Machine Gunner

Combat role

Defensive heavy infantry — high HP for holding positions; slow movement limits offensive use.

Lore

The machine gun never went out of fashion; it just got heavier optics. A Machine Gunner team in the 2030s is six soldiers, two tripod-mounted rotary weapons, powered exoframes to haul the ammunition, and a fire-control tablet that assigns arcs faster than any sergeant could shout them.

The doctrine descends from a century of the same lesson relearned in every war: infantry advancing into prepared automatic fire stops advancing. European Alliance manuals call the unit a "position anchor"; Eurasian ones, less delicately, a "meat grinder crew."

They are miserable on the attack — the tripods take minutes to displace and the crews know it. But dug into a city approach or a river crossing, a Machine Gunner team turns a tile into a decision the enemy has to justify to someone.

When to use

Park Machine Gunners on chokepoints, river crossings, and newly captured cities to blunt counterattacks. Never lead an advance with them — their Move 1 makes every redeployment a full turn commitment.

Counters