- Yes
- No
The ZK 423 is a prototype Czech machine gun chambered in the intermediate 7.92x33 cartridge, the same as the STG44. It fills a similar role as the Soviet RD-44 and is essentially an early “squad automatic weapon” rather than a traditional light machine gun. It had a rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute, essentially making this gun like a heavy, belt-fed sturmgewehr.
It could feed from 50-round belts that could be contained inside of a drum.
SOURCE: VHU PRAHA
Weapon Type
The ZK-423 is a machine gun and should only be used by machine gunners.
Battle Rating (BR)
The ZK-423 should be BR5 but arguments could be made for BR4 due to its 50-round capacity. If it’s BR5, it should have better than average reload speed due to the small drum filled with smaller ammo compared to other German LMGs.
Type
This weapon has the potential to be a tech tree, battlepass, or event weapon. However, due to it’s uniqueness and how radically different it is compared to any other German LMG, I believe it should be placed in the tech tree to make the high BR meta more diverse with more options. Though it is completely fair to argue the opposite and say the uniqueness deserves to be locked behind an event. I would like to see a diversified meta with different choices to make personally.
Availability
All of Germany’s high BR tech tree machineguns are heavy with extreme rate of fire. Having a machine gun like the ZK-423 would provide something completely new. It would favor more mobile and aggressive playstyles compared to every other german LMG which are typically best in a defensive scenario.
Because the ZK-423 is a prototype, people might argue against it being in the tech tree and instead argue it should be a BP/Event gun. That’s a fair assessment too, and I will let the developers make the final judgement, but I believe making this unique weapon accessible for everybody would ultimately create a more diverse and interesting meta at high BR.
Gameplay Purpose & Role
The role of the ZK-423 would be that of a squad automatic weapon, like that of the RD-44. It’s meant to be mobile and more aggressive compared to other LMGs. It would enhance gameplay if it was added by providing an entirely new way to play German machinegunners.
It would also provide Germany a machine gun unlike anything else they have at high BR, because the ZK-423 does not have an excessive rate of fire or large capacity. Because of its reduced capacity and because of the smaller bullet it fires, it would obviously be more agile than any other LMG at BR5.
