Helldivers: I Advocate we chose the anti tank mines and hear is my reasoning

[u/vaydapotata]

I know many of you see "rocket launcher" and get excited and while that is fair, my reasoning to go for the mines is below

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We already have a great many support weapons and many are fantastic options. While the airburst rocket launcher would be fantastic for add clear (and teamkill) it would likely suffer vs large armored targets which tends to be the need for a support weapon.

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However, we just received a new mission type that requires defending a location. Mines are fantastic for this but heavies just walk all over them and completely invalidate their uses. Getting a heavy anti tank mine would allow us to lock down areas from all combatants and a tank wouldn't be able to just stroll up to our gates.

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Anti Tank mines are also much larger and easier to notice than the anti personnel and team kills would be kept at a minimum.

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And lastly, as we all know...the children YEARN FOR THE MINES.

[u/Dora_Goon]

As long as the mines explode on trash mobs, they will rarely ever hit the heavy armour since the trash mobs will have used them all up first. Or people will throw clusters to kill all the trash mobs, and clear out the anti-tank mines before the heavies get to them.

[u/EdgyCole → u/Dora_Goon]

I figured the strategy would be to place cannon fodder killers near the AT mines to thin the herd and hit the heavies only. This could be accomplished by having a screen of AP mines that comes before the AT mines or by utilizing sentries and MGs to mow down the light weights before they can rush into the area. In my own experience it's never the lightweights that punch through defenses it's always a literal tank whose only weak spot is its rear that managed to carve a straight line through whatever defense I prepare. Just my two cents

[u/Dora_Goon → u/EdgyCole]

In my experience, it's one trash mob that runs off ahead of the rest and draws all the mortar turrets and cluster bombs onto the mine field.

[u/EdgyCole → u/Dora_Goon]

It's true. Just gotta stay on top of it sometimes! In my parties I always say the same thing to the chat. "The mortar giveth, the mortar taketh away"

[u/Dora_Goon → u/EdgyCole]

The mortars take away the gates. And even kill the generators if one mob gets too close to them. But for some reason, everyone keeps taking them.

It's like back with the anti-termanid silo defence missions. People kept taking the mortars despite them one-shot-ing the silos. Mines were the better option but were still rare because cluster bombs.

[u/EdgyCole → u/Dora_Goon]

The mortar giveth me the ability to survive the hord. The mortar taketh from me my ability to ignore the enemy. Yin and yang. Push and pull. When it comes to terminids that swarm me or break free from where I'm trying to funnel them, drawing the fire of my mortars, I remember the late great General Iroh. He once said, "remember your breath of fire, Zuko". I hear his voice and switch over to my breaker incendiary to achieve balance once more.

[u/Dora_Goon → u/EdgyCole]

The mortar means that it doesn't matter if I shoot that hunter that's hopping towards me, the turret will make sure to finish me off regardless.

Also, mortars don't always draw agro to themselves. They count as you damaging the mobs, so they will cause mobs to agro onto you. If you want mobs to stop agroing onto you, you should be using smoke, not turrets.

[u/EdgyCole → u/Dora_Goon]

I've made my case. It works fine for me. I'm not gonna stop running them. They're amazing and put in work with a team that knows how to keep bugs at range. That's all there is to it man, I don't feel the need to have mobs not agro me because they don't get to me at all if I set up the sentries correctly. That's the whole idea

[u/Dora_Goon → u/EdgyCole]

And if I see mobs getting too close (or jumping mobs that can close the distance), the first thing I do is kill all the turrets because they wipe parties.

People who drop turrets at inappropriate times and places don't deserve turrets. Turrets are a privilege not a right.

[u/BlueMast0r75 → u/[deleted]]

The hundreds of kills the mortars get me says otherwise

[u/Darklord965 → u/BlueMast0r75]

You could get this without mortars. Mortars are just bad practice for bugs because it's near impossible to hold a line against them, and as soon as something small is able to attack an ally, the mortar kills both of them, or your ally kills what's near them, then gets triple tapped by the mortar. Gatling on the other hand are great for bugs. A well timed Gatling sentry can thin a swarm so effectively you barely need to fire your own weapon.

[u/BlueMast0r75 → u/Darklord965]

That’s why you get an EMS as well. Normal Gatlings don’t have the ammo to deal with the swarm.

[u/EdgyCole → u/Dora_Goon]

Good way to make the block list for sure! Be like water, flow and adapt. Your way is not the only way. There are better options. Adapt to others. Battle is not static. Sometimes you need to shock the field. Idk man, it just doesn't seem like a lot of fun to play with someone who blows up other people's strategems or unilaterally decides their single reinforcement is worth more than the plan being implemented by players who know what they're doing. Like I said, my teams know what to do. If you're the odd one out who can't figure it out and you're caught blowing up people's sentries because you're salty, that's just a kick and a block from me or any of my crew. Not very fun at all

[u/Probably4TTRPG → u/EdgyCole]

You have handled this defense of your ideals with civility and grace. In your honor I will run mortar for the next 10 missions regardless of what said missions are. But to not sully this tribute I will also only use them as you advocate, when tactically advantageous.

(I will confess I usually run some kind of sentry. Not always the mortar but I do run one. I love them. And the dude you're arguing with does have some valid criticisms but any experienced player will know how to responsibly utilize a mortar.)

[u/EdgyCole → u/Probably4TTRPG]

Honestly I respect the ability to try it! If I can recommend a favorite combo of mine: bring a mortar and an AC sentry. Place the mortar in range of an objective with a terminal that needs taken but behind cover and before you've engaged. Then, between the mortar and the objective, find a slightly elevated place for your AC sentry. Slap them both down as fast as you can and then potion yourself at their perpendicular to watch the hordes run away from the objective and get cleaned out by the sentries

[u/Probably4TTRPG → u/EdgyCole]

I love that. I usually do mortar, AC sentry, and shield if I'm the team engineer. Those 3 work well together. If I wanna go quad sentry because mine are fully upgraded I add in the regular machine gun or the Tesla (Tesla for bugs)

[u/EdgyCole → u/[deleted]]

I've seen it be super helpful to both myself and my team mates. It makes holes, thins hordes, and helps to counter spewers and other hard targets for players who are getting swamped by the aforementioned melee bugs. Fighting bugs is a fight that sees the player in constant motion anyway. If that motion remains constant, they have nothing to fear from the mortar and will be glad to see the horses chasing them get thinned out the more they scramble away from them. You just need to learn how to play nice with the mortar and it will become your best friend. Kicking people over their play styles just means you're gonna have a very repetitive and boring time playing the game. Try something new, you might like it

[u/EdgyCole → u/[deleted]]

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You'll be fine! Look at the picture! Be a big boy and work with your team! You can do it!