This shotgun also fires a rifle round out of the third barrel located beneath the 2 shotgun barrels. Is this going to be implemented?
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they either need to buff shotguns or do this
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It really should be available. It would immensely make the shotgun more effective to put on assaulters as well for the Germans, and thus make German assaulters far more effective as a result.
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Yeah that would go over well.
Well, it wouldn’t be better than having a dual-weapon setup with shotgun + bolt action rifle, I’d imagine. But it would mean noob squads running the shotgun or people wanting to have a backpack would have something that better competes with the PPS-42/43 but doesn’t /completely/ give up the ability to fight back beyond point blank ranges, as the shotgun does right now.
The most effective German counter to the Soviet SMG spam are the LMGs. Ironically this is somewhat historical as the German doctrine was built around the LMG/GPMG concept so that is what seems to be happening in games. Once I have unlocked the MG squad in Berlin, I lead with a K98 rifleman and when I run into a wall of SMGs or a Soviet LMG, I bring the M34 into action. With any luck the AI has not run off and got the gunners killed and then you can hold the line or push the attack for a bit. I only use 2 gunners from a historical perspective so its still challenging to stem the SMG rush, but sometimes it works.
Well, yes, gunners are the core to German success in Berlin. (I have said as much in my guide; Evaris' Guide to Playing Germany on Berlin ) But the fact that the drilling having it’s rifle firing mode would make German assaulters more viable than they are right now doesn’t change.
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I think the inclusion of the drilling as a remotely viable weapon is just gimmicky and flawed. Having said that if there is any campaign where it would hold any credibility it would be in the Fall of Berlin campaign.
I mean, not really, if shotguns remotely played like in game like they act IRL. At 50m, roughly half of the buckshot - 7 to 8 pellets from a 15 pellet 00 buckshot standard-length cartridge - should still impact within a 1 meter circle, with spread out to three meters. At 100m, roughly two to three pellets should still impact within a 1 meter circle within the center, and still roughly have half the power they had at the muzzle. (energy per pellet being approximately 2/3rds that of a 9mm round fired from a pistol at the muzzle, about 3.5-4 damage per pellet if we translated such to in-game?)
Shotguns should be -far- more effective than they act like in game, unfortunately following video game tropes with excessive spread.
Also, a single-shot 9.3×74mmR round from the Drilling’s rifle barrel should be no joke. That thing should have around 20 damage per shot off the bat, if we scale muzzle energy to presently in-game bolt actions’ damage values.
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In all the historical material I’ve read there is very little mention of shotguns being anything other than a situationally viable weapon, and even those folks that carried them only used them because of a lack of availability of SMGs.
As I mentioned, they are a reasonable addition to the Fall of Berlin, where all manner of home made stuff was rolled out in a last ditch effort to delay the inevitable. But to include them in other campaigns is just gimmicky and feeds the run and gun FPS mentality.
Even allowing soldiers to carry multiple weapons should be more selective - I can understand a mortar man armed with a rifle and operating the mortar as a secondary - same for the Anti Tank role, which has a rifle and an anti armour weapon as a secondary. But for the MGs this was not the case they tended to carry pistols and relied on their assistant and NCO to have the rifle and SMG respectively. I am somewhat perplexed as to the value of having all these unrealistic and ahistorical options available for the game. It just seems gimmicky to me and cheapens the immersion.
I mean, the US had shotguns in Normandy, and are generally a thing that the US has carried into war since WW1 rather consistently, as a secondary arm for room breaching and clearing, (and trench warfare) so it’s not -just- Berlin where shotguns make sense.
This is a good read on the real-world effectiveness of shotguns;
https://brassfetcher.com/Shotguns/Maximum%20Effective%20Range/Buckshot.html
Like I said there would be some missions where you might consider a shotgun, but when given an option of a shotgun or an SMG, I’d take the latter. Note also that whilst the game doesn’t go into it and technically its probably immaterial, but the logistics of having to provide ammunition and spare parts for shotguns would be more of a luxury rather than being of any tactical benefit/efficiency. I guess the US logistic system in WWII was a stand out for that, and one of the key inputs into the allied victory in the West.
The eastern front however was carried on the back of the Mosin Nagant, the PPSh/PPD and the T-34 across all variants. There were no gimmick weapons required for the Soviets to beat the Nazis.
I would like to formally necro this thread, and voice my indignation that we have access to THE triple-barrelled shotgun, yet for some reason are unable to use the third barrel. Missed opportunity! Just have the third barrel work like a single shot bolt action, with a fire mode switch between shotgun and rifle.
I see no way this would be OP compared to other available weapons, but I do see it being fun & cool.
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