Mortar direct fire

[mbarbaric]

Playing with Irish Guards i have encountered mortar teams that don't have the spotter meaning they can fire mortars only when in Direct line of sight of target.

 

Now, i have no idea how to use them. normally i use mortars as a suppression tool before the platoon attacks but now that i have mortar teams without ability to be guided i need to put them on the front line and they can't supress anything if they get supressed themselves. So, how do you use this units???

[Bulletpoint]

In my experience, mortars are unreliable for suppression, but reasonably effective at actually destroying targets.

[mbarbaric]

interesting, i see them the other way around

[Bulletpoint]

interesting, i see them the other way around

 

It just seems that the enemy shrugs of the suppression fast enough that if just one of the mortar bombs is a bit off, that enemy gun will pop up and start shooting again for quite a long time before the next bomb comes in.. This example being with "target light" to maintain suppression.

[Bulletpoint]

I should add that I haven't actually played the Commonwealth missions yet, and maybe the mission design makes you use your mortars in this way? Sometimes need is the mother of invention

[c3k]

I MUCH prefer having mortars target their own missions. They are far more effective (IMHO) that way. Of course, the ability for other units to call them in allow for a much wider zone of influence.

[Bulletpoint]

I MUCH prefer having mortars target their own missions. They are far more effective (IMHO) that way. Of course, the ability for other units to call them in allow for a much wider zone of influence.

 

Do you mean letting them fire at will, or manually giving them a target line?

 

In any case, I think that mortar direct fire accuracy has been dialled back a lot from what it was. It seems to me that the spread is pretty much the same for direct/indirect.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Bulletpoint

[womble]

Light mortars are great. You'll learn to love them... While it's true that if they're a bit off, the suppressed target can sometimes rally enough to shoot back, if you're at hedgerow ranges, the light mortar's grouping is usually tight enough that it will pin and destroy infantry. Their weakness is that they take a couple of shots to "bracket" your aim point, and during that "ranging in", can be suppressed themselves if you don't either put them in sufficient cover (bocage is usually enough; it makes spotting them harder, so it's longer before the target starts to return fire, and gives good protection against casualties which is the heaviest way of generating suppression), or have other teams shooting to keep the target's heads down during the ranging-in process. It will depend a bit on the quality of troop you're facing, too. Poorer quality troops won't have a chance, once you get them suppressed.

 

I tend to use 60mm mortars on "Target Light", but the little Brit trench mortars probably need to be on full "Target", which means they'll only really get one good sweep before they have to resupply.

[MOS:96B2P]

Now, i have no idea how to use them. normally i use mortars as a suppression tool before the platoon attacks but now that i have mortar teams without ability to be guided i need to put them on the front line and they can't suppress anything if they get suppressed themselves. So, how do you use this units???

 

The below link is to a similar conversation about direct fire mortars and contains a lot of good information.  In fact posts both before and after the linked post talk about direct fire mortars and will probably give you useful ideas.  

 

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119230-allies-cmbn-buying-the-farm-crowd-sourced-dar/?p=1605319

[Warts 'n' all]

I tend to use 2-inch mortars when I need smoke in a hurry, instead of waiting for a spotter to call it in from other arty weapons. As for their HE rounds, I nearly always use that when they have a clear target, rather than using it to suppress the enemy in an area where I think that they might be located.

[A co]

2 inch mortars are good when their larger parent unit is present, with vehicles carrying extra 2 inch ammo.

I normally use target light because the continuing danger to the enemy is more valuable to me than taking out one of his teams with a full 2 inch ammo load. 

They're good for harassing or attriting targets hiding out of sight behind hedgerows. I save them for targeting valuable units like HQ's and spotters. 

I don't count on them to pin the target, but to make the opposing player feel the location is unsafe and have to move away. 

In a current battle I'm using them to prevent the enemy from having a safe jumping-off line for his infantry assault. 

Of course it's best to avoid using them at long range, as their accuracy suffers. 

[Pak40]

In my experience, mortars are unreliable for suppression, but reasonably effective at actually destroying targets.

 

They're quite good at both. If you're killing soldiers then you're suppressing the surviving members of that unit. They may still pop up and get off shots but their effectiveness will suffer greatly because of the suppression. If you're only using 'target light' then obviously the suppression wont be as effective.

 

Light mortars are great. You'll learn to love them... While it's true that if they're a bit off, the suppressed target can sometimes rally enough to shoot back, if you're at hedgerow ranges, the light mortar's grouping is usually tight enough that it will pin and destroy infantry. Their weakness is that they take a couple of shots to "bracket" your aim point, and during that "ranging in", can be suppressed themselves if you don't either put them in sufficient cover (bocage is usually enough; it makes spotting them harder, so it's longer before the target starts to return fire, and gives good protection against casualties which is the heaviest way of generating suppression), or have other teams shooting to keep the target's heads down during the ranging-in process. It will depend a bit on the quality of troop you're facing, too. Poorer quality troops won't have a chance, once you get them suppressed.

 

However, once they bracket in on a target you can then switch them to other targets without the need to bracket. This makes them extremely effective in direct fire mode. Once the bracketing is done I often use 'target briefly' to conserve ammo.

 

Also, you're spot on about having other teams provide suppressive fire. Mortar teams should never work on their own in direct fire missions, especially in close quarter bocage country.

[mbarbaric]

I tend to use 2-inch mortars when I need smoke in a hurry, instead of waiting for a spotter to call it in from other arty weapons. As for their HE rounds, I nearly always use that when they have a clear target, rather than using it to suppress the enemy in an area where I think that they might be located.

how do you force them to fire smoke? usually it is going through the FO in mission type which isn't an option with irish guards and only other command i see is pop smoke which isnt really that, right?

[Rinaldi]

60mms firing over open sights are the unsung heroes of the Allied infantry unit. Good rate of fire, deadly accuracy; and a godsend in the bocage. I swear by 'em. Good way to balance out the battle for fire superiority as well with those pesky German MGs. Same goes for the smaller British ones, I've always used them as glorified grenade launchers and to fairly good effect.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Rinaldi

[womble]

...once they bracket in on a target you can then switch them to other targets without the need to bracket...

Not any more, or at least not universally. That was a pre-v2 bug that was ironed out in v2 (still think it should have been in a last v1 patch, since it was a bug that meant 81mm mortars were the king of the QB). Targets near (and I'm still not certain how close counts as "near") the original target point don't need re-zeroing, but IIRC, you can't move and retain even that "narrow scope" zero.

 

Unless the flaw got reintroduced in v3; I haven't checked, though I did when v2 hit my HDD.

 

 

Once the bracketing is done I often use 'target briefly' to conserve ammo.

 

Yeah, especially with Brixia and 60mm (though why I think Brixia do better on Target Light than 2" trench mortars, I'm not, on reflection, sure...).

[womble]

how do you force them to fire smoke? usually it is going through the FO in mission type which isn't an option with irish guards and only other command i see is pop smoke which isnt really that, right?

Target Smoke, if they've got smoke rounds in their loadout. Don't know what the default hotkey is.

[A Canadian Cat]

There is no default hot key for target smoke.

[Pak40]

Not any more, or at least not universally. That was a pre-v2 bug that was ironed out in v2 (still think it should have been in a last v1 patch, since it was a bug that meant 81mm mortars were the king of the QB). Targets near (and I'm still not certain how close counts as "near") the original target point don't need re-zeroing, but IIRC, you can't move and retain even that "narrow scope" zero.

 

Unless the flaw got reintroduced in v3; I haven't checked, though I did when v2 hit my HDD.

 

Yea, I mean targets near the original target. It's definition of "near" is still quite liberal, at least dealing with a typical bocage line that had multiple enemy targets.

[Warts 'n' all]

how do you force them to fire smoke? usually it is going through the FO in mission type which isn't an option with irish guards and only other command i see is pop smoke which isnt really that, right?

 

I use "Target Smoke" from the command menu. British 2-in mortar teams carry a mixture of "Smoke" and "WP" rounds.