Fully charging your melee attack for more than 2 seconds (At the end of the bash animation) results in the maximum amount of damage.
False. You only need to charge your weapon for more than one second (essentially not tapping it) to do maximum damage. A bash charged for 1 second does the same as a weapon charged for 3+ seconds. A stab acts accordingly, although it doesn’t have as detailed an animation.

Sprinting adds additional melee damage.
False. Sprinting adds no damage at all. It’s only merritt comes from closing with the target faster. Sprinting is also a surefire way of being heard. This misconception comes from the fact that most people sprinting to melee will be charging their weapon.

Different weapons do different melee damage.
False. All weapons do the same melee damage. The mp40, the m1 Garand, and the p38 are all equally lethal when bashed. Only the bayonet adds additional damage.

Fixing your bayonet adds weapon sway and makes your weapon less accurate.
Unconfirmed but negligible. One of the things taught in BCT is that fixing your bayonet adds penalties to shooting. This is largely negligible as described below:

Accuracy: Firing with your weapon rested has no noticeable effects on accuracy. Firing your weapon unrested might add penalties, but they are offset by the fact that your weapon has natural sway to them anyway, which makes this difficult to test. Firing your weapon unsupported at the range where it would make a difference in accuracy is not adding that much of a multiplier to your dice roll.

Sway: Fixing the bayonet adds no sway as shown in . Note: You can use the basic engine trick shown to remove any weapon sway, allowing for accurate, long range shots unsupported.

Notes: Legs and Arms receive the same damage, but hits to leg will cripple your target.
Hand and Feet shots do half the damage of legs/arms. Don’t even bother.

Using this Data, one can come up with some valuable techniques one can use to take down a target quickly and effectively with melee.

Charged Bayonet: The easiest takedown, charge for around a second and release. Instant kill to the chest or head.
5/5

Bayonet Head Tap: Fastest kill possible, but requires good accuracy.
4/5

Charged Head Bash: One hit kill, pretty self explanatory, requires decent accuracy.
4/5 - 5/5 for weapons without a bayonet

Double Bayonet Tap: Two bayonet shots anywhere should be enough to take down a target assuming you aren’t aiming for the hands or feet. Better to charge.
3/5

Charged Chest Bash - Tap Chest Bash: Will only take about a second and a half to execute perfectly. Charge for a second, bash in the chest, then tap on the head or chest to finish.
3/5 - 4/5 for weapons without a bayonet

Do you want to succeed on Donner Bolts in massive melee battles? Here are some tactics to employ:

Range: Different weapons have different ranges associated with the size of their models. The kar98 has the longest range on it’s bayonet. Followed by the other rifles with their bayonets, followed by rifles without bayonets, then submachine guns, then pistols. Although a p38 might do the same damage as a k98 bash, you have to be hugging the person to use it properly. This being said, attaching the bayonet to your rifle adds not only damage, but range.

Bash Mechanics: Remember that the bash animation always hits dead center of your screen as it resets your hip-firing sway. This makes the bash animation someone easier to headshot with than the bayonet. You can even use this to reset your aim; but for the love of god, don’t bash the wall.

Footwork and positioning: Like any great warrior, you should find that half of the battle comes in your footwork. Fighting two melee armed opponents? Move to the side so only one may attack you at a time. Opponent sprinting at you? Step to the side, melee in their path with good timing, and let gravity do the rest. Take the high ground; getting stabbed in legs is preferable to the chest, and lets you make easy headshots. Exploit doorways to force enemies through a choke where they can’t dodge your attacks.

Use your arms to soak up damage: When you are holding your weapon up, your hitbox is unchanged. If you are at full health and there is someone coming at you with their weapon, turn to the side and let your arms soak up the hit - then turn and kill them instantly.

The 29th Infantry Division is one of the many realism groups involved in Darkest Hour. By joining, you will placed into a squad and get to experience some of the most intense WW2 simulations available. The 29th doesn't stop there though, it is a full fledged gaming community where everything from MineCraft to ArmA 2 is played. Check it out at http://29th.org/enlist. Be sure to list Ryan as your recruiter.

Good hunting humiliating.