Vickers is better in buildings/trenches and an amazing HMG. It's great at what it does.
Mg42 is also great at what it does, probably slightly weaker than the vickers all things considered (there are plenty of extremely relevant stats being left out of this discussion like burst length).
The extra range in buildings at vet 1 is insanely good and the vickers can self spot (unless this was reverted?) more things that throwing stats at each other instead of playing the game fail to exemplify.
Both HMGs are strong and cost effective... Why is this a thread?
The Vickers can only self spot if you recrew it with Tommies that have been upgraded with Pyrotechnics supplies. However:
- You will be paying a 35MP reinforcement cost on the crew (Tommies will use their old reinforcement cost due to a bug)
- Pyrotechnics supplies suffers from the same woes that offensive veterancy does; only the initial models receive upgraded sight
Having said, that, I agree with everything you said, except for one thing; How can the lengthier burst of the Vickers ever be considered as an advantage (and not a disadvantage):
- Even with the burst length factored, Vickers definitely deals less suppression per unit of time
- Longer burst length means that the enemy can dive out-of-sight/in cover during your burst, and thus receive less suppression/damage
Sure, if the burst length of the MG42 and the Vickers were equal, the Vickers would be even worse. However, what did you have in mind?