Combined Tip Thread/Grunt School

[Rabbit]

I'm lookin for tips on using mortars in this game...

Here are some tips on mortars and remote support in general:

It usually is best to fire all remote support and indirect weapons (e.g., mortars) at the very beginning of your turn before you move your units closer to the enemy positions. Aside from softening up the enemy so that his fire isn’t quite as effective against your advancing units, it will reduce the chances of stray rounds falling near your troops (since by the end of the turn you will have likely moved several hexes closer to the enemy’s positions). And it also will reduce the chances that you forget to use your remote support during your turn.

Pay attention to the penetration factor of your mortars and remote support. Most mortars have poor penetration, making them best used against units caught in the open, but rather ineffective against units in protected terrain.

Vehicles without armor protection like passenger trucks can make juicy targets for light mortars. Also armored vehicles with riders (as opposed to passengers) make nice targets too, since any fire on those vehicles automatically cause those riders to dismount, become disrupted and possibly take losses.

After you have fired your light mortars a couple of times, their effectiveness will likely drop to where they rarely cause much damage. At that point, their best role often is simply to keep enemy units pinned/disrupted/demoralized as opposed to expecting them to cause any kills. Since you aren't concerned about causing damage (you are just trying to keep enemy units pinned/disrupted/demoralized), it doesn't matter what type of terrain protection the enemy is in, all you are trying to do is apply suppressive fire.

Another role of indirect weapons is to force your enemy into Ground Mode. This can be useful if you have a scenario in which the enemy has to advance as fast as possible and therefore leaves his units in non-Ground Mode at the end of his turn. Shelling his units will force them into Ground Mode, which will in turn force them to use 3 movement points getting out of Ground Mode (which often can be the difference in advancing an extra hex or not).

It doesn’t hurt to take into account the cratered hexes that the heavier support weapons can create. Cratered hexes provide some terrain protection, but they can also slow you down. If you want the added terrain protection for your approach, you might consider targeting slightly shorter of the enemy positions. If you don’t want to be slowed down by them, you might target slightly long. (Or the reverse when on defense.) However in general, you want to target your indirect fire slightly long as it is better to have it miss your intended target than to have it fall short onto your friendly positions.