Base chance for MG to jam is reduced somewhat overall, but is then increased at the following temperatures:
Extreme Cold: +100%
Freezing: +25%
Warm: +50%
Hot: +200%
Mortars are the precision munitions" of WWII. Mortars are best used against point targets. They have the advantage of being able to fire on the enemy without return fire hitting them, and they are relatively accurate and lethal enough to knock out enemy support weapons.
The 81mm mortar is about as heavy as a weapon can get and still be regularly man packable (broken down), thus able to reach any terrain. It has enough range to hit MGs without reply, and the mobility to move after firing to avoid counterbattery (which was rudimentary at finding them in that era). The casualty radius of an 81mm mortar round is not much below that of a 105mm round. However, it is much less effective against men with cover, because it is getting that effect from smaller fragments.
The effect of the shell is quite high, when a target is caught moving. Infantry mortared in the open will be stuck there like cement as long as your ammo holds. You watch them, when more than two get up you drop another several rounds on them. The German combination was MG42s if you leave cover and 81mm mortars if you stay in it but try to move around at all. The typical result is simply paralysis - the targeted formation will not move. Net result is, a targeted platoon is lucky if half of it can continue the mission half an hour later. If they are under immediate attack, maybe they can fire back with 2/3 to 3/4 strength in five minutes.
One of the interesting differences between CM and OFP is that in CM you find yourself ordering men to do things which in OFP you'd have trouble getting human subordinates to do, like to charge a building while the enemy is only 30m away, because you can see that it's necessary to take that location to maintain a positional(?) / defensive / morale advantage against the enemy, meaning a small sacrifice now will lead to saved lives later and a better chance at achieving your objectives. But in OFP multiplayer missions, there's really no morale / defensive bonus to different terrain or buildings, and so there's no incentive to sacrifice men to take those positions. Which I think contributes to the feeling in OFP of having a shoot-out in an empty parking lot. In OFP multiplayer I've found COs to be more of coordinators, where all they do is go, "OK guys, we're going to go this way, and then this way", but the COs don't really seem to be making tactical decisions; it's just a shoot-out: "see which side can shoot the other side first".
Bazookas are useful for suppressing enemy infantry in buildings.
It's *very* helpful to order a bunch of squads to all target a single enemy squad if you want that squad suppressed, even if that enemy squad in a heavy building.
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otherwise-useless crew or ammo-less spotters can be used as recon: have them keep an eye on any angles that you don't otherwise have eyes on.
the AI finally used their assault gun on turn 11 of 15 for some reason (VERY late), by which time I had assumed (from its lack of firing) that it was stuck in the mud or otherwise out of action, and so I had used up my PIATs on enemy infantry.
). Unfortunately I think the smoke didn't last long enough and the scattered trees on the right side of the road weren't easy enough to get behind, so again, all of the reinforcements were destroyed without being able to do much damage themselves.
