Early war engineers

[Herr Straße Laufer]

It's quite possible that some players have misunderstood the addition of fausts, schrecks, and bazookas.

From the manual:
Most infantry units can only fire at hard targets at a range of one hex. At the same range the units can assault. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

A. You have to examine the characteristics of your infantry units to see which is better – the Assault Value or the 1-hex Direct Fire hard Attack Factor. Each can vary markedly from one type to another and also vary due to date (generally, the 1-hex hard Attack Factor increases as the war goes on). You will find that Engineer infantry always have a good antitank capability regardless of date, reflecting satchel charges and similar weapons that they carried. Other units, such as a submachine gun platoon, also have adequate anti-armor capabilities – as well as a high Assault Value. Some units, such as Soviet antitank rifle sections, have no Assault Value and thus can only conduct Direct Fire. Later in the war, units such as Panzer Grenadiers become quite powerful in their assault and antitank capabilities, reflecting new weapons such as Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks (the German counterpart to the Bazooka) and increased firepower from new machineguns and sub-machineguns. Whether you should assault or Direct Fire can also depend on the tactical situation. Assault may cause more damage, particularly if units assault from different directions. But there is even a possibility that the assaulters can become Disrupted or incur casualties – even on an otherwise successful assault! Also, a successful assault will end up with the assaulting unit(s) occupying the assaulted hex; if they had been in good terrain (e.g., factory, trenches, and bunker) before, this could increase their risk. Direct Fire carries less risk.
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My only issue with the above is that the reference is to German Engineers. 1925Frank mentioned that the German Engineers are nine times as effective versus hard targets. I'm not sure that that was the intent of the Talonsoft CS developers. Why, if they have satchel charges and flamethrowers, should any other army's Engineers be less powerful than the German Engineers versus hard targets? Other than tactical training, of course?
But, does that mean nine times the effectiveness?
Most other nation's Engineers are no better than regular infantry when attacking a hard target. I think that needs to be addressed in a future update.

Plus, Pillboxes and bunkers in a hex are not representing a single pillbox or bunker. They reflect a "position" which has pillboxes and bunkers in the hex.

RR