Baggy911

Engineers are one of the least played kits on a TG server, from personal experience. Most people play the standard Voss-kit, and when they encounter a vehicle, they run like hell is breaking lose. This is the wrong attitude! Learn the Engy kit, and love it.

Part 1 - Main Weapon

Engineers have an anti-vehicle weapon as their default, which is either the Mitchell or the Sudnik. As far as differences are concerned, from personal experience again, I think the Mitchell travels in a more eccentric curve, while the Sudnik takes a straighter path to its victim. It's generally personal preference with the defaults. Now going into more dangerous territory, we come to the Pilum - the preferred choice of most Engineers. It needs no guiding, and travels very fast, so makes the ideal anti-vehicle weapon. Great for firing and hiding or running to a different location. Now I haven't got much experience with it, but I've found the SAAW Anti-Air to be useless on any map that isn't Titan. The reason? CONQUEST HAS NO AIR VEHICLES. So far that reason, it's worthless to unlock unless:

1) You want the NS unlock above it.
2) You like to camp on Titan maps.
3) You're weird.

Part 2 - Equipment

As standard, an Engineer has a repairing tool, which can repair vehicles and assets. From my own matches, the repair tool has gotten me more points than any other piece of equipment. Use it and love it.

Moving on, Engineers don't have as much of a choice in equipment as Support or even Recon, but they can be fairly versatile.

I think every Engineer, regardless of style, needs to pack the Motion Mines, which are great in combating both fast FAVs and sluggish tanks and walkers. A good tactic is to bunch them up in an area that is hard to spot, say, behind a wall or crate.

The second is a matter of preference and playing style. Those who travel frequently in vehicles rather than on foot should pack the Motion Mine Bait, so that they can jump out of a vehicle and clear the way. The AE Defuser is practically worthless in reality, since APMs can be easily dodged with crouching, and trying to defusing RDX is like trying to eat a nuclear bomb with a fork and knife. This leaves EMP mines and the PDS vehicle tracker. While the former is useful for blocking up vehicle chokepoints, such as that in Gibraltar's Toll Station and the middle road in Cerbere Landing, I have gotten far more use from the PDS; I can place it on a wall next to me at a flag or silo and hide, and when a vehicle approaches, I can quickly jump out and eliminate it, wasting no time searching for it and knowing exactly where it is. Quite handy.

Part 3 - The Other stuff

The general unlock tree is extremely useful for Engineers, since you can unlock one extra frag grenade to eliminate infantry, and one extra clip for your trusty SMG. Add that to the extra sprint capabilities that a foot soldier craves, and you got a mean package.

Also, like noted above, the NS unlock above the SAAW A-A is yet another expansion to your SMG, increasing your clip size massively.

Part 4 - The responsibilities

As an Engineer, it is your job to sort out anything with wheels or 10-feet legs. A good Engineer sticks with his squad and plays as a team-player; while your team's assault players will be clearing up and capturing Trash Dump in Suez or Crossroads in Fall of Berlin, you will be the one laying Motion and EMP mines, or repairing vehicles. It has to be you.

Engineers can be lethal if combined with Support players; I cannot stress enough how useful it is to have a squad member stunlock vehicles long enough for you to run around and pop them in the rear. It's satisfying and exciting.

Engineers, unlike Assault or even Support, should maintain a short distance from the squadleader, and be among the trailers of a squad. But don't trail too far behind, because your SMG is rarely good enough to save you from an enemy squad that pounce on top of you as soon as your concentration wavers; as an Engy, Assault players are your lifeguards, Support players are your local bank and Squad leader is your mommy. Stick close, but not too dependant.

One harshly underrated tactic as a squadleader or having a suitable squadleader is to adapt the Support class' "IDS on Otus/Spanky" with a PDS. It works, and can save your life.

Part 5 - Closing Comments

Engineers are one of the most fun classes to play as, both offensively and defensively, and we don't have enough here. Engineers can make or break a team, so make sure that you learn the basics, and play wisely. It does pay off.

MDFubar

Uhmmmm, Sidi Power plant, Suez Canal, Minsk, and Verdun all have Gunships and transports!

Secondly, I would not bunch up my MM. A good Engy will throw MM Bait and clear them all at once, spread them out so that it takes more than one MM Bait to clear them. If someone is watching the area, kill the engy when he gets out. If he is alone, then take his vewhicle. This has worked numerous times.
MY standard load-out is: Pilum, MM, MM Bait, Spanky. Spanky will, most times, watch me back while I am engaging Armor. MM bait is essential to keep your armor moving. Armor that does not move = dead armor!

The SMG is quite deadly once you learn how to REALLY use it! I often SL as an Engy on certain maps and I have at least one if not two other engy's in my squad. Coordination is the most important part of being an engy. Two firing at one target at the same time is extremely deadly.
I also use the pilum against Transports and gunships, although harder to use for that particular purpose. It is still very deadly to an unkowing GS or Transport. No locking tone!

Good right up!

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- General George Patton Jr

Razcsak

And Shuhia, which actually has two gunshps per side. Depending on the pilots, availability of air defense in the form of turrets and walkers, and where we plan on going, I'd feel a lot more comfortable on most maps with gunships if someone in my squad was packing a SAAW.

The Pilum does not travel significantly faster than the default rockets. While there is a difference, "very fast" is a bit of an exaggeration. Its two main advantages are that it is fire-and-forget and that it doesn't give a warning tone upon firing.

I would say that not every engineer needs to be carrying motion mines. If I plan on being in a combat vehicle, I'll pack the PDS and bait, though my standard defensive loadout is PDS and motion mines. If I'm defending against a buggy rush, it switches to both types of mines.

Another thing: be defensive. Instead of popping out and immediately firing at range, let that tank slip by you. You'll get a clear shot at its vents. Wait for the leg shot against the walker, or wait for it to pop its shields. Don't run out to take a shot if you know it'll get you gunned down.

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Baggy911

Thank you for pointing that out mate! I must have been on LSD when I wrote that.

Kaboodles

The Pilum's round is also "faster" in that it starts out at full speed, instead of having to accelerate from the launcher like the stock weapons.

daithi1

One thing to bear in mind is that MM can stop FAVs but the MM has to hit the FAV so on Toll at Gib you can throw down 3-4 MM on one side and that should stop FAVs. I'm not saying it's 100% but it's good if you want to pack a PDS or bait. If the FAV can navigate through MM using boost without hitting any he is safe.

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AoC Cimmeria RP-PvP: Casla 48 Ranger

Thesleeper01

I have a few things to add where I spend a lot of time as an eng.

First there’s 3 general ways you can deploy motions the wrong way is how most people deploy them is to scatter them around the entrance to a flag in plain sight, that’s just wrong. If armor is moving in they will see them and stay back meaning that they will not be destroyed, and a FAV can run right through them easily as Daithi1 said.

For armor you need to hide your motions behind something near the point of entrance and then let the mine do its job, Baggy911 got this part very right. Be ready to shoot any eng that pops out of the armor to use bait.

For maps where EU holds all the flags and PAC needs to attack to take a flag to stop the bleed there will be many FAV rushes the way you place motions for a FAV is different, ONE motion mine will kill an FAV but with the boost they can rush past them so you need to make sure that you place your motions over a long enough distance that it is too long of an area to use boost, they will not know that till they try and die. As an example on Camp Gibraltar put your first motion at the corner just past toll station, to go around this corner they need to slow down or crash this is a stopgap motion mine, place your next SW of the flag where the east and west roads merge, your third one far up where the door to the center part of toll station is and the last one on the north side of the train tracks. You will stop all FAV’s this way. If you see someone putting down motions in a big pile don’t put yours near theirs 3 motion mines will kill any vehicle with no shields 95+% of the time there is no need to stop one FAV with 10 motions spread the love out so there will be plenty for the second and third FAV. EMP mines can work wonders to stop a vehicle or slow it enough to get killed by motions but they can some time slip EMP mines if they use boost.

As for main AV weapon generally I recommend the Pilum because it does not give a warning tone to vehicles, but if your attacking tanks at long range the defaults can be a killer weapon, the trick as others have said in the past is to fire your weapon near the armor but not at it fire and then at the last moment point at the armor and the missile will turn attack the armor giving little time to turn on the shields or to point it at the target and wait for the shields to deploy then fire it. At long range you should press and hold the fire button so that you can keep zoomed in to make it easier to guide the missile. If you don’t when you switch out of scoped view to reload your aim point moves meaning that the missile will go off target. With the new map Wake Island I believe that the defaults will be a lot more useful as a couple eng’s from either of the 2 flags or even fairly close to them can hit the guns on the EU titan with good aiming permitting PAC to use more air power. On the New map Shingle I think that a squad with 4 Eng, support and a medic will be a viable tactic from the PAC base you would be able to support any flag under attack from armor and down them quickly.

On maps like Gib don’t carry motion mine bait it’s too easy for the enemy to kill you take your kit and then get rid of your motions, usually on those maps I carry a PDS, information is key to stopping the enemy also letting other squads know it went through and it lets you get your Pilum ready to rack up 3 easy kills.

Once bait is thrown any motion that starts moving towards the bait will not react to a vehicle anymore unless it is bugged so it is usually safe to move the armor around after bait is thrown.

There is not nearly enough engineers used on most maps, like Belgrade where there is an option to attack flags that are primarily infantry like Com Tower, squad leaders will often have no engineers with the thought that it is an infantry flag so having an eng is a waste of a reviver. If you take it or soon after you arrive armor will start rolling up bombing your position stalling your attack and turning it into a death trap. Capturing a flag that causes an over all loss in tickets is not a gain it’s a loss. A single engineer can with a few wild shots either keep the armor back stalling the other side’s attack or destroy the armor making your infantry only flag infantry only again. Almost every time I have been in on one of those infantry only flag’s so no eng squads we have had to get eng’s to spawn in after the fact to stop the APC raping.


One of the major keys to killing armor is knowing the places it can be hit and for how much (not all vehicles tested yet):
All testing done with a Pilum at point blank range to ensure hits.


Air
- transport = 60% damage all areas


APC
- 25% front
- 54% Sides, back or wheels (any wheel part including front) 54%
- 66%+ vent on the bottom near back axle (you need to be prone), Top Vents (Top of APC in the back between MG’s you need to be up high up)

Tank’:
- 20% Front, main cannon, tracks on front of tank & front of turret 20%
- 47% damage, Sides, top MG, all up facing areas & sides tracks & side of turret
- 95% Back, back of turret

Of note the EU tank turret back is the same as the vents, if an EU tank turret is faceing the back and your in the front tag it in the back of the turret for a kill like hitting the vents.


Walkers – not tested
Gun Ship – not tested in detail 2 hits to kill

Kaboodles

Based on my experience, the Pilum only needs one hit to take down a gunship. A hit on any part of the vehicle will deal critical damage (>90), causing it to explode seconds later.

I didn't know about the top vents on the APCs. Neat.

Poivre

Can't post to other boards because I am new, but on the total gaming network thread 38588 is an incredible visual guide.

Sorry to link another board, but that thread is incredible for showing (visually) all weak points on the vehicles.

I spent the majority of my career as a medic, but recently have been building up my hours in support and engineer. The question I have, is how many motion mines can you have up at one time? Pretend that you have a pocket support person following you around, how many total can you drop?

I haven't figured that part out yet =)

Great read on the thread though, thanks!

Kaboodles

5.

You can deploy as many of a certain item as you can carry in your kit. So basically, you can leave 5 MMs and 5 EMP mines on the ground at any point in time. If you toss out any more after than, your mines start disappearing in the order that you deployed them.

Thesleeper01

Haveing done toll a lot its important to have extras because the FAV's will be back and you need to drop more. If you dont have a supply crate and your mines got all bunched up from a FAV you can go pick them up so you can spread them out some.