[Cross]

Hi John,

1) You are right. One ammo per fire, not sure what made me think 2 ammo for three fires? I adjusted my hex totals in the op.

But this still means HMG/MMGs (tri-pod mounted) can suppress 9 times the number of hexes than artillery costing the same amount!

2) Hexes affected per fire is the max for infantry, artillery and HMGs, and are wildly inaccurate for all three, so how's this relevant?

If a HMG hits the same or adjacent hex in their second fire, the fire still affects 7 hexes each time, so 14 hexes are still effected. If one hex is affected twice, any unit in that hex may suffer double suppression.

3) Infantry with rifle-grenades may fire z-fire at range 3, and HMGs and artillery with rifles may also fire additional z-fire, but this is irrelevant to my point.

4) Double HMGs can effect 14 hexes and arty 7 hexes.

Yet arty only gets about 120 ammo (for 120 points) but HMGs get 1,080 ammo!


Yes you can guess HMG locations and hit them with artillery, but HMG locations are far harder to spot and eliminate than arty guns. The only exception could be that HMGs may be closer to the front than artillery. Don't you agree?

If we went with your limit of say 2 MGs per company in a 2500 point game, I would probably have about 10MGs (costing about 100 points) and I could spend 250 points (10%) on 8 medium guns.

During the battle:
My 10 MGs could suppress 6,300 hexes.
My 8 guns could suppress 1,680 hexes, and my arty cost 2.5 times as much as the HMGs. Which is my point...

Do you really think HMGs should cause tons more suppression than artillery, and cost far less?

regards,
Cross