I’ve always liked the mounted guns in this game, but recently, I’ve taken a particular shine to the HPR. Each of them has a beautiful little niche and it’s really neat to see particular statics who’ve mastered ‘em— as well as the occasional baldy who’s trying their best in an endearing way.
From the M56D, the weapon of the gentleman— ladies first, and they’ll fire from the back. The IFF and massive round capacity makes it PERFECT for supporting a push, with honestly VERY little loadout sacrifice.
A hand and a screwdriver, and maybe you can choose to splurge three slots of storage worth in a backpack or a drop pouch for an extra ammo can? Most of the time, if you’re not using it for demolition, it doesn’t even NEED a refill til the Op is done or you’ve had the opportunity to move back to the FOB. Incredible.
Then, there’s the M2C— favorite of the likes of Lorenzo and several others, this one feels much higher-commitment for much higher reward.
In all honesty, I’ve never been able to wrap my head around it; the sacrifice of a backpack to stow the damn thing alongside having not much in the way of a secondary (M39 fans have a field day, though!) make it far from my first choice. I have, however, seen some absolutely game-changing plays with this aluminum monster. God bless the soldiers rucking ‘em.
Finally, my beloved… the M41AE2 Heavy Pulse Rifle. This baby’s got just about everything you could ask for, and I’d never dream of asking her for anything more. Semi-auto off the bipod, FULLER auto on it. Sure, the bipod takes a moment to setup, but if you take the time and space to carry Deployable Barricades, it gets absolutely monstrous. A single stack of Deployables on a corner gives you near immunity to getting capped or killed, with the caveat of all things that can reach over a ‘cade still hurting like a bitch.
I could take a moment to talk about the damage output, but I’d like to instead talk about the DEMOLITION output, and the insanely undervalued performance it has in this way. Walls are breakable via shooting at them— some folks take notice of this, and may shoot down an already damaged wall. HPR don’t care. She don’t wince. She don’t HESITATE. I take down walls both resin and reinforced with it, and there is NOWHERE to hide for long.
Some WIMPS call me an Idiot— they tell me not to waste ammo! Stop shooting the wall! I spit at thee. I bite my thumb at thee. With an IMP ammo rack, you can hold a stack of Deployables AND twelve-hundred spare rounds of ammunition. With my general loadout, I like to rotate through three or four mags of common ammo, so that brings our total to a staggering 2400 rounds without including scavenging in the equation. Because the Heavy Pulse Rifle is still a Pulse Rifle chambered in 10x24, and the playstyle of an HPR user is relatively conservative, I tend to outlast an awful lot of folks. Brave folks. Braver than me, honestly. Bless them for their FREE MAGAZINES OF AMMO to empty into my loose ammo boxes on my IMP rack.
I’m running out of steam for this original post, and I’m also spending a lot of time on it on my lunch, but I just NEEDED to exclaim about how fucking nuts and honestly underused our mounted stuff is. Or rather, how it has so much POTENTIAL that I see? I love it all the same. Nothing beats a wall of bullets— especially the third Private today that’s walked into my stream and oh my god I’m so sorry oh my g