QUESTION: How do I use the mortar fire control system?
ANSWER: There's no short answer to this but here's a simple little explanation. Believe me this is the simplest we
could explain it. There's lots of tips and stuff but you'll have to figure those out yourself.
1. In the action menu go to "Fire Control"
2. The azimuth and elevation are enterable in military standard mils. The Fire Control system is based around plotting the position of the gun and the target. It will then do all the hard math for you and give you something to start with.
3. First you need to do a "gun plot". To do this click the button that says "G" and it will flash "click map location of gun"
4. Switch to your map view and do a long single-click on the map where your mortar is located. The more accurate the better.
5. Now you need to plot the target. Back in the fire control dialog click the "T" button. And
it will flash "click map location of target"
6. Switch to your map view and do a long single-click on the map where your target is located.
7. Back in the fire control system you will be given lots of information. The important stuff is this....
8. G-T (bottom left) is your azimuth to target.
9. Your range will be listed just right of G-T.
10. The firing data listed in the center of the dialog will tell you elevations (in mils) for certain ranges (rounded to nearest 100 meters).
11. Do a little basic math to calculate the exact elevation info. Add, subtract, divide, multiply.
12. Enter your azimuth and elevation into the boxes (top left)
13. IMPORTANT: You must click the "Target" button to align the mortar tube to the azimuth and elevation every time you change the numbers !!! You can also hit your Enter key.
14. Click the "Fire" button to fire.
OTHER NOTES
The "O" button is for plotting the location of your Observer. This is for the technical people among us and not absolutely necessary to firing accurately which is why I won't cover it here in great depth.
You can plot new targets by clicking the "T" button and repeating steps. You do not need to replot the gun each time you want to fire at a new target.
The mortar tube actually has an invisible AI gunner. Sometimes the gunner will get confused and "look around" with the barrel. If you fire during this time it will still be on target. The way the AI gunner is looking around doesn't make anything less accurate. If it annoys you though, disassemble and reassemble the tube.
When you assemble the mortar for the first time it will have a cranking sound that gets annoying. It will do this until you type in an azimuth and elevation and hit Target. I usually type in 10 and 1000 just so it stops making the noise (and because it's easy to type).
The mortars are very accurate.
The max range of the mortars are:
M224 60-mm Mortar - 2000 meters
M29 81-mm Mortar - 3800 meters
2B14 82-mm Mortar - 3300 meters
Edited by AngusHeaf on Jan. 30 2004,14:00
