Role Overview
The Machine Gunner can provide unparalleled suppressive fire, often tying a whole enemy unit down and allowing friendly forces to flank. They are ideal for defending strongpoints and setting up ambush points.
Machine Gun ammunition includes tracers, which assist with aiming and allow team members to see where you’re firing. These are visible to everyone — friend and foe alike. Tracers work both ways.
In order to improve accuracy and reduce recoil, Machine Guns have a bipod that can be deployed. This can be deployed while prone or on various surfaces in the game world, such as a windowsill.
When the bipod is deployed the Machine Gunner will be immobile. In emergencies, the machine gun can be fired from the hip, utilising brace fire.
Bipod Mechanics
The bipod is the Machine Gunner’s primary accuracy tool. Deploy it before engaging at range — it significantly reduces recoil and keeps your rounds on target during sustained fire.
Deployment surfaces include prone on the ground and any suitable surface in the environment such as windowsills, walls, and terrain edges. Choose your surface based on the arc you need to cover, not just convenience.
When bipod-deployed you are fully immobile. If the enemy flanks your position while you’re set up, you cannot react fast enough to survive. Communicate your arc to your unit so they can watch your flanks.
In a sudden close-range contact where there’s no time to deploy, fire from the hip using brace fire. Accuracy drops significantly but it keeps rounds on target at close range when you have no other option.
Strengths
- Unparalleled suppressive fire — capable of pinning an entire enemy unit
- Tracers help teammates track fire and identify enemy positions
- Bipod deployment massively improves sustained accuracy
- Dominant on open lanes, strongpoint approaches, and ambush positions
- Brace fire provides an emergency hip-fire option at close range
Weaknesses
- Immobile when bipod is deployed — flanking is a death sentence
- Tracers reveal your position to every enemy on the map
- Requires good positioning before the fight starts — reactive play is costly
- Slow to redeploy once the enemy adapts to your position
- High-priority target for enemy snipers and flankers
Best Playstyle
Position before the fight. Identify the lane or approach the enemy will use, deploy the bipod, and hold that arc. Your suppressive fire is what allows your unit to manoeuvre — coordinate with your Officer so they know where you’re covering and can push off your suppression.
Resist the urge to reposition mid-fight. Once deployed, stay on your arc. If the lane becomes irrelevant, wait for a natural lull before moving — don’t break your setup chasing a fight.
Communicate constantly. Your unit needs to know your arc so they don’t cross it, and so they can cover your flanks while you hold the front.
Teamwork Tips
- Tell your Officer your position and arc — “MG on the north road from the treeline, covering the bridge approach”
- Pair with a Rifleman carrying an ammo box for resupplies during sustained engagements
- Never let your flanks go unwatched — ask your unit to cover them while you hold your lane
- Call out when you’re redeploying so your unit knows the arc is temporarily open
- Use your tracers deliberately — fire in bursts to spot fall of shot, then walk rounds onto target
Recommended Loadout
Belt-fed or high-capacity automatic weapon with bipod. Spare ammunition. Specific weapons by faction will be confirmed and added here after launch.
Advanced Tactics
- Tracer awareness: open fire in short bursts first — spot where your tracers are landing relative to the target, adjust, then commit to sustained fire
- Windowsill deploy: a bipod on a windowsill gives you cover from return fire while maintaining a full arc — one of the strongest positions in any building
- Suppression without kills: your job is often to keep heads down, not to rack up casualties. Fire into cover even when you can’t see the enemy — the suppression still works
- Ambush positioning: set up the bipod on an arc the enemy doesn’t know you’re covering — the first burst from an unexpected angle is the most devastating
- Hip fire escape: if your position is overrun and you have no time to undeploy, stand and brace-fire — it won’t be accurate but it may buy you the seconds you need to relocate