Mortars stuck in "Planning"

[costard]

I couldn't find anything with a search on this. Calling in 60mm mortar fire, three separate fire missions: one of the mortars is doing fine, the other two are stuck in a fast loop where the gunner is planning and spotting, but never gets around to firing. The fire missions were called in by the same spotter in the same round. WEGO, save game available.

[Magpie_Oz]

Yeh but when he DOES fire hooo boy, it will be the BEST planned and spotted you have ever seen !

[bodkin]

I've had this problem with ATG's the crew get stuck in a planning/spotting loop.

[costard]

bodkin, does it resolve or do you have to reset the fire command? I figure someone has a dud shell in the breech (it's raining, maybe I have a problem with mud in the tube?), but how long does it take to tip a 60mm tube upside down to clear the blockage? I told them, NO chewing gum on ops.

[Jonny(FGM)]

I've had this before, just move the mortar and it should resolve it. Probably a bug though

[Blackcat]

I have had this problem several times and it never resolves itself. I have also had this with ATG guns. The only solution I have found is to cancel the fire command and move the unit (just a few yards seems to be enough).

What causes this I don't know, but with one exception, the units that had this problem were hard against low bocage. My current theory is that it is something to do with a blocked LOF from the gunner's location, possibly by a tree. However, I don't know that for sure and haven't done any testing.

I first posted about this problem a few weeks ago in a thread entitled "Mortar Doesn't Fire" (or something like that) and it was suggested on that occasion was that it was caused by the mortar being sited too close to the map edge.

I have raised the problem twice more since then but not received any suggestions as to what might be causing this to happen. Maybe your thread may tempt someone who knows to comment.

[costard]

Blackcat, edge of map makes some sort of sense as all three crews were hard up against it (small map, limited deployment area). I found that the one crew that could fire initially was unable to fire when the angle of the mission changed to their left beyond the "straight across the map" orientation. Possibly the layout of the crew around the tube has the gunner positioned "off the map" for that orientation of fire and we're seeing some sort of unwelcome result of this. It'd make sense for the same problem to happen to ATGs with trees interfering with gunners' LOS, tanks too, apparently.

[bodkin]

Now that I think of it remember when I had this problem the ATG was being asked to attempt a pretty miraculous shot through a series of tree trunks.

[Blackcat]

Costard, that all makes perfect sense. Certainly on that occasion when I moved the mortar away from the edge it functioned very happily thereafter.

The bocage examples were also resolved by moving the units, just slightly, maybe they were too close to the hedge for their crews to deploy properly - though that seems unlikely for an ATG. I have still got the saved game of that somewhere, when I get time I'll dig it out and check.

[phil stanbridge]

This was a bug in SF too, but it was fixed in the latest patch.