4-inch Mortar Battery

4-inch Mortar Battery
Belongs to	Most Western Factions
Type	Mortar Artillery
Guns	4
Firepower	168
Range	750
Accuracy	15
Reload	25
Morale	3
Tech requirement	Explosive Shells
Produced from	Gunnery School or higher
Shot Types	Round Shot, Carcass Shot, Explosive Shells, Quicklime Shells, Percussion Shells
Cost	950 SP/920 MP
Upkeep	230
Turns to Train	1
Unit Cap	None

The 4-inch Mortar Battery is a type of howitzer artillery in Empire: Total War.

Description

A mortar is a large calibre, fixed artillery piece that lobs an explosive shell in a high arc at the enemy.

To the uneducated eye, a mortar looks like a large, stumpy cooking pot set at an angle in a heavy wooden frame. Indeed, the weapon’s name may even have come from its similarity to the mortars used to grind spices. Mortars use indirect fire, firing their shells high into the air to plunge down on enemy positions. This makes them ideal for use in siege warfare.

Unlike a howitzer, a mortar uses a fixed, and relatively small, charge of gunpowder to propel its shell. Range is adjusted by changing the angle of fire; accuracy is subject to winds and weather, thanks to the flight path. There is also a practical minimum range to mortar fire: no artilleryman is going to drop a shell so close that he will be caught in the blast. Their size, expressed in terms of the diameter of shell they fire, indicates their destructiveness.

Mortars have returned to favour with armies since the First World War. Modern designs, based on the British Stokes trench mortar, come in many sizes. Most can fire shells with proximity fuses as anti-personnel rounds. The larger examples can fire sophisticated “smart” munitions that guide themselves onto targets.

General Information

The 4-inch Mortar is effective at lobbing shells over unparalleled distances, but with very poor accuracy. It is also useless in close combat, but plays a role as a long range anti-artillery unit, as well as forcing enemy armies to take the offensive.