MG when you progress and attack

[Aga]

What is the best way to use MG when your troops are in attack ? I have found two problems with them when I play an attack : they can’t fire if they move, their move slower than the squads, and then can quickly left behind.
So my question would be : how do you use MG when you progress and then when you attack a position ? What is the best thing to do if you still want to use their fire power when you attack ?

[Belisarius]

Since I mostly play H2H final release now, this is not a major problem for my games anymore.

Anyway, if you use the MGs on attack, I usually employ them in two ways:

1) Let them piggy-back on whatever is nearby. Almost every tank/HT/car can carry a MG team

2) Better way: Place the MG with a good covering arc over the advancing *friendly* platoon. Advance the other squads up until about the end of the MGs firing field. Then let them take a break while the MG team catches up with them. Repeat.

That's what they are - mobile bases of fire.

[Procrustes]

I've pretty much stopped playing anything except the megacamps with C&C on and a few personal rules to keep me from pulling stunts the AI can't counter. (My life is just too hectic for me to be a conciencious PBEM opponent.)

Your MMG can't shoot on the turn it moves, but it can shoot (op-fire) during your opponents turn, so if you can get it somewhere that it will be able to catch an enemy squad as they advance or retreat you are golden. I've been playing a lot of the Guadacanal megacamp lately, using my USMC platoons and MMG's in the jungle where most combat occurs at one or two hexes. I've found it is pretty effective to use the MMG's to hold a flank as a line of squads creaps through the jungle. Otherwise, I keep them behind my infantry and then stack them with squads that I think are likely to be attacked during the Japanese turn - that way they can opfire on any Japanese squads that move adjacent before they try to assault.

I think that Belisarius's tips are great.

.

[Aga]

Very good hints, as usual.
And you can keep your MGs on your rear, ready to fire. Then they can cover a retreat if something doesn’t work well. Or they can defend against a flank counterattack too.

[STEELER13]

Flank and Rear are usually how I use the MG when I advance, just as described. And trust me, it has come in handy. Every offensive thrust is really quite vulnerable to counterattacks, so flank and rear security is a necessity often painfully ignored.
Funny part is, though, that in that sense the MG is still being used as a defensive weapon so have we really answered the original question?!
Oh, and shameless plug for the MC Screaming Eagles and any Wild Bill scenario....you better have that flank and rear security ready...many of these scenarios are full of surprises! Irony is that after so many suprises, you start to over anticipate or imagine these attacks, and then run out of time needed to take an objective. Frustrating but as a good read of war history will show you it happened often. What was the name of that American General at Anzio?