Assaulting

Assaults may be conducted between units in one hex and defending enemy units in an adjacent hex. Units from multiple hexes may combine their attack on a single defending hex. To initiate an Assault, select the units to attack, long press in their hex, drag your finger into the defending hex, and release. After all attacking units have been added to the assault, the Assault can be resolved by using the Assault Toolbar button.

Attacking Units in an Assault

Only units which have a non-zero assault factor, that are not Disrupted, Broken, Fixed, in Rail Mode, Digging-In, bridge building, or at Maximum Fatigue can assault attack. Units that must be in Travel Mode to move, such as towed artillery, cannot assault attack. The attacking unit must be capable of movement between the attacking hex and the defending hex and so assault attacks across un-bridged river hexsides are not allowed. Attacking units in Travel Mode or that have Low Ammo attack at 1/4 assault value.

Assault Cost

Under the Manual Defensive Fire option, there is no movement cost required to Assault. Otherwise, a unit must have at least 2/3 of its movement allowance remaining to initiate an assault. The assault costs a unit the maximum of the following two values:

2/3 of its movement allowance.
The movement cost to move into the defending hex.

Defending Units in an Assault

The following modifiers apply to the assault value of defending units.

Units that are Disrupted, have Low Ammo, or are Digging-In defend at 1/2 assault value.
Units that are in Travel or Rail Mode defend at 1/4 assault value.
Engineer units that are building or maintaining a bridge defend at 1/2 assault value.
Units that are laying or clearing mines defend at ½ assault value.
Units that are Broken defend at 1/4 assault value.
Units that have a specific Facing have an assault value of 0 when all of the attacking units are attacking through the rear facing hexsides.

On-Map Results

Assault results are displayed on the map over the defending hex. These results are shown as two sets separated by a slash (/). The first set of losses are those of the attacker while the second set is those of the defender.

Range 0 Hard Attack Values

Certain units have a Hard Attack value with a range of 0. This represents short-range anti-tank weapons that the unit may have. When these units are involved in an assault as either defender or attacker and the optional Alternate Assault rule is in effect, then the Hard Attack values of these units is used in that calculation. Otherwise, the Hard Attack value of these units has no effect.

Movement Effects on Assault

To assault across a bridge or into normally prohibited terrain along a road, a unit must be in Travel Mode. For example, a unit needs to be in Travel Mode to assault across a bridge and a unit made up of tanks would need to be in Travel Mode to assault across a bridge or along a road in a Marsh or Swamp hex.

Terrain Modifiers in an Assault

The maximum hexside modifier of all hexsides between attacking units and the defending units, is used to modify the attackers assault value.
If any of the attacking units consist of vehicles, then the terrain modifier of the defending hex is applied to the attackers assault value. Note: this modifier applies to motorized and mechanized infantry when they are in Travel Mode, but not when they are Deployed.

Unit Modifiers

Each attacking and defending unit has a modifier calculated as the sum of the Quality and Fatigue modifiers. The Quality modifier is:

+20% for Quality A
+10% for Quality B
-20% for Quality D
-40% for Quality E
-60% for Quality F.

The Fatigue modifier is

-10% for Medium Fatigue
-20% for High Fatigue
-40% for Maximum Fatigue.

For the attackers, the lowest unit modifier of all the attackers is applied to the total attacking assault value. For the defenders, the highest unit modifier of all the defenders is applied to the total defending assault value.

Example: suppose that the defenders consist of an A Quality unit at Medium Fatigue and a C Quality unit at High Fatigue. The unit modifiers are 10% (equal to 20% - 10%) for the A unit and -20% (equal to 0% - 20%) for the C unit. The highest unit modifier is 10% and this is used for the defenders.

Suppose that the attackers consist of the same type of units, an A Quality unit at Medium Fatigue and a C Quality unit at No Fatigue. Again the unit modifiers are 10% and –20%. The lowest unit modifier is –20% and this is used for the attackers.

Combined Arms Penalty

When vehicles assault attack into non-Clear hexes, they may suffer from a lack of infantry support. If there is at least as much attacking supporting infantry as there is defending infantry, then no Combined Arms Penalty occurs. For attacking infantry to be considered supporting, it must be stacked with attacking vehicles and only that portion within 10 times the number of vehicles is considered. Otherwise, for each attacking hex, the number of infantry and the number of vehicles times 10 is compared. If the number of infantry exceeds this adjusted number of vehicles, then no Combined Arms Penalty occurs. Otherwise, for every 10 defending infantry, or fraction of 10, in excess of the attacking infantry, the Combined Arms Penalty is applied to the excess number of vehicles by having them attack at half strength.

Example 1: suppose that 14 vehicles supported by 100 infantry attack a hex containing 120 defending infantry. Since there is 20 more defending infantry than attacking, then 2 attacking vehicles suffer the Combined Arms Penalty and thus attack at half strength.

Example 2: suppose that 10 vehicles supported by 800 infantry attack a hex containing 200 defending infantry. The attack only requires that 100 infantry be present to support the 10 attacking vehicles, and so no Combined Arms Penalty is applied. This would be the case regardless of how many defending infantry there were. However, the excess number of infantry in this attacking hex will provide no benefit to other attacking hexes if there were any as the next example shows.

Example 3: suppose that 10 vehicles supported by 800 infantry attack from one hex while 20 vehicles with no infantry support attack from another hex against a defending hex containing 200 infantry. In the first hex, only 100 infantry out of the 800 is considered supporting. Therefore, there is 100 more defending infantry than there is attacking supporting infantry. Thus10 vehicles in the second attacking hex suffer the Combined Arms penalty and as a result attack at half strength.

Demolition Units

Demolition Units can be used in attacks on Bunkers and Pillboxes and result in a benefit to the attackers. When Demolition Units participate in an assault attack, the defense value bonus that the defending units would receive from Bunkers and Pillboxes is cut in half for that assault. All Demolition Units that participate in the assault are reduced in strength automatically. The reduction in strength is:

32 / assault-value

where ‘assault-value’ is the assault value of the Demolition Unit.

Combined Organization Penalty

When units from differing divisional-level organizations combine in an assault attack, a modifier of –20% is applied to the attacking forces. While the penalty applies when corps-level forces from different corps combine in an assault attack, it does not apply when corps-level forces combine with forces from a division within that corps.

Special Bocage Rule

When units that consist of vehicles assault into Bocage hexes, their defense value is halved. This also applies to motorized and mechanized infantry when they are in Travel Mode, but not when they are Deployed. Note: bocage is a terrain type common to Normandy in France consisting of small fields bordered by thick bushes and trees built on low mounds of dirt and rock built up over centuries of farming. Vehicles had a particularly hard time crossing these mounds and would be vulnerable to enemy fire while doing so.

Assault Resolution

To resolve the assault, the total assault value and the average defense value of the attacking units, as well as the total assault value and the average defense value of the defending units, are calculated with the modifiers mentioned applied to the assault values. Total assault values are calculated using the individual assault values of each unit times its strength, with vehicle and gun units having their strength value multiplied by 10. Average defense values are calculated by taking a weighted average of the defense values of the individual units based on their relative strength. Then two Combat Results are applied: one using the assault value of the attackers against the defense value of the defenders, and the other using the assault value of the defenders against the defense value of the attackers. The Low and High Combat Values used for these Combat Results is determined by Parameter Data.

Attackers Disruption Effects

The disruptive effect of losses on the attackers is modified according to the following effects:

Assault losses are doubled to determine Disruption of the attacker.
Assaults conducted at night have a further doubling effect on losses to determine Disruption of the attacker.
If the terrain modifier of the defending hex is M, then the assault losses of the attacker are scaled by 100 / (100 + M) to determine Disruption of the attacker.

Example: if the attackers are assaulting at night into a Village hex with Terrain Modifier of –20% and suffer losses of 10 men, then for the purpose of determining Disruption of the attackers,

The value of 10 would be doubled to get 20.
Because of night, the value would be doubled again to get 40.
Because of the terrain, the value would be scaled by 100 / (100 – 20) resulting in a value of 50.

The value of 50 would be used to determine the Disruption of the attackers.

Defender Retreats

After the combat results have been calculated, if all the defenders have been Disrupted or Broken, but there are still un-Disrupted, un-Broken attackers, the defenders are forced to retreat. There are restrictions on the directions that are valid for retreats:

Units cannot retreat into the Zone-of-Control of an enemy unit unless the hex is already occupied by a friendly unit.
Units cannot retreat into hexes if the movement is not otherwise valid (i.e. across a river) Movement.
Units cannot retreat into Mine Fields.

If units are forced to retreat by the results of the assault and have no valid hex they can retreat into, then they suffer an additional 50% loss, reported as "captured" men.

Fanatical Nations

In certain games, one or more nations may be specified as being Fanatical. Units of Fanatical nations have two exceptions to the Assault rules. First, Fanatical units do not surrender when assaulted and thus do not suffer the additional losses units that could not retreat normally suffer. Second, Fanatical units do not retreat from Bunker and Pillbox hexes and when they lose as a result of being assaulted, remain in the hex with no additional losses.

Special Retreat Rule

Normally, units which must be in Travel Mode to move cannot retreat as a result of combat and are automatically eliminated if they are forced to retreat. There is one exception to this rule:

Towed Anti-Tank guns (that are not immobile) suffer 50% losses to their strength after the assault is resolved, but are allowed to retreat and automatically enter Travel Mode.