Just came back to warzone idle after a 1 year hiatus and saw the mortar was added. I'm in the early to mid stage of game progression (working on phase 2 AP upgrades). At first glance the mortar seems useful, only the hit chance (especially being only ~15% at the edges, which is usually where the territory I actually would use the mortar for is located) makes me wonder if I should bother using money and the occasional time warp to use a shot.

Thoughts appreciated

Please note, I'm referring to the single player idle levels, not battles where mortar has good justification.

Probably not. They are expensive, take 1h to load and you may as well use mercs
Source: Some random advice from experienced players

Edited 9/21/2022 10:37:17

I appreciate the affirmation that mortars aren't terribly helpful.

On a side note, apparently, it is possible if the shot misses to do it again if you exit and reload idle right after firing and seeing a miss. Not that I plan to take advantage of this exploit

Mostly not, but occasionally.

I sometimes use mortars in the endgame.
Sometimes near the end of a level, you will find yourself with plenty of money, but lots of drafting to do.

At that point, mortars can be decent value, if there are any well placed to hit any large targets that you have remaining.
And of course, knowing this, you can be on the lookout to leave such targets.

I think I currently find myself reasons to use one about once every 3 levels?

So, mostly worthless, but occasionally beneficial?

Edited 9/21/2022 10:47:53

Good point Zinthos. The advice I was given was more of a rule of thumb than a strict rule, so the clarification helps.

I appreciate the insight Zinthos. I actually did try that approach when I first encountered the mortar, but the desired to hit territories had 50% and 15% hit rates. I'm willing to risk 50%, but even in the situation of being done with all desired/required techs and having excess money to from selling the goods to finish the level ASAP, I can't bring myself to justify 15% for an hour and money I could have used on mercenaries (unless I've exhausted all mercenary camps which has happened a couple of times).

To make mortars even remotely useful, there needs to be Advancements to raise their hit rate and lower the ready time.

Alternatively, I would be fine if mortar only had 1 shot with 100% success rate and diminishing damage the further away (keep the max capacity). ie: 20% one away, 15% between one and 3 and 10% if 3 or more to the max range of the mortar

Advancements/relics (if there is a corresponding one) could enhance either
1. max # of shots
2. Damage per shot ie: 5% increments up to a max of 50
3. Splash damage (adjacent tiles take half/quarter damage of targeted tile)

Personally, I would prefer the enhancements tot mortars were tech advancements that could be unlocked like all other idle infrastructure (smelters, army camps, hospitals etc.), but I shall live with it

Or just be at peace with not using them, I mean I ignore half the tech tree, and the majority of possible advancements. One more thing to ignore is not so bad.

The thing that makes mortars as bad as they are is their loading time. You have everything around the mortar before it's even loaded. I'm on my 7th ascencion (No SAsc) and haven't used a mortar since my 1st ascencion

hm

Zinthos makes a good point. Tbh, it feels like 90% of Idle is made to be ignored.

You use it a few times, mostly on first playthrough and getting Achievements, then ignore it.

Then never complete the Tech tree again, never both with mortars, don't use ores/smelting/crafting, quite often not even upgrading hospitals, most of the Advancements were useless to begin with and post Super Ascension even more become superfluous, and depending on the level (notably Hex Earth) even markets become ignorable.

Mortars actually have a good use - every ascencion (or super-ascencion, dont remember) the first loaded mortar gives you a free time warp power.

Simple math. 20% of armies times percentage based on distance. Take the cost and divide by that and you got the cost per army expected value. Compare that to the cost of mercs. Once in a while it's competitive or even a really good deal
Double plus so if you are next to some huge territory that you are nowhere near ready to attack [Reconquest has one of those] so you will be waiting an hour.
Also as pointed out before, end game, you have money but nothing to spend it on, might as well.

Only downside in the first case, at least on my computer there is no indication that the mortar is ready to fire and I often forget I had the thing loaded.

If there’s 100% chance of whittling down a big square, and you’re only using the first two shots, then, yes.