to survive in this game, you have to think like a real soldier, not like an FPS gamer. Most other FPS games get it wrong, which means you can be sloppy. Here that gets you killed.
As you can see, I can go on and on.
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Just wanted to give an example of using displacement to win an engagement. Say you are in a house, and you enter a hallway, at the end of which is an enemy. Most people know to get out of the hallway, so they run into a room. Most people also know that if you "get away" like that, most other people can't help themselves but to try and follow you to kill you, so they set up in the room, aiming at the door.
So firstly, if you're the one that ran into the room, and if you didn't take a shot, if you had reacted quickly enough he may think you didn't see him, in which case that will be safe. But if the guy has any clue, the first thing through the door will be a grenade, so that will likely get you killed.
What you REALLY need to do, if possible, is to go into the NEXT room after that. This of course means you should try to enter rooms that have an alternative exit of some kind. If you do though, go into the next area. If the person grenades, then enters, and you're not there, they really will think you didn't see them and kept on running. So now they think you have a head start and will more often than not sprint through the next door... right into your sights.
This isn't a gun only thing, though. This is the kind of thinking everyone should have. The number one goal is to avoid having the enemy know where you are. As soon as you even suspect he might know, move, and always move FURTHER than you think is safe. If they don't follow after a few seconds, retrace your steps. That might mean they are a little more cautious and don't go chasing people into ambushes. So they most likely will now stop in the room they have cleared, to reload, bandage, and listen, and plan their next move. This is when you walk up behind them and molest them in the manner of your choosing.
It's all in the mind. Get inside the enemy's mind, while keeping him out of yours, and no matter what weapon you are carrying, or even how good you are with it, you will usually prevail.