Poll - Favorite Small Arm

[chico20854]

What type of small arm (.50 and under, man-portable) do you like to equip your PC with as his primary weapon? (I know folks like to keep a GPMG, a shotgun, a Barret .50 and a PPSH in the HMMWV for those special situations, but on an everyday basis)

A shotgun for really cleaning rooms up and for the occasional fresh fowl for dinner?
A SMG for carrying in and out of armored vehicles and handy CQB work?
An assault rifle that does a pretty good job from 15 to 300m for every soldier?
A 7.62mm battle rifle that can stop somebody at more than 200m?
A sniper rifle so you can take down that Marauder leader when he crosses the far ridge?
Only a pistol, because that's how officers show their status?
A light machinegun (SAW, RPK, L-86 or the like) so you have more firepower than the average joe but can still move a bit?
A medium machinegun to really lay down some firepower?
Or something else????

I understand, of course, that what your PC carries also depends on the rest of the party... if your group all had sniper rifles it might be tough to storm a building....

[fightingflamingo]

M14 or M1A hands down. Mostly because I'm a 7.62 fanatic, and secondly because I am very, very familiar with the operation, and employment of this platform, both on and off of the range. I like the ability to put down without question those I shoot at, which goes well with the 7.62's ability to defeat most personal body armor. I might favor the L1A1 or the G3 but I really lack significant experience with either of those platforms, so I can't say I'd prefer, even if in some aspects they may be superior. Regardless, my first and final choice would always be a 7.62 semi auto or select fire battle rifle...

[Targan]

Battle rifle. Both for me personally and for any PC. G3, FN-FAL/SLR, M14, all good. In the words of my very first Army range instructor "7.62 f**ks things".

[Raellus]

I'd like to cheat and pick the H&K G8. It can be used as both a SAW/LSW/LMG and as a marksman's rifle. I saw some pics of it being carried by German KSK commandos and fell in love with it. It's a wee bit munchkinish but I built a PC around the gun.

The following is an excerpt from Wikepedia:

"The German Army, German Navy and the Federal Police use a variant of the HK11 designated the Gewehr-8 (or G8). It is tapped for telescopic sights and has a quick-change barrel with a bipod that uses either a heavy match-grade bull-barrel or a heavy barrel for automatic fire. It was designed to use G3-type 10- or 20-round box magazines in the designated marksman role, but could also use a special 50-round drum magazine for sustained supporting or suppressing fire. The modified G8A1 adopted the improvements of the HK11A1 series and was only able to feed from magazines and drums."

It's listed as the HK 11E under German machineguns on Paul's site.

Sweet.

[pmulcahy11b]

I had to vote Medium Machinegun; what can I say? I love The Pig!

[jester]

I went with light machinegun! You can do almost as much with it as you can with a medium. And you can also do most of what you can do with an assault rifle. And a good gunner can get off single shots as well.

[Legbreaker]

Well, if it's got to be a small arm, then an automatic rifle / light machinegun is the preference for the ability to lay down sustained fire at a high rate.
First option though is a grenade launcher, preferably something along the lines of a Milkor MGL or similar.

[Dog 6]

M-14 FTW

[Ramjam]

I went with Battle Rifles.

If I shoot someone I want to know he's not going to get back up that quick.

Bring back the L1A1 SLR.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Ramjam

I went with Battle Rifles.

If I shoot someone I want to know he's not going to get back up that quick.

Bring back the L1A1 SLR.

Well done that man.

[Jason]

I went light mg, as I love to play a SAW gunner. In the 2.2 rule set the SAW lays down a sick number of shots without over-encumbering my character. I basically never play though, because I am the only GM for this game system.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Jason

I basically never play though, because I am the only GM for this game system.

I know how that feels.

[weswood]

M14 for the range and knock down power, plus the full auto option, even if it is only 20 rounds.

[Mohoender]

I went for the SMG as I really liked it. Like Jester said about the LMG, single shots are possible too. I used to drive my instructor crazy doing that.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

I went for the SMG as I really liked it. Like Jester said about the LMG, single shots are possible too. I used to drive my instructor crazy doing that.

I used to drive ROTC cadets crazy using an M-60 as an ad-hoc sniper rifle. Easy to squeeze off single shots using an M-60.

[Haven]

Battle rifle 1) cause they're cool 2) cause the v2.2 sucks for autofire so you might as well have a rifle that packs some serious semi-auto punch.

[Legbreaker]

Automatic weapons are usually not intended to be accurate although there are a few which are (I've heard old soldiers complaining that the Bren gun for example was too accurate and therefore not much good for suppressive fire).

I do believe though that the autofire rules in V2.0 and 2.2 are a bit harsh. As Paul can attest, anyone with a little experience firing proper automatic weapons (that is, anything with a bipood or tripod and actually intended for burst fire), should be able to get most of their rounds on target, most of the time.

Perhaps bursts should be allowed to take advantage of an action spent Aiming before squeezing the trigger, but only from a supported position (not standing from the hip or shoulder but with the weapon resting on something solid).
Assault rifles, SMGs and other lighter weapons would continue to use the existing rule...

Another way of approaching it is using the recoil attribute. If the total recoil is less than say 6, Aiming will have some benefit. Exceed this total recoil and it's basically back to "spray and pray".

Thoughts anyone?

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Thoughts anyone?

Use a better combat rules system. I do

Its ok, I've got my mouthguard in and I know I deserve a beating for that one.

[Legbreaker]

*Swings at Targan with a baseball bat using T2K rules and......misses!*

[Cpl. Kalkwarf]

Originally Posted by Targan

Use a better combat rules system. I do

Its ok, I've got my mouthguard in and I know I deserve a beating for that one.

Nut check!!!!

forgot yer nut-cup

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by Targan

Use a better combat rules system. I do

Its ok, I've got my mouthguard in and I know I deserve a beating for that one.

GM : "TARGAN aquired - he is close and pestering on about HarnF**ker"

player: "gaargh..I cant stand it! 5 bursts of autofire using V.2.0 rules!"



"rolls 15 D6 for 11 1`s and 4 5`s "

Player :"WHAT THE F***!"

GM : "eehh.. well the rules arent meant to actually portray reality but try to give a meaningful system to resolve a complex blahblamutter...."

[General Pain]

It basically depends if your'e on foot, in a car, beeing airdropped, how strong the character is, if it's a stealthy mission etc...

My usual weapons of choice usually is:

2 x 10g Sawed of shotguns (double barreled) (with buck and slug in each shotgun)
2 x .666 PainTek Knucklebusters (oversized deserrt eagle design)
1 x VSK-94 fullauto-sniperrifle with long range and good penetration dam 2 1-1-1
Apart from that I'd like to have a carbine able to shoot RAW-HE or RAW HEAT

or

(depends on situation) a autorifle of same calibre as enemies (cuz of the ammo)

[TiggerCCW UK]

I only get to GM Twilight these days, but when I was a PC it was usually an SLR with an HK69 for me

[Matt Wiser]

Assault rifle for day-to-day work. The trusty FNC.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

I only get to GM Twilight these days, but when I was a PC it was usually an SLR with an HK69 for me

Bless you my son

[jester]

You FAL lovers,

I have a question, how often are they in a carbine variant? I saw it once in the movie "Wild Geese" and that is it. However, they would be a cool system for gamming if your PCs operated in vehicles or close in areas or wanted the full firepower of the heavier weapon but needed concealability. I am thinking, a short barrel of about 12 inches and a folding stock. Would it work? Granted range would be highly reduced, but still a bada$$ system, at least I think.

[pmulcahy11b]

I've never fired a FAL, but I'm guessing a 12-inch-barrel FAL would have huge muzzle flash and possibly recoil (a regular FAL already has high recoil on automatic). Mounting a good muzzle brake would help, though muzzle brakes tend to re-direct the actual muzzle flash rather than reducing it much. I wouldn't want to shoot such a weapon at night -- instant night blindness.

[Ramjam]

Didn't the Aussies try a carbine version of the L1A1 during Vietnam. If I remember rightly they nicknamed them 'Bitches' because they had a hell of a kick.

Here's the info on it from wiki :

Another interesting product of Australian participation in the conflict in South-East Asia was the field modification of L1A1 and L2A1 rifles by the Australian Special Air Service Regiment SASR for better handling. Nicknamed "The Bitch", these rifles were field modified, often from heavy barrel L2A1 automatic rifles, with their barrels cut off immediately in front of the gas block, and often with the L2A1 bipods removed and a XM148 40 mm grenade launcher mounted below the barrel. The XM148 40 mm grenade launchers were obtained from U.S. forces. For the L1A1, the lack of fully-automatic fire resulted in the unofficial conversion of the L1A1 to full-auto capability by simply filing down the selector, which works by restricting disconnecter movement.

-------------

Now the L1A1 had I nice solid kick to it even on single shot so I'm betting this thing earned it's nicknamed well lol.

[James Langham]

In Vietnam the Australian SAS used an L1A1cut down to juyst ahead of the gas regulator for short range work. It was called "the beast" from the recoil. They also produced a shortened SLR for the smaller Aborigine troops, the L1A1F1. Neither had a folding stock (as per standard SLR). If I was making one I would start with the FAL.

Personallt I would take an L85A2 (SA80). Never had a problem with it, it's what I'm trained on and the sling is a fantastic piece of work. Less happy with the bayonet though so I would carry a pistol for close in (very close with my pistol skill - far less than half my rifle skill!).

[James Langham]

No need to get the file out - a strategically applied match-stick does the trick!