Insurgency So you want to be a SAW gunner: a guide to help learn the M249

Introduction

Welcome! My aim by creating this guide, is to help those who are having trouble learning to use the SAW, whether new to the game or fairly proficient players, learn about and understand the weapon so they can use it or guide someone else who's using it when the reader (you) is in charge of the team.

I don't claim to be an expert, but I do have quite a few hours of SAW use under my belt, and have managed to become reasonably proficient with it. This guide is built based on experience in CO-OP, so I can't say how much won't be applicable to multiplayer, but much of the core concepts should still work, much as how some of this will apply when using the automatic rifles (the RPK and Galil) despite being aimed at the SAW. I hope that what I'm able to impart based on my experiences using it will be helpful to you.

So undoubtedly at least a few of you reading this are familiar with the Rifleman's Creed, from one way or another. If you are you can jump down past the video, if you aren't I recommend you watch this recitation of it from Full Metal Jacket.

Now, we're talking about a light machine gun, not a rifle, but the principle here is the same, to become effective with your weapon you want to be one with your weapon. To be one with your weapon you need to know it; know what it can do and what its limitations are because you can't work around those limits if you don't know what they are.

So in this guide we're going to hit several main points: Knowing the weapon, where I'm going to go into a bit of detail about the weapon to help you better understand it and its capabilities. Using the weapon, where I'll provide advice on how to use the SAW effectively, based on my experience in Insurgency. Lastly, the team, the SAW, and you, where I'll go over the role of the SAW in relation to your team, and the team in relation to the SAW.

Foreword

A few words before we get into the meat of things:

Do NOT pick this class unless you want to put your team before you, and can support them. This class is not particularly suitable or viable for lone wolves.

Second, if you pick the Support kit, use the SAW. If you pick the Support kit and plan to use the M4 or whatever, you're doing it wrong by not making use of your unique resource and preventing someone else from using it. If you don't want to use the SAW, don't pick the Support kit, it's that simple.

Knowing Your Weapon

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The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (the SAW) is one of the most powerful weapons the Security forces can field. It is a full-auto only weapon with a 200-round belt and a rate of fire of nearly 800 rounds per minute; making it capable of an unparalleled weight of fire. In addition it comes with a bipod that significantly stabilizes the weapon when laying down or set up on an object.

Ammo: Capacity and Reloading

Much of the SAW's power comes from its extremely high capacity of 200 rounds, the closest competitors, the RPK and Galil with drum mags, max out at 75+1 rounds. This capacity allows you to go for quite a while before you have to reload provided you fire in bursts.

But this high capacity comes at the cost of a long reload time of about 7 to 8 seconds, depending on whether or not you've run it dry.

Rate of fire and Recoil

The other main source of the SAW's power comes from its crazy high rate of fire, allowing you to quickly cut down groups of insurgents.

But this of course comes with stiff recoil that makes firing the weapon without the bipod deployed difficult, especially with sustained fire.

Weight and Movement

The SAW is a heavy weapon, taking up a large portion of how much you can carry and as a result when choosing what to carry in addition you'll have to make more trade offs than you might with other classes. For example if you want to carry a sidearm you may have to sacrifice grenades or not carrying as much ammo.

The other aspect of this weight means that you're probably not going to move quite as fast as someone with a smaller weapon like the MP5 or M4. You're not Speedy Gonzales, don't sprint everywhere trying to be him.

This also translates to when you're switching between the SAW and another item in your kit in that the SAW can take a bit longer to switch items. For you this means most of the time you're probably better off focusing on using the SAW instead of grenades unless your team-mates have the situation in hand or you're the only one with 'nades.

Practice, practice, practice!

As you should know, under the "Solo" menu Insurgency has a tutorial, and when you reach the weapon mod section of the tutorial you'll have enough supply to equip the SAW. This is your chance to practice using the SAW on the target range so you can get a feel for the recoil when standing and crouching, you can even set up the SAW's bipod on the shooting bench so you can experience that as well.

Cutting Them Down: Using The SAW

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For using the SAW, I won't tell you which optics specifically to use, which one works best for you is something you'll have to determine yourself. But I will say, that most of the time you will likely find the 1x magnification optics to be sufficient for your needs, and an improvement over the iron sights.

Unsupported firing

As previously mentioned, the SAW's strong recoil makes firing the weapon unsupported somewhat difficult. At what I'm going to call moderate ranges (roughly 5-50m, but don't take these as hard and fast numbers) where you have time to sight in, the best way to make the recoil work for you instead will be to aim a little low, putting your point of aim at your target's groin or stomach so that the recoil will drive the successive rounds into your target's chest.

Short bursts are crucial to taming the recoil. A brief mouse click will fire off a short burst, and will climb somewhat, but generally not so much that you can't quickly correct your aim as needed. Of course, if the bad guy is right near your face, don't worry about short bursts and just do what you need to to survive.

When you can't set up for whatever reason, as much as possible, you'll want to fire from a kneeling position to help tame the sway and recoil of the SAW, both of which can easily take you off target if you aren't careful.

Setting up: using the bipod

The bipod can be a large part of the bread and butter usage of the SAW due to the fact that the sway and recoil will become minimal when the bipod is deployed on object, for example a windowframe.

When moving on an objective where you think you're going to be counter-attacked, keep an eye out for objects where you can set up the SAW in the direction the counterattack will come from, or failing that, a spot where you can lay down and set up the bipod. Also look for good spots that will allow you to readily provide over watch and cover where your team may be attacked from as they advance.

Take into account how much cover the position will provide you, and if you'll have a place to get into concealed cover if you have to reload. For example, you might be able to set up the SAW on a wooden market stall, but it may not be a good idea because it will leave your legs partially exposed. Also take into account how easy it will be for the enemy to spot your position, for example the second story windows of objective Bravo on Tell checkpoint. While it seems like a good position, a major downside is that the enemy can see it from numerous angles and while you're focused in one direction you could get hit from another.

The bipod's recoil reduction also helps the SAW become much more viable for longer ranged combat seen in some of the more open maps, such as Buhriz. This can help you thin out the enemy, sometimes significantly so, before your team advances; possibly even more effectively than a marksman thanks to your rate of fire and capacity.

The Team, The SAW, And You

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In Insurgency, you are almost never going to be alone, the only times you should be alone are either because you're the only one in the server, or everyone else is dead and counting on you. Additionally, if you are filling the role of being a SAW gunner you must bear in mind the fact that, like the demolitions expert with his grenade launcher or other explosives, you are a special resource for your team and you need to step up to the responsibility that entails and avoid recklessness. Because if you go down, while somebody else can pick up the SAW, all the spare belts are on your body.

Communication

Communication is very, very, very important, the devs included voice communication and the commo rose (seen above) for those without mics for a reason, use them. Poor communications kills, it kills your teammates, and it kills you.

If you're covering a lane of fire, such as a doorway or alley during a counter attack, call out to your squadmates to warn them not to cross your lane of fire. If someone does cross your lane, tell them which way to move that'll clear your lane of fire as quickly as possible, if they are actually using an important weapon too, there's going to be almost no reason why they couldn't fire it from behind and over you.

With the SAW's long reload time, your team needs to know when it's reloading so they can pick up the slack and keep you covered because you're a special asset they need to protect when you're out of the fight just as your job allows you heavy firepower to help protect them. So when you're reloading, call out so one or two squadmates can cover your zone until you're loaded again.

Role in team

Being the person handling the SAW, you need to live up to it. The only time you could play a "sniping" or "hiding" game play is when you are the last man alive. In all other times, you should be shooting more than others. You need to try to top the list in terms of bullets flying, than score.

Position relative to the rest of the team

There are going to be three main positions for you relative to your teammates: pointman, bottleneck plugger, and overwatch.

Pointman

Being the pointman means that you're the person at the front of the team, the first one into a room and such. This position is somewhat flexible due to the fact that many buildings have more than one door and the team may have to spread out. But what it boils down to is this, you're the first one in of the people you're with, and you stay low and crouched so people behind you can see and possibly shoot over you.

Plugging Bottlenecks

This is what you should be doing when holding back a counterattack; figure out where the enemy will have to clump up and come through, and then set up the SAW to cover that. A good example is the top of the inside stairwell at Charlie on Revolt Checkpoint.

Overwatch

This is where you set up your weapon in a spot that allows you to observe the route your teammates are going to use to advance, and, more importantly, to see the most likely area that they'll take fire from and be ready to bring down bad guys before they can hurt your team.

Conclusion

So, I once again hope that what I've had to say about SAW usage will prove to be useful to you. If it does help you, please leave a comment and let me know, it'll be a bright spot in my day knowing that I was able to help someone become a better player.

If you have any suggestions for things that should be added to this guide, please leave a comment explaining it and I will take it into consideration.

Before I go, I would like to take a moment to thank my friends Diablo, Unwashed, KD, and Coach for helping me write this by making suggestions of things to add and proof reading it for mistakes.

Have a wonderful day, and good luck countering the Insurgency!

-Knadan

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=580980017

So you want to be a SAW gunner: a guide to help learn the M249