Realistic Infantry Ammunition Mod

[Cross]

Currently, most infantry weapons have 80 or 90 ammo, regardless of if they are a rifle, that should have 60 shots, or a submachine gun, that should have about 15-20 seconds of ammo.

This mod changes all the infantry ammo (and only the ammo) to lower and more ‘realistic’ levels. Typical ammo loads are approx:

Rifle:....60
SMG:....35
LMG:....47

HMG:....52

The purpose or repercussions of more realistic infantry ammunition:

• Machineguns will now run low before rifles
• Players may have to exercise ‘fire discipline’, especially with MGs
• Reduces the amount of z-fire
• Players may have to plan for ammo supply in longer battles
• May have to withdraw units running low, or re-supply
• Brings infantry ammo more inline with artillery load-outs
• National weapon ammo levels have been used where possible
• Enhances national characteristics of infantry squads/sections
• You may just want to use this OOB for a new or different battlefield challenge
• May help make PBEM campaigns less decisive

Rifles
Rifles were the most ammunition efficient weapon, which is why most men carried rifles. One round equals one ammo unit.

Rifle levels:

Soviet:………45 (supposed to get 60 rounds each, but in practice it was 30 to 60.
British:……....50
Soviet Elite:...60 (Guards, Paratroops, Marines, Mountain, Ski)
German:…….60
USA:………...90 (the US has a lot of rifle ammo, but below average LMG ammo)

Sub-Machineguns
On the battlefield SMGs had the shortest supply of ammunition; so be careful in prolonged SMG firefights. But remember that the enemy also has limited ammo.

For most SMGs (KILL value 5) five rounds equal one ammo unit. Or 6 rounds equal one ammo unit for SMGs with a KILL value of 6.

Soviet PPsh 41:…...28
UK Sten:……….......32
US Thompson:…....30
Soviet PPs-42/43:...35
US M3:…………......36
German MP 40:...…38
Soviet PPsh 41:...…43 (Guards, Paratroops, Marines, Mountain, Ski)

Light-Machineguns
German squads typically carried 1,150 rounds for the MG 34 or MG 42. US army squads carried only 640 rounds for the BAR, however the BAR used up ammo at half the rate of the MG 42, and does half the damage. The British sections carried 1000 rounds for their Bren gun, which is one reason why the men carried only 50 rifle rounds.

LMG ammunition levels have been assigned according to the ‘rate of fire/KILL’, historic ammo carried, and according to how many men there are in the section to carry its’ ammunition.

If you buy a LMG section with 3 men, they will only be carrying 60% of the full ammo load of that LMG. For each additional man in the squad the LMG’s ammo goes up, reaching 100% at 10 men.

Most LMGs fire about 600rpm and get a KILL value of 5. The German MG 42 fires about 1200rpm and rightfully gets a KILL value of 10. However, the MG 42 should use up twice as much ammo. Because of this, MGs like the MG 42 have less SP ammo units, which helps replicate how quickly they got through their ammunition. But the MG 42 remains the most deadly LMG.

German MG 42…..38
Soviet DP:………..41
US BAR:……….…43
Soviet DP elite:…..47 (Guards, Paratroops, Marines, Mountain, Ski)
German MG 34:….48
US M1919:……….50
British Bren………65

Tri-pod Machineguns
The ammunition load-outs for tripod machineguns is higher than LMGs, but considerably reduced. This will help reduce indiscriminate z-fire. But these are still very powerful weapons. Though you may have to be more cautious in their use – like artillery – or assign them ammo supply.

Ammo has been assigned using a matrix that considers:
• RoF/KILL
• A sliding scale that assumes a slightly higher ammo load for higher RoF/cal MGs
• Number of MGs in the section
• Number of men available for each MG.

A single MG that has four or more men will get the highest ammo load-out.
Sections with 4 MGs and only 2 men per gun will get lowest ammo per gun.
But the total ammo for the 4 MG section will still be greater than the single MG with more crew.
MG sections with 90 ammo each (some with 4x90!) are no longer available.

Cost Calculator
The OOB have all been put through the cost calculator, and recalculated with their new ammo load-outs.

Nations
Only these nations have been converted so far:

• Germany
• Soviet Union
• Great Britain
• USA

If there’s interest, and I get some positive feedback, I will convert additional nations. But it won’t make sense to do many before the next game update (probably December).

Installation

1. Unzip the ‘Cross Real Infantry Ammo 1.0’ folder (attached to this post) to your desktop. In the folder are the four OOB files:

spob007.obf (UK)
spob011.obf (SOV)
spob012.obf (USA)
spob016.obf (GER)

2. Go into the folder, and copy or move the four ‘obf’ files into the games ‘OOBs’ folder, and ‘replace all’. OOBs folder found here:

WinSPWW2/Game Data/OOBs

You’re done!

You don’t need to back up the original OOBs, because there’s already a back up in the ‘Default OOBs’ folder found here:

WinSPWW2\Game Data\OOBs\Default OOBs

If you have any questions or suggestions, fire away…


Cross

[Marek_Tucan]

Just working on something similar, OTOH...
Might be good idea to lower kill values (SMG = 5 has same HE kill as say 75mm gun, disregarding WH size).
As for ammo reserves, esp. for LMG they can be pretty large regardless of "official" values. It was SOP for squad members to carry additional ammo for MG, so I would rather take the "official" value of ca. 1000 RPG as a baseline, not as "full squad"
If I look at the detailed loadouts recorded in A-stan, it would seem that each squad member, regardless of his function, carries 200 rounds of 5.56 in the "Approach March Load", IOW not the Fighting Load, but at hand in the field, and Automatic Rifleman himself carries some 800rounds.
M240 gunner carries 300 rounds of 7.62. If it was used as a squad weapon, each soldier would carry ca. 100 rounds of 7.62 for him (I gather it was SOP in Vietnam if M60 was lugged around instead of auto M14). Asst. MG gunner lugs 400 and ammo bearer 300 (plus optionally M14, M136 or so).
Of course the practice varied, but it would seem that generally LMG gunner would carry some 20 kg load (weapon + ammo) and squad members each carry up to 3 kg of MG ammo. I can dig into my spreadsheets to see how much ammo would that represent, bt 7.62 NATO 100 rounds belt weighs some 3 kg and 200 rounds of 5.56 about the same. For actual combat carry most likely not all this weight would be carried, but some for sure as you do not want to go back to your packs in the middle of a firefight.
Also I think you should consider the squad size for rifle ammo allocations, as not every man in squd fires at once, so larger squads would tend to have more "shots".

[Cross]

Hi Marek,

I really don’t have a solid opinion on the SMG KILL values. One improvement at a time

I agree that ammo load-outs in recent years – especially with the lighter 5.56mm ammo and all the semi-auto weapons – is higher than WW2. I also agree that WW2 LMG reserves could be much larger in certain situations. E.g. Defensive positions, Para drops, or specific missions.

The figures I got for squad LMG ammo were quite solid for standard load-outs for WW2.
On a few occasions, the data I found even included how many LMG magazines each member of the squad would normally carry. Based on those figures, I’ve actually been a bit generous with a three man team carrying 60%

I found a source that showed the equipment weight and load-out for each member of a 1942 British section. With soldiers carrying a maximum of 4 Bren mags each, the average equipment weight was 63 lbs!

These 'real ammo' SP load-outs are supposed to represent a mobile squad. For defensive situations it’s quite possible to place ammo canisters at strategic points. Or on the offense, in longer battles, ammo carriers could be assigned one per company, if they’re needed.

regards,
Cross

[spwaw]

Sounds good. looking it and making it wishlist to me = Add this on SPWW2 core"

[Marek_Tucan]

Don't think it will ever be in the core, after all current norms are well used for long time already More like a project for few madmen - by the way will present my modified OOBs for few countries in a short time..