Mortars

[Narrowmind]

Do you ever build your own mortars, or are you more likely to simply collect mortars from sieges?

If you do build your own mortars, how many years into the game or wealth accumulated do you try to have mortars on hand?

[Astasia]

I almost never used mortars, I don't really like them. I deconstruct any I capture from sieges. If in the off chance I decide to create a mortar bank just to have it, I build my own.

[JD]

I will build one asap if I don't have any. Not sure about wealth and years, I feel like it is a year or two after you get the technology.

[whatamidoing]

I always start tribal, so I almost always end up yoinking them from sieges before I get around to researching the tech for myself.

[Narrowmind]

Excellent answers. Thank you, everyone.

[Bullwinkle]

I usually build my own after about 1 year. I love them. Sometimes I take some from missions I complete. Got a nice uranium one that way recently. When someone tries to siege me, I attack right away, before they build any mortars. I also use the mod, Mortar Accuracy, which makes the accuracy depend on the colonist's Shooting and Intellect skills.

[Tam]

captured few and the very next week mech drop poded right on top of em
so had to build 2 of my own

[Premu]

It depends if I get enough from those sieges.

I typically aim for five mortars - two shoot explosive shells, one fire shells, one EMP shells and the last one anti-grain warheads if I get my hands on some of those. Sometimes I'll add a fire extinguisher as well, but that is typically not something I'll use in combat.

[VoiD]

In vanilla I build some, usually in the late game, but I feel like they are very ineffective unless you have a mass (6~9) of them all firing at once, since they are inacurate the only way to make them reliably end a threat is by firing a lot of shells at once.

But they can end some threats before they get anywhere near your pawns, pretty useful

[Porky]

I try and get one asap, no later than year 2. I'll build my first one, but I'll always gladly capture any I find. I usually try for 2 mortars at least and keep shells scattered about near them but not all clumped together. You'll need a stock of reinforced barrels as they have to be refitted often. I love them. Inaccurate yes, but a pair firing at a mech cluster can weaken foes over time, and you can draft and updraft to keep your firing pawns with high moods. Mortars are worth.

[ichifish]

I never build them. I usually get one from a siege but rarely use them -just to wake mech clusters occasionally.

[Narrowmind]

You can wake by just putting down a sleeping spot, I think.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

You can wake by just putting down a sleeping spot, I think.

For now. It's in the bug tracker since a bit.

[Narrowmind]

Ah.

As for me, I'd rather get close. Not sure why to wake early.

[jscjml]

I like to rush them before getting super wealthy... they're pretty good at stopping sieges lol. Having a battery of like 5 mortars pretty much renders sieges useless, since 1 good volley of them will likely end up forcing the raiders to directly assault the base. They can be useful against Mech Clusters too, you could for instance fire an EMP shell then follow it up immediately with some normal mortars to take out a psychic suppressor or important building, RNG willing. It's even easier if the cluster has no aerial shields.

You can probably have the same effect using other things like Jump Packs + Psycasts, but mortars are easier to use, you can fire and forget. Just another tool on the toolbelt I suppose.

I guess a big downside for them imo is the resource cost of producing the shells. But you can get around this, I like to use drop pods and the long-range mineral scanner, paired with the farskip psycast. This psycast can teleport your caravan back to base anywhere on the map, instantly lol.

If I ever do another tryhard run ill look into something more efficient. But the mortars worked fine for me the last time I played. I tend to get lazy with micro-intensive things in the lategame, and mortars help with that.