Japan 45

[CheerfullyInsane]

3.  Speaking of bunkers, the -40%/+40 rating seems out of whack, especially given the default optional rules which include optional assault rule.  In other PzC titles, e.g. Stalingrad 42, the bunkers are the usual -40%/+10.  Is this WAD or an oversight?  A -40%/+40 bunker decently held by Japan is well-nigh untakeable in this game given the strong infantry defense values and fanatical rule.  I did some testing with multiple full US Army battalions assaulting this bunker defended by a single 4-gun Japanese battery - it took four turns, whittling away the battery one gun at a time.  Seems to me the bunker values should be dropped down

No, bunkers are -40%/+40 in the rest of the PzC games as well.
Think you've got them mixed up with pillboxes which are -10%/+10

But that aside I agree with the analysis. With the Alt. Assault OR, fortifications become far too powerful, especially with the Mac PDT. Put anything with a decent Hard attack value into a bunker, and it becomes pretty much impregnable.
You can't use Direct Fire, since very few weapons have a high enough Hard Attack to be effective.
Artillery (bar very, very large calibers) can't be used since fortifications are Hard targets.
Which leaves assaults. And since the Mac PDT have significantly lowered the Hard attacks of infantry units, the whole thing leads to wildly ahistorical tactics.
Pioneers have  Hard Attack of 3 or 4, whereas a Sherman has a Hard Attack 21 IIRC.
Which means that even factoring in the combined arms penalty, sending tanks in against bunkers without infantry support is still about 3 times as effective as using pioneers........

I mean, I get the logic behind the Alt. Assault rule, and I also get the idea of lowering the Hard Attack of infantry so they don't become tank-hunters. And to some degree I agree with the above.
The problem is that the PzC engine only has Hard or Soft targets. It can't differentiate between AFVs and fortifications.
So you can't use the Alt Assault rule to nerf infantry without also making fortifications a massive problem for the attacker.

IMHO Alt. Assault coupled with the Mac PDT will completely screw the balance of any scenario with major fortifications, Normandy being another prime example.
I have several other issues with the Mac PDT, but the above is the major reason I refuse to play _alt scenarios.