"The Mortier Line: Striking Over Islands"
In most Dovion fights, an island between you and your target means "cease fire." Not for the Mortier line. From the Bombarde to the Titan cuirassé (Armored Titan), this branch of the tree fires in an arc: the shell climbs, sails clean over the obstacle, and lands exactly where you dropped your cursor. It's the game's siege artillery — and a geography lesson for anyone who thought they were safe.
Bombarde, Monitor cuirassé, Titan cuirassé
The line evolves in three stages: the Bombarde at level 15, the Monitor cuirassé (Armored Monitor) at level 30, and the Titan cuirassé (Armored Titan) at level 45. The hull names give it away: this is the heavy, armored family of the tree, alongside the rest of Dovion's steam ships.
Among the game's 9 lines, Mortier occupies a unique niche: it's the only one whose signature weapon ignores line of sight.
The arcing shell: aim at the ground, not the ship
The E-key active fires a cursor-aimed arcing shell (obus en cloche). Two words change everything in that sentence:
- Arcing: the projectile sails over obstacles. Islands, barricades, ships in the way — nothing stops it in flight.
- Cursor-aimed: you're not aiming a direction, you're aiming a POINT. The shell lands exactly where you decided.
The strategic consequence is huge: Mortier doesn't need to see its target to hit it, it just needs to know where the target is. An enemy who thinks they're safe behind an island is, in reality, a psychologically stationary target — they're not expecting a thing.
Where the line shines
Mortier dominates certain situations almost unfairly:
- Island campers. Anyone hiding behind a rock to regenerate finds out geography no longer protects them.
- Pièges players. Barricades block ships and cannonballs... but not things that fly. The arcing shell sails right over log walls — one of the cleanest counters in the game, detailed in our matchup guide.
- Crowded zones. Around selling points, in tight archipelagos, where normal firing lines are all blocked, Mortier fires straight over the chaos.
- Busy targets. A ship mid-duel, or emptying its hold at a selling point, isn't watching the sky.
Where it struggles
No siege is flawless. Arcing fire demands anticipation: against a nervous small hull that never stops changing course, landing the shell in the right spot is closer to fortune-telling than aiming. Fast lines — the Narval charging in, the Spectre appearing out of nowhere — naturally seek short-range contact, exactly where Mortier is least comfortable.
The counter is in positioning: a good Mortier player stays near obstacles that slow down enemy charges, keeps their distance, and treats every enemy approach as an emergency to defuse early.
The gunner's temperament
The Mortier line attracts a specific type of player: calm, reads the map, memorizes enemy habits, and strikes where they WILL be. If you get more satisfaction from predicting than from reacting, you've just found your branch of the tree.
No island will protect anyone anymore. Play Dovion for free and rain down the shells.