Final answer to German LMG crew question

[sid]

I note that the German lists in the main book have a 2 man LMG whereas the British amongst others have 3 man crew, no problem so far.

Then as Im building up my Sealion stuff I noted that the German 1939, 1940 and Barbarossa lists have 3 man crews so I think, OK the main list should be amended to 3. Then I see that the DAK lists have a 2 man crew.

Is there a definitive ruling on this and if so, is that how I should be playing my later Germans?

[Seret]

The gun crew was two men. The gun teams generally had 3-4 at various times of the war. But only two of those guys are required to operate the weapon, the rest are there to hump ammo and can use their rifles.

[sid]

Accepted the crew was two men and the rest were ammo luggers. However within the rules the crew are 2 or 3 men. In a similar way that the bren crew are 3 men, but there has not been a variation in the Bren crew numbers but a variety of 'official' lists have given either 2 or 3 men for the MG34/42 and I was trying to see if this had been resolved.

[Archdukek]

Sid,
Rich has confirmed in another post that the German LMG should have 3 crew and the lists will be amended to show that as he works through updating them. This reflects further research he has done which confirmed that the third man in the team was more than just an ammo lugger and had an active role to play in keeping the LMG firing efficiently, so would be too busy to be taking potshots with his rifle.

I've already switched to 3 men crews for all my Germans in anticipation of this.
John

[sid]

Thanks for that.

Then although the printed lists in the main rules can't be changed, he might want to amend the DAK list within this forum.

I thought the 3 man LMG was resolved but I saw that DAK list on this forum and it confused me!

Will the FAQ now include the list issues such as

the 3 man MG34/42
re-costing of panzergrenadiers
Clarifying the Soviet Scout platoon

[Archdukek]

As I understand it Rich intends working methodically through the lists when he has time making the necessary changes to take account of the subsequent development of the CoCulator system in calculating Force Ratings and suggestions for additional support choices which have been made on here. However, he is a one man band when it comes down to this kind of thing and he has to earn a crust meantime producing new material we can all enjoy like his Pint Sized Campaigns.

Personally I'd rather he did more of the latter and leave us to make any necessary adjustments to existing lists as we need them to play.
John

[Truscott Trotter]

Whilst I take your point John and also enjoy the Pint sized campaigns, the lists in the main rule book are the ones that new players to CoC are likely to use first. I would think making them a priority to get right would be a good option. There are not that many of them but the lists and arsenal entries in the main book should really be corrected by now, rather than waiting for all the possible lists from 1939-1943 have been done first.
It really does not make a good impression on new players when you have to say these things are wrong and then they ask OK where is the errata then?

[Seret]

Updating the force ratings is done already, they're on this forum somewhere but I summarised them on my blog a while back.

IMO this site needs to have a free downloads section added where things like FAQs, army lists and errata can be published so that people don't have to scrounge around for themselves in this forum, the big and the yahoo forum.

[Archdukek]

I understand where you are coming from Truscott. However, I would say that the lists as published are playable as they stand, so they aren't wrong in that sense. There have been further refinements which have been suggested since then which could improve them, but they ain't broken.

I like Seret suggestion for having a section somewhere which pulls these things together, but I wouldn't know how to do that nor do I suspect does Rich! Any volunteers out there?

Meantime I suspect we would all agree that it is for Rich to decide what he wants to focus on. I'm sure that Monty will draw our discussion to his attention.
John

[Derek H]

I like Seret suggestion for having a section somewhere which pulls these things together, but I wouldn't know how to do that nor do I suspect does Rich! Any volunteers out there?

http://newsofthelard.blogspot.co.uk/p/c ... urces.html has all of the official lists I've picked up on and all of the drafts are at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eu6yxhtvr56n ... H9lfa?dl=0

If anyone knows of anything that's missing then give me a shout. .