• Founder TripleA Admin

    I just wanted to share an observation that I’ve made over the past few games that I played.

    Mortar units are highly effective against infantry. I orginally tried to keep them in cover all of the time but you really only need to do that if there are units that can attack it like machine guns or other mortars. In that situation, however, those opposing units are generally at long range from the action anyway. When playing with a mortar unit, I try to keep them at long range from enemy infantry anywhere on the map whether I’m in cover or not. This is because most regular infantry do not have long range attacks. Next, I try to find the “magic” hexes. Most of the maps are not wide open so it helps to figure out before hand where the long range shots are that are not immediately apparent. For instance, there are some great spots on the Half and Half map from the non-objective side that can see into the hexes that seem to be enclosed by the trees and city. Find those spots and get your mortar units to them. A risk of course is that your opponent has anti-infantry vehicles. In this case  you may need to engage your opponent sooner in order to get a few useful turns from the mortar.

    Let me know if you have any comments or addendums to this. I’m going to refine these ideas and eventually post it to the main site. This stuff might be obvious to some but it might be useful to many.


  • i use my mortar teams like they  really did, i would have them behind one of the hills or towns or forest. since they shoot up and over it made total sense to me. its great fro blowing away infrantry and smaller Vehicle


  • ~Major ~  thats a great house rule.  and who knows with forward observers in set 3 it might be incorperated into the rules


  • You beat me to the punch Argarus.  You need line of sight to shoot over hills, even with mortars.  Must be using house rules.


  • That would be where the rules put a fine line between Line Of Sight and Line Of Fire.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    This is all and good about the house rules but how do you think this tactic stands with the rules as the are today?


  • I think forward observers should be allowed to supplement mortars in the next expansion.  Makes sense to shoot a mortar over a hill or house, even if it is a little less inaccurate.


  • Perhaps if line of sight is blocked, then mortars should only hit on rolls of 6.  Without a forward observer, mortar fire was extremely inaccurate.  It would be too powerful to be able to just leave them behind a hill or tree line and let them pound away at enemy units.


  • Good call, Mal


  • Actually I’m the only one in my games who uses mortar units. They tend to get dissed even tho I tag enemy pieces w/ them. I think the inaccurate SA makes them sound weak, but when you figure successes count as doubles…the potential is devastating.

    So yes, I use them at the limit of their range, and always from cover. I’ve taken out Humbers w/ them on occaission, damaged Stuarts from behind. They are highly undervalued, I think…not point-wise, but as pieces worthy of adding to the army. The trick, as you pointed out, Dave, is in the magic hexes. But since mortars are cheap enough, they can supplement intimidating pieces which are much more likely to draw enemy fire.
    Also, keep them with the Haupsturmfuhrer of course, and an MG-42 for the double shot long.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    Wow, it sounds like you are using the German mortars. I’m usually using the US or the Japanese mortars.

    Check out this manuever. Get 1 or 2 mortars and back them up with the SNLF Captain (with the pinpointer ability). Fire away at those enemy units in cover. To make the cover save, they’ll need a 6.

    So I generally don’t put the mortars in cover unless neccessary. But I’ve found that when you do this you need to double check lines of fire to these units each round very carefully. I missed a shot from a Sherman and the mortar got taken out.


  • I don’t yet have a SNLF captain but I’ll get one and try it.

    Yeah, unless you’re in the only cover hex for ways around, it can be a problem. I usually only use them  as I would a turretless vehicle tho. Rarely do I need a 360 vantage.

    Off topic for a second, but you know what would really be cool? An online live dice roller so people could play this table-top game long distance. Kind of like the old postal space battles a friend of mine used to play. When I trade posts on this stuff I wind up wanting to play the people I post with…so few people play this game… :-(

    ok, back to thread.


  • I have found the American mortars teamed with the Red Devil captain to be an excellent combo, but even at 8 hex range I find it hard to protect the mortars because of their low defense of 3.

  • Founder TripleA Admin

    @Lotus:

    I don’t yet have a SNLF captain but I’ll get one and try it.

    Yeah, unless you’re in the only cover hex for ways around, it can be a problem. I usually only use them  as I would a turretless vehicle tho. Rarely do I need a 360 vantage.

    Off topic for a second, but you know what would really be cool? An online live dice roller so people could play this table-top game long distance. Kind of like the old postal space battles a friend of mine used to play. When I trade posts on this stuff I wind up wanting to play the people I post with…so few people play this game… :-(

    ok, back to thread.

    I’ll create a new thread for this discussion.

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