by SgtHulka
Something else to consider is that the Machine-gunners are still contributing to their squads even after they're dead in the form of a lot of hit cards.I've been checking out the soldier stats provided by Starman54, Walter Mulder, and Painless, and comparing their machine-gunners to my own. Here's a list of each Machine-gunner. It's in the format of:
Name/Weapon/Close/Short/Long/CloseHits/ShortHits/LongHits/TotalHits
Here are the Americans:
Garner/M1919A4/c18/s8/l16/ch9/sh6/lh3/th18
Beck/M1919A4/c10/s8/l18/ch9/sh3/lh0/th12
Wormwood/M1919A4/c12/s7/l16/ch3/sh2/lh1/th6
Epsworth/M1919A5/c14/s9/l18/ch1/sh4/lh1/th6
Altman/BAR/c10/s6/l14/ch3/sh2/lh4/th9
Moon/BAR/c9/s5/l15/ch2/sh6/lh2/th10
Reasons/BAR/c12/s6/l16/ch12/sh7/lh5/th24
I find this list interesting. The M1919A4 gunners have a short range very close to a typical rifleman's long range, averaging at 8 squares. So at 8 squares they have a significant advantage over riflemen (and you can achieve that even on Day of Day maps if you set up in the farmhouse). They also have a significant advantage at 13+ squares, since they can all shoot well beyond that range and riflemen can't shoot back. Garner is clearly the best machine-gunner of this group, with 18 total hits and 3 of them coming at long range. Even when he dies, Garner is contributing to his squad with lots of hits. My machine-gunner is Epsworth. He looks like a dog with only 6 total hits, but his key stat is his short range of 9. That's a great short range and he gets a lot of kills at that range. But when he dies he's not contributing a lot to his team because he doesn't have a lot of hit cards. Wormwood is the worst of the group with a short range of only 7 and only 6 total hits (sorry Walter Mulder). But even he has an advantage when set up at 14+ squares.
Now looking at the BAR Gunners, they seem to have more hits in general and, especially, more long range hits. They have a good long range to take advantage of those hits, at 14-16 squares. So setting them up at 14+ gives them a nice advantage. What's interesting, though, is that their close and short range stats are about the same as normal rifles. So why go with a BAR gunner instead of an M1919A4 gunner? Well, apart from the (I suspect) aberration of Garner the super-machine-gunner, I think you get more hits, so you're basically adding to your overall squad's firepower, while with the M1919A4 you're adding a specific weapon that you have to use at long range to gain maximum potential from.
Now let's look at the Germans:
Feierabend/MG42/c14/s7/l19/ch5/sh9/ch5/th19
Egger/MG42/c16/s8/l16/ch1/sh5/lh0/th7
Zimmerman/MG42/c13/s6/l18/ch16/sh9/lh2/th27
Furst/MG42/c15/s6/l18/ch22/sh15/lh3/th40
Shaefer/MG42/c13/s8/l14/ch8/sh8/lh6/th22
These are kind of all over the map. I thought Schaeffer, my MG42 gunner was great with his 22 hits, but he doesn't hold a candle to Zimmerman or Furst(!). They've for the most part got that excellent long range, similar to the M1919A4, but they don't seem to have quite as good a short range as the M1919A4 (though Egger and Schaeffer both come close). They have lots and lots of hits, though, contributing to your squad even after they die.
Now looking at the best German Machine-gunner versus the best American one, we have Furst versus Garner. Garner has an advantage at ranges 7 and 8, where he's firing at Short and Furst is firing at long. But at all other ranges Furst wins.