M1 Mortar Team

Team Weapon

M1 Mortar Team

Faction

US Forces

Heavy weapon team effective against structures, team weapons, and stationary infantry at long-range. Must be set-up to attack.

The M1 Mortar Team is a USF weapons team unit. In skirmishes, it can be produced from the .

This unit serves as the USF's standard mortar team. As the earliest available artillery unit available to the USF, it is capable of auto attacking / attack ground at a slow rate of fire, and has access to the standard HE and Smoke Barrage abilities. Additional abilities can be made available upon reaching veterancy level 1. More info on all these abilities can be found below.

Like any other artillery unit it is best used at long range far away from threats in order to deal damage. While mortars are not effective against moving units, they serve a very strong purpose in dislodging defensive positions, as the incoming damage will force the opponent to react and move their units or else risk losing them. This can be very helpful in forcing set-up weapons and garrisoned units to move.

For more destructive and faster artillery strikes, one must use their High-Explosive Barrage ability. This allows them to fire off several volleys in quick succession. For utility, a Smoke Barrage can also be used to obscure vision, great for blocking line of sight for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes. Each barrage ability has fairly fast cooldowns, so while their damage is light compared to heavier artillery, it can barrage with far greater frequency, making them very useful in restricting weapon teams like HMGs.

When attacking normally, it has decent range but a very slow rate of fire and mediocre accuracy. The attack ground command is also useful to fire rounds away at suspected areas one may want to target, such as garrisoned buildings and set-up weapon positions. Auto attacking with mortars is not nearly as effective as High-Explosive Barrages, but it does allows the unit to still contribute while the ability is on cooldown.

As with all weapons teams, their target size is higher and thus this unit is much more easier to damage than other infantry. Surprise flanks can be devastating due to this vulnerability.

Veterancy

1000 XP

Unlocks veteran ability choice. Increases health and increases accuracy.

3000 XP

Increases health, accuracy, rate of fire, and reduces barrage recharge times.

6000 XP

Increases weapon range, ability recharge speed, and reduces incoming damage

Veterancy Abilities

All USF units can choose between one of two veterancy abilities specific to them, upon reaching veterancy level 1.

Airburst Barrage: Active ability. Fires a special barrage at the target location. Airburst shells explode with a far greater radius but with reduced explosion damage. This makes it much more effective against infantry as the wider radius increases its consistency against infantry targets, but the lower damage means it is less effective against structures and vehicles.
Delayed Fuse HE Barrage: Active ability. Fires a special barrage at the target location. As the name implies, these rounds will land initially and will explode after a short delay, as opposed to exploding immediately on contact. The explosions have a wider radius and stronger damage than regular barrages, though the delay makes it easier for opponents to move their units out of the way. As such Delayed Fuse HE are great for destroying static structures and garrisons, but less reliable against wary opponents with mobile units.

Abilities

High-explosive Barrage

Fires rounds at the target location. Small blast radius. Effective against stationary infantry and buildings.

Hold Fire Disabled

Unit will not engage unless given a manual attack order when active.

Smoke Barrage

Fires smoke rounds at the target. Blocks vision in an area upon detonating.

Unlock Airburst Barrage

Fires rounds at the target location. Wide blast radius. Very effective against infantry.

Unlock Delayed Fuse HE Barrage

Fires rounds that detonate shortly after landing. Moderate blast radius. Very effective against stationary targets.

Airburst Barrage

Fires an indirect barrage of airburst shells at the target that deal damage in a wide area.

Delayed Fuse HE Barrage

Fires rounds that detonate shortly after landing. Moderate blast radius. Very effective against stationary targets.

High-Explosive Barrage: Active ability. Fires off several explosive rounds at the target area, with a small blast radius for each explosion. As it is light artillery, it is most effective against stationary and garrisoned infantry targets, though it can deal adequate damage to light vehicles too. Not effective against armour. Fairly low cooldown compared to heavier artillery options.
Smoke Barrage: Active ability. Fires off several smoke rounds. These do not deal damage and instead saturate the target area with sight-blocking smoke clouds. This is a great way to deny vision for various purposes, such as preventing an enemy HMG from firing on your troops.

This unit can benefit from the following upgrades available at the Infantry Support Center:

Advanced Logistics: Reduces the Manpower reinforcement cost of all infantry by 25%, and squads reinforced from Triage Station casualties gain a small amount of veterancy XP.
Survival Training: Increases the maximum health of all infantry entities (individual soldiers) by +10 health.

Weapons

Carbine-crew-us	Near	Mid	Far
Accuracy	0.4	0.25	0.2
Range	7	15	35
Penetration	1.5	0	0