Defensive Fires

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by jester

Mortars do not have a min range, as I said you can go max elevation and drop the round right back in your lap. And with a 60mm I would do it if needbe if I had a well prepared fighting postion, The only danger is if the round landed right in your hole or on the endge then you would be in a world of hurt.

As for firing, often a mortar team in my unit would have all of 2 men, which sucked on humps, but we did what we did to get the job done. And they can be fired in the handheld mode with the trigger. In the now dead Korea game in yahoo I had a character who was humping his gun with a small baseplate and fired it with the handheld mode, he also had an AK chest pouch where he carried some extra mortar rounds.

As a GM I often give the players a mortar and allow them to be used usualy when they are attacking someone, but that is usualy when they conduct a surprise attack so I don't have to worry about taking turns setting things up getting the ranges and prepping round <GMs you need to work your magic to avoid the entire procedure of getting a mortar up and ready to fire, although a good crew can have it assembled and online in under 30 seconds.>

And again a mortar is only as good as its crew. We could usualy hit targets the size of a jeep or at least keep the rounds in the explosion radius most of the time.

And remember the thing about a mortar, you can hit targets in the range of about 5km if I recall correctly. And you can keep a hill between you and the target which makes you fairly safe, it is also a terror weapon since alot of people don't know it is comming or where it is comming from other than from the sky. And as I said a small crew of two and even 1 person can use it if you carry the basics with limited additional gear and ammo.

and a morar vs a rocket launcher, well, which would you rather cross a field against? A field with a Gustav, or a feild with a mortar dropping rounds on you? <Yeah I am biased> Biut then again a 60mm is ineffective almost against armor beyond making them button up and damaging external gear and equipment. however, as a defensive weapon a mortar is a good system.

I dont believe there are many mortar rounds in the same size category that can top a series of well ranged and properly dialed 84 mm he airbursts.

Tried them on the shooting field many a time - absolute devestation .
As for the ability of a mortar to circumventthe LOS -that is a positive that is hard to beat .But then again the 84 can take on a charging tank head on (preferably side on ) and win
-the mortar most likely cannot .

so its a question of whatever suits .

[Earthpig]

Don't know if the newer 60 rds can be used like grenades, but during WW II a soldier recieved the Medal of Honor for heaving rounds out the second story of a house and breaking up a German attack.

[jester]

Originally Posted by Earthpig

Don't know if the newer 60 rds can be used like grenades, but during WW II a soldier recieved the Medal of Honor for heaving rounds out the second story of a house and breaking up a German attack.

That sounds like a scene from Saving Private Ryan.

However a Navy Corpsman or Soldier maybe a Marine on Okinawa did exactly that and earned the Medal of Honor.


I must say those rounds, were unstable, had a high dud rate and less range than the newer rounds that we were getting in the early/mid 90s. There was something else about the fuze on those that could be set but you didn't like to as it caused issues, and they were less stable thus more dangerous to the user.

Now if someone were using the WOJO rounds, those I beleive could probably be used as a large grenade, again though the whole stability of the round, I mean, the quality control in a T2K world would be less than stringent as to the workmanship, materials and quantities.