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Difference in ROF for onboard / offboard mortars


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Is it me, or is there a difference in the ROF? I've watched numerous mortar barrages and it seems to me that the offboard battery will achieve a higher ROF than a comparably equipped onboard unit.

The larger calibur stuff arrive in the usual 4 round clusters, but the mortars (especially the 81mm) seem to "rain". I've tried to duplicate this with a 4 tube onboard battery but can't seem to achieve the same results. Granted they maintain a decent ROF, but it's a steady 4 round cluster. The offboard stuff at first arrives normally, but really starts to pick up after about 15-30 seconds.

I'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed this.

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Yep, I sorta noticed it. I figure the guys onboard are pretty much combat grunts, stuck with being up close to the guns and suffering the misfortune of very busy days. I just picture the guys offboard sitting around; eating some cheese, drinkin some wine and catching some rays when all of a sudden some burr head with shiney crap on his shoulder ruins the moment and demands they get to work. As is typical in any army, they then jump up, run to do what they have to do as fast as they can so they then can return to their cheese, wine, and catching some rays.

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"Gentlemen, you may be sure that of the three courses

open to the enemy, he will always choose the fourth."

-Field Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke, (1848-1916)

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My understanding is that these are the same guys. When you have an 81mm FO, that just represents pulling the integral 81mm teams back and using them in an indirect fire sorta way.

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...may be stranger than a wading pool full of peyote-abusing Mexican Elvis impersonators.

Maybe not.

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Guest Big Time Software

Meeks is correct. The mortar teams are the same, just one is far enough behind the lines that they aren't represented on the map.

The RoF for on-map mortars is lower for two reasons, IIRC. One is that the mortar team on-map has to do all their own adjustment fire and such. Therefore, each mortar is being concious about what it does, whereas a 4 mortar battery off-map is firing as a team with another entity calling the shots.

The other reason is limited ammo. On-map mortar teams go slower because if they went any faster they would be out of ammo in no time flat. Since the on-map mortars, when firing at targets in LOS, are supposedly more accurate, in theory they shouldn't need to go hog wild and put all of their rounds down the tube as fast as they can in order to saturate an area.

Steve

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Oh SUUUUREEE BTS, you guys have an answer for everything don't you smile.gif If we didn't know better, we'd think that all these decisions that you made were well-reasoned, painstakingly researched and had sleep lost over them, rather than being completely arbitrary smile.gif

Cheers,

Walter R. Strapps

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Thanks for the quick reply. I have one question, though.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>One is that the mortar team on-map has to do all their own adjustment fire and such. Therefore, each mortar is being concious about what it does, whereas a 4 mortar battery off-map is firing as a team with another entity calling the shots.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wouldn't a 4 tube battery deployed behind a hill with a company commander atop the hill acting as a spotter function in the same way as an arty FO and offboard battery?

Just curious

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Guest Offwhite

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

Thanks for the quick reply. I have one question, though.

Wouldn't a 4 tube battery deployed behind a hill with a company commander atop the hill acting as a spotter function in the same way as an arty FO and offboard battery?

Just curious<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you mean the spotting/range adjustments would go quicker, perhaps they should. The ammo limitation is still there, however.

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

Wouldn't a 4 tube battery deployed behind a hill with a company commander atop the hill acting as a spotter function in the same way as an arty FO and offboard battery?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, becase an ad hoc battery such as you describe wouldn't have gone through the elaborate site preparation that is presumed to take place for offboard batteries. Batteries that are prepared for indirect fire are represented by FOs and offboard artillery in CM. In a prior thread Bullethead went into some detail on what is involved in preparing a battery for indirect fire.

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Leland J. Tankersley

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