Mortars in SB

[gabeeg]

If I am correct, Mortars suffer from the effectiveness drop as they are used same as most other weapons in SB. The effectiveness drop of SB weapons has been a sore point off and on over the years and I have come to appreciate it, and live with it as it is a decent abstraction for combat stress, injury, weapon issues, rate of fire reduction, etc. That said, for weapons such as Mortars where the unit is generally behind the line of contact I would think the Status (effectiveness) should only be affected by counter or direct fire...but use should not affect Status. Instead, I would prefer to see a limit on the number of rounds available...guess the same would go for any indirect arty. What do you guys think?

[jmlima]

If I am correct, Mortars suffer from the effectiveness drop as they are used same as most other weapons in SB. The effectiveness drop of SB weapons has been a sore point off and on over the years and I have come to appreciate it, and live with it as it is a decent abstraction for combat stress, injury, weapon issues, rate of fire reduction, etc. That said, for weapons such as Mortars where the unit is generally behind the line of contact I would think the Status (effectiveness) should only be affected by counter or direct fire...but use should not affect Status. Instead, I would prefer to see a limit on the number of rounds available...guess the same would go for any indirect arty. What do you guys think?

Indirect arty should only be designed as off map support, so loads and effectiveness do not really apply.

Discrete ammo tracking would be useful, including for vehicles, but alas it's not there, so...

[TheBigRedOne]

Remember that the life-span of mortar tubes is not infinite. If you're constantly firing, they'll over-heat and become inoperable. I think the effectiveness models this OK, along with taking into account a limited amount of ammo. Combined, it's not a perfect system, but it handles things acceptably.

With the rest-and-refit feature you can fire a few turns, sit out a couple of turns and the effectiveness will go back up. It's what I try to do, rather than firing non-stop for 15 turns.

[Ozgur Budak]

I tend to give off-map mortar support in newer scenarios. RV has plenty of them. However the reason is not supply issue which I think is quite ok in the game. On-map mortars give players chance to make sporadic (one round here other round there) fire which is I think an inaccurate representation of mortar fire. This is especially important for bigger tubes thats are normallydirected by a spotter.

[Compass Rose]

What other weapons have the rest-and-refit feature? I don't remember ever reading anything about it.

Thanks

[TheBigRedOne]

The rest and refit should now be in all of the SB games, problem is with the older games, if it's not specifically factored into the PDT files, it may not take effect. I believe this is true, but someone should confirm this...

All of the newer games have it. If your unit stays put, doesn't fire, and isn't fired upon, it's effectiveness will go up based on a specific %.

[Mad_Dog]

I've come to like the effectiveness value for weapons, sometimes you get that lucky shot even when they are low. Also, even if a mortar is at 25%, you still knock troops into ground mode, and can launch smoke.