Will Bucko

Ah, I did not realize that they would assault the pillbox if left alone. They did not seem to be doing anything except for the bazookas firing on their own. My assault order must have been the cause of them moving into the firing arc of the PB. I did not know that the bazookas could take themselves out. I thought the computer AI might take into account the stupidity of the player moving the troops too close for safe firing 8=). Thank you all for the tips and advice. It still seemed like a lot of ordnance brought to bear on the rear door of the PB for it not to have any effect or the MG to bail out of it.

I realize that the infantry did not actually go into the pillbox on the screen. I am just describing what it appeared like. The point is that one of the assaults brought them into the firing arc of the pillbox when they assaulted from the rear. They might not be able to fire out the back but there is no other explanation for my bazooka being eliminated unless the blast from being point blank at the rear door killed him. There was no fire being directed at him during the game. There are no engineers or flamethrowers available to the Americans in that Operation. You are stuck with the Order of Battle you have been given.

I played the Operation "Santa Maria Infante" as the Americans vs. a friend and encountered a concrete MG pillbox on S Ridge that was hardened like NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain. I could not take the pillbox out with the following: 24 shots from bazookas at the rear door, point blank range. The MG in the pillbox killed one bazooka team at the rear door, the other two teams survived. 6 Assaults from two full strength infantry squads failed from the rear door. One squad ran through the rear door and out the slit and was routed, one squad was inside the pillbox and was eliminated by the MG. The routed squad was subsequently eliminated by the MG. Another squad attempted to take out the pillbox from the front quarter out of the firing arc of the MG at close range with no damage inflicted. Several point blank 75mm rounds from an M10 at the rear door failed to damage the pillbox. At that point I gave up trying to take the pillbox out. I had half a company of infantry and 3M 10s at the objective flag by that pillbox but could not get the VP for that flag as it stayed at ? as long as the pillbox was viable. The point to this rather lengthy description is to put up for discussion the difficulty or strategies used for taking out the pillboxes. It would seem the only thing that was effective for me was a point blank shot at the slit by a Sherman on the pillbox on the Tits. I had 4 concrete pillboxes taken out in CMBB by 20mm from armored cars at over 800m in one or two shots. Please share your strategies or comments on whether the pillboxes are given too much strength. Thank you.