Mortars & Artillery: Aiming Fire

[Dr.Cornelius]

It is well known that mortars and artillery are much more effective against stationary targets after firing a few rounds, observing the impacts and adjusting fire. Some game systems represent this adjusted fire with a bonus for firing at the same target on sequential turns.

Here is the rules template that I am working on:

Aiming Counters: provide counters in matching pairs, marked A, B, C, etc.

Aimed Fire:
When a Mortar or Artillery unit rolls an attack against a Soldier unit, place matching Aiming counters on the target and the attacking unit. When a mortar or artillery unit makes an attack against a soldier unit that has a matching Aiming counter <the unit gets some bonus>.If either unit moves or if this unit fires on a unit that does not have a matching Aiming counter, remove the existing counter pair.

Possible Bonuses:
+1 or +2 additional attack dice
-1 to target cover save

[Thunderanger]

I think rules like this which includes the impact of zero in makes sense.

However, adding another attack die may be too much of a bonus because this makes a unit more powerful than it is meant to be. If a mortor has midrange Veh Att of 4, it usually have no chance at all to hit a tank with 5 defense. Adding an attack die will give it a chance to do so. However, the effect of zero in should only increase the chance of a unit to attack another unit.

Therefore I suggest the bonus be +1 or +2 to an attack roll, or +1 to 2 attack rolls. i.e. if I roll the followings:
5
5
4
3
Normally, this is 3 success attack rolls.

With Zero In, I can add 1 to my "3" attack roll, and make this 4 successes.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if we should allow the effect of zero in to apply to all units?

[Fwingbon-Ali]

What about the idea mortars firing indirectly based on radio signals from nearby friendly units so as to allow them to fire over terrain?

For example; you have a basic M2 mortar 5 hexes away from a panzergrenadier.
-2 of those hexes between the mortar and pg are forest and another hex is a hill. So technically the mortar cannot see the target.
-But, an M1-Garad rifle unit nearby can clearly see the pg and is considered to radio to the mortar of the pg's location.
-Thus, the mortar is still able to fire upon the pg even though it does not have direct LOS as long as a friendly unit does have a LOS of the pg.

You could tweak it by having;
-the mortar having to roll a success roll (4,5, and 6) to see if it actually hits the specific hex where the target is and if it fails the roll, it hits a random adjacent hex and can damage an enemy unit in the random hex by rolling to see if it does get any success the same way as if it had fired on it intentionally. If there are no enemy units in the adjacent hexes to the original targetd hex, the mortar missess.
-For choosing a random adjacent hex, players could number the sides of the hex and then roll to see which hex is hit. (1,2,3,4,5,and 6 for the six hexes adjacent to the original hex.)

This just gives the idea that the mortar fired upon his intended target based on the information recieved from a friendly unit that is assumed to be carrying a radio, but the mortar does not actually know if it pinpoints the target or not.

Also, if a mortar is on a hill, it could have the Superior Optics ability allowing it to ignore the terrain in any one hex when determing LOS.

There are definately some adjustments that are needed but I find it allows mortars to be used as indirect artillery as most of them were used in actual fighting. Plus, it gives them a more reasonable edge as mortar crews tend to try to stay out of sight to avoid fire.

[Dr.Cornelius]

...adding another attack die may be too much of a bonus because this makes a unit more powerful than it is meant to be.I see what you mean- thanks for the feedback. Adding a bonus die increases the potential maximum successes rolled. But note that my aimed fire bonus house rule is limited to attacks against Soldiers.

I thought about making the aimed fire bonus a re-roll (to limit the maximum successes), but that is more complicated then adding a die or two. I agree that adding bonus dice could make some mortars/artillery overpowered against armored vehicles, it is not as much an issue against soldiers, who have between 3 and 5 defense.

The purpose of the house rule is to represent the fact that mortar/artillery fire gets more accurate over time and that it is very difficult for an infantry unit to withstand a sustained barrage.
Remember your infantry training: Advance through artillery...

[Frogslayer]

The aming rule suggested by dr.cornelius seems as pointed out both to powerful and a bit too complex (although it´s realistic that continous shooting increase accuracy).

But, mortars MUST be able to fire indirectly in some way, it´s just plain silly otherwise. The whole idea with them is to be able to fire without the fear of reatliation (except from other mortars and the like).

I agree compleatly with Fwingbon-Ali that mortars shold be able to fire without LOS as long as any friendly unit other unit has LOS to the target. This is a very simple rule i think shold be official.

However, which penalties that should be inflicted can be debated. Missing and firing into another hex is cool, but is it realistic? Were talking about a 100m hex at distances of up to only 800m. The penalty I think is most suited for this is to suffer -1 to each attack die, e.g. 6s only (7 if disrupted:P, so it´s a bad choice to fire indirectly in that case).

Unofficial rule: Indirect fire -1: "This unit may fire at an unit without having LOS to it, as long as any other friendly unit does. In that case, this unit suffers a -1 penalty on each attack die"

This would in my opinion neither be too complex nor requiering point-errata on the mortars. They´re a bit overcosted anyway. Currently, I´d never take a type 89 over a MG 42 or a M2 over a vickers. Indirect fire would also provide a new type of army alternative: the coward army:) (attack from a safe position). And since I like diversity, I´d like this.

[Odyssey-2000]

As this is my first time at this I shall try to be short. Having played since its release I have felt that several units have fallen short of their intended use and the possibility that the play testors might have missed a few things. The idea I have keeps the pace of the game to fast, fun and furious. To this I will begin with the mortar units. As they sit in the game they are useful only in very limited ways. That seriously flaws the intended use of the weapon as support only. I would like to put forward the idea of allowing them indirect fire only if an adjecent friendly unit can see the enemy, and it is within the mortars rang. Defending units would still get normal cover rolls if that would apply. And normal mortar hit rule applies. I cannot say how many times I have played the new A&AM and try as I might, it just kills me to have to put mortar units out in front. I have tried this rule out with a few of my customers and it works well. Does not tie up the game, and you get to appreciate that 5 points you spent. I have tried this rule also on the German sIG and it works also. Let me know what you think.