Machine Guns, why Bother?

[gunner]

Hi guys I am still testing and learning, but what is the Point of Machine Guns? What does doing Critical Damage to an Enemy Mech do exactly.

Would appreciate someone explain to me how to Maximise Machine Guns.

[Doombringer]

Shoot people in the head to injure pilots.
I think they got nerfed a long while back because they were too good at causing pilot injuries.

But MGs weigh almost nothing, do good damage, can fire when you melee stuff... not much bad about them other than the range.

+Critical damage means once a mech has lost armor on a section it is more likely to destroy components (it's nice if you set off ammo).

[steelcoresoviet]

They run cold as hell. They look and sound cool too.

Inability to mount them preloaded, or ammo in half ton increments, is a downer, though.
3 flamers= 3 Tons
3 SLs=1.5 Tons
3 MGs=2.5 Tons

[gunner]

@Doombringer, Do you mean that an Undamaged Head Component if it gets hit by Machine Guns means a Pilot Injury?

[Doombringer]

Anytime you damage the head you hurt the pilot.
The chance to hit the head is very low though, so more shots = more chances.
(I think they nerfed it so MG doesn't get 5x as many head shots as other weapons though, I haven't really played in a year so can't really remember)

If you have an AC10+ (that does improved damage - need 61+damage/shot) you can 1shot anything you hit in the head with it, otherwise you can use knockdowns+lots of little hits to run the pilot out of hitpoints.

[terrycpa1972]

Any hit to the head causes a pilot injury. The cap is one though. Multiple hits will in one salvo won't do 2 injuries.

People like machineguns because they don't do mu h damage so you are less likely to kill a mech accidentally. Small lasers and machineguns are support weapons which fire automatically after a physical attack so you can do additional damage.

The critical hits refers to when armor is breached and you cause damage to the enemy's weapons or ammo. Ammo could explode when hit like that.

[Doombringer]

Yeah, MGs are great if you are OCD about maxing salvage.

[gunner]

@terrycpa, so what you are saying is a MG armed Mech that hits the head can only cause 1 Pilot Injury irregardless of how many hits are landed by that 1 Mech? So if you have Another Mech with MG, and it hits it can cause 2 Pilot Injury within the same Turn?

[gunner]

@Doombringer, how does MG help in Maxing Salvage?

[Doombringer]

By killing the pilot without breaking the mech.

For 3 hp pilots you knockdown (1injury), use free called shots on prone mech to shooting his head with 4 MGs to get another, do it with another mech and he is done and you get full salvage.

Later on enemy mech pilots can have up to 6 hitpoints, so you need multiple knockdowns, called shots, etc.
It can be hard to kill a 6hp pilot without killing the mech with higher damage weapons...

A mech needs center torso + 1 leg to give full salvage.
You kill a mech by killing the pilot, destroying the head (which kills the pilot), breaking the center torso, or breaking both legs.
You lose a salvage part if you take out both legs, you lose 2 if you take out center torso.

[gunner]

@Doombringer, What type of Mechs for the MG player are we talking about?

Okay I think I get it that you have to use Called Shots for the MG to score Head Hits though.

[Doombringer]

You get free called shots vs prone mechs. Do enough stability damage to knock it down first.
(or break 1 of its legs)
I use King Crab with 4 MGs, SRMs, AC20, some medium lasers a lot.

If you spam enough shots you can get lucky and randomly hit the head, but it's like 1 in 81 chance...
(1 in 89 from the side, can't hit head from the back or with indirect fire, LRM clusters will never hit the head if the 1st shot in the volley doesn't.)
DFA or shooting down into the top of a mech should have a 1 in 7 chance of hitting the head.

[gunner]

I was thinking of Arming 6 x MG on certain Mechs, some people say it is Evil when done Properly, but I am still testing though... have not done a Practical Field Test yet for myself.

[Trey]

One of my favorite Firestarter variants replaces all the flamers with machine guns. I spend all of my heat on jumping around. Leap behind someone at the end of a round and light them up. Then you can shoot again directly into their back before jumping away.

[shadowrifty]

I wouldn't focus too much on headhsots. The chance of a headshot is too low to rely on it strategically.

I like to take a Dragon (it takes decent damage, but closes fast. Us whatever brawler you prefer though.) load it up with MG's. Then on the field. find that big boy with tons of Ammo bays. Weaken up the side, close with your brawler, slam through that arm or side torso with a melee attack, and open up with your MG's. Watch the fireworks as that slug thrower's ammo cooks off. That's what MG's are for.

[danko9696]

The main point of MGs is that they don't generate extra heat, so it's an easy way to get extra punch without requiring better cooling, just some weight available. And you sometimes may crit ammo slots, but if the target is full armored MGs are underwhelming (not a deal breaker when you don't generate heat with them).

But if you can afford the heat with good equipment then SLs with +dmg are much better. You kill much faster (safer) and Precision Shots become more effective.