Godly Mortars from above?

[Th3_DeadlyVirus]

When I'm using artillery, I nearly only use the Mortar because of the fact it can shoot over my troops. I can therefore put it behind a solid shield of troops without worrying of getting cavalry right in the face or it shooting into my own troops. It is also probably the only effective siege unit besides the mangonels where you can use it in both defence and attack of a settlement.

Is the mortar too good?

[SirDestroyer]

The Mortar sucks, it's the most inaccurate artillery and when it does hit troops, it kills like 2 men.

[Th3_DeadlyVirus]

Oh really? Depends on the unit sizes I say. I have the bigger, huger and realistic sub mod and I tend to get always 10-30 kills with one single ball.

[Knight of Heaven]

Oh really? Depends on the unit sizes I say. I have the bigger, huger and realistic sub mod and I tend to get always 10-30 kills with one single ball.

What? how can one ball kill 10-30 mens? unless they are explosive, i dont know. my expetrience from mortars in MTW2 say to me that they suck, but they are good to have arround.
bassilisk, and culverins, or serpentines are way better then that, and kill way more people.
even if you say its true with the bigger huger sub mod, then wont those( serpentines,basilisks,culverins) kill even more than 10-30 men?

[Naked Emperor]

I mostly use other pieces of artillery with explosive shells, the magic is elevation. That way you don´t hit your troops

[RollingWave]

not to meantion that you should really just use artillery when they are far away .

Mortar's useful. but I don't think they're over the top or anything. Trebuchet and catapult shoot over your guys too. but you don't see people going all mass catapult.

Also, most of the cannons / bombards now have gap shot. which is really really useful. and I think my tactic generally is to put them just infront of my line. so they act as charge breaker . once they engage in melee the artillery's pretty useless anyway. and as long as some of the unit survive it still take down walls just as well. so you should in fact use your cannons to abosrd the charge . and one engaged just run the hell away with them. (you can use withdraw to force them to drop their cannons and run.) it is very helpful to have the enemy charge run into a bunch of cannons and lose steam then meet you counter charge.

[JorisofHolland]

Mortars and Trebuchets can shoot over your own walls, making them usefull defensive artillery.

[Delvecchio1975]

Mortars and Trebuchets can shoot over your own walls, making them usefull defensive artillery.

Catapults do that as well ...

[RollingWave]

That is true, I particularly like to lob rotten corpse out of the wall, that way they already have moral problems when they charge in, all the better (i basically almost always use rotten corpse once they get closer, just so I don't kill my own guys with Trebuchets, had too many fights where my valiant generals got accidently killed by my own artilleries lol

[Halbard]

the mortar is cool to make some casualties before they breach your base.
i normally always have 1 mortar and 1 trebuchet defending each settlement, + 2-3 spearmen groups, at least 2 archer groups and 2-3 infantry groups. if i can, 1 cavalry group. can hold a settlement for very long, since after they break the gate, i position my trebuchet to fire into the gate, and it has a very nice chance of killing the general.

[Naked Emperor]

That is true, I particularly like to lob rotten corpse out of the wall, that way they already have moral problems when they charge in, all the better (i basically almost always use rotten corpse once they get closer, just so I don't kill my own guys with Trebuchets, had too many fights where my valiant generals got accidently killed by my own artilleries lol

If you want to kill people at the gates have a magonel.

use 2 units of crappy milita at the gate with the sole purpose of blocking the enemy, then when they are all bunched up fire your magonel at a close range...this will have a devastating effect, especially if you hit with both barrels which you should do most of the time at such a close range.

Sure you will kill a bunch of your own guys but who cares If the enemy isn´t routing after a couple of shots it won´t matter because it´s easy to mop up the rest

[JorisofHolland]

No to mention you can destroy their siege equipment before they reach your walls.

[Vaz]

Try doing that with Rockets and Monster Ribaults. BARE fun to be had.

[JorisofHolland]

No they don't, not if you have a Stone Wall, or anything bigger.

[Delvecchio1975]

are you sure? I swear I remember seeing my catapults pounding the oncoming siegers ...

[Vaz]

Depends where you place them. In Cities, they can't really, because it's flat. But on Castles you can.

[Delvecchio1975]

No, I'm sure it was a city, not a castle. You do get an elevation toward the market square sometimes though, perhaps that was it? Otherwise i'm simply mistaken and it was wooden walls ...

[JorisofHolland]

You are probally, cities are flat and have high walls. But castles may be different.

[Tyrenia]

I've defended cities that have a rise in the middle. I'm not sure whether cities are randomly generated or not, but this happened in Iraklion, while playing as Venice. Iraklion was a Huge City at that point, so that may have had something to do with it.

But as far as I've seen, Catapult's can't fire over Stone walls from the inside.

[Knight of Heaven]

I've defended cities that have a rise in the middle. I'm not sure whether cities are randomly generated or not, but this happened in Iraklion, while playing as Venice. Iraklion was a Huge City at that point, so that may have had something to do with it.

But as far as I've seen, Catapult's can't fire over Stone walls from the inside.

There is cities with elevation that is for sure. but they are not all. i remenber with vannilla, and i belive you are correct it depends from the city. however the elevation isnt comparable with citadels and castles etc.