Machine Gunner

* United States
* Germany
* Soviet Union

*"As a Machine Gunner, your main responsibility will be to provide heavy suppression on enemy units and positions. With a high rate of fire and a large ammo count, this role excels at holding down a field of fire from a fixed position whilst their unit pushes forward."*
— Machine Gunner Role Guide

The **Machine Gunner** is one of the fourteen playable roles featured in *Hell Let Loose*.

## Gameplay Tips

**How to play well:** A good Machine Gunner moves with his unit and deploys himself at critical positions with a wide field of view. He establishes a position and chooses his battles forcing the enemy to stay low and reconsider movement across open ground. The machine gun excels in a long range or established position. A good Machine Gunner takes care when approaching enemy positions as his weapons favor staying put. A good Machine Gunner shoots in bursts and resupplies when possible.

**How to play poorly:** A selfish Machine Gunner doesn’t communicate well or listen to his unit or Officer. He plays as point-man and is often killed before he has the chance to deploy his weapon. A bad Machine Gunner will shoot on sight rather then suppress the enemy.

**Brace yourself** – Whilst Machine Gunners are most effective when holding down a field of fire, in a desperate situation they can hold the RMB to brace fire. This fires their weapon from the hip, limiting accuracy and making you an easy target, so use it sparingly… Or if you’re clearing a building.

**Know your surroundings** – Machine Gunners will find themselves relatively stationary for a large portion of their combat time, therefore it’s important to know what’s around you. Unlike other infantry roles, your mobility is severely hampered when you’re aiming, so make a mental note of where you can be flanked, shot from or penned in from. Whilst you’re at it, have an escape route planned too!

**Patience is a virtue** – If you’ve set-up your bipod and found yourself watching a chokepoint or contested path, patience can have big rewards. If you see an enemy soldier emerge from cover, unaware of your presence, it can pay off to wait a few seconds before opening fire. Why? Because where there’s one soldier, there’s normally their unit too! This can make the difference between one elimination and a unit wipe.

**Light them up** – When firing your machine gun, you’ll notice that some of your rounds are tracer rounds! These are an effective way to highlight enemy positions, not only for your unit, but surrounding allies. Whilst you’re suppressing an enemy position, your allies will be able to focus in on where you’re shooting to aid in taking out the opposition. Here's a fact you might not know! Hell Let Loose uses historically accurate tracer rounds as in the axis powers use green tracers and allied powers use red tracers.

## Trivia

* The Machine Gunner role is easily the most powerful role in regards to firepower, however this also makes it a highly priority target due to its dangerousness and visibility on the battlefield. A Machine Gunner should keep this in mind when picking a firing position, as wide open field might make picking targets easy, but it also opens them up to attack from a large number of directions.
* The US Level 3 Machine Gunner role is unique in that it loses access to a mountable machine gun, and instead gets a BAR with a large amount of magazines. This makes the role similar to the Automatic Rifleman just with vastly more magazines. This comes at the cost of losing a large portion of firepower and ranged accuracy, but gives back in the form of vastly increased mobility.
* Due to the Machine Gunner role being one of the few roles that can "mount" their weapon, its highly advisable to learn the when and where the weapon can be mounted, and what lines of fire it can take **before** you start shooting.
* The amount of time it takes to brace an MG is roughly the amount of time it takes to kill an enemy with a pistol without head shots. It's recommended to use the pistol when you are **not** expecting to engage the enemy. Both weapons are ineffective at range, in which cases ducking for cover and seeking help from squad mates is advised.