Fire Superiority

[Koldobika]

Forgive me if this is already something well known, But is there a perceived wisdom that it is actually beneficial sometimes to position support weapons in view of the enemy but prefer not to fire upon the enemy in your turn?

Firing has the bad habit of leading to receipt of unlimited return fire. If I leave weapon systems such as HMGs and AT guns in reasonable cover in view of the enemy, without firing, if I can take advantage of the unlimited return fire myself without taking return fire from my own shots surely this would be better?

Alternatively perhaps the scale here doesn't really model suppression as such?

[RickyB]

For myself, it depends on the situation - how many enemy units and how strong can fire back, how important it may be to hit a specific target, along with how vulnerable it is, things like that. So it is likely something you will have to get a feel for through experience.

[krmiller_usa]

It also depends on whether you are attacking or defending. When defending and heavily outnumbered it is often a bad move to fire during your move as this allows defensive fire that may disrupt your unit allowing your opponent to advance and assault you on his turn, unless you are in a defensive position such as a trench or bunker.
If you are attacking with some advantage the defensive fire is less of a problem.

[Dion]

By holding fire when your in range of the enemy, allows you save ammunition and at the same time remain in position to quickly react to opportunities that present them selves.

[Koldobika]

It also depends on whether you are attacking or defending. When defending and heavily outnumbered it is often a bad move to fire during your move as this allows defensive fire that may disrupt your unit allowing your opponent to advance and assault you on his turn, unless you are in a defensive position such as a trench or bunker.
If you are attacking with some advantage the defensive fire is less of a problem.

That would make sense however my experience is that I'm doing more harm to the enemy in defence fire phase as the attacker, rather than offensively firing in the attacking phase.

[Dion]

By holding fire when your in range of the enemy, allows you save ammunition and at the same time remain in position to quickly react to opportunities that present them selves.

That strategy may only work for few turns though, because if the enemy withdraws your opportunities will be few and far between, but you will have a full supply of ammunition that would allow you to chase them down, but you never know for sure what the result of chasing them down will be, because the enemy might take up a new favorable position and game turns will start to disappear over time.

In most situations holding fire isn't decisive, and like a poster commented earlier, it depends entirely on the situation and how many turns remain, but depending on the situation it could be useful.