Mortars: Useful or not?

[Tynan]

I've reworked mortars based on the poll, so the poll is now obsolete and I'm closing it. Thanks to all who contributed!

[jpinard]

I know it's too late, but I find mortars very useful (and fun!) defending against centipedes.

[BoogieMan]

I never build mortars, spending the time and resources on a good a defensive position set up seems far more effective, and isn't completely nullified by non-camping enemies.

[mumblemumble]

I know the poll was closed, but I figure I'd put my 2 cents in.

Mortars are VERY powerful, as they do high damage, pain effects (multiple wounds) and have a decent splash, but are pretty damn cumbersome.

Biggest issue is where aiming is extremely cumbersome, on multiple levels. Lets say I want to mortar an incoming raider : aiming at him directly means the mortar will hit when hes walked FAR away from the impact site, making it useless, so you must lead the target using your own judgement against them. It also tends to spread extremely wide at short ranges, which bothers me quite a bit, but I understand, I suppose.

Its also extremely slow, and not very reactable at all, but I understand this as a balance issue.

Overall, I like the mortars, they are also extremely useful against manhunting packs, as you can thin the heard.

[Brutetal]

Well I expereminted a bit...

I'm afraid to have no pics available, I just forget them so often.
I've basically built one looooong corridor to right before the only entry to my base. Even though it is damn long and full of rock chunks, the raiders will take because all other walls of my colony are four tiles thick.
Now comes the trick;
I have cramped the approx. 30 tiles long corridor with mostly granite chunks. At three points I drew kind of a line with marble chunks (different color). Now, if the raiders walk over the first line of marble, I fire all mortars on the second line. I set already the forced attack there, but hold fire. I click all mortars at once and unforbid fire.
BAMMM!  Up to 80% of the times I hit with most mortars direct hits.
I think a four tiles wide corridor should be even more effective. Will have to test that.

Just a cool input if you want a "legit killbox" that isn't just turret spamming

[SpaceDorf]

You sir just described a coordinated fire strike on a prepared target, well done

[Brutetal]

You sir just described a coordinated fire strike on a prepared target, well done

Yeah serving in the military and learning some military tactics had to be good for SOMETHING, right? *chuckle*

[Hans Lemurson]

Wait, I thought the only legit tactics in Rimworld were sending masses of poorly equipped irregulars single-file against entrenched and hardened positions.  Have the pirates been doing it wrong the whole time?

[SpaceDorf]

Wait, I thought the only legit tactics in Rimworld were sending masses of poorly equipped irregulars single-file against entrenched and hardened positions.  Have the pirates been doing it wrong the whole time?

Of course not .. you are confusing player tactics with AI tactics

Yeah serving in the military and learning some military tactics had to be good for SOMETHING, right? *chuckle*

I was armored Artillery myself , that is the biggest issue I have with mortars .. they just suck compared to the real deal.

[b0rsuk]

By the way it seems that EMP mortars were actually nerfed in A16. I remember their blast area to be HUGE, now they're about half as big.

[SpaceDorf]

And nobody noticed until now ..


B0rsuk I think you just summarized the use of mortars in your post ..

[b0rsuk]

I don't know what Tynan exactly did to mortars in A17, but he could kill two birds with one stone by making colonists automatically lead the target. Mortar shell has relatively low travel time, so while letting colonists shoot automatically is convenient, it's better to target manually against moving raids. I don't enjoy that micromanagement.

[AngleWyrm]

... he could kill two birds with one stone by making colonists automatically lead the target.

Brief block of instruction on how to plot an intercept course.

[Shurp]

OK, I take back what I said earlier.  Mortars aren't *totally* useless, as I just discovered:

My 5 poor colonists suddenly discovered 21 tribals milling about preparing to attack.  I knew they would overrun my static defenses too easily (yes, I'm playing without turrets again).  So I thought I could take the battle to them and shoot them, but several reloads proved that wasn't going to work.  4:1 is just awful odds in a straight shootout.

Then I remembered that I had snagged a mortar from a siege a while back.  So I loaded it up and fired several shells at the mob, and managed to kill 5 of them.  The rest charged my base, and this time I was able to kill another half dozen as they swarmed my killbox causing the rest to flee.

So, mortars do work against large AI squads milling about aimlessly.  And note this was a single mortar.  If I had actually researched and built several I might have been able to really mess them up.

[EnricoDandolo]

I think that Mortars are a really useful thing to have in the game.
- I've used them for defense against other sieges, and against raiders.
- I've used them to siege raiders
Its so nice to see 10 mortars firing at once, and when they all land it makes for a really fun hail-Mary moment of pure destruction.
All that is balanced by the fact that we need shells, if we didn't need the shells I'd rush Mortars at day one.