So the conclusion of the majority of posters in the thread is that a separate command for assault is largely useless because assault is presumably (almost) always preferable.
Thank you for the reference,
Mobhack. The need to read the change log to learn about the current rules of the game is, however, rather inconvenient. Would you consider describing assaults in a more appropriate section of the manual, where you could provide all the relevant information in a single place:
- that a squad of infantry can effect a close assault against an AFV located in the same or adjacent hex,
- that the assaulter must have at least two spare movement points and be unsuppressed (with a ready status?).
- that an assault is automatically performed instead of a normal fire attack whenever the conditions above are satisfied (if I did not miss anything).
- that an assault is more efficient than a normal attack but also more risky, for in case of failure the assaulting unit may suffer serious casualties and suppression.
- that, as with normal fire, the success of an assault is decreased in proportion to the squad's current speed.
- that if an assault is undesired, the player is advised to fire a selected weapon—AT if available—using the W command, until enough movement points are spent to make an assault impossible.