Dealing with Mortar Raiders

[RidiculousName]

How do you deal with mortar raiders? It seems like they always have more guys, better guns, and defenses to boot. What are my options?

[Astasia]

Mortars. Easiest solution is to just start bombarding them with like 4-8+ of your own mortars before they even start setting up. It costs a bit of resources in shells though. Usually I instead take a sniper or two with bionic legs and kill a few of them from range, causing them to break the siege and attack, often before they even fire any shells at my base. You need to have some skill at kiting to do this, and there is some risk.

[scritchscratch]

there's always the very easy solution of classic blitzkrieg tactics, and if your in a hilly area you'll have good-ish cover
another good option is, like astasia said, giving them a taste of their own medicine
and ofcourse there's always the option of waiting out the siege which, while it is fun, brings you back to square 1

[8faiNt ı♣ı]

Best is to use mortar against the mortar dudes
then let your killbox do the thing.

[scritchscratch]

oh ♥♥♥♥, didnt even consider if you had a killbox or not
if you dont have a killbox somehow, try and make a chokepoint before they start firing, then aggro them enough to charge you, make sure they have no suitable cover

[GeneralVeers]

Snipers.

When they drop into theater and start assembling the mortars, the raiders will defend the builders. They won't attack you or your base. They will attack your pawns IF your pawns enter their firing range--but if you attack from long range with rifles, your snipers won't come under fire from any raiders not armed with long-range rifles of their own. If you pick off their snipers first, you can then start firing on the builders with impunity.

Once you kill the builders, the rest of the raiders will give up on building the mortars, turn into a standard raid, and initiate a plain old basic attack.

[M.K.]

You don't have to eradicate a mortar siege to stop them mortaring you, just do enough damage so they storm your fortress.
If they already have a mortar firing, that required killing 2-3 of them.
If they are still building their sandbags and mortars, 2-3 shots even without significant wounds will make them charge.

To inflict the damage: either fire your own mortars at them. The target is a nice big stationary location, so *some* hits are inevitable. You should have the time to send at least 3 volleys, assuming you have the mortars and ammo ready.
or
Send your troops out with longrange weapons. Sniper, charge lance, bolt-action.
Plink away at the enemy until they charge, then run for it! I usually use this approach, as it gives them time to construct their mortars(more loot for me!), and my snipers have good legs, they can lead the enemy on a most pleasing tag chase over the countryside while my sluggards are prepping ambushes.

[RidiculousName]

Thanks everyone, I wish I could up-vote.

[Neo Blitz]

snipe their mortars

[kevinshow]

I used to try to snipe out their mortars..It might take a bit and my base might take a few shells in the meantime but at least it wasn't the full load of shells that they would do if I just sat back at my base waiting for them.

But then later, by accident, I found that if I somehow hurt a few of them, either by sniping or by long ranged gun like a bolt action rifle (longer than what they can shoot back at me), at some point, it triggers the group to abandon building the mortars and then just start attacking the base.

I don't know the threshold of how many needs to be killed/hit but it seems like it works most of the time. Just actually go harass them with a few of your long-ranged shooters and then most of the time, they will start coming after you before even the whole setup has been built.

You then kill them as usual, and go get their supplies that landed but didn't get fully used up.


Eventually, I get to the point where I have my own mortars though, and so while the rest of my base does their normal thing, I have a few people shooting mortar shells at the enemy group. If I'm lucky and kill enough of them, they'll run away on their own even before doing much of anything, otherwise, they do a charge to the base but then they come into my own defenses and colonists, so hopefully it isn't long before they run .

[Angry Canadian]

Bomb them before they can bomb you

[nicknack595]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Mortars. Easiest solution is to just start bombarding them with like 4-8+ of your own mortars before they even start setting up.

If you want to mortar back then to save on shells I've found incendiary to be pretty effective.

A couple of shots close by, not even direct hits can spread pretty quick and cause them to break off the siege. Particularly if the fire reaches their own mortar shells.

Combining the fire with some snipers usually works pretty well too; splitting the raiders between firefighting and shooting back

[Preechr]

Sieges are the best kind of raid. They just wait around out there, man. This gives you plenty of time to plan your defense if you don't use a kill box or trap maze strategy. Pause the game and look at any natural cover that exists between you and where they are setting up. The best case scenario is to catch them where they have no cover and all of your people are behind trees, sandbags or walls. As others have said, once you are ready for an attack all you have to do is shoot at them from rifle range until they attack on foot (or score some hits with your own mortars if you have them... hopefully you can hit their shells)

Take a good look at what they bring to the party. Raiders will usually have a mix of long range, short range, melee and grenadiers of some sort. If you have time, build some traps behind wherever you think their riflemen will take cover. Space your shooters out and use whatever strategy best fits the environment. You can kite or use a melee fighter with a shield belt to tank if you have one, but be wary of anyone carrying grenades or molotovs.

I prefer good strategy over the kill boxes or trap mazes a lot of people use, but play the game however you choose.

[GeneralVeers]

Originally posted by navorskatie:

But then later, by accident, I found that if I somehow hurt a few of them, either by sniping or by long ranged gun like a bolt action rifle (longer than what they can shoot back at me), at some point, it triggers the group to abandon building the mortars and then just start attacking the base.

It's because only some of the raiders are flagged as builders or mortar shooters. Far as I know, those pawns are the only ones that can build and man the mortars they plan to use to bomb your base. Once they're dead, the rest of the raider pawns can't finish the mortars (or fire them if they're built), so the only thing left for them to do is yell "FOR SAURON" and charge at you.

[Vod]

I start mortaring them before they can finish setting up.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by RidiculousName:

How do you deal with mortar raiders? It seems like they always have more guys, better guns, and defenses to boot. What are my options?

1) Counter-battery fire. (Shoot them with your own mortars. Always build two and the shells for them.)

2) Attack, immediately. Kill as many as you can.

3) Snipe the Mortar Loaders and/or, if you can, get some fire into their supply of shells. (Big badda-boom) If you can disable or kill the Raiders loading the mortar, no other Raiders will be assigned to load it and they will then do a regular attack. (If their morale isn't broken.)