In the Deployment phase make sure that your mortars are positioned so that they cannot be seen by the enemy. Put them behind houses, high walls, high hedges, woods, thick orchards etc. Sometimes this is impossible in the Deployment phase, so you might have to deploy them packed up, and move them to safety in the first few turns. Once in a safe position, set them up and start firing. If you deploy them where they can be seen, the enemy will certainly destroy them!

The other thing to consider with the smaller British and US mortars is their limited range. So on a big map, don’t put them in a corner, or too far back, where they cannot reach much of the enemy’s positions.

For the first shot at a new target tile, mortar shells have a 5% chance of landing in the targeted tile if the hex is spotted. That hit chance will increase if the target hex remains spotted. If the target hex is spotted there will be one (or more) pulsing yellow lines going to the target hex, as you can see in this screenshot:


Note that if the target hex is not spotted, the chance of hitting the target hex is only 3%.

If the next shell on the hex is observed, the accuracy will increase by 15% (to 20%). It will continue to increase by 15% for every subsequent turn that the hex is spotted. So, if possible, always use spotted fire. Your fire will be increasingly accurate, giving you more chance to hit what you are aiming at.

Note that the hit chance for off map mortars only increases by 5% per turn.

Spotter units include infantry HQs, snipers, some M3 halftracks, mortar and artillery observers, most armoured cars, and tank HQs. Both these last two need open hatches to spot. You can see if a unit has the spotter perk in it’s unit stats. On map mortars teams can spot for their own fire, but not for other teams.

Note that this observed accuracy bonus will still be earned if the target marker is moved to an adjacent hex. So by moving the mortar target marker one hex each turn, you can “walk” your mortar fire across the battlefield while still continuing to earn the 15% extra accuracy per turn.

The spotter doesn't have to be in strict LOS to the target hex, they can also spot hexes that are adjacent to a hex that is in LOS.

In the Deployment stage make sure your spotter units are spread across your front, so that they can see most of the battlefield.

If you don’t have a spotter observing your target hex, you will lose your accumulated accuracy bonus and it will return to 5%. However if you stop firing the mortar, until you get a spotter back into position to observe the target hex, you can resume firing with the previously accumulated accuracy.

If on the defence, decide where the enemy infantry are most likely to advance, and make sure you have spotter units that can see that area (or areas). When the battle starts you can then immediately start firing at an observed hex in that area, to start building up the spotted bonus.

If you see enemy infantry advancing, and you haven't fired at them before, it is usually best to target a hex one to three hexes ahead of their current location. That first shot will only have 5% accuracy, so it probably won't hit the target anyway. So it is better to aim in front, so that your second shot will have 20% accuracy. Using the one hex adjacent rule, you can usually adjust that second shot to target the hex that infantry are now in. Bear in mind that the AI infantry will normally move forward 4 hexes, unless the AI knows they have been seen, in which case they might slow down to go prone.

Once you start seeing the enemy, you can start to walk the target hex towards them (one hex per turn) to preserve the accuracy bonus if necessary.

If on the attack, identify where the enemy infantry are likely to be. Start targeting those hexes from turn one. You could even fire smoke for the first few turns, to mask your advance. Smoke rounds still count towards increasing the observed accuracy bonus. Switch to HE rounds when you want to start causing casualties.

These are priority targets. If one becomes visible, it will probably make sense to switch at least one of your mortars to fire at it.

Try to move a spotter into position to observe the fire.

Sometimes the AT gun will become unseen, especially if there is a lot of mortar smoke on it. But don’t be fooled, carry on firing at that hex, until you are certain that the gun has been destroyed or that it has moved away. Sometimes the camera will focus in on the gun, and there will be a big explosion of smoke. Ignore that, and just keep firing until you are certain that all the crew are dead or the gun destroyed. If all the crew are dead, and the gun is still visible, the unit symbol will turn white.

If you are lucky enough to wipe out a unit in the target hex, you will notice that the mortar marker disappears! This can be a problem if you want to continue to retain the observed fire accuracy bonus!

Fortunately, all is not lost, as a wiped out infantry unit will leave a red skull marker in the hex it was in. Obviously a destroyed vehicle or gun will leave a wreck. So these indicators should give you a clue as to where to continue firing.

I always try to do something to destroy or inconvenience the enemy mortars.

It is sometimes effective to try counter-battery fire against the enemy’s mortars. During the enemy turn the camera will move to show you the position of the enemy mortars. If the enemy mortar is unspotted, which is usually the case, this will give you a rough idea of where it is. Try to move spotter units so that they can see this area, if possible. This will allow you to fire spotted rounds at the area. Try to hit all the hexes where the mortar could be.

Sometimes you might notice that the enemy mortar has stopped firing, this probably means that you have inflicted some casualties or suppression on the crew. They have probably packed up and moving to a new location a few hexes away. If they do start firing again, pay close attention to the camera movement to find the general area they have moved to.

It used to be the case that if the mortar moves into a house they will stay there, and never fire again. However the developers may have stopped this AI behaviour, I certainly have not noticed it for several months.

If you cannot get a spotter into LOS of the area that the mortar is firing from, it is still possible to fire unobserved mortar fire at it. I have sometimes had success with this tactic, although it can be just a waste of time!

Alternatively, kill the AI's spotters by any means at hand. If you neutralise them, you effectively blind the enemy mortars and make them much less dangerous.

If you have some fast moving units, ie; jeeps, armoured cars, armed halftracks etc, it is often worth trying to get them around the enemy positions to attack their mortars. On some maps this might be impossible, but after finding out where the enemy mortars are, see if you can get your fast units to attack them. You might have to screen their approach with smoke, or move them via an indirect route to take advantage of roads (that will increase their speed), or terrain that will help conceal them.

Do everything you can to protect your infantry. You should space them out, keeping at least one empty hex between them. Keep them in or behind cover, this will help to conceal them and reduce casualties. If they are being targeted, only move them two hexes per turn so that they end the turn prone.

Mortars are a useful source of smoke and can be used to mask dangerous enemy units. So for example; if one of your tank's is hit and suppressed, a mortar smoke round can potentially buy it some time by blocking enemy fire. Likewise, putting smoke on an enemy anti-tank gun can seriously degrade its capability while you then build up your spotting bonus.

When advancing you can use smoke rounds to mask your units. If you fire smoke near to where you suspect enemy units will be, ensure that the smoke is spotted, it will build up your accuracy bonus and that will carry forward when you switch to HE rounds.

It's worth noting that while the light mortars have quite a short range when firing HE, their smoke round range is unlimited.

It goes without saying that the enemy's infantry are a very good target, even better if there are a number of infantry groups close together.

I sometimes fire at soft skinned vehicles (like trucks and jeeps), open top vehicles (like M10s, M18s and Marders), and halftracks. It depends really on how much of a threat they pose, and what other weapons you can use against them. Personally, I treat the German Sdkfz 251/16 flamethrower halftrack as a priority target, and will often throw some mortar rounds at it if I have nothing else available.

It's generally a waste of time firing against tanks, although one exception is if they are carrying infantry (tank riders), in which case they are an excellent target!

As already mentioned, it can be worthwhile to engage the enemy's mortars with counter battery fire. But that is a judgement call depending upon whether they are spotted, what other priority targets you have etc.

The enemy AT guns are also a high priority, for obvious reasons.

Enemy spotters. If you kill these, the enemy mortar fire will be less accurate.