Mortars are an effective way to eliminate troops, Anti-Air guns at LZs, and small vehicles like Trucks and APCs. They can destroy tanks, but it takes a lot of hits. You can hit targets with 1 mortar active, but the accuracy isnt very good so the more the better. You can call in a Mortar Strike with up to 6 of the closest Mortar Teams at a time.

Mortars have a range of 200 to about 3000 meters, so 1 placement can cover an entire small map like The Gulf of Tonkin, where you will need more to cover larger maps like Khost Province. Even with the long range on small maps, you will find "Dead Zones" that a single placement might not have access to due to being too close to the target or terrain like tall mountains (This is what I have been told, but I have placed Mortar Teams near super steep mountains and tried to hit areas behind other tall mountains and it doesnt seem to matter, unless it is less than 200 meters away)

You can place Mortars almost anywhere you can land, and as stated before, I like to place them on top of hills and mountains. Since distance has an effect on how long it takes for them to land, it is better to get them up closer to the action, and spread them out to avoid "Dead Zones" and to get quicker strikes. I tend to use 2 locations on small maps and 4 or 5 on larger maps.

Before you drop your Mortar Teams off, check the map and see if anyone else has placed mortars so you know where yours will be most effective. The following map shows that there are already a few placed in grid 7-70, so place your teams accordingly.

When you find the perfect place to drop your Teams off, land and look for the "Soldier" Icon above your Helicopter, this will tell you if the placement is valid or not. A solid Icon indicates a valid placement location and an Empty Icon is Invalid.

Valid:


Invalid:


If you have placed your teams and find that you are getting a lot of "Dead Zone" or "Out of Range" warnings, you can move them but you need to use the Helicopter that dropped them off and have empty seats to carry them. Unlike wounded evacuees, the game will not automatically make room for Mortar Teams, so make sure you have room before trying to pick them up. Also, Mortar Teams are made of 2 Soldiers, so you need 2 seats for each Team you want to pick up.

On smaller maps, you should only need 6 teams (12 Soldiers). I like to drop 3 Teams in my HQ then 3 in the Enemy's HQ, this usually is all i will need all game. On larger maps, you will need to do a little bit of planning since you want maximum coverage with the fewest drops required. You could drop 1 Team in each map grid and never worry about having enough Mortars available, but that takes a lot of time away from dropping loads, the fun part!

On larger maps, you will need to know the range of Mortars to plan where to put them all. The range is about 3000 Meters, and on Khost Province, this means 3 Map Squares. You can cover almost all the usual combat areas with 4 drops. As the USA, most of the action is up in the North West corner of the map, so that is where I place most of my Teams. The map below shows the locations, number of teams I drop at each location, and their Range (a mortar team is 2 soldiers, so 3 Teams is 6 Soldiers). You can play around with the amount of teams and their location that works best for you, but this is usually where I place mine:



My Squadron consists of a PS-47 with 12 Soldiers (6 teams), a Giant with 16 Teams (30 Soldiers), and a Sg-6M with 2 teams (4 Soldiers). I will drop 2 sets of 3 Teams with my PS-47 on the highest Peaks in Grids 8-30 and 3-80, then use my Giant to drop 4 Teams at 6-70 and the rest in 4-40.
(Remember to place the Teams in 6-70 far enough away from LZ 6 so you dont get the "Dead Zone" warning)

A lot of times I will drop my Sg-6M teams on the mountains near LZ 5 so I get a couple hits in faster near the center of the map.

There are 4 Statuses the Mortar Teams can show when looking at your Mortar HUD; Ready, Dead Zone, Target is too far away, and Communication is unavailable.



"Ready" indicates that the Mortar Team can hit the indicated "Target Area"
"Dead Zone" means it is too close or blocked by an Object
"Target is too far away" and "Communication is unavailable" means you can not use those Mortar Teams and you might want to move some and place them closer to the desired area.

You can also see how many rounds each Team has before you will need to replace them, these all show 40 rounds, the amount they start with. They disappear automatically when they run out of mortars and will load back into their assigned helicopter when you reload passengers or swap helicopters back at base. They can also be killed, like any other soldier on the map (usually Friendly Fire, which is also an easy way to move them if you cant seem to get them to board your chopper). If you notice that you have a Mortar Team that you previously dropped off, check the map to see where they might have come back from so you can replace them.

The Mortar Reticle is unique in that it not only shows where you are aiming, but also the spread area of the mortars you will call in. The Reticle [+] indicates the Grouping (The image below indicates the Grouping will be 11 Meters). The brackets will expand and contract the show the size of the spread depending on the movement of your helicopter and HUD which will be effected when you are hit by gun fire, so keep your distance. You can hold your "Precise Mode" button to keep it from expanding too much when moving to different targets (Precise Mode can be set in the Settings under Controls)

You will need a "Carrier" (■ icon) to populate the map with Mortar teams. The Jolly Giant can take a lot of troops, but is very cumbersome and doesnt have much Firepower. Some "Attack" (♦ icon) and "Spotter" (▼ icon) Helicopters can carry troops, like the A-60L and the Sg-6M, but they are usually limited to 1 or 2 teams. Make a Squadron that can carry the number of Troops needed but also inflict enough damage to the enemy to be successful. Also be aware that 1 Mortar Team will cost 8 "Squadron Points" which restricts the number of Helicopters and Weapons you can use. For Example, my Russian Tier 1 has 3 Helicopters with full armament, where the USA squadron is restricted to 2 for the same number of Mortar Teams and I dont have enough points for full weapons. I could choose the weaker Helicopters so I could have 3 total, but I'd rather use 2 good ones rather than 3 sub par Helicopters. This is a choice you will need to make.

There are a variety of "Spotters" so it should be easy to find one that matches your playstyle. Some might have rockets, others might have mounted guns, some can carry troops, others can have Door-Gunners. The Sg-6M is interesting in that it can carry 4 troops (2 Mortar Teams if so desired) but once they are deployed, you lose your Door-Gunners. This is an easy fix, just go back to base to replenish them, but this does take you out of the fight for a few minutes, so consider this while making your decision. (You can also replenish out in the field anytime there is a mission that says you can Extract wounded troops to a specific LZ. Land at that LZ while the mission is still active and you can load up. This also works for Extractions in general, if there are multiple missions with different LZs, you can drop your wounded at any LZ listed in the Objectives list, not just the one specified for your particular mission. In the image below it shows that you can Replenish your Troops at either LZ 4 or 5, and can drop all of your wounded in either LZ as long as these Objectives are active.


When choosing a spotter, remember that some weapon Packages can change the Roll of a Chopper, for example, the Dogfish. Tier 1 gives you the "Mortar Observer" which makes it a "Spotter" indicated by the ▼ icon. The Mongoose also gives you this option.

When you first start playing Heliborne, you only get a few Helicopters to use. You will need XP to Research more. You will also need XP to upgrade these Helicopters Weapons and buy higher Tier Choppers. You get some XP from doing missions and Destroying the Enemy, but you can also get a lot from helping your team. For Example, if you place a Repairs Crate on the map and someone uses it, you get 8 XP, sometimes more if they are low HP. When you deploy Mortars you dont get additional points for using them but you get some when someone else uses them to eliminate enemy forces. You can also get points for "Spotting" enemies for your teammates. When you see enemy forces, press the "Radio: enemy spotted!" key and arrows will pop up above their icon, and if your teammates shoot them, you will get a couple XP. Its fun to see your points rack up and not even firing a weapon. The "Spotted" status is determined by distance, object obstruction, and proximity to the center of your screen (similar to the Grouping Spread of dropping Mortars). Using your Mortar Spotter and zooming in (the "Weapon Mode" key) will help spotting enemies farther away. In the image below, you see the Tank in the bottom right corner was not "Spotted" when the others closer to the center of the screen were.



You can get a ton of points as a spotter, and if you play it right, you can get over 1000 XP in a game by dropping a bunch of Mortar Teams to let others use them and spot enemies for them to hit.



"Spotting" can also help you when you come across a bunch of enemies and are getting shot up, just take a quick snapshot of them and GTFO. Once you are out of range, turn around and drop loads from a safe distance.

Mortars Damage Everything
One thing to be aware of is that Mortars will damage anything close to their impact area, including you and your teammates. Since they sometimes take a while to land, be aware of others trying to land in the area you are bombing, even if they are 10 seconds away, you could hit them. If others are close and it looks like they might go into the area you are shelling, I try to use missiles or MGs, including Door Gunners, like on the Sg-6M.

Range is the only Restriction
When I first started, someone told me that tall mountains block Mortars so place them on Mountain Peaks. I have done a lot of testing and find that this doesnt seem to be true. The only restrictions I find is if the target is too close (200m) or too far (3000m). If it says "Dead Zone" you are too close to your Mortars. Since your Spotter only uses the closest 6 Mortar Teams, you might find areas that are not reachable because you have 6+ Teams too close to the target. The Mortar Placement Map I showed above is for the USA and I havent had problems, but I will sometimes with the USSR because of default troop placement, specifically in 4-40 and 6-70. I will place my Mortars in similar areas, but farther than the default spawn locations for the enemy so that I can still hit them.

Playing Spotter and dropping loads can be a really fun way to rack up points and play a more relaxing game. You can also get into the thick of it and zoom around, dodging tracers, getting "Spots", drop loads, and GTFO before even getting hit. You can take out large groups of "Soft Targets" with a single Strike, and remove vehicles from a safe distance.

Form a few Squadrons that include Mortar Troops and a Spotter Chopper and go rack up some points!!