Engineers

What can you do with trained engineers? I have some, but not sure what to do with them.

If you wish to set up a heavy mortar during a siege, an engineer battalion has do do the job.

The army they are with can also make siege ladders in a few days before an assault, an army without a engineer battalion would need one month to make a batch.

You can probably regard them as ordinary infantry with special training in construction and siegework.

Well, these aren't in military units, they're just, well, engineers. I do have some engineer units, but can I do anything useful with these guys other than just make more military units?

You could invest them into "trade" and aim them at the invention or creation of a certain item. I find that I never have enough engineers for my army so I just keep putting them in the field.

You can use them for mining, or train them as inf, elite and they can be used in the army to build heavy mortars in situ, they can also fight as inf if needed.

Engineer units which are raised using engineer recruits will be automatically trained to a good level once raised.

I dont know if it actually has an benefits but I have appointed trained engineers to "local government" posts like "Magistrates of the Walls" who's job is to help mantain roads, walls, canals, water supply harbours etc.

I also like having some trained engineers/miners around who can be added to garrisons in the event of a siege.  Oddly no one has yet to lay a proper formal siege to one of my major bases so this is pure theory but I suspect if you want to go in for counter mines and water manovers etc in defence engineers would be really handy.

Suspect that under the new rules with the emphasis on sickness levels rather than pure losses Dutch style water manovers which flood the besiegers camp could really hurt their sickness level, and slow the siege down.

I also love mines in both attack and defence.  They seem to have fallen out of game fashion in attack due to the need to rush sieges to a conclusion (to avoid sickness) but why they have fallen out of fashion in defence is a mystery to me.

Some of us still however have fond feelings for:

A) The Anglo-Portugese mine at Lisbon which removed Philip of Spain's Arm .......and stalled an all out Spanish Storm of Lisbon in G2.

B) The double Ottoman mine at Akkerman (also in G2).......the first one brought down part of the Rampart.......and caused defenders and the Garrison Commander to rush to the breach.  At which point the Ottomans exploded a second even larger one under the first mine.

Clearly if you want to try anything fancier than a purely passive defence or bashing a whole in the wall with big cannon and then sending in the Grenadiers you need engineers!

Yes, I was wondering if like doctors if I established a national engineering corps whether it would help my economy as a trial idea.

Deacon wrote:
Yes, I was wondering if like doctors if I established a national engineering corps whether it would help my economy as a trial idea.

I dont think it would help the economy directly but if it helps to stop your roads having potholes and your canals/harbours from silting up it may help indirectly.

Stuart Bailey wrote:

Deacon wrote:
Yes, I was wondering if like doctors if I established a national engineering corps whether it would help my economy as a trial idea.

I dont think it would help the economy directly but if it helps to stop your roads having potholes and your canals/harbours from silting up it may help indirectly.

Maybe. Though there is pretty straightforward ways to do that that don't burn recruits.