Can someone provide a few more details about building fortified zones/areas? I understand that they cost APs, but what about personnel/equipment? Are these drained off replacements/reserve pool? From the AARs, building forts dosen't seem to be very popular. It must not be very worthwhile. Are there other ways of building prepared positions behind your line to fall back on, as was often done historically?
For the Axis a fortified zone takes up about 2 battalions worth of infantry and construction troops, and they do drain the replacement/reserve pool. Different testers have different opinions on the value of fort zones. Personally I have not tested them out as fully as I would have liked - I was building an "Alamo" line with them in my 1943 PBEM game with Flavio which is in the AAR section, which I intended to disband once I had enough troops to man the line, but the game never got far enough to see if there was a real benefit. My guess is that most SU players would rather spend the APs on units that move rather than units that don't, but I can see a few specific locations that might benefit from their use.
