Introduce a "Carbine" Weapon Class

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Introduce a “Carbine” Weapon Class

This is inspired by and the continuation of my reply to another post asking for APC drivers to be allowed to use Assault Rifles by @Comrade_Sina, it’s very interesting and I recomend you read it before you continue here:

This suggestion inspired me to propose a alternative suggestion, one that’s both historically grounded and could expand gameplay variety in a cool and interesting way.

The Core Idea

Rework the “Volkssturm Rifle” weapon class (currently used only for the VG 1-5) into a new, broader weapon class: Carbines.

This new “Carbine” class would then include several existing weapons already in the game, all of which share similar traits, lighter than full-size rifles, firing intermediate or smaller ammunition, more effective than pistols, and (in most cases) were historically often designed with support troops (like vehicle crews) in mind.

This new weapon class should be equipable on every single soldier class in the game, just like the VG 1-5 is today.

Suggested Weapons for the Carbine Class

This is probably not a complete list, but here are the main contenders:

  • M1 Carbine (US)
  • M1A1 Carbine (US)
  • M2 Carbine (US)
  • M2A1 Carbine (US)
  • VG 1-5 (Germany)
  • G 43 (8mm Kurz) (Germany)

Other similar weapons across factions could be added on a case-by-case basis, especially those that are share the characterstics of being light, compact, firing intermediate or smaller ammunition and don’t have pistol grips. These are just the weapons in game that I know of by hand to immediately include in this list.

Why Carbines Make Sense, Historically Speaking

For the US, carbines were specifically developed for troops like tankers, truck drivers and APC crews who needed something better than a pistol, but didn’t have the space or weight allowance for a full-size rifle or SMG (until the M1 “Grease Gun”, US SMGs were neither lightweight nor compact enough to fulfill the requirements).

The US Carbines (M1, M2, etc.) were designed as a lightweight self-defense weapon, they were meant exactly for the kind of roles that Enlisted currently restricts to pistols or SMGs.

So, from a historical perspective, it’s actually a bit strange that vehicle crews can’t use them right now.

Why Not Just Give Them Assault Rifles?

So, going back to what started all this: “Why not just let vehicle crews use Assault Rifles?”

While I’m not completely opposed to that, I think it’s more interesting if Assault Rifles remain an Assaulter-exclusive weapon class. It preserves a bit of class identity and progression while giving vehicle crews a much more fitting alternative.

Carbines would become the “everyman’s gun”, something simple, compact, and versatile that every soldier in the game can use.

Balancing and Design Philosophy

Key distinctions I propose:

  • Carbines = Intermediate or lighter weapons, often without pistol grips, with or without automatic automatic/select-fire capabilities, designed to be light and compact
  • Assault Rifles = Intermediate weapons with pistol grips and automatic/select-fire capabilities
  • Select-Fire Rifles = Full-powered weapons with select-fire capabilities

This isn’t a hard rule, but it’s a useful design lens to keeps things clean and help differentiate weapon classes without resorting to arbitrary stat blocks.

Final Thoughts

  • This system honors historical intent without upsetting gameplay balance
  • It gives vehicle crews meaningful weapon upgrades without treading on Assaulter territory
  • Gives more options to countries with less SMG options at any given BR
  • And it opens the door to adding more compact, underutilized weapons in future updates

Further Optional Tweeks

  • Consider adding the option for APC squads to switch out their medics for assaulters and vice-versa in the Squad Upgrades tab, the Universal Carrier event squad suffers needlessly from not having the option to replace the medic in my opinion for being such a small squad. (No idea if other APC squads have the same problem, I only ever use this one and the Premium APC squads for Germany and Japan),
    and
  • Also consider adding more specialist slots to tech-tree APC squads in the Squad Upgrades tab, the Premium squads should not be pay-to-win!

Thanks to @Comrade_Sina and the people on the original topic for these suggestions perticular suggestions.

Would love to hear others thoughts on this. This could really be a nice little quality-of-life and immersion upgrade for Enlisted without demanding any major overhauls (all the weapons already exist, and the “Volssturm Rifle” weapon class would just need to be renamed and given to other weapons).

Thanks for reading, and consider taking a look at another weapon tweeks suggestion of mine:

Have a great day, dear reader!

13 Likes
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I just remembered the sole exception to the “every soldier can use the VG 1-5”, which are guerrillas. I propose we also allow the guerrillas to use Carbines whilst we’re at it.

Volkssturm squads should be able to use Volkssturm weaponry, and what could be more perfect for the Australian jungle soldiers than to use jungle carbines?

2 Likes
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Absolutely!
Carbine should be a class, since it it IS! I mean no brainer, and perfect for Drivers, Mortarman, Engineers etc. That’s what they were often intended for, second line support Troops
I support :+1:

4 Likes
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I’d love to be able to give my US medics M1 Carbines.

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Thank you for this topic, I support it!

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But the G43 in 8mm Kurz isn’t a carbine, it’s a full length rifle converted into an assault rifle…

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I belive it should be classified as a carbine in this system so that Germany can have their own version of the weapon class, and considering the game already classified it as a select-fire rifle I belive it’s the natural next step.

Also consider what the difference between the M2 Carbine and the STG 44 is, really they are quite similar and the Assault Rifle vs Carbine debate is arbitrary to begin with, so taking some liberties for gameplay reasons are warrented.

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tbh making it an entirely new class its pretty unnecessary, but really expanding the amount of classes that can use these weapons should be the goal as things like the M1 Carbine were intended to be used by supporting personnel or really almost universally by the wider army since these were actually manufactured in larger numbers than the standard issue M1 Garand. And then there’s weaponry such as the VG 1-5 which were intended for the volksturm guerillas who for whatever reason can’t make use of them

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That’s the neat part, there won’t be any new weapon classes from this. Simply take the Volkssturm Rifle class, which is already in the game and only applied to one gun (VG 1-5), rename it to “Carbine” and apply it to the suggested weapons and other similar items. That’s what my suggestion was all about.

Currently the VG 1-5 can be equiped on every soldier class BUT the guerrillas, I’m simply asking for that to also be the case for the US carbines and other similar weaponry, and to allow guerrillas to use them whilst we’re at it.

1 Like