Light Mortars

[Jim welch]

Hi, I have been doing A lot of reading on the light mortar and spoken to some ex Paras and  come to the following conclusion. 1. 95% of the time they were fired directly. 2. 50% of the time they were used to fire Smoke. 3. Going into Battle only 8 Rounds where carried

To reflect this I will be using the following changes. I have changed the score to hit to the same as rifles. If they miss the dice score is the direction in inches in a Random direction that the shell lands. This makes Smoke viable in A game.

 

Please let me have your views JimW up The Paras

 

 

[Stuart Harrison]

You appear to be making a common mistake about Bolt Action’s interpretation of direct vs indirect fire.

Common perception – direct fire = with LOS, indirect = via spotter/other crew members.  Bolt Action apparent interpretation – direct fire = through a scope/sight laid on the target, indirect = range and bearing used to land a round on a plotted target.

A 2″ mortar doesn’t hit a target by laying a sight on it.  The firer lines it up on a target, then inclines it based on the range, plotting how to land the round where he wants it.  This fits Bolt Action’s interpretation of indirect fire, not direct fire.

The second part of you ‘fix’ makes smoke a virtually guaranteed hit due to the size of the smoke template.  Assuming no movement or other modifiers, you either score a 4,5, or 6 landing it exactly where you wanted, or the movement is too small to prevent the smoke still achieving your objective for it. (an LOS blocker 3″ closer or further from you is still blocking LOS as you intended).

I agree that smoke needs to be fixed, but I feel any random distance needs to start at the template diameter plus a random factor – eg: smoke template size plus D6, or some multiple of what you missed by on your to hit roll as examples.

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