Question to the community regarding the sportsmanship and z-fire

[Imp]

Well this is dragging on & going off topic but my 2 cents.

PBEM Z fire is an integral part of the game & while those that use it excessively bog down the game by restricting movement they tend to loose because they give away to much info. Only ever played one guy who was very good at it on the right type of map.

The MG thing
In my view they work as they should in this game their main role is suppression either to break up an attack or soften a defence.
The kill rating is therefore not a major factor though higher is nice of course.
So in use in game the MG42 & Vickers provide similar suppression & the MG42 gets a few more kills. Ignoring other factors like accuracy, range etc.

Okay now lets adjust the MGs another way so they are in line with what you are saying Simon, we will assume for this both teams carry the same ammo.
1 Set MG 42 Kill to the same as the Vickers
2 At least double the ROF from 9 to say 19
Now in human hands its way superior as you can elect to take a few shots or fire the full amount at the expense of ammo.
This has now become a superb Z fire tool allowing you if you so wish to put down double the suppression in a turn that the Vickers can.
Ignoring supply problems you could also introduce MG units with a move of zero or 1 & far higher ammo loads for defence, that MG42 is now nasty.
For units advancing yes the ammo loads are probably a bit high but I believe it was common practise for other units supporting the MG to carry ammo for it. Just assume this happens in game.
You said PBEM games are over pretty quick, would you expect the MGs to run out ignoring strategic supply problems. I seem to remember Vickers MGs fired virtually continuously for 12 hours, lets call that 200 game turns.