How do I limit mortar direct fire?

[G B Scurlock]

I just can't get this right. I am playing wego. I want to direct fire to a point on the map but if I fire for the full minute turn I might use all my remaining ammo. I have 24 shells remaining and want to use about 10. I estimate that will take 20 seconds to do that. Please tell me how the game will allow me to do that? If I give a target order firing begins immediately. Thank yoU.

[Michael Emrys]

What someone else posted a couple of months ago was to have your mortar facing away from your intended target. Then on the next turn, give them a slight movement order that would leave them facing the correct way (you may need to have them finish movement with a deploy order) and a target command. I hope I got that right as I am working from memory here.

It would be nice if we could give pauses directly to fire commands instead of going through this elaborate and unrealistic choreography, but for now we have to work with what we have.

Michael

[Ranger33]

I think I mentioned this once before somewhere but my idea to solve this problem would be to allow a mortar team to act as it's own spotter and go through the artillery menu for direct fire. I think this makes sense and is more realistic than only being able to target one small spot at a time. And it couldn't be that hard to implement, they just need to be given permission to use themselves as artillery, but only themselves, obviously.

[Wego McPbem]

Wouldn't Target light do this? Not sure how many it'd go through exactly but it makes the mortar fire at a reduced rate.

[Michael Emrys]

Wouldn't Target light do this? Not sure how many it'd go through exactly but it makes the mortar fire at a reduced rate.

Really? I thought that Target Light just made them use their personal weapons. Be cool if you're right.

Michael

[StoneAge]

I use Target Light never had a problem with them using their personal weapons as I normally don't let them get that close.

[Mattias]

StoneAge has got it right and Mr 16,311 posts is back in the, well, stone age

Target light mean 2-3 rounds a minute.

After a few PBEM games I have come to the conclusion that there are very few situations that warrant full target fire. 2-3 rounds a minute holds down heads almost as effectively as 8-12 rounds and as far as damage goes I would much rather have 15 opportunities to cause 3-4 casualties than 3 opportunities to cause 7-12. Remember, for every round after the first two or three there will be diminishing returns as the men in the center of the targeted area has already been hit and the rest goes to the ground.

Cheers!

M.

[De Savage]

"Target light" will limit direct mortar fire, but not stop it entirely. Have you tried to give small target arc? That should do it... This unit will not fire unless under stress.

I keep my mortar units in back and only move them LOS to enemy when needed. Actually I use indirect fire (with spotter) much more often.

[Blackcat]

"I have 24 shells remaining and want to use about 10. I estimate that will take 20 seconds to do that."

You could try giving the fire order and a pause of 20 seconds then a very short movement order with a clear target or target arc at the final way point. That I think should produce the effect you are looking for (don't forget to finish with a deploy order if you want the mortar to be able to fire next turn.

Its a work around and, in my view, it would be much nicer if we could simply order the number of rounds to be fired by all on-board HE chuckers, including AFVs ("Gunner put three rounds of HE into that farmhouse"). However, there are probably good reasons why that option is not available to us and, as there is a way of achieving much the same effect, maybe its not a big deal.

As regards target-light for on-board mortars firing direct the manual is quite clear. Page 84 "On-map mortar teams that receive a Target Light command wil use their mortars, but only at a very slow rate of fire".

[womble]

...a very short movement order with a clear target or target arc at the final way point...

I'm pretty sure that a "Clear Target" order won't do anything, since all that does is cancel any orders issued at the currently-selected waypoint, and there aren't any. The Target Arc, or a Face command are the way to go to override the initial target order.

[permanent666]

as player you can use target light, but how do you limit the ai's direct fire. i tried with cautious but it didn't have any effect?

any solutions for this problem?

[Erwin]

"Target light mean 2-3 rounds a minute."

Thank you for that info. I too thought that Target Light meant use persoanl weapons. (In Devil's Descent my mortar teams were often using their carbines etc to defend themselves.)

So the obvious question is if the range is LESS than the MIN mortar range and you order TARGET or TARGET LIGHT, what will they do?

[Juju]

So the obvious question is if the range is LESS than the MIN mortar range and you order TARGET or TARGET LIGHT, what will they do?

At that range the smartest thing to do would be running away.

[Erwin]

Well I have seen mortar crews very effectively defend themselves with their Carbines.

What I wonder is whether they can be ordered to function like infantry - ie use their personal weapons rather than their mortar.

[Juju]

Don't think they can. If they have shells, they will fire them when given any fire command. They never fire the mortar without specific orders from the player, though.

[WineCape]

As mentioned elsewhere and previously, it would be a neat feature for future iterations of CM if you could beforehand select the numbers of shells to shoot off from your ammo pile for mortars and artillery.

[Erwin]

Yes, I always thought that a real life command called for a certain number of shells, not just "Give me Light Fire for a Medium length of time please."

Also, I must try selecting TARGET or TARGET LIGHT with the mortar crews at ranges LESS THAN the min for the mortars (40m I think), I wonder if then they will use their personal weapons.

[gunnersman]

I use target light too without a problem. But I would prefer to use target. Another workaround is to not have the mortar team deploy. When you want them to fire, target the unit or area, then deploy. That will give you about 30 seconds of fire. But of course that is only good for one turn. You will have to un-deploy for the next turn if you want to use that technique again.

Pause never seems to work for me.

[Erwin]

I suppose one does not HAVE to order them to deploy at all.

And after their mortar ammo is expended they are a useful inf team.