AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
MACHINE GUNS
Light machine guns such as the Bren or MG-34 with bipod and drum magazines require no significant time to set up. They are usually carried in the same position as they are fired, and are moved loaded. Heavier machine guns are not moved in the same manner.
Machine gun teams usually consist of two men but a third can be added if the weapon is tripod-mounted. Drum or clipped ammunition is allocated to the team in the SET UP section. If the weapon is belt fed, then two boxes, each of 250 rounds, come with the gun and either the gunner or loader may have a spare 50-round belt draped around him.
Belt fed weapons that fire more than 25 rounds in a burst may jam if they are not allowed to cool at least one card between bursts. The weapon gets two free bursts after set up or at start of game.
After that, if not allowed to cool between bursts, test for a jam. To determine if a jam exists, if the fire die roll is an odd number, the weapon jams after firing. It will require a card of work by the gunner or loader to clear the jam. This does not affect water-cooled weapons, which never overheat.
All automatic weapons have a chance for a serious jam (a malfunction or broken part) which happens if the die roll of 100 occurs when firing. Repairing this type of jam a card of work by one man followed by a die roll of 20 or less is required on a D100.
If the weapon is fired without a loader, the belt may break. If the D100 roll is 1-50 then the belt breaks after that many rounds have been fired. If the roll is 51 or greater then the belt remains intact.
To open ammo boxes and link or re-link belts requires 1 card of work by one man.
To break the gun down for transport requires 2 cards of work by one man. Two men can carry the gun without breaking it down if on a tripod. This is a heavy load.
The distance to carry a heavy load is Prone = 1", Kneeling 2", standing 3". Running is not allowed.
To change a magazine takes 1 card of work.
The gunner can fire a light machine gun such as a Bren, BAR or German MG-34 offhand (not using bipod) but because it is not really designed for this, the limit on burst length is 35 rounds as if it was a submachine gun, and there is a fire penalty of -10.
Unlike a rifle or carbine, there is no bonus for "resting" the weapon on a solid surface. These weapons are designed to be fired with the bipod resting on a solid surface.
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