Me and my friend mortar (tutorial)

[analog jackal]

This tutorial will explain mortar mechanics and how to use it with ingame provided tools.
I do recommend pen and paper IRL and some calculator to make your life easier.
It will not cover spotter operation.

Few things to establish first:
Mils? WTF? What are those?
Basically mils are just more precise measurement of angle than degrees.
With degrees a circle is split evenly into 360 equal parts, while this is precise enough for most of your navigational or call out uses, its not precise enough at longer ranges. Hence mortars use mils.

We know two types of mils in game:

• Nato mils where circle is split evenly into 6400 units
• Soviet mils where circle is split evenly into 6000 units

Same as degrees, north is always 0 or 6400 (6000 for soviet) same as with degrees where north is 0 or 360.

Mortar bomb point of impact is determined using 3 variables:

• Azimuth or Deflection (bearing towards target in mils)
• Elevation, angle of the tube at which mortar bomb will leave the barrel
• Charge, amount of the explosive which will propel the bomb out of the tube, all it does, is change the muzzle velocity of the round

So lets begin, in this tutorial, i will use the US M252 mortar, firing M821 High explosive shell.
Please note that values i will calculate for range are not equal for all US shell types, range card must be consulted and values recalculated.

Nor will same values work for Soviet 2B14 mortar. Since that uses different angle measurement altogether.

As seen in screenshot below, my mortar is stationed on Arland airfield and the target is Signal Hill antenna:

First thing i will do, is draw a line from my mortar to my target, i do recommend extending line past the target for easier protractoring later on:

Next i will bust out my protractor, and put its center directly over my mortar, then i will see where line intersects with mil scale on protractor. Ensure the protractor orientation is reset (2x MMB click on it, ensure N on protractor is facing North)

As you can see the red line measures exactly between 20 and 22. This is measurement in mils divided by 100. So i've measured 21*100 = 2100. (each smaller line represents steps of 20 mils)

Whith this simple trick i have acquired my azimuth or deflection, which is 2100. Take a note of that, its a surprise tool we will use later.

So far so easy, huh? Next we measure range. This time i align the helper line on my protractor with the line ive drawn, like so:

I reposition protractor to measure range with ruler, 0 will be at my mortar position:

But oh fiddlesticks! My protractor is too short to measure this great range, so using the pen tool i draw a small notch, which will represent 1000m for me, then reposition my protractor

From the notch to my target, i can read that that its about 360-370 m away. Add 1000m to that so we get a range of 1370, great! Now time to bust out the range card.

Now about charges, you may have noticed by aimlessly browsing the pages that some ranges are present on each and every (charge) page, eg 400m.... So what gives?
Well mortar is capable of hitting such range at every charge, but each charge added increases time of flight of the shell. My advice is to pick the lowest possible charge. This will reduce the time of flight, IRL this also reduces wind effects on the shell.

This is not always true, and i will cover some advanced examples below. But for most cases, lower charge = better.

So after closely inspecting my range card, i saw that the lowest charge that i can pick which still contains the range i measured 1300-1400 is charge 2:

Here is where things get complicated 😄

But problem strikes, my range is 1370...but there is no such range on the table... what now?
Well we pick the closest two, 1300 and 1400 and we take note of their elevation values:
1300m = 1132 mils
1400m = 1076 mils
Now to get our actual elevation in mils we need to do some quick maths:

We first subtract our actual range, to the first possible lowest that matches the elevation:
My case that is 1300 so: 1300-1370 = -70
Next we subtract our lower range (higher elevation) with the higher range (lower elevation) , and multiply by leftover we got in previous equation, divided by diffrence between two elevations in meters (in our case 1400-1300 = 100m):
(1132-1076)*-70/100 = -39.2.
Finally we add this result in mils to the one we subtracted before in my case (1300m = 1132 mils)

1132 + (-39.2) = 1092.8 mils rounded to 1093 mils

This value would represent our elevation for the range of 1370 meters at charge 2.

[mellow rain]

10€ advertisement spot DM @mellow rain

[analog jackal]

Now if we dial that into the mortar, drop charge 2 shell into it... it will fall short, and we would all be sad and say fuck this...

But those observant of you will notice we have elevation difference between our mortar and target could this play the role of ous missing?! Yes indeed it does...
Note: If elevation diffrence is less than 50m, i ussually wouldnt bother calculating that.

But in our case its quite significant, lets take a looksee

We can see the elevation difference is roughly 110 meters, with target ABOVE the mortar.

If we wanna account for that, we have to gaze at the range table again. We notice we have a column called "D elev per 100m DR", which is a German phrase for "Difference in elevation per 100m drop" (in mils)

What we need to do next, is match this D thingy to our range, which is 1370, and closest value we have to it is 1400 m:

we get to value of 31 per 100 meters... But our elevation difference is 110 meters ....
Now normally i wouldn't do next step as 100 and 110 are close enough, but for the sake of the tutorial, we will do it.

So again we have to math it out how much to adjust for. this time its a bit simpler:
We take our elevation difference divide it by 100 and multiply by value we found so:
31 mils * 110m/100m = 34.1 mils

This is our elevation difference in mils... but what to do with it now?
We need to adjust our elevation with this value... but do we add it or subtract it?
Well you do what is the opposite of logical (to the unworthy):
if target is ABOVE you, you SUBTRACT the value.
if target is BELOW you, you ADD the value:

In our example, our target is 110 meters above us, so we take our prior calculated elevation of 1092.8 mils subtract our elevation difference of 34.1:
1092.8 mils - 34.1 mils = 1058.7 mils rounded to 1059 mils

And with all that said and done, we dial our mortar:
Our deflection/azimuth: 2100 mils
Our elevation compensated for elevation diffrence: 1059 mils
Our charge, we selected the range from: charge 2

Note: you can safely ignore scale on the right, its only a helper

We take out the shell, and inspect it to select our charge:

And finally we drop them into the angry pipe (i dropped 2).
Lastly we gaze at range table again to find out how long will our bomb fly for, which for our example is ~ 23.2 seconds

after that time we can look at our target to see the effect:

As you can see both shells landed ~ 10m around the target, if we look at the range table, for the spread value at charge 2 is 24m.

This is good enough for the girls i go out with.

Final taughts (and prayers) and tips:

• Mortar isn't sniper rifle, don't expect any headshots, destroying your target is what counts.
• Math may seem overwhelming at first, but it ain't that hard once you understand it
• Don't be afraid to eyeball the result, it works most of the times
• If elevation difference isn't great, don't bother calculating it
• Always place mortar on flattest terrain you can possibly find, makes aiming easier and mortar shifts less.
• Check and correct mortar aim every now and again, it will shift with fire. However 1 or 2 mils doesn't really matter, you don't have to be extremely precise.
• Practice makes perfect (and faster) mortarmen
• Most Importantly know where mortar is on the map, as accurately as possible. Take it into consideration when assembling mortar.

I will explain more advanced stuff, but a bit later...

[marsh panther]

Really excellent rundown, ty

[mellow rain]

masterclass

[frail patrol]

This guy mortars

[mortal bane]

Thank you so much Marko. I'll print the ballistic ranges and put them on the wall, or maybe have them printed in old paper and framed for decoration 👀 .

[analog jackal]

Now for the first "Advanced" expansion:

"Grids and you"

while you sit there happily mortaring targets, you usually won't have GM interface handy, and your targeting information will most commonly arrive in the form of grid.
From tutorial you probably already learned a 6 grid that game clearly represent, in our case, Signal Hill antenna is located, as game neatly provides, at grid:
025 022

But 6 grid covers area of 100m * 100 m, and our target is located at very fringe of it.

Side note: Common practice, if you receive 6 grid target, is to target the centre of said grid.

As you may have realised target area of 100 m^2 isn't very precise, and there must be a way to achieve better precision.
Simple way of doing it is describing a target "So target the antenna at grid 025022" but sometimes this just isn't viable.

Like in example below, you could say "target that house, not that one but that one below"

BUT WAIT (there is better solution), something called 8 grid, it gives precision of 10 m * 10 m, which happens to be more precise than 100 m * 100 m.
So how do you get such 8 grid, as its not listed anywhere?

Your friend protractor comes to aid again, by placing protractor ruler over the grid, and positioning mouse cursor over the exact thing you want targeted, like so:

And a wee bit of imagination, you can figure out an 8 grid, in our case 0317 0272, woah what a party trick to impress your friends and family...

And yes more precise 10 grid exists (1m * 1 m), but with the precision of mortar round, its pointless to try and detail it that much

This same 8 grid is accurate enough for positioning yourself (mortar) on the map too.
Just note that errors stack, eg: getting your own position 20m off, and target position 20m off, and assuming you mathed the range of mortar correctly, at extreme ranges, you could, in worst case scenario still miss by ~100m

So again, try mitigating that, by at least knowing your position as precise as possible.

[mortal bane]

Beautifully done Marko. I hope you are on my side when we meet in the games . Many tanks.

[analog jackal]

But wait there is more...

[analog jackal]

Elevation differences and charges

I've said in this example #1320787852170367122 message that selecting the lowest possible charge for given range is (almost) always best, right?

Well... for most part its true, except if you are dealing with extreme elevation differences, example below, firing form St Pierre to Montfort castle water well
Our basic data is: Azimuth/Deflection 4010, Range: ~350, elevation difference 165 m target above mortar:

We do our maths for range: 350 m = 1106 mils, elevation difference: 151 * 165/100 = 249.15, subtract because target above, so 1106-249.15 = 856.85 rounded 857, cool right?!

We dial that into the mortar aaaaand:

We obliterated some trees half way up the castle... But we did everything right....
Well, we did... the thing is, charge 0 just doesn't have enough mojo to reach 165 meters.

Running the simulation confirms it:

So how do we know if charge is good enough to hit the desired elevation?
Precise values would have to be provided by range table, but a simplified rule "of a thumb" is 1/3 of the max range of charge (at any range), eg:
CH 0: Max range = 400 m, 400/3 = 133m
CH 1: Max range = 900 m, 900/3 = 300m
CH 2: Max range = 1600 m, 1600/3 = 533m
But unless you are playing on some high altitude difference custom map, anything beyond CH0 will reach tallest peaks on Everon and Arland from sea level.

This will conclude the tutorial for now, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Otherwise happy mortaring!

[mortal bane]

This is insane dude. You have really mastered this 👍 .

[maiden monolith]

very nice

[marsh panther]

If you do end up making this into a single document itd be much appreciated if youd DM it to me ❤️

[mortal bane]

The charge number gave me a different outcome. At 400 meters the charges will make me overshoot my target by a lot.

0 rings were spot on.

[analog jackal]

Wdym?

[analog jackal]

I probably wont do it myself. Feel free to do it yourself tho.

[mortal bane]

I made a test in flat ground, at 400 meters and 0 charge was spot on while 1 ring made me overshoot my target area, so I think the charges affect more than elevation.

I may have made a mistake somewhere though. I really need to take a break and inhale the ocean.

[analog jackal]

Did you use same elevation?

[mortal bane]

I believe so but disregard my post. I may have used the wrong data in the table.

[analog jackal]

Here is a fun little gimmick to impress your friends and family

Firing two shells at different charges, that land at the same time. Not really practical in mortars, but long range howitzers do it IRL.

Well trained 2 man team could land 5 shells at the same time,

[golden patio]

One message removed from a suspended account.

[marsh panther]

You'd have to copy/paste every message into a text file of some kind. Maybe google docs so you can include the images