ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
Gary was able to confirm that the manual is wrong in this case, but not due to any changes made since release as there have been none that we know of. Basically there are two ways engineers can reduce forts. As the battle is underway but before the final odds are calculated, the engineer squads are totaled up (engineer tanks and minesweeper tanks count as two), and they have a chance of reducing the fort level. From the basic formula Gary related to me, it sounds like it would take on average around 250 engineer squads on their own to reduce a fort by 1 full fortification level (50 fort points). Artillery can also reduce the fort level, but it’s hard to say exactly how much they are likely to reduce forts other than to say that heavy artillery/heavy mortars will do better at it. Once the combat odds are calculated, if the odds are between 1.5 to 1 and 1.99 to 1, then the fort level is reduced by 1 full level (50 fort points) and can be reduced further by the engineer squads (but only ½ as much as they do during the combat). If the odds are between 1 to 1 and 1.5 to 1 then the engineers get another chance (but only ¼ as much as during the combat). There is some randomness in the engineer values thrown in to avoid truncations, and it looks like they reduce forts in 10 fort point increments (that is they reduce fort levels by 20% increments, so from 3/10% to 2/90% or 2/70%, etc.). This 10 fort point increments is not true for artillery.
That’s how Gary understands the code to work. So it takes 1-2 battalions of engineers to reduce a fort by about 20% of a fort level. Most divisions have an intrinsic battalion of engineers.
In my tests (and some of the Combat Reports shown on the previous page) it has taken a lot less than 250 engineer squads to reduce a fort level. For example, in the Test combat below 2 American divisions supported by 2 engineer battalions, 3 105mm, 2 155mm, and 2 240mm reduced the fort level. Each American Division has 25 intrinsic engineer squads and each engineer battalion has 25 squads. So that is a total of only 100 squads. I was able to repeat this same attack over and over, so it is not just luck. Again, I am not sure if anything is wrong; but it does seem a lot easier to reduce forts than it used to be. I can send you a test save so you can see for yourself if you want.
