Editing Imperial Ordnance (section)

== Mortar ==
A mortar is an artillery weapon that launches shells in a high arc. They tend to have relatively short barrels and fire shells at relatively low velocities. The Imperial Guard uses them in two sizes: the standard man-portable mortar, carried and operated by two Imperial Guard troopers; and the heavy mortar, which can be used in static or towed artillery mounts, or mounted in a Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier. They can destroy light infantry and light vehicles easily enough, but are unlikely to trouble heavy infantry or vehicles with tank-grade armour.

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===Light Mortar===
[[File:CadianMortarZoomed.png|200px|right|thumb|Light Mortar]]
The most common form of Mortars is...well....the Mortar. Some may call it the Light Mortar due to the smaller payload and size and the existence of the heavy mortar (See bellow) but whatever. The Mortar looks like...a basic modern Mortar found in use in today's armies. I guess the design haven't change for over 40,000 years, but hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

The Light Mortar fires an explosive shell on a high-arching trajectory capable of flying over the heads of nearby troops and crashing down on the rear ranks of the enemy. Its primary use is in the anti-personnel role, breaking up enemy infantry formations and pinning them down.

Mortars are prized for their ability to lay down a curtain of fire from behind cover, and while not particularly accurate their explosive power makes up for this deficiency. However this indirect-fire capability requires accurate targeting information to be effective and the use of spotters with proper vox-protocols in order to avoid friendly fire. Standard procedures has the spotters locate targets, whether through visual or remote-servitor means, and send a fire request to the mortar crew's [[Imperial Guard Command Squad|Platoon Command Squad,]] which plots a firing solution and relays that information to the mortar teams assembled, adjusting fire as required.

In 8th Edition, the Mortar is now a 48" Heavy D6 S4 AP0 D1 heavy weapon, and may fire indirectly. Down in cost, and along with the [[Nerf|nerf]] to the [[Wyvern]] this brings it back into the realm of 'good' choices. At 11 points a gun team, it's a dirt cheap light and medium infantry muncher. Because of the revision to the way AP works it's in direct competition with the Heavy Bolter; this ALSO means it's in indirect competition with your entire motor pool. Consider this when the challenge of fitting half a dozen kits' worth of mortar tubes into your list is a daunting prospect. Becomes much more viable in games using a lot of scenery or buildings, so take it when you need to lob some pain over that city block or hill that your other heavy weapons can't shoot through.
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===Mole Mortar===
[[File:Mole_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Mole Mortar]]
Basically a reverse Mortar. In that it travels ''underground'' rather than overhead. It's more of a torpedo then a Mortar, but it got 'Mortar' in the name and we need to stick it somewhere.

The missile burrows its way toward its target, bypassing all surface hazards and defenses, emerging from the ground beneath the target. The missile is self-guided and able to track its target through solid rock. [[Mole Mortar Team|As an invention of the]] [[Squats|Sphess Dorfs]], the Mole Mortar soon found its way up the ranks of the [[Imperial Guard]] due to its unorthodox firing methods.

The Mole Mortar was originally developed to destroy enemy tunneling vehicles but was so successful that now used as a [[Wat|short-ranged assault weapon,]] even though such premonitions sounds outright [[Stupid]] let alone suicidal, it is worth remembering that since vehicles have thinner bottom armor if you can get a hit on a tank it's going to be fairly devastating. It is sometimes used to breach fortifications too strong for conventional weaponry to damage. Due to the unique way it operates, the mole mortar is able to circumvent most defenses, striking from below to explode within bunkers and other structures. Even so, it could be defeated by an incoveniently placed sewer pipe or cavern.

Heck, the Mole Mortar was so popular in the Guard that it eventually led to the creation of the [[Mole Launcher]]. [[Original character, do not steal|Figures.]]

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===Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Heavy_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Heavy Mortar]]
The Heavy Mortar is a larger support version of the standard Mortar used by the Imperial Guard. Its primary advantages are a wide range of ammunition types, a high rate of fire, and simplicity to construct and maintain. However its massive size means the heavy mortar must either be towed into place by a [[Trojan Support Vehicle|Trojan]] or [[Centaur Utility Vehicle|Centaur]]. A special version of this is mounted on the [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier|Griffon Mortar Carrier.]]

While they were once quite popular with many Imperial Guard regiments, the use of heavy mortars has fallen out of favor in recent years, since for many commanders it lacks both the heavy firepower and long reach of much larger artillery pieces, limiting its use in box-barrages or counter-battery fire (because out-ranging and quickly destroying enemy mortars is sooo terrible since the Guard is actively trying to get its own troops martyred). Towed heavy mortars have become even less popular, being seen as too slow to keep up with advancing mechanized units, and have largely been regulated to PDFs and Siege Regiments.

For all their faults heavy mortars also have a number of advantages. They are an excellent close support weapons for engaging enemy infantry and light vehicles, freeing the heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a steady rate of fire for hours. Its versatility also allows it to fulfill a variety of other roles, from launching illumination shells during night battles or laying down a smoke screen before an infantry attack.

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===Belleros Energy Cannon===
[[File:Belleros_Energy_Cannon.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Belleros Energy Cannon]]

The Belleros Energy Cannon is one of the two primary weapons for the giant rubber duck known as the [[Skorpius Disintegrator|Skorpius Disintegrator]]. The Energy Cannon is a mortar, it basically functions like one. It is also a Direct-Energy Weapon (DEW), which means it is for all intents and purposes a [[Lolwut|laser mortar...]] sort of. Another explanation is that it is some sort of microwave DEW, which can cook targets through walls. It is a bit vague in that regards.

With a range of ''only'' 36" (This is shorter than the 48" [[Ferrumite Cannon]] mind you), the Belleros is no proper artillery. Rather, the energy cannon is a weapon meant to support allied troops through indirect fire via the harassment of enemy positions. With it’s 3D3 shots and 2 damage per wound, this is a weapon that is primarily made to clear hordes of GEQs and MEQs. One big advantage especially for AdMech players is that it can target units that aren’t in direct LoS. At Str 6 and -1 AP, this thing is not a vehicle killer in the slightest. Rather, as aforementioned, it is a Tarpit cleanser as, in terms of raw damage potential it can clock up to [[Powergamer|18 damage.]]

===Griffon Heavy Mortar===
[[File:Griffon_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Griffon Heavy Mortar]]
The Griffon Heavy Mortar is the smallest and lightest of the artillery guns. This weapon has been a source of [[Skub]] in-universe.

Critics of the Griffon claim that its main weapon is too small to warrant its vehicular mounting (despite being large enough it'd make a Rhino look like a truck), while tying up fire control and observation assets needed by much larger pieces (which wouldn't be communicating if the observers were calling for the Griffon instead). For its supporters though, the Griffon is the ideal compromise between weight, firepower, mobility and ease of use. Its heavy mortar is excellent against infantry and light vehicles, freeing heavier artillery for use against more appropriate targets, and can maintain a high rate of fire. The vehicle is also capable of keeping pace with rapid advances for which heavier vehicles like the Basilisk are too slow to maintain.

Its firepower is not impressive (it's S6 AP-1 and ignores cover), and its range is also relatively short (48"), but because it is so small and light, it can sustain higher rates of fire than other guns and, when carried in the heavy chassis of a [[Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier]], it can be fired indirectly and roll two dice dropping the lowest for number of attacks).

[[Tl;dr]], this weapon is the reason why conventional towed Heavy Mortars are now phased out from the Imperial Guard, instead being put in as a reserve artillery piece from the ''[[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]]'' of all things. How the mighty has fallen.
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===Stormshard Mortar===
[[File:Stormshard_Mortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Stormshard Mortar]]
Take a mortar and give it the firepower of a machinegun. [[Dakka|You get yourselves a Stormshard Mortar.]]

The Stormshard Mortar is an artillery system commonly mounted in two pairs on Imperial Guard [[Wyvern Suppression Tank|Wyverns.]] These mortars excel in urban warfare, firing shrapnel down on enemy infantry without exposing the vehicle itself to harm. It is a fairly close range weapon for artillery, but it is needed in the heavily tight space of Hive Cities where the chance of an artillery shell hitting the rooftops of some poor hobo's house is actually quite high.

Because of the chance of facing against [[Tyranids|Horde]] [[Orks|Armies]], the Wyvern mounts not one, but <u>''TWO''</u> sets of Stormshards. These means that these badboys carry four mortars on one turret. [[Rape|Add to the fact that they can fire on auto and you have a weapon system that eats Swarmers for breakfast.]] All of the fucking yes!

Given it's similarity to the Heavy Quad-Launcher, it is likely the same weapon firing different ammo.

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===Karacnos Mortar Battery===
[[File:Karacnos_Nukes.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Karacnos Mortar Battery]]
The [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] have their own mortar and [[Lord of the Rings|it is a mortar to rule them all.]] Called the Karacnos Mortar Battery which is so named after the [[Karacnos Assault Tank|vehicle it is mounted on.]] Also found as the carapace weapon on the [[Acastus Knight Asterius|Imperial Knight Astreus]]. The Karacnos Mortar Battery is special cause it uses ''[[Fallout|radioactive warheads]]'' [[Awesome|as its armaments!]] You can't get more metal than that! As it is basically firing a barrage of dirty bombs, this mortar fires its radioactive warheads which is designed to sweep an area clear of all organic life.

As you can imagine, these badboys aren't that well liked for those Imperial Commanders who want to have a idyllic and livable planet to prosper. Seriously, a couple of these batteries would turn a city into a uninhabitable wasteland that only a [[Death Korps of Krieg|Krieger from a Death Korps would enjoy.]]

On tabletop ([[Horus Heresy|The 30k rules at least]]), the Mortar is a R60 heavy bolter with barrage, small blast, fleshbane, radphage, Ignores cover and pinning which seems good on paper but with the majority of targets getting armour saves this mostly equates to a longer range Wyvern.

===Morbus Heavy Bombard===
[[File:Morbus_Heavy_Bombard.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Morbus Heavy Bombard]]
The standard weapon for the [[Legion Arquitor Bombard]], the Morbus Heavy Bombard is a big fuck-off mortar system designed to fire shells that could bring absolute devastation to even the most heavily armored enemy units.

Whilst not as large and devastating as its larger cousin such as the Colossus Siege Mortar. The Morbus Heavy Bombard could in fact, act as the middle child between the Colossus and the smaller but more mobile Griffon Heavy Mortar.

This mortar was so good, that good [[Mortarion|ol'Morty]] decided to [[Blood Ravens|'borrow']] the idea and concept for his own daemonic [[Plagueburst Crawler|Plagueburst Crawlers]] [[Plague Wars|that he unleashed on the Imperium after the Heresy.]] Although why it took Mortarion over 10,000 years to modify and tinker around the Morbus Heavy Bombard is unknown; maybe it is to act as Mortarion's 10th Millennia Anniversary 'surprise' gift to the Imperium after all this time.

===Colossus Siege Mortar===
[[File:ColossusSiegeMortar.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Colossus Siege Mortar]]
The Colossus Siege Mortar is huge, cumbersome and highly destructive, and it's so large that its shells have to be loaded by cranes instead of by hand. It fires massive concussive rounds that will turn its target to paste (as long as it's a human wearing something less than terminator armor -- S6 AP-2 Dd3 is good against infantry blobs, not so much for harder targets), even if they are hiding in cover.

Because one cannon wasn't enough, the Imperium built the Dominus Armored Siege Bombard, a variant of the [[CRASSUS ARMORED ASSAULT TRANSPORT]] that carries an automated ''trio'' of Colossus cannons (though the Dominus only costs as much as two [[Colossus Bombard|Colossi]]...which actually makes sense, as the Colossi are built on a Leman Russ chassis where-as the Dominus just has to pay for an extra cannon, not a whole new vehicle to carry it).

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===Dominus Triple Bombard===
[[File:DominusTripleBombard.png|200px|right|thumb|Dominus Triple Bombard]]
Hey! Remember how we said that a certain Imperium vehicle was actually big enough to mount not one, but THREE Colossus Siege Mortars? Well here it is, the Dominus Triple Bombard found only on the DOMINUS ARMOURED SIEGE BOMBARD. This monster is a god damned tarpit cleanser.

An automated battery of three Bombard cannons rigged to fire together in sequence, it can pulverize anything caught within its field of fire. The Triple Bombard has two rates of fire: a slower rate the Dominus is limited to when on the move, and the second a higher rate for sustained fire when it is stationary.

In practice the Dominus throws [[Rape|10d6 S10 ap-3 shots with indirect fire when stationary,]] easily wiping any unit foolish enough to be larger than 5 models. S10 Ap-3 is also a serious threat to any armor short of a titan, and the weight of shots pretty much guarantees an overkill of single model targets. Essentially, [[OP|it is a mortar system so big, with shells so large that]] [[Rape|''Tank Armor]] [[Count as|now counts as]] [[Flak Armor]]'' [[Cheese|when faced with this cheesemonger.]]

The older, even bigger and more Squattier version of the Dominus Triple Bombard is the Thunder-Fire Cannon from the [[Squats]].

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