Colonial Marines Ammo Management: Less is More

[Evilkyle24]

I tend to blame the comms outage on the Syndicate or the Nuclear Operatives. Say something about how they like going after Nanotrasen but sometimes they fuck about with Weyland-Yutani, so expect anything.

Until the Nanotrasen corporate alliance bit is removed from Character Creation, I'm just going to assume NT still exists and they're just not the focus of this game.

[Dea Tacita]

Until the Nanotrasen corporate alliance bit is removed from Character Creation, I'm just going to assume NT still exists and they're just not the focus of this game.

That part should be gone now

[Nikov]

The problem is that 'standard combat load' is 'hundreds of rounds', and has been at least a hundred rounds since WWII. For submachine guns, a German trooper wore two magazine pouches for three magazines each, plus one in the MP40, for 224 rounds. These he carried on foot marches of the sort a modern infantryman is never expected to perform on the endless Russian steppes, on top of what he carried for squad or platoon weapons. That's only standard issue, he'd be considered undressed for company formations in camp without it. Mogadishu, again, the Rangers and Delta expected at most an hour on the ground and only Delta was certain they'd fire their weapons. Rangers still went in with at least standard combat loads, 6+1.

If you want an argument against SMGs in backpacks, I'm all for it. If you want to forbid magazines going into boxes so extra ammo in a backpack is more 'expensive' for slots, I'll support that. But this notion of 3-4 magazines for a shore deployment? We go down with SADARs and smartguns, but apparently aren't expecting any contact whatsoever? If the scenario is honestly 'no combat expected', why bring anti-tank weapons and machine guns at all? Wouldn't the specialists be metagaming to take a flamethrower on a UN peacekeeping food handout mission?

[Dyne]

Whats "enough"?
6 10mm mags is only 180 bullets in the air.

[kurugi]

Give us this instead

[apophis775]

I am on the hedge on this issue. Real life soldiers carry at least four mags, and its usually more, 6-8, combat ready, with more in their backpack.
If choosing between food and ammo many of them will take ammo. Also last I checked the ammo in M41 is caseless, so an ammo box feels a bit artificial.

For "support roles"- medics and engineers, there is a real limit, as they carry a lot of other equipment already.
Also a good marine will reload after every engagement, and if you dont die burning through 5-8 mags is quite real, especially with suppressive fire.
And so far I'm not seeing much difference. Say, there is this ammo box, carried, or dropped somewhere. Same principle happends now with extra mags.

Leaning towards a -1 so far. Good concept, but not seeing the real benefit or finesse in the proposed execution.
Maybe not making rifle mags fitting in boxes might give a benefit.

A total alternative in the same vein would be actually calculating weight, and making it affect movement speed, which would open more loadout options, making light infantry feasible. But thats a high-level rework, not impossible, but far away from existing baycode, for one.

Real Life US Army ammo load, is 7-9 30 round magazines and 3 magazines for a pistol sidearm (typically, 2 spare and one in the pistol).

[Evilkyle24]

Real Life US Army ammo load, is 7-9 30 round magazines and 3 magazines for a pistol sidearm (typically, 2 spare and one in the pistol).

So exactly what we carry normally?

[Dyne]

So exactly what we carry normally?

Pretty close. My girl rarely gets three mags for the sidearm even in CM, though sometimes a lighter smg and a hidden armor-pistol are there.

And in my countries and its predecessors tradition it was usually 4-8 loaded mags and more unloaded ammo/cartridges, say 200-300, and a couple of grenades.
The usual under barrel launcher for the sargeant after Afghan war(maybe four nades), couple handgreandes, and the usual RPG+RPK soldiers. The transport vehicle carried more.

Back on topic- RO and CT are a very important part of the logistical chain, especially now with sentry guns, so they have their hands full in most cases. A good RO can do a lot for the marine effort, nearly makes me sad aliens dont have much an equivalent

[apophis775]

I already did this, basically.