I'm currently doing the hardened levels and as I do them for the first time, I try to get all the tech achievements. Therefore, at times i'm just waiting for my smelters and in these instances, I tried out the mortars for fun. Once, I'm pretty sure I loaded a mortar where every territory in reach was already conquered by the time I started loading the mortar. As I said, I clicked on them just for fun. But the game let me load it to tell me an hour later that there are no valid targets. Not exactly ideal, or is it? Haven't reported as a bug yet because I'm not totally sure whether I might have overlooked a territory in reach and weren't able yet to check this for sure in my current level. Anyone can confirm or disprove this?

I clicked on one towards the end of AsiaPD that was nowhere near an unconquered territory, I mean at least 30 away if not more because I was curious of what you just pointed out. It looked like it wouldve gladly soaked me 600M or so to shoot at nothing but solid colors. Should rename mortars Snake Oil Salesman lol. I just ignore them now. May be enhanced in future updates but their just something shiny to to entice you to spend high risk low reward as far as I can see. Kinda like Roulette.

Yep, it lets you do this. It also lets you IM a merc camp with 1 army (but not 0) or FB if you have 1 territory (but not 0) left.

But when you do this, you can clearly see that no territories are available right? Why would you load it?

That said, maybe he'll adjust it so it puts up a warning ... but maybe there will be a Tech or Adv in the future to expand range, which means maybe at the time you load it's useless, but 20 mins later after getting a Tech it would have been nice to have it available and not have to load from that time.

But as it stands now, no Tech, No Adv, and even if there were, the hit % would be <20% so No thanks.

I still say let me throw them in my backpack for later. If you dont use them you lose them. IMO that kinda flows with the way the game is designed, plus throws a little kink in it by not carrying over to the next level like powers or digs.

I missed my first attack with 70% odds. not giving mortars anymore money

Would love to see a frag grenade added that would decrease adjoining territories to the one hit. So maybe 20% on the target, 10% for all adjoining territories, 5% for all the ones touching those. Thoughts?

Missiles.

agreed i wasted 2-3 tries missed everytime said fizzer that :P

How about when we get one let us accumulate them just for that level and deploy them where we want.

Now that's a brilliant idea. Essentially it's a Power that's limited to use on the current level.

The are some basic usability issues needing addressing too. I'm on Android app so I'll be curious if these are different in another platform.
+if I'm in my level when the mortar loads, I get no notice, no anything, just gotta remember to check.
+if I'm not actively playing when mortar loads, I get a notice, but still have to remember where it is.
+I think a very basic (and free, gdammit) fix would be for the mortar to glow when it's primed to fire.

The mortar doesnt need to glow when its ready, because it shouldnt have a 1h charge time. No army would ever take 1h to load a shell, thats way tooooo long.

It should just be instanty loaded...

I'm going to put in a vote in favor of mortars. There are kinks to iron out, but for those of us ok with not ascending once a week, they add a level of interest to the game.

Im in a situation where I have a handful of mortars that are close to some territories that I don't need to get anytime soon, but those territories will still be significant even after I've maxed out hospitals. so I'm just taking pot shots when the cost isn't too significant. I don't do the math to figure out if it's the most efficient possible use of my money. I just like to see the territories get knocked down.

but for those of us ok with not ascending once a week

Shots fired !!

For the record, I agree that mortars are a good idea BUT that the kinks > benefits.

And why aren't there Techs for mortars? Should be low level (not final tier) Techs that increase hit% & damage done & reduce cost, etc - just like hospitals, army camps, mercs, etc.

If they're meant to be somewhat useful for new players only, then maybe they're better (still some issues though) but for post 1st/2nd ascension players, they're totally useless.

Edited 9/3/2021 18:26:08

:) like I said, it's fun taking pot shots.

Agreed, there should be techs or cheap advancements available for them. I think my biggest disappointment with this game is how redundant techs, advancements, and artifacts are. On the modifiers tab I have 5-10 things boosting ore production, army production, or money boosts, but nothing for digs, nothing for mortars, barely anything for hospitals. Sadly, that would be too big of a change to hope for.

Tried the mortar for the first time today and no beginners luck for me. Had 70% chance to hit but the only hit made was directed towards my wallet 😂 2,5 billions for nothing...
I can't see I will try this feature again anytime soon.

An idea for the future would be if they were reasonably cheep for a lower % chance to hit but you should also be able to pay expensively for a guaranteed hit.

Edited 9/14/2021 12:20:26

A mortar crew consists of at least three members: the squad leader, gunner, and the assistant gunner.

Make the mortar operation crew dependent, with accuracy based on crew experience. The more experience, the better the performance. Use the AP points system.

Edited 9/15/2021 21:06:03

Mortars as constructed now are a waste of time and resources

Should be renamed "bottle rockets"

is it me and maybe my misunderstanding of it all, but are mortars just useless ,,

The majority tends to agree with you pasterma, they have little value in their current format. I suspect a rework is upcoming, b/c from what I understand, most people just ignore them. Too long, miss too much, too expensive, too inconvenient.