[LMGs] Food for thought!

Consider yourselves lucky that games have embraced the habit of (attempted) balancing. Typical Wehrmacht soldiers, your average squaddy, could manhandle a leiches Maschinengewehr 42 (lMG 42) with 50-round Gurttrommel (drum magazine--this is what we have in game) from the and maintain pretty reasonable accuracy even from the shoulder. I don't think that the lMG 34 was quite as light or ergonomic, but I'd reason you could shoulder that as well.

Hell, shooting it from the hip like we see in the CoH franchise would 'limp-wrist' the MG (seen here: http://youtu.be/Np6N_JKJaEA?t=3m7s )--the true blue way to bring that mother to bear would be to shoulder it like the DP animations we see in game. And even then, the Maschinengewehr series' of weapons had an in-line design that forced all of the recoil straight back at the shooter, reducing muzzle flip (so, little recoil--looking at you RO series!)

So yeah, Relic, gib MG assault rifles please ;D (or at least change the animations :3).

It's pretty amazing that 70 year old tech was handy enough to tot around like that, contrary to the false image portrayed even by games as 'realistic' as RO2!

But, but: He is doing it all wrong. Seriously, way to fire this (and ze Bundeswehr MG3) from the hip is to grab the bipod with the left and pull it back in which prevents limp wristing and stabilises your fire. AGA for the win!

Probably doesn't help your target-hitting ability though. I think shooting it from the shoulder is just flat out more economic and accurate.

It is. Shooting from the hip is highly situational anyways, and "should" only occur if you have some close range encounter while changing position or when assaulting a trench. Theories and such.

At least Relic didn't make LMGs realistic! Otherwise you'd have QQ threads when your LMG grens flopped down on their stomachs and started opening up a box of ammunition...6 seconds later, finally ready to engage. Oop, incoming grenade! Just give them 11 seconds to pack up the gun and they'd be golden!

Hell, shooting it from the hip like we see in the CoH franchise would 'limp-wrist' the MG (seen here: http://youtu.be/Np6N_JKJaEA?t=3m7s )--the true blue way to bring that mother to bear would be to shoulder it like the DP animations we see in game.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, but German Machine Gun Teams were instructed to fire their weapon from the hip if they could not find a place to rest the bipod. This tactic was also used by other armies with the Bren and BAR although those were lighter. Here's a soldier demonstrating with an MG 08, of all things.

If only there were an animation of the MG gunner resting the MG on another man...

MG08 is much, and I meand really much heavier that MG-34 or MG-42 so I guess it was possible with one men only. Of course not accurate enough to snipe a sniper but that is different discussion.