Alright so here me out. I’ve been looking back at @wastedwoodsman old posts and people who have mentioned his “crusade” and I myself never thought too much about it because I was a German main and never played allies much.
However about a month back, I lost access to my main account which had High tier Germany including the FG-42-2, but I forgot my password and now I’m using this alt account and I’m currently “packing heat” with the BAR M1918 and let me tell you it’s of equal power to FG-42-2 and even plays the same (although I believe it preforms better with vertical recoil reduction compared to horizontal which the FG-42-2 benifits the most from.)
I now understand what wastedwoodsman was on about, why is a weapon so similar in a different class? Oh and by the way, the M1941 Johnson LMG was literally nicknamed the “American FG-42” so why can’t Allied riflemen use BAR and Johnson LMG?
It’s a complicated balance of historical roles. Yes the BAR and FG 42 are both in the family of automatic rifles, but the BAR was pushed into the role of squad automatic weapon like the German MG 34 and 42
Now look at the Bren, no one would ever call that an automatic rifle or has ever petitioned for it to be, because that was not the role it was designed for
It’s part of the beauty of that period in the world of firearms where there were so many different breeds.
Back then a typical infantry rifle would be a bolt or semi auto firing a full rifle round to maximize range and damage. An automatic rifle was intended as an infantry rifle that could go automatic for specific circumstances; while an LMG was specifically used for squad support. I liken it as an Automatic Rifle is the child of Rifles and LMGs
I’ve said they could make the original BAR variant as well as a field modified BARA2 into Automatic Rifle weapons, while the BARA1 and A2 would stay “LMGs” because they were designed for that role. The Johnson should remain an MG because that was its intended role. While the FG42 should remain an auto rifle
It’s all about the blurred lines between rifle, automatic rifle, and LMG
Look at the M14. Despite already being automatic they did experiments to create a variant to act as an “LMG”. Now why would you need a LMG variant of a gun that is already automatic? Because it’s about distinct roles on the battlefield
I mean, I guess, if it’s about distinct roles on the battlefield. I hate it, but it’s not the worst argument I’ve ever heard.
I participated in a lot of those original “Crusade” posts from woody, and my opinion now ain’t much different than it was then: FG42 should be an LMG. That might not have been it’s intended use (we can argue about whether it was supposed to be a rifle that could do MG work or an MG that did rifle work), but that’s how it was used, supplementing or replacing MG-34s and 42s in Fallschirmjager service.
This is where woody or someone else would pop off about the M2 carbine, and then woody would ask for the BAR to be a rifle. Nah fam. FG-42s are LMGs, M2 Carbines are SMGs. “But AVS-36 and AVT-40!” They’re not that good, but recently I’ve come around to the idea that non-specialists (Gunners and Assaulters) should just never have full auto weapons. It doesn’t do a lot to reduce the perception or worry about doomstack autorifle spam, and it does nothing to reduce the same behavior with stacks of LMG or Assault squads, but it would end the discussion pretty quick.
As correctly stated in the publication International Armament, Vol. II , “since the M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun did not use a belt feed, the Army and Marines classed it with the BAR and officially considered it an automatic rifle.”
I have never heard of the FG 42 being meant to replace the MG 34 and 42. You really can’t beat a belt fed MG. I’m pretty much certain it was intended to replace/ supplement the Kar and an emergency MG
Ah, balls, I can’t find it now, so I won’t die on this hill, but back in the woody crusade days I found a solid source on FJ unit compositions that indicated, with historical sources, that the FG-42 was employed as a replacement MG in the FJ rifle sections. They only ever made about 2000 of them, regardless, not nearly enough to justify their existence in game as a general infantry weapon (especially since they could easily add tech tree FJ squads, and class lock the FG-42 to paras)
Yeah, you’re probably right. But hey, whole post about what used to be a controversial topic, and no one’s mad, so it doesn’t hurt to toss the ideas around.
The real answer is to remove all automatics from all classes except for assaulter and machine gunner. Specialist classes should use their weapons exclusively.
As far as I know, someone suggested the same thing a few months ago when it seemed like the BAR from Pacific is going to become a legacy weapon (since it wasn’t in tech tree on test server)
He suggested this weapon should became available for rifleman class instead of removee.
In the end, the removal wasn’t intentional. Devs just overlooked it. So then they put it back in the trees.
And non of them really cared about this suggestion. Even tho this suggestuon wasn’t even controversial at that point. (With exception of few individuals who are always dramatic about literally everything)
Even at that, it doesn’t matter. Since the BAR is not hitting it’s targets when aiming at them while the FG 42 is, it really makes the recoil stat worthless against the FG 42, semi-auto or full auto.
FG42 II isn’t even a real advantage, Soviets have AVT-40 and US has M2 Carbine.
Most people who never played FG42 has no idea how handicapped it is by recoil, most difficult to use SF rifle. I do own all of them and my favourite is AVT-40 because of its versatility and potential to be the best SF with trigger discipline.
My least liked is M2 Carbine mostly due to its lack of range.
This isn’t a -insert faction- suffers post.
All factions on BR5 has SF rifles and all of them are unique.
M2 Carbine fills the role of assault weapon for infantry, the trade off is that US has this but no AR.
AVS and AVT has the most range out of all SF and highest damage. These rifles complemeted ppsh41s well but have small mag and least ammo.
FG42 is the most balanced stat wise, in the midway between allied weapons. The trade off is insane recoil and jack of all trades but master of none syndrome.
The problem with adding every faction its own FG42 that it takes away Germany’s uniqueness, why play Germany than when you can do the same with Soviets who even have AVT and Fedorov.
Are you sure it isn’t the unholy camera that causes my sights to obscure my aim? I don’t have this issue in other games, so why is Enlisted the only one to do this to me?
