Author Topic: (Answered) Infantry mortars as support weapons  (Read 1186 times)

TimberwolfD

  • Corporal
  • *
  • Posts: 60
(Answered) Infantry mortars as support weapons
« on: 01 March 2024, 18:56:23 »
Infantry mortars are included in the RPG side (ATOW, LosTech: The MechWarrior Equipment Guide, etc.) and as Battle Armor weapons but I can find precious little about them as infantry support weapons for tabletop. There are many questions to answer, so I'll apologize now for the length of this post and also for the pedantic point by point confirmations.

1A. As 2-3-crew weapons (AToW p. 273), each 7 man squad in a normal platoon would be able to use up to two, leading to a standard foot platoon fielding a maximum of eight mortars. Correct?
1B. As crewed weapons, mortars would be support weapons, correct?
1C. Battle Armor mortars, both light and heavy, are listed in Total Warfare (p.217/310 Burst-Fire Weapon Damage vs. Conventional Infantry Table) as dealing 1D6 to conventional infantry. Would this translate to a standard foot platoon with all eight mortars dealing 8D6 to other infantry units?
1D. Both light and heavy mortars are listed in TW p. 305 (Additional IS Weapons and Equipment for BA Table) as dealing 3 damage to non-infantry units. The revised infantry weapon tables for TechManual have light/heavy mortars at 0.53/0.57 each for non-inferno ammo (0.26F/0.34F with inferno). Why the disparity? Other weapons similarly named between BA and infantry or BA and heavy weapons are at least different weights, ranges, etc. indicating they are actually different weapons. This just appears to be a "when carried by infantry" debuff.

2A. Are infantry mortars subject to indirect fire rules for attacks on Tabletop as they are in AToW (p.274)?
2B. There appears to be a range mismatch between heavy BA mortars and heavy infantry mortars. In the revised infantry tables for the TechManual, heavy mortars are listed as having a base range of 3, but Total Warfare (p.305) has heavy BA mortar ranges as a base range 2 weapon. Which is correct? (light mortars are the same in both sources at base range 1.)
2C. Do infantry mortars have a minimum range on tabletop?

3A. Are infantry mortars Area of Effect weapons on Tabletop?  (They are listed as AoE in the RPG sources, but many weapons marked AoE in the RPG are not AoE on tabletop.) This matters for infantry on infantry combat where a target may be dug in.
3B. Same for BA, are BA mortars AoE on Tabletop?

4. ATOW (p. 273 and 282-283) lists numerous ammo types that are named similarly to tabletop ammunition types for other weapons. For example, Air-Burst Ordnance for infantry mortars would seem to be the same intent as the specialty Mech Mortar ammo in Tac Ops. However, it doesn't really make sense for the effects to be the same when the 41.67 kg Mech Mortar round is compared to a 2/4 kg L/H infantry mortar round. Likewise, inferno ordnance would be expected to be similar to inferno ammo for SRMs. So the question is which specialty ammunition types are available for Tabletop use and what mechanics they have? I am particularly interested in whichever ammo is considered standard, the anti-personnel ammo (Either air-burst, antipersonnel or ???), inferno, FASCAM, guided, gas/smoke, and flare.

« Last Edit: 14 June 2024, 14:39:19 by Hammer »

TimberwolfD

  • Corporal
  • *
  • Posts: 60
Re: Infantry mortars as support weapons
« Reply #1 on: 08 June 2024, 00:51:25 »
3 month bump

Hammer

  • Numerorum Malleo
  • Global Moderator
  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 4437
    • MegaMek Website
Re: (Research) Infantry mortars as support weapons
« Reply #2 on: 14 June 2024, 14:39:05 »
Infantry mortars are included in the RPG side (ATOW, LosTech: The MechWarrior Equipment Guide, etc.) and as Battle Armor weapons but I can find precious little about them as infantry support weapons for tabletop. There are many questions to answer, so I'll apologize now for the length of this post and also for the pedantic point by point confirmations.

1A. As 2-3-crew weapons (AToW p. 273), each 7 man squad in a normal platoon would be able to use up to two, leading to a standard foot platoon fielding a maximum of eight mortars. Correct?
Yes

1B. As crewed weapons, mortars would be support weapons, correct?
They are support weapons, yes, but the reason is not because they are crewed. It is because on the Conventional Infantry Weapons Table(Tech Manual, page 351), they are listed under Support Weapons.

1C. Battle Armor mortars, both light and heavy, are listed in Total Warfare (p.217/310 Burst-Fire Weapon Damage vs. Conventional Infantry Table) as dealing 1D6 to conventional infantry. Would this translate to a standard foot platoon with all eight mortars dealing 8D6 to other infantry units?
No. Battle Armor Mortars and Conventional Infantry Mortars are not the same piece of equipment. They may have some things in common, but they are still different weapons with different characteristics. The damage for Conventional Infantry Mortars can be found in the Conventional Infantry Weapons Table.

1D. Both light and heavy mortars are listed in TW p. 305 (Additional IS Weapons and Equipment for BA Table) as dealing 3 damage to non-infantry units. The revised infantry weapon tables for TechManual have light/heavy mortars at 0.53/0.57 each for non-inferno ammo (0.26F/0.34F with inferno). Why the disparity? Other weapons similarly named between BA and infantry or BA and heavy weapons are at least different weights, ranges, etc. indicating they are actually different weapons. This just appears to be a "when carried by infantry" debuff.
As mentioned above, Battle Armor Mortars and Conventional Infantry Mortars are not the same piece of equipment.

2A. Are infantry mortars subject to indirect fire rules for attacks on Tabletop as they are in AToW (p.274)?
IF all players have agreed to use the optional Mortar rule on page 106 of Tactical Operations, Advanced Rules, yes. If that rule is not in use, no. This particular answer applies to both Battle Armor and Conventional Infantry Mortars.

2B. There appears to be a range mismatch between heavy BA mortars and heavy infantry mortars. In the revised infantry tables for the TechManual, heavy mortars are listed as having a base range of 3, but Total Warfare (p.305) has heavy BA mortar ranges as a base range 2 weapon. Which is correct? (light mortars are the same in both sources at base range 1.)
Both are correct. As mentioned above, Battle Armor Mortars and Conventional Infantry Mortars are not the same piece of equipment.

2C. Do infantry mortars have a minimum range on tabletop?
They do not.

3A. Are infantry mortars Area of Effect weapons on Tabletop?  (They are listed as AoE in the RPG sources, but many weapons marked AoE in the RPG are not AoE on tabletop.) This matters for infantry on infantry combat where a target may be dug in.
If Battle Armor Mortars are using one of the alternate munitions that Tactical Operations: Advanced Units and Equipment (page 185) describes as being area effect, yes. All of those munitions are only available to Mech Mortars and Battle Armor Mortars (or Mech Mortars only) and are unavailable to Conventional Infantry Mortars. Therefore, Conventional Infantry Mortars are never AE in TW-scale play.

4. ATOW (p. 273 and 282-283) lists numerous ammo types that are named similarly to tabletop ammunition types for other weapons. For example, Air-Burst Ordnance for infantry mortars would seem to be the same intent as the specialty Mech Mortar ammo in Tac Ops. However, it doesn't really make sense for the effects to be the same when the 41.67 kg Mech Mortar round is compared to a 2/4 kg L/H infantry mortar round. Likewise, inferno ordnance would be expected to be similar to inferno ammo for SRMs. So the question is which specialty ammunition types are available for Tabletop use and what mechanics they have? I am particularly interested in whichever ammo is considered standard, the anti-personnel ammo (Either air-burst, antipersonnel or ???), inferno, FASCAM, guided, gas/smoke, and flare.
As mentioned above, Conventional Infantry Mortars never get access to any of the currently-published alternate munitions in TW-scale play.

MegaMek Projects Wiki
Bug Trackers
MegaMek Tracker
MekHQ Tracker
MegaMekLab Tracker
New Units and RAT's aren't added until after the 2 month release moratorium is passed.
Join the official MegaMek Discord