Is assaulting Bunkers too hard ?

[ComradeP]

Unlike what Strela suggests, I would always Isolate defenders whenever possible. Just make sure to give the defenders a valid retreat hex (not in your ZOC) if they're all disrupted to force them out of their bunker. The drop in quality from isolation makes it easier to remove them due to increasing the chance that they'll disrupt.

Unless there is a special rule that makes isolated defenders less likely to disrupt, Strela is also incorrect that isolated units are more likely to hold out, as like I mentioned above they lose a quality level when isolated which makes them more likely to disrupt.

Assaulting is a harder than in PzC due to there being fewer penalties that are imposed on the defender, such as there being no Low Ammo state. Bunkers with their own supply hex are difficult to clear.

Like when the debate on assaulting in Kursk started, I still disagree with Strela, Dog Soldier and it seems Gregor that assaults are always working as intended. Infantry-only assaults can still be very, very difficult, whereas in real life the infantry did most of the assaulting. It's worth noting that minefields in Kursk were artificially weakened to allow the Germans to have a chance to attack at a somewhat reasonable pace as was mentioned around release.

In my recent 5th of July game against Dog Soldier, Das Reich and Totenkopf both launched primarily infantry-centered assaults that went nowhere for high losses because the infantry just isn't capable of dealing with stacks of defenders. One of my bunker stacks also only fell on the final turn after being fired at for several hours.

In Kursk, it's A quality attackers against C/D quality defenders. In Normandy, it's B/C quality attackers against A/B/C/D quality defenders. A quality infantry units in particular are in my opinion still a bit to strong in terms of firepower compared to lower quality units, which combined with casualties being "the other way around" from real life as in the game direct fire causes far more casualties than artillery makes attacking dug-in A quality units challenging at best.

As "bunkers" and "pillboxes" are a catch-all, one size fits all categories, a log bunker has the same defensive qualities as the defenses of the Atlantic Wall and the Soviet defences at Kursk that took months to prepare.