The Troop – Mortars Guide

Mortars Explained

Mortar bombs apply a number of attacks to the tile where they land, and apply a reduced number of “splash damage” attacks to all adjacent tiles as well.

Mortar bombs can land anywhere within 2 tiles of the targeted tile. If a bomb hits a unit, do not assume that is where it was aimed!

For the first shot at a new target tile, mortar shots initially have a 5% chance of landing in the targeted tile and a 30% chance of landing in the “inner ring” of adjacent tiles. Otherwise it will land in the “outer ring”, 2 tiles away from targeted tile.

“Observed” mortar shots are those where the targeted tile is within 1 tile of a tile to which the mortar team or a spotter unit (HQ) have LOS. Assuming the target tile remains the same and the attacking mortar does not move, the chances of hitting the target tile or inner ring tiles go up with each subsequent shot. We refer to this as “zeroing”. If the target tile changes to an adjacent tile that is still “observed”, then the level of zeroing attained when firing at the previous target tile is retained. So a mortar team can effectively move its target tile one observed tile per turn and still build accuracy.

“Unobserved” shots at the same tile after first shot do NOT increase in chance to hit the target tile or inner ring. The team is blind firing and cannot zero in.

The “chance to hit” displayed in the attack log once a bomb has landed on a tile is NOT the chance for the bomb to land on the intended tile, it is the hit chance of each attack being applied to a unit IF the tile has been hit directly or with splash damage (usually fixed at 30%). Larger mortars have more of these hit chances than smaller ones and better effective penetration if they hit a vehicle, those are the only differences. Larger mortars are no more likely to land on (or near) where intended than smaller mortars, but are more likely to do more damage both directly and via splash.

Splash damage attacks are NOT applied to tiles inside a building. Only direct hits will count. Nor are splash damage attacks applied to infantry carried in “open” vehicles, but they are applied to infantry carried in “exposed” vehicles.