SK smoke question

[Jim B]

In the PFPh, a German 81mm mortar wants to place smoke to screen infantry MPh movement. Is it a matter of declaring the target hex as area fire, rolling 7 or less (assuming no DRMs, range or LOS issues), and with that hex thus acquired, simply placing the smoke counter in the hex, or do I have to roll a for second acquisition before I can place the first smoke round in the target hex? The IFT has nothing to do with the mortar round's placement? Assuming in the same PFPh, I want to place smoke in several hexes: does keeping ROF allow me to fire several mortar smoke rounds in the same PFPh until I lose rate or fire or malf the weapon? Thanks for considering my question.

 

[Eagle4ty]

When you fire SMOKE {See definition of SMOKE/smoke} at a target you are using Area Target Type to hit and not area fire (though similar in some aspects it is a different animal). You need not have acquired the target previously to fire SMOKE but if you have acquisition on the target you may use it for the first shot (only) of SMOKE you fire and you'll lose it immediately after the shot regardless of the success of your SMOKE attempt. Additionally you will notice on the ASLSK TH Chart that you receive an TH DRM of -2 when firing SMOKE at ranges of < 13 hexes; in essence you need a DR of 9 or less out to a considerable range to hit with SMOKE as the TH# for the 81mmm Mortar increases from 7 to 9 after 13 hexes. Per the rules for mortars (ASLSK 6.9) you can still maintain ROF with a mortar firing the Area Target Type (which it must do anyway) so the only limitation to the number of SMOKE locations you can fire upon is limited only by your ROF and the SMOKE Depletion number (ASLSK 6.2 Special Ammo & Depletion Numbers). Hope this helps.