Mortars

[TokeKing]

I have been a fan of bazookas but after researching library and university I am leaning a bit on mortars simply because they have a good range and outlast my zooks every time similar hp and dps on both units and research increases range of mortars too! Mortars are great imo!! HBU

 

[Harlems369th]

I've been trying out Mortars myself lately. We have a couple of internal fans of that unit over Bazookas so I thought it I'd try them out. Been seeing some pretty solid success with it, just trying to figure out how I want to balance my composition if I want to keep using them.

 

[TTPranto]

Yes, I use 6 mortars. Good troop. struggles with tanks though

 

[Armitage]

I didn't have much success with Mortars as a main when I was testing them, but also had little research beyond the extra range. The main problem I found was they destroyed buildings too slowly, which isn't normally a problem as long as it gets done, but it meant that while they were targeted on a building, they weren't proactively defending against defenders and taking losses.

What I have found is that they make an excellent support troop. Defenders just melt away and occasionally zapping a pesky defense behind a wall or bastion. They've quickly become one of my favorite troops, their occasional abandoning their escort mission to go haring off notwithstanding.

They also make an excellent layered offense with Siege and Ranged, exploiting the corners in the defensive tower ranges to strike without being attacked, but that takes some practice to keep them in formation.

I haven't tested them much on defense, but I like the concept of a long range anti-unit troop that doesn't risk the TC. However, I believe that such a troop would only fare well in a base running Filipinos or some other Fighter debuff. Combined with Siege and/or Gunners and a layered approach of Bastions/Caltrops/Decoys, that could be quite devastating to the invading offense.

That all being said, pound for pound, Bazookas are the best at raw destruction. If I'm going for a time hit, that's what I ask for from the Alliance. The ratio of damage to troop space is very high.

 

[King Crimson]

The main problem I found was they destroyed buildings too slowly

This.
My experience using mortars with zooks - or even mortars with archers - is that by the time their lazy lobs land, the building is almost always already destroyed.
Against defenders, bazookas do a better job against tanks and archers do a better job against soldiers.

 

[Armitage]

This.
My experience using mortars with zooks - or even mortars with archers - is that by the time their lazy lobs land, the building is almost always already destroyed.
Against defenders, bazookas do a better job against tanks and archers do a better job against soldiers.

I haven't used a Mortar/Zook mix, only bit I've used Zooks for was a Cav/Zook/Ranged mix, where they were used for cleanup behind the Cav Drive.

Zooks do comparable damage to a Mortar against tanks, but have a guaranteed hit, whereas the Mortars have better survivability at the expense of accuracy. Mortars are absolutely devastating to defenders, including tanks and Generals, but...with a disclaimer.

In order to get max usage from a Mortar, they need meat shields they can follow behind that also destroy buildings fast enough to keep them on defender duty. APCs, Heavy Tanks, Assault Vehicles or running alongside Siege seem to be the best partner troops. Otherwise, they get left behind and/or tied up with destroying buildings, which is their secondary role to killing defenders.

For the Zooks, Ranged Infantry would be a better support troop. They only do 1/3 damage, but have much faster target aqcuisition, guaranteed hits and come 6 to every Mortar.