Mortar brig

[pietjenoob]

I am playing the Mortar Brig, it is a nice ship but there is a problem with it,

Which is the fact that the Brig is not a stable platform that means that i can't fully aim my shots and it has already a horrendous last circle aiming and with not a stable platform it is not completly aimed when i fire

 

maybe improve the aiming of the ship? 

[Guest]

Do you think a real mortar brig in the Age of Sail would have been a stable platform?

[Salty Dog.]

I am playing the Mortar Brig, it is a nice ship but there is a problem with it,

Which is the fact that the Brig is not a stable platform that means that i can't fully aim my shots and it has already a horrendous last circle aiming and with not a stable platform it is not completly aimed when i fire

 

maybe improve the aiming of the ship? 

Mortar not accurate?  WUT??

 

Even in the modern day, mortars are not precision weapons (when compared to cannon fire).  They were intended to hit large objects not pinpoint accuracy.  You are lofting a large, slow projectile high in the air and hoping it drops in the general area where you are aiming.

[pietjenoob]

Maybe I should be more precies improve the aimspeed, especially if you are in the last part of aiming

[Hethwill]

Even in the 1860's the mortar shell ships on Hampton Roads did next to nothing due to that lack of accuracy. Just to have a comparison to RL.

 

From what people been reporting it might be on the spot.

[Cragger]

Even in the 1860's the mortar shell ships on Hampton Roads did next to nothing due to that lack of accuracy. Just to have a comparison to RL.

 

From what people been reporting it might be on the spot.

 

Another example. Union forces shelled the berthed C.S.S. Arkansas all night and only achieved a near hit that killed some crew because of a miss. See the Union forces were actually aiming at where the Arkansas had been berthed at during the day, after sun down her captain slipped her moorings a few hundred yards downstream.

[Baron Quertier]

Not sure of the history of them other than the fact that they came into their own when the Royal Navy bombed the hell out of Copenhagen. Of course that was a city sized target probably harder to miss than hit.

Using it to bomb individual vessels must require, skill, patience, luck and teamwork.

In the hornblower novels there is a part where he coordinates a pair of mortar brigs to bomb a privateer that is taken refuge in an area that hornblowers ships can't go. He uses two mortar ships to fire but also sends a cutter off to get in close and signal back the fall of shot so the mortar crews can make corrections.

Now I know that is just a fictional novel and we are playing a game but ships like mortar brigs must surely require teamwork with other ships in order to have success with them.

Edited April 15, 2016 by Morey

[Cragger]

Not sure of the history of them other than the fact that they came into their own when the Royal Navy bombed the hell out of Copenhagen. Of course that was a city sized target probably harder to miss than hit.

Using it to bomb individual vessels must require, skill, patience, luck and teamwork.

In the hornblower novels there is a part where he coordinates a pair of mortar brigs to bomb a privateer that is taken refuge in an area that hornblowers ships can't go. He uses two mortar ships to fire but also sends a cutter off to get in close and signal back the fall of shot so the mortar crews can make corrections.

Now I know that is just a fictional novel and we are playing a game but ships like mortar brigs must surely require teamwork with other ships in order to have success with them.

 

Their real life use was against city sized targets or fortifications. Though even there they were more a tool for the patient. The U.S. National Anthem is from a long yet fruitless bombardment of Fort M'Henry by the british using bomb ketches and rockets. Hence the phrases "Bombs bursting in air" and "Rocket's red glare".

 

When firing shell a mortar not only had the unpredictable trajectory due to air currents as it hung at the apex but also the randomness of the fuse and would burst often well above the target. They could fire solid shot but against forts it really didn't do much good and against a ship, if it did hit it would probably punch through a number of decks, possibly even out the bottom depending on the ship but that wouldn't really be all that threatening to a wooden ship. More annoying then anything as shipped water would damp the powder potentially.

 

A perfect keel hit from a solid shot from a mortar could cause serious damage I suppose but that's such a long shot. Both figuratively and physically. You'd be better off in the odds firing shell and hoping to cause injuries with shrapnel. 

[MikedaBike]

Morter brigs were taken out of the game for a long time due to their OP nature at the time. High accuracy makes them to unbalanced, apart from the fact that historically they were not accurate at all, it would just revert back to being op, their use will become more advantages in the port battles when forts and shore batteries are introduced. Until then, keep practicing, improving ones own ability to aim will help.