Forward assembly actually has a bigger hitbox that vipper conveniently ignored
The thing costs an arm and a leg to upgrade and gets blasted down pretty fast.
This is also why the arty ability you listed is useless, the short range and fragile nature of the FA makes it unusable because even a rak shooting at it will be out of range.
Not saying FA is bad, it's better than med bunker in team games. but as Brits I would swap it with med bunker in 1vs1 in a heartbeat when every 100mp here or there counts. Especially with the 450ish mp you need for Tommies upgrades.
Which goes in with why vipper was wrong and my original reply, Med bunker has the edge in 1s and FA has the edge in team games. Apples and oranges
its not a concrete fucking bunker designed to hold the front by its lonesome. put it behind a shot blocker and use it as a forward staging area. the arty has decent enough range that if you placed it well enough it cant help when you get pushed.
for setting up in base you are right that the bunker is better simply due to cost, but you get a lot more outof the FA thast makes it worth it on the front as long as you use it. hell just not having to run to base if you wanna grab a bren is great.