Originally Posted by LordKelvin

Why is everyone so deathly afraid of long-range combat? Perhaps a sniper squad is not very effective because it cannot put out a large volume of fire, but a squad of Baurs could keep an entire squad down from a fair distance away, without the need for rocket tracers.

I didn't discuss rockets and nades in my previous post because they are available to everyone... Thus they have no bearing on the effectiveness of a main gun, because they are universal supplements that any assault can have.

I'll tackle the last point first: I know that everyone has nades. But they DO have a bearing on the effectiveness of the main gun. But in any given fight you only have so much time to engage an enemy. If I throw a nade, for the time it takes to do this, I'm not firing bullets (or rockets). The same theory holds true for rockets: if I'm firing rockets, I'm not at the exact same time firing bullets. (See bottom for more)

Next, long range fighting is less preferable for a number of reasons. The first and primary one is the one that's already been mentioned: it is far less effective at gaining tickets... especially when you're dealing with bullets. Second, attempting to engage at long range is time consuming and requires extra time to aim and kill. This extra time can be time that others are attacking you. It's not always the case, but it often is... as a general rule, standing still for longer than absolutely necessary is a bad policy.

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So, let me put it another way. Say you're engaging an enemy long distance. If you had all weapons at your disposal in this engagement, you'd choose to shoot with a Baur first, throw a nade second. The nade is the lesser of the two options, but say it's still an effective one. Now return to reality. You've either got a Baur or a Voss. In the long distance engagement, you chuck that nade if you've got a Voss and you fire with the Baur if you've got it. But now you enter into a close quarter engagement, and there's no "almost as good" choice for close up -- you could theoretically use a herzog, but then you're giving up rockets which is a pretty stupid deal... even with the long range power of the baur (the baur, alas, does not have the ability to air burst at targets behind walls).

Now to try and clarify your options at range. (1= best choice)
Long Range
Voss:
1. Rockets
2. Nades
3. Avoid Engagement/Close Distance
4. Terrible Voss shooting.
Baur:
1. Good Baur bullets on single shot
2. Rockets (a close second, and often a better choice than the baur if there's any backdrop at all)
3. Nades

Medium Range
Voss:
1. So-so Voss shooting
2. Nades
3. Rockets
4. Close distance/Avoid engagement
Baur:
1. So-so Baur shooting
2. Nades
3. Rockets
4. Lengthen distance/Avoid engagement

Close quarters
Voss:
1. Awesome voss shooting
2. Run with medpack out and pray
Baur:
1. Terrible Baur shooting
2. Run with medpack out and pray.

My point is that long distance, being forced to use a crappy Voss is only the fourth option because there are several others that are really quite compelling. But a short distance, being forced to use a crappy Baur is really your only option.