Mortar Deployment strategy

[Metal_militia_103]

I was wondering how you guys typically deploy your mortars? Most of the time there is a dedicated mortar squad that has built a FOB in a safe place. They continue to shuffle ammo from main and request fire missions. This seems to work OK but if the rest of the team isn't spotting, the mortars are sitting idle.

I typically play insurgency and find that having "forward operating mortars" are much more effective. If I can build a FOB a few hundred meters from the front line/cache and 1 mortar emplacement, I can not only spot for my squad directly to call fire missions but soften targets as they advance.

How do you guys prefer utilize this weapon? Perhaps someone with real life experience or a MA can shed some light on how they are used in battle today.

Thanks for the mortar addition devs, it's a lot of fun!

[ZephyrDark]

I normally have the mortar team sit back at their own pit. Remove the FOB to prevent people from using it as a spawn point and ruining the location.

My squad layout is like so:

SL(me): Main Comm Officer/Forward Observer
SM1: Mortar Crew
SM2: Mortar Crew
SM3: Ammo-Dog(keeps the pits at full supply)
SM4: Ammo-Taxi(runs back to base to get more ammo boxes/crates
SM5(Opt.): Pit Defence Task (keeps a security around the pit, keeps the mortarmen updated on any nearby troop movements. Reports in to the MCO/FO(aka the SL).

Either way, what happens is we end up having to find/call in our own mortar requests. It would be nice if more SLs took advantage of the support and called in the mortars more often. Maybe place the marker in general area, and then refine the target location over Mumble/TS/Team Chat

[communistman]

How they're used today? I'm not a member of the military at this time but as far as I know, the 81mm and 60mm mortars aren't deployed in a battle, so to speak. But it's all based on the situation, like nowadays--mortars at the FOB fire in support of ambushed patrols or in case of spotted enemy, etc. But during Op. Anaconda in Afghanistan '02, mortar crews set up while under fire right there in the hot zone. So, it's quite situation-dictated.

In the type of engagements we see in PR, I think the "real-life application" would more so resemble the former strategy you mentioned--set up out of LOS or engagement range of the enemy, and fire from there with spotters on the front. But some forces, like the Brits, actually haul around 51mm mortars with the platoon HQ element right there in the field.

[Cassius]

How they're used today? I'm not a member of the military at this time but as far as I know, the 81mm and 60mm mortars aren't deployed in a battle, so to speak. But it's all based on the situation, like nowadays--mortars at the FOB fire in support of ambushed patrols or in case of spotted enemy, etc. But during Op. Anaconda in Afghanistan '02, mortar crews set up while under fire right there in the hot zone. So, it's quite situation-dictated.

In the type of engagements we see in PR, I think the "real-life application" would more so resemble the former strategy you mentioned--set up out of LOS or engagement range of the enemy, and fire from there with spotters on the front. But some forces, like the Brits, actually haul around 51mm mortars with the platoon HQ element right there in the field.

I would guess it depends on your operational radius. In korrengal valley you are always in the range of a mortar, so a fob equipped with mortars can act as a firesupport base. In Vietnam you needed full blown artillery to act as firesupport for your platoon and I think mortars were flown into the battle area where needed (artillery too though).

[Tartantyco]

I normally have the mortar team sit back at their own pit. Remove the FOB to prevent people from using it as a spawn point and ruining the location.

My squad layout is like so:

SL(me): Main Comm Officer/Forward Observer
SM1: Mortar Crew
SM2: Mortar Crew
SM3: Ammo-Dog(keeps the pits at full supply)
SM4: Ammo-Taxi(runs back to base to get more ammo boxes/crates
SM5(Opt.): Pit Defence Task (keeps a security around the pit, keeps the mortarmen updated on any nearby troop movements. Reports in to the MCO/FO(aka the SL).

Either way, what happens is we end up having to find/call in our own mortar requests. It would be nice if more SLs took advantage of the support and called in the mortars more often. Maybe place the marker in general area, and then refine the target location over Mumble/TS/Team Chat

This is how you waste team resources, people. Anything after the 3rd guy(Including you) is another soldier that could have been at the front lines. Those three people could have made a 1-man squad into a functional 4-man squad, done logistics, manned AA or TOW emplacements at the front, any number of useful tasks. Instead they are a complete waste.

As Squad Leaders you are expected to make use of assets responsibly and although we'd all love to have the manpower and assets to cover every eventuality the fact of the matter is that you can only have 32 people on your team and you can't stick 6 of them in a mortar squad.

You have to depend on the team's ability to re-direct the enemy's resources away from your position as defense, local defense is a waste of manpower. You have to rely on other squad leaders for intelligence and accurate fire missions, you have to man a mortar as SL. You have to rely on your team's logistical capabilities for re-supply or have your third man do both tasks, pick up ammo and distribute it, a soldier whose sole purpose is to supply a single position with ammunition is a waste.

If you want to co-opt logistics into your squad then you can have more people, but the focus of that logistics driver must be team wide and your little mortar pit cannot have priority; as good as mortars are they are not something that makes or breaks a team and they must take a back seat to servicing armored vehicles and providing supplies to the front line for additional FOBs and kit accessibility for squads.

[goguapsy]

SL(me): Main Comm Officer/Forward Observer
SM1: Mortar Crew
SM2: Mortar Crew
SM3: Ammo-Dog(keeps the pits at full supply)
SM4: Ammo-Taxi(runs back to base to get more ammo boxes/crates
SM5(Opt.): Pit Defence Task (keeps a security around the pit, keeps the mortarmen updated on any nearby troop movements. Reports in to the MCO/FO(aka the SL).

While that's interesting (specially destroying the FOB), I think that having 6 ppl in the squad is too much. I would suggest having a max of 3 guys, one SL and 2 other guys (one medic). One keeps ammoing around, the SL can call fire missions, and there are still people for infantry squads.

[omniconsumer|LMC|]

Still can't believe we have those awesome mortars lol. Really improves the game a lot.

[Jigsaw]

This is how you waste team resources, people. Anything after the 3rd guy(Including you) is another soldier that could have been at the front lines. Those three people could have made a 1-man squad into a functional 4-man squad, done logistics, manned AA or TOW emplacements at the front, any number of useful tasks. Instead they are a complete waste.

Completely agree, any more than three people in a mortar squad is useless and it is argueable that even the third is very much pushing it.

[Murphy]

I like 4 man mortar teams when I can get it. If I'm SL I'll go scouting and keep the 3rd guy to be the go-fer, transporting logistics, and pulling security when needed. This way we can keep up sustained fire for when infantry are in need.

On insurgent maps mortars are substantially more effective and have a rather demoralizing effect on BluFor.

[Teek]

I was in a Mortar squad with Db one time, and he stated the the Dev's ideal situation was was for the tubes be built and used by a squad defending a flag. Interestingly enough, that was while we had a 6 man mortar squad as taliban on Korengal - granted we were fireing the tubes near constatly at any reports of attacks on caches, often danger close.

[goguapsy]

I was in a Mortar squad with Db one time, and he stated the the Dev's ideal situation was was for the tubes be built and used by a squad defending a flag. Interestingly enough, that was while we had a 6 man mortar squad as taliban on Korengal - granted we were fireing the tubes near constatly at any reports of attacks on caches, often danger close.

And what did each of the 6 men did? I mean, were they all busy?

[Teek]

And what did each of the 6 men did? I mean, were they all busy?

2 Ammo Bearers, 2 Mortar men, one SL providing targeting info.
So they were in fact all busy, except for the medic, coulda done without that guy, but you know how hard it is to not have a full squad with Db-anything in the name?

[Psyko]

ok i cant hold it in any longer i gotta say somthing...ANybody else feel the mortars should have huge limitations?

First off you gotta build the two mortars inside one squad, and this squad attracts four people. maybe sombody in the mortar squad should have incentive to become commander or somthing.

second i heard of a dome of death idea for mains, well if your allowed put mortars in your main, then the enemy should be allowed shell your main.

thirdly, i know this required making another static, but maps such as kashan are anthropormorphised versions of real life counterpart regions where the distance from one target to another is exaggerated, maybe on 4km maps the mortars should be field guns? could be cool.

finally, to wind up my little happy rant, the mortar shells are WAY to strong. and they spam JUST LIKE VANILLA. along with having no headshot kills and putting far too many assets on kokan, is PR doing a full loop around to vanilla with cooler rifles???

(mind you thats my only complaint out of 15,000 changes.)

edit: and i just noticed i completely posted this in the wrong section...

[Anderson29]

First off you gotta build the two mortars inside one squad, and this squad attracts four people. maybe sombody in the mortar squad should have incentive to become commander or somthing.

best idea i have heard in a while.?^

i think once the patch comes out for .957...it will fix alot of these little problems

[Murphy]

second i heard of a dome of death idea for mains, well if your allowed put mortars in your main, then the enemy should be allowed shell your main.

You cannot build mortars too close to main, you need to deploy them near a FOB which has to be build away from the dome of death. So there is no reason to use mortars as an excuse to base rape (some servers allow it, most do not).

Secondly I do not feel they are over powered at all, if you cannot give the mortar team accurate intel and in a speedy fashion they are entirely ineffective. You cannot in your right mind compare these mortars to those in vBF2 as these require a player to manually dial the targets in, in vBF2 you just bring up the menu and spam away.

You sound like you have not spent too much time manning the mortars yourself, otherwise you would know it can be a very ineffective asset when your team is not working together.

[Elektro]

How do you adjust the Motar height correctly when calculating the angle?

Hoping that someone in this thread could point me in the right direction ops:

[goguapsy]

How do you adjust the Motar height correctly when calculating the angle?

What do you mean? You should, IMO, guestimate how high (or low) is the height difference and add it to the calculator and press "calculate" and adjust angle?

Or am I missing out something here?

[Elektro]

What do you mean? You should, IMO, guestimate how high (or low) is the height difference and add it to the calculator and press "calculate" and adjust angle?

Or am I missing out something here?

I was wondering wether there was a precise way to "calculate" the height difference.

[CallousDisregard]

On maps with large elevation changes AND helos you can get the helo to give you some values for altitude.
Other than that I don't think there is an accurate way to estimate height.
The idea of a 2 man mortar squad is somewhat limited because of the reload time you need an ammo bearer if you are going to maintain any decent rate of fire.
That means you need dedicated logistics, either trucks or helos resupplying you quite often or the mortars will run out of ammo.
I think given how many "leet" locked squads there are out there we can allow a heavy asset to have more than the bare minimum to operate the weapons.
What I really love seeing is all the anger over loss of logi truck use when they are resupplying the mortars.
At least half the time squads just dump the truck next to their FOB and move on, leaving the mortar or logi squad to recover and reload the truck.