Suggestions

[Bella]

First of all, excellent game. Play it a lot. Well done and addictive. However, suggestions. Do a lot of research about Normandy (writer). One thing that struck me was the high number of casualties caused by German mortar fire. Germans were light on artillery, and relied heavily on mortar and rocket fire (nebelwerfer). A third of all Allied infantry losses in Normandy came from mortar fire, yet the game does not seem to reflect this. Mortar ammunition is MUCH too low, rendering mortar sections useless within a few minutes of firing. I would suggest tripling ammo supply to bring it to realistic levels (Despite shortages, Germans managed to keep ammunition supplies above critical levels.). Also, killing power of mortar fire seems rather mild and chancy in the game. Hits right beside enemy soldiers repeatedly show no effect. I understand the chance element, but a little tweaking seems to be in order. Another idea: 21st Panzer division used Nebelwerfer (rocket) attacks (among others). Maybe make strategic fire with rockets available to only 21st Panzer units? My two bits.

Jeff

[mooxe]

The effectiveness of mortars has been debated since Close Combat 2. It all comes down to realism vs playability. Triple ammo? Ok, well your mortar team now has to carry around 90 rounds of 81mm, between four guys. Only valid point if you move your mortar teams though. Invasion Normandy mortar teams had laser guided bombs that only took seconds to hit, you were almost guaranteed casualties if troops were up and running. Well people got tired of that. The Longest Day takes it to the other end of the spectrum, and the other side aren't happy with that either. PITF takes it even further by delaying all mortar fire commands by about 20 seconds, even if you issue a fire command 1cm next to the last one.

What you are not seeing maybe is mortars can make soldiers cancel move orders, move slower, and become suppressed. Use mortars to pop smoke, make running troops crawl and random immobilizing hits on open top or lightly armoured vehicles.

Mortar fire evolved into what it is because of two types of complainers. Half couldn't cope or adapt to not being permitted to sprint troops all over the battlefield unmolested, the other half wanted a WW2 simulator so mortars would take forever to land.

[Tejszd]

Good answer Mooxe!

Hopefully the mod makers can find the sweet spot.
TLD_BattleforCaen_v0.93
TLD_Bloody_Omaha_v1.3 Note: this needs to be updated to work with the latest patch
TLD_ClassicMod_v1.0
TLD_Ground_Tactics_v5
TLD_Kharkov_v2.2
TLD_Meuse1940_v3.5.0

These mods are available at the Close Combat Series website: http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/index.php

[Platoon_Michael]

I HATE! the Mortars in WAR.
They kill every AT Gun and Armored Car in sight.

I still haven't figured out a fix.

[Bella]

90 rounds is a lot of ammo to carry, admittedly, although heavy mortar sections were usually supplied by carrier (Bren, Jeep, Kubelwagen etc.). And you're right, there are other effects beyond maiming/killing that are beneficial, though short term. One of the issues I have with the mortars is the inaccuracy of them in the game, even with line of sight spotting. They're a very accurate weapon in reality. I understand the need to compromise between customer satisfaction and historical reality, though.