Light Machine Gun

A light machine gun or LMG (commonly mistaken for Large Machine Gun) is a lighter, man-portable version or counterpart to the cumbersome and typically mounted machine guns. They are designed to be carried by one person for squad support and suppressive fire. Most modern LMGs are fed from large belts of ammunition, generally carrying 100 rounds. These are kept in belt boxes that attach to the weapon and keep the ammo neatly oriented and facilitate feeding.

LMGs, while offering a large amount of firepower and longer periods without forced reloads, are heavy, which reduces player mobility. Due to that lack of mobility and the fact that they are best used prone, LMGs are good defensive weapons whereas more mobile weapons like SMGs are better for attacking. Laying down with sights on an objective or a chokepoint is the best place for an LMG user. An example would be one of the corners in the hedges in the map Wasteland. Since many people tend to hug the hedge corners, a LMG would be perfect for tearing up groups of two or three. Unfortunately, this also makes one a sitting duck against a team with a UAV, so the Cold Blooded perk is a sensible option. A sensible thing to do with an LMG is to change positions, therefore preventing long range weapons from picking off the LMG soldier.

There are generally two ways to use an LMG: these are offense/rush or defensive/sniper. Offensive use of an LMG is usually not recommended because their poor hip fire and the time it takes to bring up the sights however it is a viable option when moving up with friendlies. An example of this is involves the use of smoke grenades:the LMG gunner can throw a smoke, run in front of their team-mates and act as an 'entry' for them into an open space. Likewise the defensive/sniper way is generally used often though it takes a considerably long time to rack up kills especially during 'kill based' gametypes (Scrambler can remedy this as it 'attracts' enemies towards you.) A prominent example of the defensive/sniper option is when the LMG user is situated at the back of their team near the snipers bursting their weapon and picking of enemy players via bursting their LMG from long distances though this can usually be seen as 'camping' and can be frowned upon by other players.

Most notably though LMGs shine at stopping enemy flanks as their large belts of ammunition can put down suppressive fire and/or kill enemy players wanting to flank. Though this requires for the user to take good cover as players can easily take out the LMG gunner while the user is in the open. They are also adept at 'choke points', these are points at maps that are high traffic and are tight

LMGs are adept at piercing objects, and also have terrible hip-firing accuracy (Presumably because of the weapon's weight) Steady Aim is recommended to balance this. They have longer reload times than other weapons, though the LMGs in World at War have a shorter reload time compared to those in Call of Duty 4, but also tend to hold a smaller number of rounds effectively just making them pseudo-Assault Rifles.

Like sniper rifles, LMGs do not suffer from damage falloff over range. Instead, the addition of a suppressor will reduce their base bullet damage by 10 per bullet.

LMGs in Modern Warfare 2 can be quite versatile in the fact that practically any secondary weapon can be used because of their large magazines. Though a Shotgun as a Secondary is more appropriate because LMGs have terrible hip fire unless using Steady Aim which can somewhat remedy the situation of close quarter combat though. Whereas a shotgun can usually deliver a one hit kill at close quarters. A Launcher can also be used to provide suppressive support for friendlies though as mentioned before LMGs can be quite weak in close quarters. On the other hand a Machine Pistol and a Handgun can also be recommended in order to free up the challenge of mobility.

The crouching position is viable for providing fire, whereas the standing position is least accurate, although still plausible. In standing, burst fire is recommended, at a rate of two shots or three, depending on the speed of the gun and the accuracy (which really means recoil, or the amount of pitch and yaw per bullet fired, since all guns have pinpoint accuracy in single shots).

The grip further increases standing fire capability, and it is notable that added to the RPD with lightweight and slight of hand pro, a user can achieve decent running speed, sighting speed, and damage, to make this a good offensive design for attacking.

Other designs for attacking include such things as the Full Metal Jacket, a means to penetrate further and with less damage reduction. This can be valuable to kill people with an automatic weapon while they crouch behind cover, as well as shooting wall openings, windows, and doorways the enemy would want to walk into and fire from, thus keeping them from seeing out or returning fire.

When firing out into an open area, it usually requires crouching or standing position, as such the grip is a far more useful attachment than a sight in this instance. A grip provides a good defensive build when inside a building or enclosed area and firing out into the open against targets, whereas full metal jacket provides a good offensive build when suppressing enemies and killing through walls when it is you on the outside of the building or enclosed area.

A mobile LMG (Squad Automatic Weapon) class would incorporate a grip at the least onto a weapon with comparatively low recoil (defined as firerate/accuracy= recoil). The order goes along the lines of, from best to worst for application if we assume moving and shooting at medium to long range targets, MG4, RPD, AUG HBAR, M240, L86 LSW. Conversely, when already sighted in and watching a position, the best to worst with a grip becomes L86 LSW, RPD, M240, AUG HBAR, MG4. In this manner, the first two are superior, and the last three nearly tie position just right behind the first two.

Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive

 * Bren


 * BAR


 * MG42


 * DP-28


 * Browning M1919


 * FG42

Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 3

 * Bren


 * BAR


 * MG42


 * DP-28


 * Browning M1919


 * FG42

Call of Duty: World at War

 * BAR
 * MG42
 * Type 99
 * DP-28
 * Browning M1919
 * FG42

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

 * M249 SAW
 * RPD
 * M60E4

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 * L86 LSW
 * RPD
 * MG4
 * AUG HBAR
 * M240