The Machine Guns in RO:OST are probably one of the most difficult weapons in the game to use properly and effectively. Because of their limited numbers, it is difficult to get any real play time with the weapon. As a result, machine gunners in RO are often inexperienced and lack a good tactical base to work with. One also has to remember that because of the limitations of video games making the machine gun work as it does in "reality" is also difficult to do. As a result, we have a weapon that combines reality with playability and your tactics for using it effectively must match this.
In the first part of this guide I will cover tactics that apply to all machine guns. In the second part, I will cover specific tactics that apply to each of the weapons modeled in the game.
The MG's in RO offer the player the opportunity to use a very powerful weapon. A weapon that, if used properly, can turn the tide of the map and control large areas or important portions of each map. There are two major factors that must be followed to allow you to accomplish this, they are position and mobility. You must find the proper position to give you the advantage and the mobility to change position often. Due to this being a video game, the poor slobs you just mowed down will be coming back looking for vengeance. If you stay in the same location, prepare for a pop out rifleman or a grenade tossed on you from some "safe" location. So mobility is the key to staying alive for any length of time.
Position: Position is key in determining how effective you will be with the machine gun. You must carefully choose your position to give you the greatest element of surprise and the greatest protection. You should look for these important elements before you deploy your weapon.
First, look for areas that are common to enemy movement or avenues for attack. The more you play the game, the more you will be able to identify these locations. You WILL get flanked and surprised time and again as frustrated players will start to find alternate routes to the objectives, but forcing players to do this is fine. That means it took them extra time to do the same movement. If you can make the do that, you are controlling part of the map.
Look for areas that give you a decent field of fire. You should be able to fire out to at LEAST 100 meters, but more can be useful. Too close and you can be grenade bait.
Look for areas you can deploy where you have protection on one or both sides. The area you are trying to cover should NEVER be greater than the arc you can cover with your gun deployed. It's too easy for the enemy to just move out of your arc and shoot you from a safe spot. The protection can be anything,trees, walls, sand bags, crest of a hill, etc. This makes you a smaller and more difficult target. It also allows you to find cover to reload. As soon as you deploy your weapon, MAKE SURE IT CAN REACH ALL THE AREAS YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO COVER. Nothing is more frustrating than someone that peeks around a corner and you go to shoot them but are just short of your arc. By the time you redeploy your weapon, they will have either shot or grenaded you. If the arc is a little larger than you can cover, be aware of where the enemy are attacking and you can alternate between covered arcs by redeploying your weapon occasionally.
Look for positions that allow you a quick escape or you can quickly scramble to cover. Setting up in open ground is always a terrible option. You have no place to move to for cover. No cover if you need to reload and no cover if you need to disperse or redeploy. Setting up so you can barely see over a crest is often a good position. You can fire on the enemy with lots of cover. You can duck behind the crest to reload. If the enemy is beginning to over run your position, you can pull up the weapon and run back to a new location using the crest as cover. Often, after pulling up and dispersing, you will see grenades explode at your previous location and then the enemy cresting the hill. You can shoot them from your new location. Probably the most effective position is the ability to fire from an angle or place the enemy will least expect it. Firing from the flank can often result in many casualties. You must also remember that players often move in groups of two or more. Getting the first shot with the machine gun is crucial in the shock value of the weapon. Set up in places where it allows you to do this. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, deploy the weapon under observation of an enemy.
When you make contact for the first time, your weapon should already be deployed and ready to fire. Using this tactic and the positions above will result in a much more satisfying experience with the MG. You will enjoy many first shot kills, but this leads to the second most valuable tactic, mobility.
Mobility: Mobility with a machine gun? Sounds absurd doesn't it? A machine gun is supposed to form a strong point and a base of fire. In real life, this is true, but in the world of video games it is not. Why? Well, the guys you just mowed down are going to respawn in about 10 seconds. They WILL remember you and they WILL remember WHERE you killed them. Often they will purposely return to the same spot to get revenge on you YOU. Staying in the same spot is a sure way to get yourself killed with the next wave of respawning players. It's often easy to toss a grenade on your spot or to lean out behind something and take a pot shot. It's easy to line up your shot from around the corner, remember they know where you are, lean and fire.
So that means that after killing a few players, it's time to move. Shoot and scoot! The important part is just finding a new location, even if it's not optimal with the above tactics. Just a quick redeployment 10 meters or so can make a difference between life and death. They WILL be back, they always are. The trick is just being in a new "surprise" position when they return. After they have wasted their grenades on your OLD location they will run up hoping to get you in a close assault and you can mow them down all over again. Don't be afraid to give up ground to buy some time.
Another important aspect to using mobility for survival is to scoot when you start taking fire. If your position is good and you have surprise, the elements you surprised usually don't get a chance to retaliate. If though, you do start taking fire...LEAVE! If I get even a single rifle bullet my way and it misses...I'm gone. It's time to find a new spot. If someone had the time to spot and shoot at you, you can damn well bet the rest of the enemy know where you are by now. As soon as you take ANY fire....MOVE to a new spot.
Using the two above tactics will greatly increase the satisfaction of using the machine guns in RO. But it also depends on your role according to the map you are playing. Are you an "offensive" or "defensive" machine gunner?
Offense: This is probably the most difficult role to fulfill and will take a lot of experience to play effectively. An offensive machine gunner can be valuable not at the front of the assault, but in providing cover fire for advancing troops and holding ground already taken by your team mates. As a result, the offensive machine gunner should NEVER be in "on the front" of an attack. All too often, I've watched machine gunners "leading the charge" only to get cut down by the defenders.
Remember, you have two main roles on the attack. One it to provide extra firepower to your team mates, the second is to hold ground they have already taken. How is this accomplished? First, make sure you have your ammo full at all times. Once they see how much firepower you add to the attack, your team mates will gladly give you ammo. Second, DO NOT BE AT THE FRONT OF THE ASSAULT. I can not stress this enough. Let the other classes do the assaulting and picking their way through the enemy. The "position" and "mobility" tactics are still just as valuable with the offensive machine gunner, but varies according to use. The positions you select are often more limited on the attack, you will often find less than optimal places to deploy but be sure to meet one of the criteria.
You must be mobile enough though to keep up with the attack and help consolidate ground your team has taken. Very often your team mates will die in the assault. If you have been in proper position, which is behind them and in a good position, you will already be deployed AND you will find yourself on the front line. As the enemy try to move into areas they were in, you will be there to mow them down. You just need to slow them up long enough to allow your respawning team mates to rejoin you. If you've caused enough damage and/or held up the enemy long enough, the attack will be able to continue on. As a result, you will often find yourself outside of cap zones, so don't expect a lot of capture points as you play an offensive machine gunner. Never bother pulling out the pistol, if you are moving around alone with your pistol out, you are dead already and should just give the MG position to someone else. If you are moving alone, it should only be away from where the enemy is at.
On the attack, you can also help protect your team as they attack. I often find it valuable to deploy my machine gun on one of the attack route flanks. I use my firepower from behind the attack to help keep the enemy off the flanks of my team mates. On maps like Basovka it can help tremendously.
Defense: This is a much simpler role to fulfill. Following the tactics above of position and mobility, especially position, you can cause great pain on the enemy on defense. Position is key on defense. Find a spot that can cover the cap point, or a popular route to the cap point. Just continue to interdict the enemy as they move towards and into the capture zone. If you find yourself getting flanked or overrun, don't hesitate to disperse further back. You team mates will recapture lost defensive territory and you will live longer. Don't be afraid to deploy in a area you were killed before. If it's a stong location and causes lots of difficulties, it can be worth deploying there if you can kill 3-4 of the enemy before they can get you.
On either attack or defense you should follow the following tactics. Do not deploy indoors unless you can get a long field of fire. Otherwise you are nothing more than grenade bait. Do not reload the weapon within sight of an enemy OR a place that the enemy will likely appear. Always move to cover before reloading your weapon. Otherwise, you will often finding yourself getting shot during these times. With the German MG's this also refers to changing barrels, although this quicker than reloading and can sometimes be chanced under areas where you might expect an enemy to appear, but never do it within sight of them. Use your grenades! Don't forget you have them. If you in a bad position and are getting assaulted, jump up, drop a nade and move back. I've often had enemy move into my old position with my grenade going off.
All machine guns put out a "suppressive" effect on targets in the beaten zone. This effect is an annoyance at best, so don't expect it to stop or even throw off the aim of the enemy at all. Although I agree that this effect should be greater, as "fear of death" is something lacking in a game, it's a difficult thing to balance. Use the machine gun as a killing weapon and not a suppression weapon and it will work fine. Perhaps someday we can somehow accurately model the tremendous "suppressive" effect a machine gun has in real life.
Get a buddy! Your effectivesness will increase two-fold if you can get a rifleman to stick with you during a map. He can provide you with extra ammo, cover your flanks/rear against enemy outside your covered arc, toss grenades on corners where there are leaning riflemen, and ultimately he can man the machine gun if you get killed. Often your rifle buddy will still be in position when you return and you can briefly have two MG's firing. Finding someone willing to do this and using effective communication with them can be a very rewarding experiecne.
Now that I've covered some tactics of using Machine Guns, I will move on to the individual weapons and their unique attributes.
DP-28: The Russian machine gun is a tough and accurate beast. Because of it's slower rate of fire, it can be fired in longer bursts with good accuracy, Be aware that the DP-28 does not have a changeable barrel and cools down very slowly. If you are firing in long bursts and too often, you will find it turns into a slow firing inaccurate piece of crap. It takes a very, very long time for it to cool down, so controlling your fire is very important. It also has a small magazine. After each encounter with an enemy, reload....then reload again. The DP-28 always seems to run out of ammo at the most critical moment. It is very accurate at long ranges, but lacks the serious volume of fire the German weapons have. Quick bursts at close range (<100 meters) of 1 or 2 bullets can be almost as accurate as a rifle. It does have the ability to fire in the assault mode, and is the most controllable of the machine guns in this mode, but it's still not very effective. Leave that role to the SMG's.
MG-34: This German weapon has a similar rate as the DP-28. It's very controllable and accurate at long ranges. Even though it heats up more slowly than the DP-28, it should still be fired in short bursts (3-4 rounds). Although, longer bursts (10-15 rounds) are just about as accurate as the DP-28, even at long ranges. It has a quick change barrel and should be changed after any serious fire fight (i.e. more than 10 short bursts) or if the barrel starts to smoke (default key B). It also has a small magazine size and should be changed after every encounter. I'm not sure where the sight of the MG-34 is set at, but it should almost obscure your target when firing. At long range, you might not be able to see your target at all due to the elevation you must fire at. At long range, fire above the head of your target and you will be rewarded. Because of the small magazine, try to always keep your pockets full. The MG-34 is also usable in the assault mode, but it's barely controllable. Once again, leave that role to the SMG's.
The MG-34 also has the unique ability to fire in a semi-automatic mode. By using the secondary fire button, you can fire single shots as quickly as you can pull the trigger. Using this mode is fairly accurate, it seems at least as accurate as the semi-automatic rifles, and can hit targets at a fair range. The main benefit for using the semi-auto mode is that there are no tracers when firing. I use it when there is only a single enemy that hasn't seen me and I'm sure I can secure a hit. It keeps from revealing your position that the tracers can and will do. It seems to have limited uses though and if you really want to be a sharpshooter, get a bolt action rifle.
MG-42: This weapon is a beast. Accordingly, it should be handled like one. It is by far the most dangerous weapon in the game. It has a very high rate of fire but it also has more recoil than the other MG's and heats up very quickly. Luckily, each of these problems can be overcome. The MG-42 should never be fired at more than 4-5 rounds at a time. This can be accomplished by just TAPPING the mouse button. If you hold it down for even 1 second, you have fired off nearly 20 rounds and the recoil and movement of the barrel will throw your aim off. The sight for the 42 seems to be set a bit low and to the left a bit. In other words, you must aim high and fire to the right of your target just a bit. If you are greater than 100 meters, you will NOT be able to see the target you are shooting at as it will be obscured by the sight. To get used to this, go into practice mode and practice, practice, practice. Once you figure out the sweet spot, the MG-42 can actually be used like a bolt action rifle! Just put the sweet spot on the target you wish to cut down and TAP the button. Those first few rounds WILL find their target and they will die. Only under desperation should you EVER fire the MG-42 in longer bursts. i.e. being charged by many enemy at once. In those rare cases, aim high and sweep back and forth as you throw out the lead. You will often drop your targets. At longer ranges, the MG-42 is still very accurate. People often forget that real bullet ballistics are used in RO. If you are shooting at long range targets, aim high(higher than you think you should), and slightly lead your target (only lots of practice at different ranges can teach you this) and give the gun a couple of taps sending 8 to 10 bullets downrange. Very often the enemy will run right into the cloud of lead you sent his way and he will drop. The MG-42 heats up VERY quickly and the accuracy of the weapon goes to crap VERY quickly. After only 5-6 TAPS of the mouse, you will start to notice a decrease in accuracy. You must change barrels OFTEN....I will say again...change barrels OFTEN. After every encounter, change the barrel. It changes very quickly and you really don't need to take cover to do it as you will almost surely have it finished by the time the enemy shows up again. (You aren't changing barrels or loading in view of the enemy are you??) Keeping the barrel fresh will keep you putting the rounds where you want them and causing pain in your enemies. With slightly larger magazine capacity, 100 round belts, you will be able to go quite a while with 3 belts. If you are only tapping the mouse button, you should expect 20 taps per belt. In that same time, you should have changed the barrel 4-5 times. The MG-42 is difficult to master, but it is a very deadly and very rewarding weapon once you learn how to do it.
I'm sure I've forgotten something. I've also not covered tactics that apply to only certain maps as that is another topic altogether. If you feel I forgot something or have anything to add, please do. I feel a lot of the maligning comments about the Machine Guns in RO:OST are due to lack of experience. It takes quite a bit of practice and experience to get rewarded for using them. That steep learning curve has made many players give up the machine guns as junk or poorly modled. This combined with the difficulty of getting time playing a machine gunner makes the curve very steep. Be persistent and you will be rewarded.
In the first part of this guide I will cover tactics that apply to all machine guns. In the second part, I will cover specific tactics that apply to each of the weapons modeled in the game.
The MG's in RO offer the player the opportunity to use a very powerful weapon. A weapon that, if used properly, can turn the tide of the map and control large areas or important portions of each map. There are two major factors that must be followed to allow you to accomplish this, they are position and mobility. You must find the proper position to give you the advantage and the mobility to change position often. Due to this being a video game, the poor slobs you just mowed down will be coming back looking for vengeance. If you stay in the same location, prepare for a pop out rifleman or a grenade tossed on you from some "safe" location. So mobility is the key to staying alive for any length of time.
Position: Position is key in determining how effective you will be with the machine gun. You must carefully choose your position to give you the greatest element of surprise and the greatest protection. You should look for these important elements before you deploy your weapon.
First, look for areas that are common to enemy movement or avenues for attack. The more you play the game, the more you will be able to identify these locations. You WILL get flanked and surprised time and again as frustrated players will start to find alternate routes to the objectives, but forcing players to do this is fine. That means it took them extra time to do the same movement. If you can make the do that, you are controlling part of the map.
Look for areas that give you a decent field of fire. You should be able to fire out to at LEAST 100 meters, but more can be useful. Too close and you can be grenade bait.
Look for areas you can deploy where you have protection on one or both sides. The area you are trying to cover should NEVER be greater than the arc you can cover with your gun deployed. It's too easy for the enemy to just move out of your arc and shoot you from a safe spot. The protection can be anything,trees, walls, sand bags, crest of a hill, etc. This makes you a smaller and more difficult target. It also allows you to find cover to reload. As soon as you deploy your weapon, MAKE SURE IT CAN REACH ALL THE AREAS YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO COVER. Nothing is more frustrating than someone that peeks around a corner and you go to shoot them but are just short of your arc. By the time you redeploy your weapon, they will have either shot or grenaded you. If the arc is a little larger than you can cover, be aware of where the enemy are attacking and you can alternate between covered arcs by redeploying your weapon occasionally.
Look for positions that allow you a quick escape or you can quickly scramble to cover. Setting up in open ground is always a terrible option. You have no place to move to for cover. No cover if you need to reload and no cover if you need to disperse or redeploy. Setting up so you can barely see over a crest is often a good position. You can fire on the enemy with lots of cover. You can duck behind the crest to reload. If the enemy is beginning to over run your position, you can pull up the weapon and run back to a new location using the crest as cover. Often, after pulling up and dispersing, you will see grenades explode at your previous location and then the enemy cresting the hill. You can shoot them from your new location. Probably the most effective position is the ability to fire from an angle or place the enemy will least expect it. Firing from the flank can often result in many casualties. You must also remember that players often move in groups of two or more. Getting the first shot with the machine gun is crucial in the shock value of the weapon. Set up in places where it allows you to do this. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, deploy the weapon under observation of an enemy.
When you make contact for the first time, your weapon should already be deployed and ready to fire. Using this tactic and the positions above will result in a much more satisfying experience with the MG. You will enjoy many first shot kills, but this leads to the second most valuable tactic, mobility.
Mobility: Mobility with a machine gun? Sounds absurd doesn't it? A machine gun is supposed to form a strong point and a base of fire. In real life, this is true, but in the world of video games it is not. Why? Well, the guys you just mowed down are going to respawn in about 10 seconds. They WILL remember you and they WILL remember WHERE you killed them. Often they will purposely return to the same spot to get revenge on you YOU. Staying in the same spot is a sure way to get yourself killed with the next wave of respawning players. It's often easy to toss a grenade on your spot or to lean out behind something and take a pot shot. It's easy to line up your shot from around the corner, remember they know where you are, lean and fire.
So that means that after killing a few players, it's time to move. Shoot and scoot! The important part is just finding a new location, even if it's not optimal with the above tactics. Just a quick redeployment 10 meters or so can make a difference between life and death. They WILL be back, they always are. The trick is just being in a new "surprise" position when they return. After they have wasted their grenades on your OLD location they will run up hoping to get you in a close assault and you can mow them down all over again. Don't be afraid to give up ground to buy some time.
Another important aspect to using mobility for survival is to scoot when you start taking fire. If your position is good and you have surprise, the elements you surprised usually don't get a chance to retaliate. If though, you do start taking fire...LEAVE! If I get even a single rifle bullet my way and it misses...I'm gone. It's time to find a new spot. If someone had the time to spot and shoot at you, you can damn well bet the rest of the enemy know where you are by now. As soon as you take ANY fire....MOVE to a new spot.
Using the two above tactics will greatly increase the satisfaction of using the machine guns in RO. But it also depends on your role according to the map you are playing. Are you an "offensive" or "defensive" machine gunner?
Offense: This is probably the most difficult role to fulfill and will take a lot of experience to play effectively. An offensive machine gunner can be valuable not at the front of the assault, but in providing cover fire for advancing troops and holding ground already taken by your team mates. As a result, the offensive machine gunner should NEVER be in "on the front" of an attack. All too often, I've watched machine gunners "leading the charge" only to get cut down by the defenders.
Remember, you have two main roles on the attack. One it to provide extra firepower to your team mates, the second is to hold ground they have already taken. How is this accomplished? First, make sure you have your ammo full at all times. Once they see how much firepower you add to the attack, your team mates will gladly give you ammo. Second, DO NOT BE AT THE FRONT OF THE ASSAULT. I can not stress this enough. Let the other classes do the assaulting and picking their way through the enemy. The "position" and "mobility" tactics are still just as valuable with the offensive machine gunner, but varies according to use. The positions you select are often more limited on the attack, you will often find less than optimal places to deploy but be sure to meet one of the criteria.
You must be mobile enough though to keep up with the attack and help consolidate ground your team has taken. Very often your team mates will die in the assault. If you have been in proper position, which is behind them and in a good position, you will already be deployed AND you will find yourself on the front line. As the enemy try to move into areas they were in, you will be there to mow them down. You just need to slow them up long enough to allow your respawning team mates to rejoin you. If you've caused enough damage and/or held up the enemy long enough, the attack will be able to continue on. As a result, you will often find yourself outside of cap zones, so don't expect a lot of capture points as you play an offensive machine gunner. Never bother pulling out the pistol, if you are moving around alone with your pistol out, you are dead already and should just give the MG position to someone else. If you are moving alone, it should only be away from where the enemy is at.
On the attack, you can also help protect your team as they attack. I often find it valuable to deploy my machine gun on one of the attack route flanks. I use my firepower from behind the attack to help keep the enemy off the flanks of my team mates. On maps like Basovka it can help tremendously.
Defense: This is a much simpler role to fulfill. Following the tactics above of position and mobility, especially position, you can cause great pain on the enemy on defense. Position is key on defense. Find a spot that can cover the cap point, or a popular route to the cap point. Just continue to interdict the enemy as they move towards and into the capture zone. If you find yourself getting flanked or overrun, don't hesitate to disperse further back. You team mates will recapture lost defensive territory and you will live longer. Don't be afraid to deploy in a area you were killed before. If it's a stong location and causes lots of difficulties, it can be worth deploying there if you can kill 3-4 of the enemy before they can get you.
On either attack or defense you should follow the following tactics. Do not deploy indoors unless you can get a long field of fire. Otherwise you are nothing more than grenade bait. Do not reload the weapon within sight of an enemy OR a place that the enemy will likely appear. Always move to cover before reloading your weapon. Otherwise, you will often finding yourself getting shot during these times. With the German MG's this also refers to changing barrels, although this quicker than reloading and can sometimes be chanced under areas where you might expect an enemy to appear, but never do it within sight of them. Use your grenades! Don't forget you have them. If you in a bad position and are getting assaulted, jump up, drop a nade and move back. I've often had enemy move into my old position with my grenade going off.
All machine guns put out a "suppressive" effect on targets in the beaten zone. This effect is an annoyance at best, so don't expect it to stop or even throw off the aim of the enemy at all. Although I agree that this effect should be greater, as "fear of death" is something lacking in a game, it's a difficult thing to balance. Use the machine gun as a killing weapon and not a suppression weapon and it will work fine. Perhaps someday we can somehow accurately model the tremendous "suppressive" effect a machine gun has in real life.
Get a buddy! Your effectivesness will increase two-fold if you can get a rifleman to stick with you during a map. He can provide you with extra ammo, cover your flanks/rear against enemy outside your covered arc, toss grenades on corners where there are leaning riflemen, and ultimately he can man the machine gun if you get killed. Often your rifle buddy will still be in position when you return and you can briefly have two MG's firing. Finding someone willing to do this and using effective communication with them can be a very rewarding experiecne.
Now that I've covered some tactics of using Machine Guns, I will move on to the individual weapons and their unique attributes.
DP-28: The Russian machine gun is a tough and accurate beast. Because of it's slower rate of fire, it can be fired in longer bursts with good accuracy, Be aware that the DP-28 does not have a changeable barrel and cools down very slowly. If you are firing in long bursts and too often, you will find it turns into a slow firing inaccurate piece of crap. It takes a very, very long time for it to cool down, so controlling your fire is very important. It also has a small magazine. After each encounter with an enemy, reload....then reload again. The DP-28 always seems to run out of ammo at the most critical moment. It is very accurate at long ranges, but lacks the serious volume of fire the German weapons have. Quick bursts at close range (<100 meters) of 1 or 2 bullets can be almost as accurate as a rifle. It does have the ability to fire in the assault mode, and is the most controllable of the machine guns in this mode, but it's still not very effective. Leave that role to the SMG's.
MG-34: This German weapon has a similar rate as the DP-28. It's very controllable and accurate at long ranges. Even though it heats up more slowly than the DP-28, it should still be fired in short bursts (3-4 rounds). Although, longer bursts (10-15 rounds) are just about as accurate as the DP-28, even at long ranges. It has a quick change barrel and should be changed after any serious fire fight (i.e. more than 10 short bursts) or if the barrel starts to smoke (default key B). It also has a small magazine size and should be changed after every encounter. I'm not sure where the sight of the MG-34 is set at, but it should almost obscure your target when firing. At long range, you might not be able to see your target at all due to the elevation you must fire at. At long range, fire above the head of your target and you will be rewarded. Because of the small magazine, try to always keep your pockets full. The MG-34 is also usable in the assault mode, but it's barely controllable. Once again, leave that role to the SMG's.
The MG-34 also has the unique ability to fire in a semi-automatic mode. By using the secondary fire button, you can fire single shots as quickly as you can pull the trigger. Using this mode is fairly accurate, it seems at least as accurate as the semi-automatic rifles, and can hit targets at a fair range. The main benefit for using the semi-auto mode is that there are no tracers when firing. I use it when there is only a single enemy that hasn't seen me and I'm sure I can secure a hit. It keeps from revealing your position that the tracers can and will do. It seems to have limited uses though and if you really want to be a sharpshooter, get a bolt action rifle.
MG-42: This weapon is a beast. Accordingly, it should be handled like one. It is by far the most dangerous weapon in the game. It has a very high rate of fire but it also has more recoil than the other MG's and heats up very quickly. Luckily, each of these problems can be overcome. The MG-42 should never be fired at more than 4-5 rounds at a time. This can be accomplished by just TAPPING the mouse button. If you hold it down for even 1 second, you have fired off nearly 20 rounds and the recoil and movement of the barrel will throw your aim off. The sight for the 42 seems to be set a bit low and to the left a bit. In other words, you must aim high and fire to the right of your target just a bit. If you are greater than 100 meters, you will NOT be able to see the target you are shooting at as it will be obscured by the sight. To get used to this, go into practice mode and practice, practice, practice. Once you figure out the sweet spot, the MG-42 can actually be used like a bolt action rifle! Just put the sweet spot on the target you wish to cut down and TAP the button. Those first few rounds WILL find their target and they will die. Only under desperation should you EVER fire the MG-42 in longer bursts. i.e. being charged by many enemy at once. In those rare cases, aim high and sweep back and forth as you throw out the lead. You will often drop your targets. At longer ranges, the MG-42 is still very accurate. People often forget that real bullet ballistics are used in RO. If you are shooting at long range targets, aim high(higher than you think you should), and slightly lead your target (only lots of practice at different ranges can teach you this) and give the gun a couple of taps sending 8 to 10 bullets downrange. Very often the enemy will run right into the cloud of lead you sent his way and he will drop. The MG-42 heats up VERY quickly and the accuracy of the weapon goes to crap VERY quickly. After only 5-6 TAPS of the mouse, you will start to notice a decrease in accuracy. You must change barrels OFTEN....I will say again...change barrels OFTEN. After every encounter, change the barrel. It changes very quickly and you really don't need to take cover to do it as you will almost surely have it finished by the time the enemy shows up again. (You aren't changing barrels or loading in view of the enemy are you??) Keeping the barrel fresh will keep you putting the rounds where you want them and causing pain in your enemies. With slightly larger magazine capacity, 100 round belts, you will be able to go quite a while with 3 belts. If you are only tapping the mouse button, you should expect 20 taps per belt. In that same time, you should have changed the barrel 4-5 times. The MG-42 is difficult to master, but it is a very deadly and very rewarding weapon once you learn how to do it.
I'm sure I've forgotten something. I've also not covered tactics that apply to only certain maps as that is another topic altogether. If you feel I forgot something or have anything to add, please do. I feel a lot of the maligning comments about the Machine Guns in RO:OST are due to lack of experience. It takes quite a bit of practice and experience to get rewarded for using them. That steep learning curve has made many players give up the machine guns as junk or poorly modled. This combined with the difficulty of getting time playing a machine gunner makes the curve very steep. Be persistent and you will be rewarded.
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