Ammunition Loadouts in SPWW2

[seabolt]

The z-fire thread got me to thinking about this in more detail:

An SPWW2 turn is supposed to represent 30 seconds in real time, IIRC. An average stationary LMG or HMG has 6 bursts available in that time. It's reasonable to assume, then, that firing 6 bursts represents holding down the trigger for something close to cyclic rate fire volume.

An average MG has cyclic rate ~600; thus, a single SPWW2 burst represents about 50 rounds fired. (It's a bit abstract, of course. Cyclic rates vary.) An average WWII-era rifle round weighs ~.0265 kg before adding the feed device. At a minimum, 50 rounds will weigh 1.36 kg or 3 lbs.

Thus, the average SPWW2 rifle squad carries 123 kg or 270 lbs of MG ammunition on top of its other gear.

This is a bit excessive. In a real late-war, 9-man German squad, the assistant gunner might get saddled with a 300-round, 9-kg ammunition can in each hand, and a 250-round, 7-kg belt draped around his neck. (That's 55 lbs of ammunition. Sucks to be him.) The two riflemen in a 4-man team might carry another 250-round belt each, and two riflemen from the rifle section also might have 250-round belts draped on them. The squad leader and at least the two guys up front would not be so burdened.

That's 1,850 rounds for a heavily encumbered squad, or 37 bursts. (But this is a German squad, carrying the MG 42, which enjoys very high combat values because it consumes ammunition at twice the normal clip. You could actually argue that it's *19* bursts.)

It's just a speculative suggestion that both reality and z-fire in practice would be enhanced by drastically lower ammo loadouts in SPWW2.

One must note that the values in H2H are just about spot on.

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