Assault numbers are in. Bug or feature?

[Xerxes77]

This is very interesting!

I don't have anything useful to add, since I only just bought Red Victory yesterday.
Makes me wonder, if a bug were to be discovered which affects mechanics in a major way, would the Squad Battles games be patched/updated. Or not.

Congrats! The good thing about this "bug" (and the main reason I believe it's gone unnoticed) is that it doesn't fundamentally change the basic tactics around assaulting. That is, you should still always strive to reduce the target's manpower and morale before attempting an attack.

However, since the men in a pinned, disrupted or demoralized squad will fight with the same strength as normal (as per my working hypothesis), you should be particularly weary of attacking a unit that has suffered few casualties, regardless of its morale. This can be a problem when playing with FOW and the enemy is in a position with cover (can't see their actual numbers). In that case, assaulting can be basically a crapshoot.

For RV, assuming a standard Infantry Assault Value of 20 and a single target unit equipped with submachine guns (Assault value 18), the pertinent lines in the manual should be modified as follows:

Defending units that are Disrupted have 76% the normal assault value. (acc. manual: 1/2, or 50%)
Defending units that are Pinned have 65% the normal assault value.    (acc. manual: 1/4, or 25%)
Defending units that are Demoralized have 59% the normal assault value. (acc. manual: 1/8, or 12.5%)

As you can see the difference is quite drastic.
For units defending with lesser Assault weapons, like rifles (Assault Value 12), the effect is even more pronounced:

Defending units that are Disrupted have 81% the normal assault value.
Defending units that are Pinned have 72% the normal assault value.
Defending units that are Demoralized have 67% the normal assault value.

As the "bug" (again, according to my working hypothesis based on test results) does not penalize squads, only weapons, if you were to go against an UNARMED Disrupted/pinned/demoralized unit, you'd find the fists of those supposedly broken men hit as hard as if they'd just got up from a long, restful nap and had a good breakfast!  

As for your question of what would happen if a bug like this one were discovered at this point, hmmm... I'm not sure I would expect any change. The game in its current state has provided enjoyment to many people for many years, and while I've seen complaints here and there about the randomness of assault results, I'm not sure most folks would consider this a game-breaking issue.

I do lament the seemingly neglected state of the series. To me this does look like it would be a trivial thing to fix.