Janissary Hand Mortar Bölük are a type of grenadiers in Empire: Total War.
Description[]
The hand mortar can be used to place a grenade on a target beyond normal throwing range.
Despite its name, the hand mortar is more of a grenade launcher, with a wide barrel, typically of bronze, mounted on a musket stock so that it can be fired from the shoulder. This method of delivery offers increased range, but the weapons are temperamental and prone to misfires or bursting. This, coupled with the variable quality of the grenades fired, means that in the wrong hands a hand mortar can often be as much of a danger to the man firing it as to the enemy. Despite this, the grenade is a useful battlefield weapon when used against enemies deployed in cover, or for clearing choke points.
Historically the armies of the Ottoman Empire and Russia employed the hand mortar. In the Russian military, hand mortar detachments typically operated in support of the artillery, possibly because the unpredictability of the weapon made it unpopular among the line regiments! The Ottomans always treated grenades as a form of “thrown artillery”.
General Information[]
Unique to the Ottoman Empire, Janissary Hand Mortar Bölük use their firearms to propel grenades at a longer distance than what grenadiers can throw; the grenades then explode as normal after a short period of time, causing casualties and disruption. Janissary Hand Mortar Bölük fire their grenades in an arced trajectory, allowing them to be placed behind lines safely without fear of friendly fire. This arced trajectory means they are also good during a siege, as the grenades land on the wall, dealing heavy casualties to the stationary and tightly packed soldiers manning the defenses, before allowing the line infantry or Cemaat Janissaries to scale and carry out the assault.
Janissary Hand Mortar Bölük suffer from an extremely low amount of ammo. It is not uncommon for them to run out of ammunition shortly after the firing begins. Their small regiment size and their unremarkable melee statistics make them passable at best in melee fighting, their only function should they expend their ammunition.
Russian Hand Mortar Companies are similar to Janissary Hand Mortar Bölüks, but with better stats, higher costs, a regiment limit, and geographical limitations as to where they can be recruited.