Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Developed in an attempt to modernize the Khadoran military, the Mortar Crews add invaluable long-range firepower to advancing Winter Guard forces. The Mortars are ideally suited to soften enemy positions before Guardsmen reach the opposing line.

Basic Info

Abilities

Gunner

• Template:Officer
• Template:Man-Sized
• Template:Mobile Artillery
• Template:Take Up

Grunt

• The Grunt has +2 SPD (SPD 4)

Weapons

Gunner	Mortar File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  18 1 4 16 Template:Arcing Fire Template:High-Explosive Template:Inaccurate Template:Minimum Range Axe File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 8
Grunt	Blunderbuss File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  8 1 Template:- 12 Axe File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 8

Theme Forces

Khador

• Template:Winter Guard Kommand

Other Factions

• Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Malakov2 is leading the army.

Thoughts on Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Winter Guard Mortar Crew in a nutshell

The Mortar crew is an ideal artillery unit - cheap, extremely long ranged, and able to take chunks of light infantry out in a single blow. It also has the weaknesses associated with artillery - slow, unable to take close combat, and as likely to drift on your own lines as the enemies.

Combos & Synergies

• As a winter guard unit, Mortar Crews can benefit from Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich's battle speeches. That can give a much needed boost to Attack rolls
• The Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan provides a huge benefit to Mortars, allowing a boost to it's terrible RAT and allowing the player to re-roll a dangerous deviation towards their own lines back towards the enemy
• The one thing a Mortar can reliably hit are knocked-down models. Consider including a Grolar or Marauder to knock down a large model that the Mortar can then drop shells down on
• Engaged troops? Send a Demolisher or a BM Officer forward, B2B with your models, and shell the enemy with impunity. Thanks to Girded, your infantry don't give a damn about High Explosives.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Man-sized can be a big problem. Arcing fire means that only the closest models can block Line of Sight, but terrain can prevent the Mortar from seeing it's target
• The minimum range means that a delicate balancing act needs to be maintained between being close enough for protection and support, but not so close you can't shoot at incoming models
• Inaccurate is probably the most-lamented drawback to using the Mortar crew. Even the usually easy to hit Heavy Warjacks can often dodge a Mortar round.

Tricks & Tips

• With an effective Rat of 1 on the Mortar, the dice fixing offered by Vlad's Signs & Portents can be of a huge benefit
• Man-sized means that enemy units can have their lines of sight blocked by cheap defensive units like the Winter Guard Infantry
• The attached grunt needs only to be Base to Base with the mortar when it needs to move. Once in position you can place him a couple inches in front of the mortar to do emergency blocking against potential attackers.
• Weapon Crews love Reposition. It lets the crew move a few inches after their activation ends, granting both a much needed speed boost on the first couple turns and then letting them continue to move while still gaining the aiming bonus by forfeiting their normal movement.

Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Escalation (2004)