Direct Fire/Assault Questions

[Volcano Man]

The reason the terrain and fortification does NOT play a factor in an assault, is because the assault is thought to occur all in the same hex (the defenders hex), so both the attacker and defender are essentially in the same terrain when the assault happens. The attacker does have to cross hex side modifier features to get into the assaulted hex though, so that is why that plays a factor.

As for the fortifications not playing a factor, they DO play a factor on assaults because it is a lot harder to disrupt the enemy *prior to an assault* if they are in a fortification. Also, and this is the most important, bunkers and pillboxes do increase the defense strength of all units in the defending hex and they also convert soft targets to hard targets. Needless to say that is a huge advantage in an assault. So, although fortifications do not play a direct factor in an assault with its defense modifier, they certainly have a role in the assault process. Fortifications can hold off assaults and / or make them very bloody because (such as in N44) it forces the attacker to assault before all defenders are disrupted if the attacker is running out of time or options.