Halftrack mortars

[Renaud]

Modern US made self-propelled mortar carriers, like the bradley and m113 4.2" mortars, can be dismounted by the crew for set up outside the vehicle as a regular mortar would be set up. I've watched them practice and it only takes a minute or so. Don't know if the wwii ones could do this. I would guess that they could.

Germans on the east front used self propelled mortars for tactical mobility in the attack. They would follow close behind the panzers and lay down direct fire on enemy AT positions. In north africa they also used AT guns in the offense by leapfrogging them with the tanks, so any british armor encountered always hit a pakfront which the german armor retired behind. Arguably not practical at CM's scale.

Seems like practically every tactic you could imagine, however unlikely, was tried by some participant in wwii at one time or another.

-Ren

[Olle Petersson]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy:

AFAIK in WW II the mortar teams did not have radios, ... therefore the limited range is okay.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, I didn't know this. It's okay the way it is then.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I am also not sure about the statement that the chain of command is not modelled very well. ... any higher-ranking officer can just rally or command troops, even when not well known to them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The features that annoy me are;

- The lack of a clear structure at setup. I get a couple of company and battalion HQs that just hang around to control any unit nearby. No indication as to which units are really subordinated to which HQ.

It seems unfair if any CoHQ can control any squad, no matter if that squad belongs to the coy or not.

- Teams should IMO also be subordinated to a specific HQ at setup, and then only follow orders from that HQ and its superiors. Not take orders from any HQ that just happens to pass nearby. (Just as it works for regular squads.)

I could elaborate more on thei if requested.

Cheers

Olle

[PeterNZer]

Hmm Ok.. you all don't use HT mortars.. GOOD!

I love the little buggers.

Bassically, in my style of play I hate getting slowed down with MG's and mortars and all that heavy crap. I like my platoons to be able to move quickly if they have to. And my whole force tends to get built that way.

I loved HT mortars in CC series, and i'm sure I will in this one too.

Firstly, with any mortar they only have a few short minutes of firing available, so i don't see it as an issue of them being spotted by AT type stuff too much, because for me, most of the game they are going to be out of the way until I need direct heavy fire on something. At that point there will almost always be a tank in the vicinity as well as inf and the mortar just makes the whole elimination process quicker.

Also they carry an MG which is supremely usefull. In CC and In CM i tend to use them like this, (not I haven't really had enough time to dig my teeth into CM play yet)...

The tank stays infront of the HT. As a rule the HT spends a lot of time in cover, or ducking between cover. Usually fairly close to the infantry. When a target presents itself it might pop out of cover and shell and MG the target before returning to cover. With a tank there I can get a pretty intense concentration of fire for a short period of time.

Frankly, I hate just bombarding something or a general area unless it's with the really big guns, I find it just ends up wasting ammo and you don't achieve much.

the HT is of course, very susceptible to AT fire and Mortar fire, but I find the same is true for your normal mortar team. Get some shells overhead and they are nearly useless. At least with the HT I can run it away and hide if need be, oftentimes a standard mortar team simply becomes too worried to move.

I guess I play a pretty 'forward' game, but that's just my style.

I think for the points they're a greay buy. Great ammo, fast, and they carry an mg.

However, YMMV, there's no one winning way

PeterNZ

[Gentleman]

Thank you everyone for replying.

So will it figure in any forthcomming patch, if any?

[willys]

I like Bastables idea about one memeber of the HT team getting out and spotting over a ridge. Meanwhile the HT is behind it and out of LOS. This means the enemy would have to deal with the spotter to blind the IF capability or flank the ridge to get at the vehicle itself. Good tactics! This would make this unit more effective and flexible. Also I go along with Michael that the use of HT Mortars was more for operational movement rather than the scale of maps used in CM. On this scale it is questionable whether it would be worth using the points to buy the HT rather than using those same points for a couple extra mortar units.....

[Guest Germanboy]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Olle Petersson:

Teams should IMO also be subordinated to a specific HQ at setup, and then only follow orders from that HQ and its superiors. Not take orders from any HQ that just happens to pass nearby. (Just as it works for regular squads.)

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Olle, I think this is supposed to reflect that in Real Life™ these teams are higher-level assets that are only assigned to platoons or Coy HQs on a needs basis determined by the higher HQ (i.e. you).

As for the structure of command, if you e.g. get a couple of Coy HQs, I would suppose you are in the position of BN CO and it is your job to determine the correct employment of your support units. The same if you go a level higher. But that is just how I see it, I quite like the freedom given to the player here.

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Andreas

[Guest Michael emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Renaud:

Modern US made self-propelled mortar carriers, like the bradley and m113 4.2" mortars, can be dismounted by the crew for set up outside the vehicle as a regular mortar would be set up. I've watched them practice and it only takes a minute or so. Don't know if the wwii ones could do this. I would guess that they could.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's been a while since I read up on this, but I don't think they could be dismounted. They certainly can't in the game.

Michael