guard+mass mortars=win?

[Brithian Ranger]

So, I was strolling through the battlewagon bitz section of the warstore, putting together my next order, when I came across extremely cheap imperial guard mortars, including arms. So I think to myself, hmmmm, maybe this would be awesome.

So I thought I would ask the opinion of the bols community whether, say, 3 squads of mortars in an IG army is a good idea.

thanks in advance,

Brithian Ranger

[notoriousFAT]

i like them a lot. Some people say they are crap but there is something to say about massed cheap fire in 40k. I have them in my army albeit its 100% catachan themed. If you play lots of lasguns, then you can play lots of mortars. They are really cheap also. They pin if I remember correctly. I have played that army in a month or so. being str 4 you will need other weapons to open armor, but you can use those to help kill whats inside.

[WereWolf_nr]

S3 AP- has a hard time killing, but they can be a lot of fun and they do help keep your opponent off balance. Currently 3 mortars are the only artillery I have and generally force my opponenet to keep their devestators (and equivalents) under cover to avoid them.

[LadasN]

Mortars are fun little toys in an army, my 1500 pts list has 2 heavy weapons squads with mortars. Their biggest benefit is being barrage so they do all that fun pinning and indirect fire stuff we love so much. I litterally sat my mortars behind a building and rained shells on several squads of chaos marines, pinning them for neigh-on the entire game. They're powerful against enemies that can be pinned but I wouldn't use them too often against anything that auto-passes pinning tests.
In other words, don't rely on them too much but they can be incredble (cheap) assets.

[LadasN]

S3 AP- has a hard time killing, but they can be a lot of fun and they do help keep your opponent off balance. Currently 3 mortars are the only artillery I have and generally force my opponenet to keep their devestators (and equivalents) under cover to avoid them.

Mortars are actually S4 Ap6 so they're a wee bit better :P

[WereWolf_nr]

Mortars are actually S4 Ap6 so they're a wee bit better :P

Guess that is my fault for posting so far after my normal bed time.

[Tynskel]

I have been thinking about a Mortar driven army for a while. 1500 points (a good starting point, I believe). 5 Mortar teams, 3 Griffons, and a Colossus. Take a Leman Russ Exterminator with Pask, a lascannon, and Hv Bolter Sponsons (would be the center piece of the army). 2 Infantry Squads with Chimeras n' Meltas. Platoon Command with 3 Meltas n' a Hv Flamer in a Chimera. A vet squad with 3 meltas. A Commisar Lord with a Chimera and a Power Weapon.

[AirHorse]

Mortars always seem like a good choice if you can spare the points for them imo. Fairly easy to keep them out of sight and give them a chance to lay down some nice barrage fire on your opponent. Only takes one wound and a failed check to bring a squad to its knees for a turn too :).

[ggg]

There is one chap at my local store who plays 1,500 guard with mass mortars. They have proved rather ineffective against marine armies. I like the theory - scoring troop choice that can sit on an objective pinning off shots across a medium range without requiring line of sight therefore being much more effective even whilst hidden. So yeah, one unit fine. I think multiple mortar units however, are a waste. Heavy bolters or even autocannons seem to cause my armies more trouble - threatening transports, keeping scouts to cover and enjoying more of an uplift under the order system. The other factor is that those mortar bases are quite large and there are only so many of these units that you can hide. In any event I think Griffons (expensive in real terms I know) are so much more effective for a few more points.

Let us know if you overturn these presumptions with staggering success or find new tactics (I have enough bits to make 6 mortar teams and decided not to bother for my all infantry catachan army).

[mountaincycle661]

I think what everyone here is forgetting is that mortars, while not very effective against MEQ armies, are still pinning. And pinning, my friends, is a wonderful rule to have on your side when wielding the all-mighty psyker battle squad.

Take this scenario as an example: A lucky lascannon (or a suicide melta squad) cracks open your opponents extremely scary land raider crusader. Now, the contents of said 'raider, a death star unit of epic proportions including TH/SS termis, chaplains, blood "things" of all sorts, etc pile out in a nice clumped up formation. Enter stage left the psyker battle squad. pop off a "weaken resolve" on that unit and now they have to pass any pinning checks on snake eyes! Enter the mass mortars! All it takes is for ONE of those dudes to fail ONE save. If you've got 15 small blasts markers, eventually one of them will get through.

Now, your opponents 600pt investment has lost its super transport and will have to sit still and get shot to crap next turn. it also frees up the rest of your army to ignore them for a turn and focus on crushing everything else.

[scadugenga]

Personally, I love mortar squads--they're scoring, pinning, forget-needing-LOS barrage weapons and they tend to annoy tau battlesuits to no end. (frikkinfrakkin steal-the-eldar-CTM rule...grr)

Not to mention being fairly inexpensive to boot.

Sure, they're a bit on the rough side when dealing with meq-in-a-can, but that's what you have all the other goodness of the IG for.

Man doth not rely on mortars alone. That's what the heavy ordinance is for. :)

[Tynskel]

I think what everyone here is forgetting is that mortars, while not very effective against MEQ armies, are still pinning. And pinning, my friends, is a wonderful rule to have on your side when wielding the all-mighty psyker battle squad.

Take this scenario as an example: A lucky lascannon (or a suicide melta squad) cracks open your opponents extremely scary land raider crusader. Now, the contents of said 'raider, a death star unit of epic proportions including TH/SS termis, chaplains, blood "things" of all sorts, etc pile out in a nice clumped up formation. Enter stage left the psyker battle squad. pop off a "weaken resolve" on that unit and now they have to pass any pinning checks on snake eyes! Enter the mass mortars! All it takes is for ONE of those dudes to fail ONE save. If you've got 15 small blasts markers, eventually one of them will get through.

Now, your opponents 600pt investment has lost its super transport and will have to sit still and get shot to crap next turn. it also frees up the rest of your army to ignore them for a turn and focus on crushing everything else.

When you mentioned the word 'Chaplain' I had to stop reading....

Chaplains are Fearless and Pass that attribute onto their fellow marines in the unit.

[Torcano]

Tynskel, hope you are joking?

Minor slip-up that has zero bearing on the guy's point, and you "had" to stop reading? WHY?

If you had a bit more reading comprehension you would have realized that he wasn't listing off all the members of one squad, he was simply giving a few examples of various expensive units that might be inside.

Anyone with an iota of common sense can see that your minor quibble has absolutely no impact whatsoever on his point.

EDIT: Unless you were just trolling?

---

Personally, I go with one of these Heavy Weapon set-ups:

Auto-LC-ML
Auto-Auto-ML-ML
Mort-Auto-Auto
Mort-Mort-Auto-Auto
ML-ML-Mort-Mort

as you can see, i DO like mortars ;)

[Sanguinary Dan]

I've always loved Mortars for Mechanized squads. Blooping a mortar bomb out of the back of the Chimera is fun and lets you annoy some squad that might otherwise not get attacked.

I don't worry about the low S or poor AP. That's why we have Leman Russ. :D

[Tynskel]

[QUOTE=Torcano;94089]Tynskel, hope you are joking?

Minor slip-up that has zero bearing on the guy's point, and you "had" to stop reading? WHY?

If you had a bit more reading comprehension you would have realized that he wasn't listing off all the members of one squad, he was simply giving a few examples of various expensive units that might be inside.

Anyone with an iota of common sense can see that your minor quibble has absolutely no impact whatsoever on his point.

EDIT: Unless you were just trolling?

Nope: Blowing open a Land Raider and intending to Pin a unit with no negative modifiers is a load of baloney. 1) Chaplains, 2) Captains, 3) Librarians. All 3 either make you Fearless or Ld 10. Yeah, every once n' a while you'll fail the check. BUT for every check you make them take it is due to you KILLING them.

So, treat the mortar as it should be treated: a Str4 Indirect firing weapon, that, if you get LUCKY, you'll pin your opponent. With enough of them, you are killing marines. 5 squads = 15 Templates. That's a lot of possible Str 4 wounds. It is 300 points, but not that bad of 300 points.


If you are trying to pin your opponent after the Land Raider blew up and using 'mortars' you should be using the Griffon--- ordnance gets -1 to Ld Checks. Also Str6, you'll more likely get the wound to cause the check.

[sierm02]

Mortars are nice, but need to be used en masse to achieve maximum effect. Saturation on one target will be your leadership challenge as you'll need it to produce the desired effect. This leaves the rest of your opponents army unmolested to manuever on you.

I suggest a griffon mortar in addition to your mortar plt. Mobile and Lg template will allow you to bracket and produced some armor cracking goodness.

Master of ordnance with all of your indirect firing can provide even more benefits...just an idea.

Good luck and smite all who deserve to be smoten!