WARDOGS Mortar Nerf Petition: Meta, Counters and What to Do
FOB mortars plus the shell-follow camera and C-cancel 3-round burst have taken over Early Access matches. Until Bulkhead patches it, you either run the mortar meta or get shelled. Here is both sides of it.
Core problem: After the Early Access launch, the first team to get an L81 mortar up often denies the other team a working FOB. Players are petitioning to remove the shell-follow camera, stop the 3-round cancel burst, cap tubes per FOB, or force a spotter. Until that lands, this page covers how the meta works and what actually counters it.
1How to Get a Mortar Up Fast
- 1Unlock the Large Hammer (around Support level 8).
Smaller hammers cannot place the mortar. If you do not have it yet, someone on the team needs to.
- 2Drop or join a FOB with Building Supplies and Ammo Supplies.
Placement costs 91 Building Supplies. Each shell costs roughly 30 Ammo Supplies, so a 3-round burst is about 90.
- 3Stand inside the FOB radius, open the hammer build menu, third page, place the L81.
Hit the yellow/white X markers to finish it faster. Anyone nearby can help hammer it once placed.
- 4Park the tube slightly off the main compound.
Still inside supply range, but not stacked on the drill or spawn. One return volley should not delete your tube, your spawn, and your supplies at once.
2The "OP" Loop Players Are Complaining About
- 1Open the map and ping the target (middle mouse).
The ping shows on the mortar compass.
- 2If something is already spotted, hover its icon on the map while in the tube.
You get exact range and a 3D marker to line up on. First-round hits on spotted marks are common.
- 3Align heading with the compass at the top, set range on the left dial.
Community tables put useful fire around 132-684 m (many treat max as ~700 m). Higher mils on the right dial means shorter range.
- 4Fire one ranging shot and watch the shell cam.
Short - increase range. Long - decrease range. Left/right miss - tweak heading.
- 5Load 3 shells. Fire, press C to cancel the cam, fire, C, fire.
Ride the last shell only if you need a correction. Reload with R while the last round is in the air. This C-cancel dump is the specific mechanic players want nerfed first.
- 6Priority targets: enemy mortar tubes first, then drills, then clustered builders/walls/AA, then towers.Decision point: with a spotted mark, go straight to the burst. Without one, one ranging shot plus C-cancel burst is how solos dump 9+ rounds from 3 tubes in a single cycle.
3How to Counter Mortars Right Now
Do not sit in the FOB and repair. That is exactly what the shell camera is designed to punish.
- 1Cheap counter-battery. Ural + 1-2 ammo pallets + Large Hammer + building supplies. Drive 400-600 m into woods or a dead angle, drop a disposable FOB and one mortar. Use your own shell cam to find their tube (repeated impacts, smoke, supply trucks). Kill the tube, not the whole base first.
- 2Cut ammo, not just the tube. Every shell comes from that FOB's ammo pool. Ambush the supply truck or heli. A mortar with no ammo is a decoration.
- 3Raid the FOB. Squad plus C4 in a truck. Mortar FOBs fall faster than builders expect because the gunners are locked in the camera and the base is often just a tube in a bush.
- 4Air / drone / recon. Helis and drones find the hide. Recon marks give counter-battery first-round solutions.
- 5Do not cluster. Spread builders, do not park vehicles on the same pad, do not all stand on the drill. Move after the first two impacts land in the same crater.
Decision point: with randoms, counter-battery in the woods beats begging people to raid. With 4+ coordinated players, raid plus supply interdiction ends the problem faster than trading shells.Common Mistakes
- Building the mortar in the most obvious tower/FOB spot and stacking 4 tubes in one courtyard.
- Staying in the shell cam every shot instead of C-canceling once on target. Slow fire loses the volume war.
- Repairing in place after the first volley. The camera already saw where you are rebuilding.
- Ignoring logistics. A mortar that is not fed dies in minutes.
- Assuming C-RAM / IDF will save you. It does not reliably stop mortar spam right now.
- Only asking for a damage nerf. The threads that keep getting replies want the camera and the 3-round cancel burst changed first.
What the Petition Is Actually Asking For
Most Common AsksCamera and BurstRemove or server-toggle the shell-follow / bird's-eye camera. Lock the gunner in the camera until impact so the C-cancel 3-round dump dies. These two come up in nearly every thread.Secondary AsksCaps and CostsCap mortars per FOB or gate them behind team points like an APC. Require a spotter / second player, or hide impacts from the gunner map. Smaller blast vs buildings and higher ammo cost are optional extras.Status: Bulkhead had not posted a mortar-specific patch note in the discussions players were citing after Patch 0.11. If you want the change, the actionable step is the Steam discussion plus in-game feedback and the official Discord, not another "delete mortars" post. Until then: get a tube up first, or build a hidden counter-battery and starve their ammo. - 1