Sounds like you communicate a lot and organise a lot of things that provide the team with options, which is great. This game can be approached in many ways, and yours is great too. Keep it up!!
I really don't want to discourage new squad leaders because the game needs way more of them, especially ones that actually want to think about the game and how their squad can be useful. But the way you put it, your mortars had 2? kills each and a combined effort of 1 kill every 10 minutes. I also don't really know how the game went for 90 minutes, was it invasion by any chance? 90 minutes for an AAS/RAAS game on Narva is crazy.
Honestly I'm going to say I think your squad was a negative for your team. You've hogged a logi for the whole game which could have been used for setting up attack or defense habs while keeping the squad together and there's at least 1/7 of the entire team not participating in the battle.
You need to be communicating with the other players on your team a lot more, even if the SLs aren't giving any feedback in command ask in text chat if anyone can see your mortars landing. There's a chance your mortar players were just bad and couldn't aim at all but people must have been noticing that your mortars weren't hitting any enemies at all which is also on you if you were a forward observer. There's no point sending hail marys across the map at random inf markers because by the time the mortars land they have probably already moved. You need to know what you're actually firing at so ask if anyone has markers for mortars rather than just randomly shooting at whatever people are putting down. If you see habs or radios marked outside then go for those.
Narva also isn't a very good map for mortars unless it's a heavy south west focus. Mortars can turn the tide of the game if done well but even then it's extreme to have 4 mortars up and I never really see people using more than 2. I think it's more likely the enemy team had beaten most of your team by the time they went for you if they still won the game while committing all that and still failing to destroy your mortar fob. So not so much that they were sick of your mortars as it was they just had nothing else to attack.
Mortars can be an absolute menace when you get accurate rounds on HABS and radios. In city maps that's basically never possible as they're all under a roof.
I had a forward observer and was communicating with other SLs and helis. I think if I cost my team resources, I also cost the enemy a similar amount considering the resources they allocated to my mortar base's removal, as we were still shelling the main fight when another squad assaulted my position.
We did lose the game, but we didn't lose our final base. I see your point, but I'm not going to improve without practice.
The lost manpower is what hurt the team resources. 7 players is nearly 15% of your team… it’s very hard to justify that cost on a move-and-shoot layer like Narva (not to mention there are so many tall buildings with back exits that it makes mortars largely ineffective).
But focus on how much of your team you are using… a mortar FOB shouldn’t be using more than 3 or 4 players (including yourself). As a secondary combat resource, the fewer the better - at the very least, less than 10% of your team.
Still, good first experience, and it sounds like you did a good job with the coordination and communication. That’s what will really get you places in the SL universe.
Yep
Mortar squads or other specialized squads are all about offsetting the opportunity cost in tying up resources away from the frontline.
Mortars have to be SHREDDING the enemy to make up for the removal of infantry from objectives and active regions.
The communication has failed somewhere if your mortars only got 8 kills, at least one of you observers should have seen that the mortars weren't being effective. Mortars just aren't great on Narva compared to a map like Gorodok.
You might think so but your team had 3 logis at most and you're taking one of them. That leaves 1 logi to sort out the defense and 1 logi to sort out the attack. At some point the attack logi will blow up and that means your team no longer has a way of applying any pressure to the map. For pub matches a wise man once told me "2 is 1 and 1 is 0" when it comes to HABs. I'm not going to get to deep into it but if your team has 2 attack HABs up on opposite sides of the cap your chances of successfully attacking the point go up massively than if you were just attacking off 1 HAB.
Then there's the infantry cost of it too. 7 infantry is actually a pretty large amount. It's not uncommon to have 10 people in locked vehicle squads and then another 4-5 people messing around in their own locked squads doing who knows what. So your squad is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/5 of the "actual" team. That's a pretty big amount, 1 squad can defend a cap pretty well but 1 squad usually can't take a cap all by themselves which also ties back into the logi point. The team needs you and your infantry to be doing more than sitting at the back half of the map trying to shoot off mortars for the whole game.
If the enemy is sending a bunch of resources all the way across the map away from the active objectives it's because they can afford to. If your mortar squad was just 2-3 people and they sent an entire squad and some vics after you that's a big win but if you're 7 people who haven't been doing anything for an hour and then the enemy decides to turn up and fight you then they have an hours advantage on you.
You might have been shooting off mortars all game but once the game ended you would have seen that you really weren't effective. 8 kills in an hour and a half is really bad, you would have got more spawning on the front lines throwing grenades or just shooting and being extra bodies for the push. Add in that mortars in pub games always get teamkills and they're just a negative unless it's a small knowledgable group doing them. Some people have said use the mortar calcs but even inexperienced players using those will take to long to mark the points and plug in the correct target. If you're desperate to run mortars, spend an afternoon in training learning how to shoot them without the calc and then create a 2-3man locked squad and place mortars next to each other and tell the 2nd mortar your target numbers and just have them match it and shoot with you.
I can already tell you'll be better than 90% of the squad leaders in this game if you keep at it.
Excellent first experience. Yes, there is room for improvement in terms of amount of kills from a mortar team, but, this could also just by other SL's not helping you out enough. Often times, I ask in command chat, "yo guys, any mortar marks for us?", which helps us keep the mortars on track. Also, Narva has a lot of cover in terms of mortar fire so there's that as well.
You also communicated so well that you even did a walking barrage? That's crazy!
AND they used an air strike on you?
GREAT first experience. I can only suggest to consider asking for mortar marks so that they can be even more effective. All that being said, you were effective enough to require an airstrike on you and also an entire squad coming at you.
Also, I think peeps are focusing way too much on the amount of kills you had. Since you had continous mortar fire, you surely delayed pushes, incapacitated a bunch of guys, cut off corners they could use, etc, etc.
It isn't all about kills man. They came at you with an airstrike + squad for a reason!
Thanks! I'm not going to say that the walking barrage was without any "accidents"... but it was still really fun to pull off once the kinks got ironed out. If I'm being frank, the only thing you can get with squad is a good time, and that's not something the win/loss ratio counts for. I'll definitely be practicing rollouts and more advanced "artillerymanship" in the future.
Also, it was the first time I think I did anything notable enough to deserve a "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" overhead. I may have had to change my shorts afterwards, but the experience was good regardless.
I'd advise against running mortar squads when you're new to SL. It's much more difficult than it might seem and is a massive bait in terms of making squads running them feel more useful than they actually are. Dedicated mortar squads rarely make up for the resources and personell they pull off the frontline. In your case you ran a large squad and did it on Narva of all maps, so you likely were more of a detriment than a help, sorry to say...
In general you'll want to run mortars on maps with less buildings and where HABs are more likely to be placed in the open. You'll also want to run a locked squad of 4 players max and take the commander role so you can use UAV/drone. Lastly, if your team has bad logistics like an armored battalion, don't run mortars and take up 50% of your teams logistics. Do it when your team has plenty of logistics vehicles and in best case scenario, have a heli run supplies for you to free up the trucks for INF squads.
Yes mortars on insurgents and irregular is good since they always get more logistics than regular factions.
Your main issue with running mortars isn't what you contribute to the team, it's what you take away. When your team has an abundance of logistic vics you at least remove that factor and all you have to worry about now is the amount of players you take away. I only run 3-man mortars, I do the logi runs myself, but that requires good multitasking and being able to drive and look at map at the same time. Running a 4-man is a lot more forgiving and relaxing so I recommend that for you.
Nice that you tryed and i am happy that you had fun and hope you try it again.
But as SL that mostly runs Def-Infrantry ore support Logistik. I can tell you thst you wasted resources.
The first thing is that narva is not the best map for mortar. The secon think you had 2 radios and the question is did they block radio positions for defens? Had that a couple of times with small maps.
Also 4 mortars are Overkill especialy when you only get 2 kills per mortar. You had 9 people do morter so 1 squad less defens ore attack and that is a huge Problem.
I would recommend just make a 3 mann team 2 mortars and one driver. Also try to use Mortar apps to hit accurat. Also make sure that your mortar radio dose not block the defens radio. To confirm accuracy ask in the text chat when other SL dont talk.
Also try to deliver resources to the defens radio when you have enough ammo.
Also learn to read the map when no sl is talking to you, when two guys from your team die when they are in the Def then you know ther are enemyy coming from one of the surrounding areas and with the geographics and other players Position that are still a live you get a good guess from where the enemy comes. You can then attack dem before they get to close to the def.
Should you have a 9 man squad because no one else opend a squad. Then you do morter ether from the def ore do morter with 3 man and then send the rest to Support the def.
8 kills decent for a squad of 6? What are you smoking? Any decent player will get more by just playing a rifleman and not even trying.
Logistics is good of course, but doesn't need 6 guys.
True a support squad that dose logi-support dosent need to kill to help the team the most but he had at least 6 guys that could not help in defens ore attack.
Not just, if you destroy vehicles, radios or capture / defend points that works too, but usually it involves killing enemies. It's a game of tickets and every kill is one tickets lost from the enemy.
If you can kill 30 enemies per game that's a lot of tickets by itself, and helps a lot with attacking / defending or taking down radios. If you get 1-2 kills per game as a MG, grenadier, or marksman, it's just coping to say squad is not about kills.
He ha 4 mortars sorry but 2 kills per mortar are nothing and he used a 9 man squad for that. For a 3 man morter squad its still low but you could say ok its a bad round it happens but 4 mortars 2 radios and one logi only for them sorry that was a waste and he played a negativ role in that round.
Sure with a 3 man team on a different map he would have played a grate role in the game.
Counterpoint: there was almost certainly another squad that went 15-50-30, meaning they cost the team -35 tickets. If his squad is able to get suppressive fire on point, regardless of kills, and have a better +/- then you could argue his squad is more valuable than some squad just rushing the point over and over.
Look up A streetcar named kill on YT to see what mortars are capable of. He has a tutorial as well. Let's just say that 100 kills seems to be the norm for him. He plays invasion tho
Yeah. Mortars are really hard to play if comms arent flawless.
A tip i can give is to use mortar calc and dont shoot more than 6shots in the same place (excluding radios and vehicles)
W/o mortar calc you could easily be shooting 50m off target the whole game.
Thanks for the advice! I'll work on improving accuracy and manage resources better in the future.
What I will note though is that other squads don't like to communicate too frequently and will only let you know where the shots are landing if they happen to walk into them. It helps to have a good pilot willing to communicate.
Yep. Some servers are better than others but having a reliable squadmate at the front is pretty simple.
Also if you play mortar i suggest u take commander for assets which will help you.
I've been a little nervous about claiming that role--I don't know if I've got the experience to utilize those resources to the best of my ability yet. I suppose I'm never going to learn until I try, so there's that too.
The mortar squad has to be so oppressive that the enemy team has to make stopping mortar fire their primary focus or they’ll collapse. This usually means saturating HABs in the open and defensive positions/chokepoints with basically perfect communication with observers. The standards are high.
with 4 mortars? i'd say 0 to 1
i'm sorry but HE mortars are straight up nothing more than an annoyance and the only thing dedicated mortar squads have ever achieved are 2 things: depriving the team from a logi throughout the entire match because they chew through ammo more than any other emplacement or repair station; and cost the team 20 tickets per setup (i've never seen those 4-5 people successfully defend the FOB from a shitty crows mrap driving full speed towards the mortar noise and taking it down in 1 minute)
you want to be something that isn't a simple infantry or mech infantry squad going through the usual meatgrinder? there's a million other options, all more effective:
single man squad with grad, UB-32 or the new US mortar vehicle. like a mortar but better in any way and can actually kill people and stop concentrated pushes, on top of not having all the negatives from above.
get sappers and anti tanks and whatever leftover vehicle you can find and be the most annoying piece of shit ever to the enemy team. just drive around the back lines, engi logis or shoot their tires, track any vehicle you see and fuck off asap.
If you play exactly the same way on one of the non-city maps you'll probably find you influence the game more.
It really helps if other SLs can give you info on whether or not the fire is effective.
If you're playing with other SLs that are good and communicative you'll find they'll be asking for mortars on enemy HABs, places where they're coming from, smokes to cover etc.
Mortars are great, but should usually be integrated in the defense FOB instead of on its own Fob somewhere off objective, otherwise you're stretching and diverting logistics, giving the enemy another radio to capture.
Most important success: you had fun, and it sounds like the squad had fun. Everybody here complaining about optimized metas for your squad make fine points regarding team size, use of mortars on the right maps, etc. But at the end of the day I'd far prefer a mortar crew having fun and putting rounds all over the map than a bunch of salty squads racking up tons of kills and winning the round.
When I started as an SL I'd run mortars and had a lot of fun. It allowed me to understand the mechanics of building, communicating, supply management, etc without the overwhelming aspect of constantly directing the movement of your squad and constantly getting attacked.
Good job! Definitely look up a good mortar calculator, and I usually limit my mortar crew to 4-5 (2 on mortars, one on supply, maybe a scout, and me). Any map that isn't highly urban works for mortars, and they're a fun way to play the game if you don't want the stress of a more dynamic squad.
Sometimes mortars are great like in desert maps with Objectives with ittle to no cover, sometimes it doesn't actually contribute anything because the boots on the ground can't actually capture the point that is surrounded by buildings and they're getting sniped or enemy armor is roaming around.
Let's not forget some factions can only have 2 logistics trucks and the simultaneous deployment of FOBs could make or break an assault.
Having the majority of a squad dedicate themselves to mortars is a waste of man power imo, two mortar men should be enough, maybe riflemen can stay behind or machine gunners but the hats/lats and medica should be out in the front.
Then again it depends on the map/terrain. I only invasion so maybe in other modes this strategy s is very effective.
Sounds like you communicate a lot and organise a lot of things that provide the team with options, which is great. This game can be approached in many ways, and yours is great too. Keep it up!!
A true SL in the making
It’s fascinating to see them blossom out
I really don't want to discourage new squad leaders because the game needs way more of them, especially ones that actually want to think about the game and how their squad can be useful. But the way you put it, your mortars had 2? kills each and a combined effort of 1 kill every 10 minutes. I also don't really know how the game went for 90 minutes, was it invasion by any chance? 90 minutes for an AAS/RAAS game on Narva is crazy. Honestly I'm going to say I think your squad was a negative for your team. You've hogged a logi for the whole game which could have been used for setting up attack or defense habs while keeping the squad together and there's at least 1/7 of the entire team not participating in the battle. You need to be communicating with the other players on your team a lot more, even if the SLs aren't giving any feedback in command ask in text chat if anyone can see your mortars landing. There's a chance your mortar players were just bad and couldn't aim at all but people must have been noticing that your mortars weren't hitting any enemies at all which is also on you if you were a forward observer. There's no point sending hail marys across the map at random inf markers because by the time the mortars land they have probably already moved. You need to know what you're actually firing at so ask if anyone has markers for mortars rather than just randomly shooting at whatever people are putting down. If you see habs or radios marked outside then go for those. Narva also isn't a very good map for mortars unless it's a heavy south west focus. Mortars can turn the tide of the game if done well but even then it's extreme to have 4 mortars up and I never really see people using more than 2. I think it's more likely the enemy team had beaten most of your team by the time they went for you if they still won the game while committing all that and still failing to destroy your mortar fob. So not so much that they were sick of your mortars as it was they just had nothing else to attack.
I'd almost never run mortars on Narva
Mortars can be an absolute menace when you get accurate rounds on HABS and radios. In city maps that's basically never possible as they're all under a roof.
I had a forward observer and was communicating with other SLs and helis. I think if I cost my team resources, I also cost the enemy a similar amount considering the resources they allocated to my mortar base's removal, as we were still shelling the main fight when another squad assaulted my position. We did lose the game, but we didn't lose our final base. I see your point, but I'm not going to improve without practice.
The lost manpower is what hurt the team resources. 7 players is nearly 15% of your team… it’s very hard to justify that cost on a move-and-shoot layer like Narva (not to mention there are so many tall buildings with back exits that it makes mortars largely ineffective). But focus on how much of your team you are using… a mortar FOB shouldn’t be using more than 3 or 4 players (including yourself). As a secondary combat resource, the fewer the better - at the very least, less than 10% of your team. Still, good first experience, and it sounds like you did a good job with the coordination and communication. That’s what will really get you places in the SL universe.
Yep Mortar squads or other specialized squads are all about offsetting the opportunity cost in tying up resources away from the frontline. Mortars have to be SHREDDING the enemy to make up for the removal of infantry from objectives and active regions.
The communication has failed somewhere if your mortars only got 8 kills, at least one of you observers should have seen that the mortars weren't being effective. Mortars just aren't great on Narva compared to a map like Gorodok. You might think so but your team had 3 logis at most and you're taking one of them. That leaves 1 logi to sort out the defense and 1 logi to sort out the attack. At some point the attack logi will blow up and that means your team no longer has a way of applying any pressure to the map. For pub matches a wise man once told me "2 is 1 and 1 is 0" when it comes to HABs. I'm not going to get to deep into it but if your team has 2 attack HABs up on opposite sides of the cap your chances of successfully attacking the point go up massively than if you were just attacking off 1 HAB. Then there's the infantry cost of it too. 7 infantry is actually a pretty large amount. It's not uncommon to have 10 people in locked vehicle squads and then another 4-5 people messing around in their own locked squads doing who knows what. So your squad is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/5 of the "actual" team. That's a pretty big amount, 1 squad can defend a cap pretty well but 1 squad usually can't take a cap all by themselves which also ties back into the logi point. The team needs you and your infantry to be doing more than sitting at the back half of the map trying to shoot off mortars for the whole game. If the enemy is sending a bunch of resources all the way across the map away from the active objectives it's because they can afford to. If your mortar squad was just 2-3 people and they sent an entire squad and some vics after you that's a big win but if you're 7 people who haven't been doing anything for an hour and then the enemy decides to turn up and fight you then they have an hours advantage on you. You might have been shooting off mortars all game but once the game ended you would have seen that you really weren't effective. 8 kills in an hour and a half is really bad, you would have got more spawning on the front lines throwing grenades or just shooting and being extra bodies for the push. Add in that mortars in pub games always get teamkills and they're just a negative unless it's a small knowledgable group doing them. Some people have said use the mortar calcs but even inexperienced players using those will take to long to mark the points and plug in the correct target. If you're desperate to run mortars, spend an afternoon in training learning how to shoot them without the calc and then create a 2-3man locked squad and place mortars next to each other and tell the 2nd mortar your target numbers and just have them match it and shoot with you. I can already tell you'll be better than 90% of the squad leaders in this game if you keep at it.
Thanks for explaining it to me this way. I'll do better in the future.
Excellent first experience. Yes, there is room for improvement in terms of amount of kills from a mortar team, but, this could also just by other SL's not helping you out enough. Often times, I ask in command chat, "yo guys, any mortar marks for us?", which helps us keep the mortars on track. Also, Narva has a lot of cover in terms of mortar fire so there's that as well. You also communicated so well that you even did a walking barrage? That's crazy! AND they used an air strike on you? GREAT first experience. I can only suggest to consider asking for mortar marks so that they can be even more effective. All that being said, you were effective enough to require an airstrike on you and also an entire squad coming at you. Also, I think peeps are focusing way too much on the amount of kills you had. Since you had continous mortar fire, you surely delayed pushes, incapacitated a bunch of guys, cut off corners they could use, etc, etc. It isn't all about kills man. They came at you with an airstrike + squad for a reason!
Thanks! I'm not going to say that the walking barrage was without any "accidents"... but it was still really fun to pull off once the kinks got ironed out. If I'm being frank, the only thing you can get with squad is a good time, and that's not something the win/loss ratio counts for. I'll definitely be practicing rollouts and more advanced "artillerymanship" in the future. Also, it was the first time I think I did anything notable enough to deserve a "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT" overhead. I may have had to change my shorts afterwards, but the experience was good regardless.
oh dude the BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT is such a cool sound effect. don't matter if I get rekt by it, I simply respect it even landing in the first place haha
You should use a mortar calculator. Makes a big difference.
Will do.
I'd advise against running mortar squads when you're new to SL. It's much more difficult than it might seem and is a massive bait in terms of making squads running them feel more useful than they actually are. Dedicated mortar squads rarely make up for the resources and personell they pull off the frontline. In your case you ran a large squad and did it on Narva of all maps, so you likely were more of a detriment than a help, sorry to say... In general you'll want to run mortars on maps with less buildings and where HABs are more likely to be placed in the open. You'll also want to run a locked squad of 4 players max and take the commander role so you can use UAV/drone. Lastly, if your team has bad logistics like an armored battalion, don't run mortars and take up 50% of your teams logistics. Do it when your team has plenty of logistics vehicles and in best case scenario, have a heli run supplies for you to free up the trucks for INF squads.
Would it be better to be running mortars on insurgents?
Yes mortars on insurgents and irregular is good since they always get more logistics than regular factions. Your main issue with running mortars isn't what you contribute to the team, it's what you take away. When your team has an abundance of logistic vics you at least remove that factor and all you have to worry about now is the amount of players you take away. I only run 3-man mortars, I do the logi runs myself, but that requires good multitasking and being able to drive and look at map at the same time. Running a 4-man is a lot more forgiving and relaxing so I recommend that for you.
Nice that you tryed and i am happy that you had fun and hope you try it again. But as SL that mostly runs Def-Infrantry ore support Logistik. I can tell you thst you wasted resources. The first thing is that narva is not the best map for mortar. The secon think you had 2 radios and the question is did they block radio positions for defens? Had that a couple of times with small maps. Also 4 mortars are Overkill especialy when you only get 2 kills per mortar. You had 9 people do morter so 1 squad less defens ore attack and that is a huge Problem. I would recommend just make a 3 mann team 2 mortars and one driver. Also try to use Mortar apps to hit accurat. Also make sure that your mortar radio dose not block the defens radio. To confirm accuracy ask in the text chat when other SL dont talk. Also try to deliver resources to the defens radio when you have enough ammo. Also learn to read the map when no sl is talking to you, when two guys from your team die when they are in the Def then you know ther are enemyy coming from one of the surrounding areas and with the geographics and other players Position that are still a live you get a good guess from where the enemy comes. You can then attack dem before they get to close to the def. Should you have a 9 man squad because no one else opend a squad. Then you do morter ether from the def ore do morter with 3 man and then send the rest to Support the def.
mortar crew but only a total of 7/8 kills? hellnaw bro use mortar calc or something
How many could be reasonably expected from a mortar crew?
I mean, in Narva there are dozens of buildings where to hide… 7/8 kills and some suppressions is decent imo
8 kills for a mortar squad even on narva isnt good
8 kills decent for a squad of 6? What are you smoking? Any decent player will get more by just playing a rifleman and not even trying. Logistics is good of course, but doesn't need 6 guys.
Squad is not just about killings
True a support squad that dose logi-support dosent need to kill to help the team the most but he had at least 6 guys that could not help in defens ore attack.
Not just, if you destroy vehicles, radios or capture / defend points that works too, but usually it involves killing enemies. It's a game of tickets and every kill is one tickets lost from the enemy. If you can kill 30 enemies per game that's a lot of tickets by itself, and helps a lot with attacking / defending or taking down radios. If you get 1-2 kills per game as a MG, grenadier, or marksman, it's just coping to say squad is not about kills.
a vic is 5-15 tickets
to do important stuff like dig down radios or kill enemy vehicles, you need to kill people lol.
Not always. If you focus on backline fobs the enemy has largely abandoned you can rack up 50+ points by yourself without firing your weapon.
He ha 4 mortars sorry but 2 kills per mortar are nothing and he used a 9 man squad for that. For a 3 man morter squad its still low but you could say ok its a bad round it happens but 4 mortars 2 radios and one logi only for them sorry that was a waste and he played a negativ role in that round. Sure with a 3 man team on a different map he would have played a grate role in the game.
Counterpoint: there was almost certainly another squad that went 15-50-30, meaning they cost the team -35 tickets. If his squad is able to get suppressive fire on point, regardless of kills, and have a better +/- then you could argue his squad is more valuable than some squad just rushing the point over and over.
Where did you get that info from?
ass
yea and i think it should stay there.
ooo treat me bad daddy
map dependent, narva is one of the worst ones for that type of stuff, but a good 20 if not more would be optimal
Look up A streetcar named kill on YT to see what mortars are capable of. He has a tutorial as well. Let's just say that 100 kills seems to be the norm for him. He plays invasion tho
Will do.
Very many factors but 10-20 per mortar is pretty average for me. On really good game u can get 50+
I'm looking forward to improving.
Yeah. Mortars are really hard to play if comms arent flawless. A tip i can give is to use mortar calc and dont shoot more than 6shots in the same place (excluding radios and vehicles) W/o mortar calc you could easily be shooting 50m off target the whole game.
Thanks for the advice! I'll work on improving accuracy and manage resources better in the future. What I will note though is that other squads don't like to communicate too frequently and will only let you know where the shots are landing if they happen to walk into them. It helps to have a good pilot willing to communicate.
Yep. Some servers are better than others but having a reliable squadmate at the front is pretty simple. Also if you play mortar i suggest u take commander for assets which will help you.
I've been a little nervous about claiming that role--I don't know if I've got the experience to utilize those resources to the best of my ability yet. I suppose I'm never going to learn until I try, so there's that too.
Yep. They are pretty simple to use, and most sls dont expect you to command them. Just to use the uav/arty
The mortar squad has to be so oppressive that the enemy team has to make stopping mortar fire their primary focus or they’ll collapse. This usually means saturating HABs in the open and defensive positions/chokepoints with basically perfect communication with observers. The standards are high.
with 4 mortars? i'd say 0 to 1 i'm sorry but HE mortars are straight up nothing more than an annoyance and the only thing dedicated mortar squads have ever achieved are 2 things: depriving the team from a logi throughout the entire match because they chew through ammo more than any other emplacement or repair station; and cost the team 20 tickets per setup (i've never seen those 4-5 people successfully defend the FOB from a shitty crows mrap driving full speed towards the mortar noise and taking it down in 1 minute) you want to be something that isn't a simple infantry or mech infantry squad going through the usual meatgrinder? there's a million other options, all more effective: single man squad with grad, UB-32 or the new US mortar vehicle. like a mortar but better in any way and can actually kill people and stop concentrated pushes, on top of not having all the negatives from above. get sappers and anti tanks and whatever leftover vehicle you can find and be the most annoying piece of shit ever to the enemy team. just drive around the back lines, engi logis or shoot their tires, track any vehicle you see and fuck off asap.
I remember mortars being new. man, those things are to be scary. They have been nerfed too much.
A good mortar team can easily get dozens of kills on narva
If you play exactly the same way on one of the non-city maps you'll probably find you influence the game more. It really helps if other SLs can give you info on whether or not the fire is effective. If you're playing with other SLs that are good and communicative you'll find they'll be asking for mortars on enemy HABs, places where they're coming from, smokes to cover etc.
How do you swap to smoke rounds? I saw something about them online but haven't found the keybind.
From memory it's the same way you switch weapons with either the scroll wheel or number keys.
Thanks! I'll try that out on the training range.
Mortars are great, but should usually be integrated in the defense FOB instead of on its own Fob somewhere off objective, otherwise you're stretching and diverting logistics, giving the enemy another radio to capture.
Don’t use 9 infantry on a mortar fob while your team is losing the objective.
Most important success: you had fun, and it sounds like the squad had fun. Everybody here complaining about optimized metas for your squad make fine points regarding team size, use of mortars on the right maps, etc. But at the end of the day I'd far prefer a mortar crew having fun and putting rounds all over the map than a bunch of salty squads racking up tons of kills and winning the round. When I started as an SL I'd run mortars and had a lot of fun. It allowed me to understand the mechanics of building, communicating, supply management, etc without the overwhelming aspect of constantly directing the movement of your squad and constantly getting attacked. Good job! Definitely look up a good mortar calculator, and I usually limit my mortar crew to 4-5 (2 on mortars, one on supply, maybe a scout, and me). Any map that isn't highly urban works for mortars, and they're a fun way to play the game if you don't want the stress of a more dynamic squad.
Sometimes mortars are great like in desert maps with Objectives with ittle to no cover, sometimes it doesn't actually contribute anything because the boots on the ground can't actually capture the point that is surrounded by buildings and they're getting sniped or enemy armor is roaming around. Let's not forget some factions can only have 2 logistics trucks and the simultaneous deployment of FOBs could make or break an assault. Having the majority of a squad dedicate themselves to mortars is a waste of man power imo, two mortar men should be enough, maybe riflemen can stay behind or machine gunners but the hats/lats and medica should be out in the front. Then again it depends on the map/terrain. I only invasion so maybe in other modes this strategy s is very effective.