Mortars 101

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

"Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl."
- Frederick II of Prussia

"God fights on the side with the best artillery."
- Napoleon

"The infantry exists to get the forward observers to the next hill."
- Anonymous


Mortars are a lot of fun and an excellent team-building exercise, so I thought I'd gather what material I could find (mostly in PR forums) and post it here so others can join in the fun!! This is a Work In Progess!!

Note also that COOP mode things are a bit different (ammo is one example).. so be aware.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

FACTS and CAPABILITIES

Max Range: 1,500m
Max Rate of Fire: 1 rd every 6 sec. 10rds a minute per tube
Time of Flight: 15-20 seconds from shot to splash
Max load out: 12 HE/AB rds, 6 smoke rds
Rearming rds: 1 ammo bag is = to approximately 4 HE/AB or 2 smoke rds

You can set a maximum of 2 mortars a map within 200m of a built fob and the 2 mortars can be no further apart than 50m - they can be destroyed and rebuilt in a different location at any time.

Place the mortars between 20-40meters apart for maximum effect.

Insurgent mortars have little over twice the deviation of conventional ones. They also only have IM rounds..no PRX (is this true?)

When Air Burst is requested, ensure you know the approximate elevation difference and adjust accordingly. If you don't, the rounds may end up being extremely ineffective.
(Note that elevation is rarely a factor in game)

Reloading bug: When you are firing the mortar you will notice that the ammo count actually goes down to zero regardless if you are being re-supplied.. just keep firing...after the next round the counter will go back up to 11. I think if you hop on/off the mortar it resets the counter as well.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Calling in Fire Missions:

Step 1: Place a move, observe or attack marker on the desired location of the fire mission using the sqd screen (default key caps locks or home) and right click on the map grid and place the marker or if you have eyes on, place it via commo rose on the specific enemy location. remember the distance given at the bottom of the screen or in your GLTD to make it faster later,when you get the hang of things.

Step 2: Move a bit in the direction of the move, observe or attack map marker you just placed, for best accuracy.

Step 3: Pull out your binoc's and right click and use the "main radio" commo rose to set the distance (you will find the distance in the squad screen below the map and only the SL can see the distance, unless you are manning one of the mortars...explained below.), at this time you do not have to have a visual of the target...just be pointed in the direction of the desired location of fires.

Step 4: Immediately after setting the distance, request the type of mission you want (right above the "set distance" in the commo rose) HE/AB or smoke. once this is done the fire mission map marker will be placed on the map for all to see.

Of course you can always just request a fire mission in team chat - ie: 4 rounds PRX on G7KP5

[=VG= BLuDKLoT]

Great info man!

If you're a registered member, you can download some great classes in the Militaria Downloads section.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

The Mortar Squad

Squadmembers - When manning the mortars, you can also see distance to the target using the squad screen just like the SL, the trick is that there has to be an active fire mission and the person(s) manning the mortars have to be in the ballistic calculator/weapon slot 4. Once the calculator is up, press the squad screen button, default caps lock or home and you will see the distance at the bottom of the map to the SL's move/observe/attack marker.

Squad members that are actually firing the mortars should always be riflemen unless you have a dedicated ammo guy. If the mortars are close together you can just drop your ammo bag between them to re-supply both.

SquadLeader - If you have enough grunts in the squad to keep the ammo flowing then you should move to a relatively safe forward position and observe your targets. This is far more effective than relying on 3rd parties to accurately describe where your rounds are hitting, and as such, makes it easier to correct fire with your squad.

I have also read that if you are the mortar team squad leader and you are not using the Squad Leader kit your range can be off as high as 150 metres. Not sure if this is true for COOP - need to test this.

A good mortar team can get accurate rds on target in less than 1 minute after a fire mission is called.

If you join a mortar squad after the squadleader has marked a target on the map you may not be able to see the target - just ask the SL to re-mark and it will show up. I've also seen a bug where the target direction indicator on the compass (the little ^ thingy) never lines up with the actual target (it seems like the ^ is always off to one side of the compass or the other). This is also fixed by asking the SL to re-mark the target on the map, or in extreme cases destroying the mortar and replacing with a new one (this seems to happen more often if the mortar is not on level ground).

When receiving corrections keep in mind that the minimum deviation on the mortars is 25-50 meters at upto 1,000 meters range and moving the mortar left or right 5 degrees equates to roughly 75-100 meters at that distance (decreases at shorter ranges and increases at greater ranges) so be careful when adjusting. If you have to go more than 10 degrees left or right of the target direction given...request for a new grid and/or fire mission.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Elevation and Distance

You have three options when it comes to elevation:

1 - Totally ignore it. This works on mainly flat maps or at short ranges (less than 700m).

2 - Make an educated guess (a good spotter can really help here). Most of the time this choice is better than ignoring it entirely

3 - This involves pre-planning - let a heli land next to your mortars and write down your elevation (taken from the heli pilot spot). Then send him to different spots and let him transmit his elevation.

When it comes to distance remember that the distance to target on the map can be +\- 25 metres off from the actual target distance... no easy way to correct for this !angry


Also good to remember is that there is ALWAYS some deviation when firing mortars. If you are danger close to the mortar attack area, don't be surprised if the first few rounds miss but the next hit you dead on (just ask Badploy !dntknw)

[Iffn]

awesome thread, i love artilery but there usually a lot of calculation going on when firing a mortar...


How to fire a mortar in PR witout marker/distance:

Yes, you are able to fire a mortar in project reality without using any markers and distances from your squad leader and still hit the bullseye but it takes a while. (and a calculator is also handy !yes )

First, you need the position of your mortar and the position of the target on the map. Let's use the muttrah city 2 map as an example:




Let's say you set up your mortar at the roundabout in A8 kp1 and want to fire on the crossroad in F11 kp8.

The first thing you need to know is your distance, which can be calculated with the grids and the easy-to-use pythagoras-theorem (a²+b²=c² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem)
1 big square is 150m x150 on this map (see botom left corner), which means a small square is 50m x 50m. If you count the horizontal and vertical squares from A8 kp1 to F11 kp8, you will get 16 horizontal and 7 vertical squares, which means:

horizontal distance: 16 x 50m = 800m
vertical distance: 7 x 50m = 350m
Diagonal distance = c = ?(horizontal²+vertical²) = ?(800² + 350²) = 873m


the next step is to get your angle which is a bit more coplicated and requires a calculator and trigonometry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonometry

the formula, we are looking for is tan(?) = vertical distance / horizontal distance, which means:

?= tan-1(vertical distance / horizontal distance)
= tan-1 (350m / 800m)
= tan-1 (0.4375)
=23.6°

now, we just need to add 90°, because 0° on our compas is north and not east:

=>90° + 23.6° = 113.6°


have fun shooting! !huh

[WCCBadploy]

Great stuff there Brother. Thanks for the knowledge bank addition.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Good info Iffn..thanks.

I'll be updating this as things progress...there are some quirks I need to iron out in-game.. actually I'll probably need some help at some point in testing on an empty server.

[Ambumann]

Great reading.

Do you have a procedure you follow when calling for mortar, or more important; when the mortar team is about to fire against a target?

I would like to use more mortar, but I would not be the one who teamkills a squad because of lack in communications.

[=VG= SavageCDN (Inactive Duty)]

Well in PR we usually type out in text chat MORTARS FIRING B6 KP6 or something similar (more than once so that people see it).. if there is a commander you should inform him/her that you are firing so that he/she can relay via voice to other squad leaders.

Other than that there isn't much else you can do (ie: map markers, etc) - keep spamming the chat with your target grid reference and hope that others read it !yes