Hi DRG
Ok so yes you are right, the values were set a long time ago and havnt been changed, until the move from v6 to v7 when LMGs were reworked.
Here are some numbers which I hope may be of interest.
______________v6___________v7/winSPWW2________No change
Gun______Accuracy_Hit______Accuracy_Hit______Accur acy_Hit
BAR_________8_____5________20_____5_________17____ 5
2BARS_______8_____8________20_____8_________17____ 8
3BARS_______9____10________20____10_________17___1 0
MG34________9_____8________20_____8_________20____ 8
MG42_______10____10________17____10_________22___1 0
BREN_______10_____7________21_____5_________22____ 5
DP__________9_____7________20_____5_________20____ 5
Breda6.5_____8_____6________20_____4_________17___ _4
Breda7.5_____8_____7________18_____5_________17___ _5
6.5type96____8_____7________21_____4_________17___ _4
7.7type99____9_____8________18_____5_________20___ _5
'No change' represents the values the guns would have had if the values had been increased equally (using mg34 as a benchmark giving a factor 2.2r)
So salient points are that between v6 and v7 evidence appeared showing that in previous versions of the game BAR had been underrated and MG42 had been overrated.
What I find unrealistic is that BAR a SLR now has better hit values than several LMG on the game.
And if I might expand a point I made earlier. A LMG barrel will be too hot to use after just about a couple of hundred rounds hence the spare barrel. The 2nd BAR for all practicle purposes represents the second barrel and so the 2 BAR squad configuration should have same firepower as the current single BAR squad and the single BAR squads values should be halved.
As far as I can make out the reason the second BAR was added was because one BAR just didnt cut it.
For anyone interested, here is a good analysis of BAR.
http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/..._battalion.htm
Thanks for your time Chuck.