All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2004 Rory Wilkins --------------------------------- If you wish to use this guide on a website, shoot me an email, captrory@email.com and I'll make a decision on a website by website basis. As a rule of thumb, if you agree to keep it updated, and give me credit for writing it, I won't have a problem so just ask. I'm not planning any updates to this guide, that doesn't mean there won't be any, I'm just not planning on any as of this writing. If you have any questions, comments, or disagreements email me captrory@email.com MAKE SURE YOUR EMAIL IS CLEARLY MARKED! If I think it is spam mail it gets deleted. If it has an attachment it gets deleted. It should look something like: YourName/Engineer Guide: A New Use For Landmines. ----------- Update September 6th, 2004 I discovered another expack dirty trick and corrected a typo that I could have sworn I had corrected at least three times when writing this. ---------- Here is an index of the guide. To skip to a section press Control+F and type in the code in (parentheses) Using copy and paste is even better. 1) Introduction (!ntro) 2) Landmines (l@ndmines) 3) Expacks (exp@cks) 4) European Theatre Rifles (e-r!fles) 5) Pacific Theatre Rifles (p-r!fles) 6) The Engineer Wrench (wr3nch) 7) Engineer Map Strategies (str@tegy) ---Pacific Theatre (p-the@tre) ---European Theatre (e-the@tre) ---African Theatre (a-the@tre) 8) Conclusion (conclus!on) ----------------------------------------------- The Big Book of Engineer Dirty Tricks: Battlefield 1942 v1.01 !ntro 1) Introduction If you are an engineer, and you are playing fair, you are not playing the Engineer Kit correctly. Being an engineer is all about fighting dirty. Now I don't claim to be the best engineer, but I have learned how to exploit the strengths of the engineer kit to the irritation of my opponents. I almost exclusively play as an engineer and as such have little experience with the other kits. This guide is designed to improve upon a players existing skill as an Engineer. It is not designed to be a general guide and as such almost all information pertains exclusively to the Engineer Kit. l@ndmines 2) Landmines: Watch Your Step There are several methods employed when placing landmines, I will cover all of the ones I know of in this section. A) Landmine Basics: Landmines guarantee a one hit kill against vehicles. A Tiger at full health will take several bazooka rounds to kill, but can be removed with one landmine. Landmines are both active and passive weapons. You carry four landmines at a time and can have nine placed at one time. When you place your tenth the first will disappear. ----------- Important: If you place nine landmines, and someone drives over one, when you replace it the first landmine you placed will disappear. This means that if you are maintaining a minefield in an active area you will be replacing the entire field quite regularly. ---------- As an engineer, select your landmines as your active weapon (your avatar will be holding a big green Frisbee looking contraption) and use your active weapon (default left click) to throw one onto the ground. Running, jumping, and moving backwards all change how far your landmine will travel. With practice you can throw a landmine quite a ways, though not near as far as a grenade. Keep this in mind when fighting an active tank by yourself. If it's moving you may still have time to destroy it with a landmine if you have practiced milking your landmines for distance. In the situation described above, a landmine is preferable to two expacks because you only need one mine and there is no need to detonate it. When fighting armor as infantry there is no guarantee you will be alive to detonate your expacks. You can spread mines very thin and still have an effective barrier against vehicles. If you look at the width of a jeep, you can place mines a bit further apart then that and still stop jeeps. If you're interested in only stopping tanks and similar then use the width of a tank as your base. Basically, use the smallest vehicle you want to destroy to set the distance between mines. If you want blanket protection over a larger area, you can spread mines up to twice the width of the smallest vehicle and still provide an effective screen so long as the mines are hidden. On El Alamein the one flag in the middle of the desert has a sudden drop facing the Allied Base. An Axis engineer can make use of this to hide his landmines out of sight over the lip of the dune. Axis engineers have the benefit of knowing that the Allied forces will be coming primarily from the main base in a more or less direct line. With this knowledge the Axis can effectively screen off the base from Allied ground vehicles. If a team mate has placed mines, you will get a graphic warning (a warning icon will appear) to inform you you're near it/them. Enemy mines give NO indicator. Beware of sneaky engineers hiding their landmines in your friendly minefield. --------------- Important: Landmines Do Not Work On Infantry -------------- B) Helter Skelter: The dropping of landmines more or less randomly is almost wholly ineffective. You may get a lucky kill but odds are not. You are better off carrying them for later use then dropping them any old place "just in case" an enemy unit happens by. Exception: If the enemy is coming at you, and you know you're going to die, you can do worse then to drop landmines and hope they run over one. Even then though try and survive long enough to form a row of landmines that are more difficult to avoid. Like this: O--O--O--O C) Blockade Using landmines to block passage through an area is very effective if you are cognizant of its limitations. 1) If you die so do your mines (After a time). 2) If the enemy has an engineer they can be removed. 3) They do not stop a tank etc. from firing into the area you've blocked off. 4) If coverage is minimal (only one row of mines) they can sacrifice a jeep to clear out the mines and bring in the tanks. Knowing these to be true, mines can be used to stall or force the enemy to assault with infantry with minimal support from armor. Example: Guadalcanal: The Village Flag There are two entrances a vehicle can drive through. When mined they can still shoot into the base but they can't drive into it. This allows your team to swarm the enemy tank or prepare a defense against infantry, or simply slow down the capture of the base. ______________________ Important Note: Whenever possible try and set up the blockade so the enemy is stopped where they can not shoot into the area you are protecting. Example: The Southwest Flag in Berlin can be mined several ways but only one offers almost complete protection from tank fire. Actually there is a way to get full protection but your own armor would be setting off your mines when leaving the base so you must settle for almost complete or replacing mines every time a tank respawns. _____________________ When blocking access across bridges I like to use a diamond pattern for my mines. On the other hand you can leave a side of the bridge open so they hit a hidden mine further along the bridge. Either way works. Here's an example of the diamond pattern: O O O O It's longer then it is wide but then so are bridges. It keeps vehicles from rolling down the middle and the sides. D) The Stick and Carrot If you place several diversionary mines, say on a road, that are easy to spot, this forces the enemy to stop or go in a direction of your choosing. Example: Mining three quarters of a road and hiding one or more mines behind a low hill where they can't be seen. Good places to hide landmines include but are not limited to: Plants, barbed wire, behind hills and in dips in the road, and near sandbags. Also, laying your landmines directly on top of the enemy landmines will give them the friendly landmine warning sign so they'll drive over both your mine and their teammate's mine. And trust me, they will drive over their engineer's mines. They always do. Am I angry at having to constantly repair my minefields? No. Not me. Bah. E) Bait and Boom Sabotage vehicles by mining them. Placing landmines on the tops of tanks and APCs, under the wheels of planes, and in landing craft will slow the enemy, earn you kills, and get you cursed out. If friendly fire is off your team can safely use the vehicles even though they will still set off the mines. To mine jeeps you can place the mine on the hood, in the seat, or under the wheels. F) Mining on the Run Throw landmines under the wheels or on the hood of tanks that are moving for a cheap kill (and probably a suicide.) A tank or mobile artillery firing it's main gun will detonate a mine if it's place on the vehicle. APCs and jeeps are best killed in this fashion by going for their wheels (treads). You can also destroy planes taking off by throwing mines in front of them. Though you don't have much time before they lift off the ground. G) Targeted Randomness This differs from "B" because here, although you're not certain the enemy will hit them, you do know they'll be passing by that way. Example: On Wake Island, there are small plants all over the place. If you know the enemy will be coming down a certain road you can mine the roadsides and rack up some kills. I know for one that I go off road a lot on Wake Island and I'd never see a mine hidden in the brush. exp@cks 3) Expacks: How to Earn the Undying Hatred of the Enemy Note, though mentioned, some of these not even I will do. Expacks are almost assuredly the cheapest and most effective weapon in Battlefield 1942. In the following paragraphs I will detail how to use them effectively. Don't forget however if you are killed, or an engineer removes them they won't detonate. A) Expack Basics Select your expacks as your active weapon (your avatar will be holding a bundle of TNT) and activate your active weapon (left click by default). This will throw the bundle onto the ground in front of you. Jumping, running, and moving backwards will alter how far they travel. To detonate, bring up the plunger by right clicking or using all the expacks you had in your inventory. When the plunger is active left click again to detonate your expacks. They last for several minutes before self-detonating. To switch back from plunger to expacks right click again. You carry four expacks at a time and can have nine placed at any one time. When you place the tenth the first expack you placed will disappear. Expacks work on all vehicles except ships and can be used to destroy defguns and flak cannons as well. It takes two expacks to remove a defgun or flak cannon at 100% health. One expack will kill a jeep and two will destroy tanks. It does matter where you set them. Expacking the underside of a tank in the back does more damage then the front hood. Example: Panzer (Tank) 63% damage in the front. 74% damage in the back. The damage is substantial in both cases but you do more damage by attacking the back. Example: Corsair (Fighter) 4 1/2 bubbles of damage under the tail 10 bubbles of damage under the propeller. B) Setting Traps for Fun and Profit All maps and modes have an objective of some sort. In Conquest expacking a flag with a small radius is a cheap way to get kills. Take full advantage of it. When the flag goes white detonate. In Capture the Flag expacking your teams flag is a good way to halt the other team's capture attempt. (Note! I will never expack my own flag in CTF! It is cheap and far from foolproof. Some servers will vote kick you for doing it. However expacking your enemies flag is dastardly and evil muahahaha!) Expacking a spawn spot (like in Operation Battleaxe) is a good way to capture a location. Spawn camping with expacks is cheap and evil and something else I'll never do. If you see me expack you at a spawn point it means I'm capturing it and not spawn camping. Placing expacks at a entrance to a base works as well. You can score kills by blowing up enemies as they walk blindly past your explosives. Placing them at healing cabinets works great too. If the enemy is hurt while assaulting a position he will most likely hide near the kit to heal before continuing his attack. In Stalingrad there are buildings with flags on the top floor. An engineer can go prone in the flag room, expack it, and blow up anyone entering the flag radius. A good place to hide the expack is in the corner near the door between the window with the ladder and the doorway. It's actually propped up in the corner. C) Booby Trapping Vehicles Don't do this with expacks. When expacks disappear they explode damaging everything around them. If a teammate is near a vehicle and it is destroyed by one of your explosions, there's a good chance you'll earn yourself a teamkill. It's unavoidable in the heat of battle sometimes, but this is one situation where you can avoid it completely. On the other hand you can put expacks in a jeep (jeeps that act like a bowl are best such as the Axis model). Then drive the jeep to the enemy. Jump out and detonate to surprise everyone with a large explosion. Useful against tanks, infantry, and darn near everything else. ------------------------------------------- Important Note: Drive carefully or the expacks will fall out! ------------------------------------------- See if you can locate other vehicles you can expack. Look for APCs with big openings like the Japanese model. The allied truck has a machine gun on top, you can place expacks in the hole there if you drive very carefully. D) In Close Quarters Combat As a last ditch effort you can drop an expack at your feet and try to detonate it. If anyone complains mention how infantry drop grenades at their feet to win. Note it takes several seconds to equip, drop, and detonate an expack which leaves you vulnerable. When assaulting an enemy flag, running through crowds of enemy soldiers and dropping expacks is effective. If you drop enough expacks and manage to detonate, you can clear the way for other attackers even if you are gunned down in the attempt. E) When using expacks against Vehicles and Manned Stationary Targets (Defguns, Flak Cannons, etc.) be aware they make a clinking sound. If the enemy hears that and recognizes it (as I do) they will realize they're going to be expacked and will turn to attack you! It takes two expacks to destroy AA guns and defguns and more then eight to destroy the radar stations in Battle of Britain. F) Fun With Defguns A Defgun can be destroyed with one expack if it is placed inside the door to the bunker or on top of the defgun. If placed on top of the defgun it will be invisible to someone using the defgun. They would need to get out and look on top of the emplacement to see the expack. Also if they hear the telltale clinking noise and they exit to investigate they probably won't notice you on top of their defgun. e-r!fles 4) The Engineer's Rifles The Engineer's rifle comes in two flavors. Old World Single Shot and Pacific Spicy Flavor. I will be covering these separately. A) Bolt Action Basics The single shot rifles used in the European and African Theatres all have the same characteristics. Four clips of five rounds a clip equates to you carrying twenty rounds of ammunition. The rifle is bolt action meaning you fire, wait, then fire again. B) Accuracy Never Goes Down As said above the rifle is slow to fire. You need to make your shots count. If you don't kill him with the first bullet pull your sidearm, or jump, dodge, and weave (or take cover) until you can fire again. Since the accuracy never changes it is just as accurate while you are moving as when you are standing still or kneeling or prone. If you can aim accurately while jumping around like a monkey the engineer rifle is made for you. If you become proficient with the engineer rifle, you will be able to do serious damage with what is considered a "poor weapon." It is slow, but it is accurate and very powerful. If your opponent is already low on health, you don't even need to score a headshot. Hitting him in the torso should be sufficient. B) Be an Engineer Sniper As a rule of thumb, if you can see your opponent you can kill him. At long range the engineer rifle is still accurate enough to kill if you are willing to expend some ammunition. At anything closer then long range you can out-sniper scouts with actual sniper rifles and can easily pick off enemy infantry. A great example of this is Operation Battleaxe, where close set bunkers are ranged just right for engineer sniping. Depending on the range, aim for the head, neck, or torso. The bullet will hit anywhere within the crosshairs, so at closer ranges a headshot is something to shoot for, at longer ranger aiming for the neck will hit the head or upper body, and at long range placing several rounds into your targets body will be just as effective, especially if they are wounded. (That's why it's always a good idea to be at full health all the time. Even if a sniper misses your head and hits your body or limbs he can still score a kill if you're almost dead!) C) The Engineer Rifle Hurts Planes and Jeeps If memory serves, shooting a German fighter with a full clip of ammunition in the nose drops it's health TO approx 62% (feel free to test me on that.) At one point I took a potshot at an enemy fighter with my rifle and actually scored a kill. So it never hurts to try. p-r!fles 5) The Engineer Rifle: Pacific Theatre Edition Basic Training This model is gas powered meaning you can empty the whole clip without stopping. The accuracy is lowered when moving and after firing. The American model can not be reloaded until the clip is emptied. The Japanese model can be reloaded at any time. The American Rifle comes with three clips with eight rounds a clip. The Japanese model has two clips of ten rounds each. A) This Rifle Kicks Butt This model is all around better then the models in the European Theatre. It is more accurate and fires more rapidly. You can really snipe and I mean if the enemy is a tiny black spot in the distance, if you have been practicing, you can get kills. People have accused me of cheating because I've gotten so good at sniping with this rifle. After you fire, it is best to let the recoil subside and the crosshairs come back together before firing again. You can use this rifle to assault enemy positions it packs so much firepower. When sniping keep shooting even if you miss, if you're American you can't reload until you empty the clip anyway. B) When sniping with this rifle, aim for the head, or whatever looks like the head when the enemy is a black dot way in the distance. Just keep shooting. If you empty a whole clip reload and keep trying. If your target is moving wait for him to stop. Always keep an eye out for enemy soldiers manning machine gun positions. Even novice engineer snipers can pick them off without any difficulty. There's a reason the coaxial machine gunner's seat on tanks is called the Suicide Seat. C) CHARGE! When attacking an enemy position with this rifle, take advantage of your ability to shoot rapidly. Wait only long enough between shots to let the crosshairs come back together (you need not even wait for them to come all the way back together, just close enough to be accurate.) If you have to, stop-shoot-move stop-shoot-move, the rifle is a lot more accurate when standing still so stop moving when you fire if you need to. wr3nch 6) Throwing a Wrench Into the Works The engineers wrench can be used to repair any vehicle or gadget. From jeeps to tanks to battleships. Defguns and flak cannons. Even the radar stations and factory in Battle of Britain. A) "I Need a Grease Monkey!" As an engineer you can see the health of a vehicle an ally is currently using. If someone requests a repair a wrench icon will appear on the mini-map. To repair something, stand or lay prone, equip the wrench and use it until the wrench is drained or the object is at 100% or whatever percentage you choose. Sometimes you'll need to repair two or more objects at once and need to split your healing power so that neither is at 100% nor damaged enough to be destroyed the next time they take damage. When repairing a vehicle in combat, put the vehicle between you and whatever is shooting at it. The tank has armor, you do not. B) Eliminate the Competition To remove an engineer's expacks and mines, crouch near the item in question, equip your wrench, and use it. If you have space for that item it will go into your stockpile. (If you have 3 mines, and remove one you will now have 4) If you spy expacks at a flag, you have 10 seconds to remove all expacks before the flag turns white. As stated earlier, a flag turning white is an engineers signal to detonate. In CTF if the expacks are at the flag pole your best bet is to have someone steal the flag, let him die, then have another person grab the flag off his corpse before the engineer puts more expacks out. If when disarming the expacks you accidentally steal the flag, you are out of luck. str@tegy 7) Engineer Strategies for Every Map. The following section details things an engineer can do to be useful on every map. Some like Coral Sea are straightforward while others are more ambiguous. This only covers Basic Battlefield 1942. This does not cover expansions or modifications. -------- p-the@tre Pacific Theatre ------- A) Wake Island Engineers on Wake Island are very useful. When the armor starts rolling in you'll realize how few people play anti-tank on this map. Thus the job of stopping the enemy armor falls to the engineers. 1 Most flags are surrounded by bunkers. This sets up a perfect barricade that allows us to block enemy access with landmines. --------- The American Flag in CTF is in a base that is especially suited to a mine defense. Three mines in the middle at the main opening between the sand bags. One mine on the right by the drop to the beach. And four mines on the left side of the left grouping of sandbags. Eight mines completely seal off the base to enemy tanks and jeeps. Beware of enemy pilots parachuting out of a plane and into the tank that spawns there. You may choose to use your ninth mine to booby trap the tank. --------- 2 Japanese engineers coming over on landing craft can use their expacks to destroy shore defenses. You may not want to destroy flak guns though. Defguns are almost completely useless against the Americans because they are locked into one firing arc, but the flak cannons can be used to shoot down American planes until you capture the Airfield. 3 Wake Island roads don't follow a straight path making it common to cut corners and go off road. Mining the roadsides, especially if using "Landmine Tactic: D The Stick and Carrot" outlined above, can be very effective. B) The Battle of Midway Engineers can play an important role both on the island and at sea. 1 Anchors Away! You've just set sail on a battleship, and you come under enemy fire! Are you gonna go hide under your bunk like a sissy medic? Heck no, you stand up on deck in the line of fire and repair like a man possessed. --------- Imagine a battle between ships like a scale. Every engineer on your ship repairing it adds one marble to your side of the scale. All things being equal, the ship with the most engineers wins the battle. --------- 2 As an engineer, you can gain access to the enemy carrier and cause all sorts of havoc. Mining the runway, expacking planes, and Frisbee-ing mines into landing craft before they launch are all nasty things an engineer can do to an enemy aircraft carrier. 3 On the island, engineers can mine the bridge connecting the two parts of the island. They can stall the enemy airforce by mining the hangar. And with the Pacific Theatre rifles you'll have enough offensive power to capture points and kill enemy soldiers without backup. C) Iwo Jima Winning this map is all about air superiority! The Japanese need to control the Airfield and the Northernmost flag. The North flag has a pair of flak cannons, and the airfield spawns planes and has a plethora of flak guns. 1) The Northernmost flag is easier to defend then any other base. As an engineer, the best way to defend it is to mine the entrance, move the tank next to a flak cannon, use the flak gun to destroy planes and the tank to destroy infantry, and use your wrench to keep both in full health. BEWARE of enemy pilots parachuting into the tank. I successfully defended the northernmost point solo for most of a round using that strategy. The one time the Americans captured it I spawned in and assaulted the position quickly enough I managed to retake it alone. 2) The Airbase is very difficult to defend. It can be attacked from all sides. It is impossible to mine effectively without an entire corps of engineers. Your efforts are best focused on the Northernmost flag. 3) The American strategy isn't much different from the Japanese once they capture the points. Remember to use your wrench to keep the American fleet afloat. And when attacking the Northern flag you can snipe UP the hill at the people shooting Down the hill. D) Coral Sea Coral Sea is a air battle between the aircraft flown off of carriers. If your carrier is sunk you lose, sinking the enemy carrier nets a win. Once in awhile a team will win on points if both sides have an army of engineers keeping their carrier afloat. 1 Repair, repair, repair! If the ship sinks you're sunk. Everyone should be an engineer. 2 If you're a pilot engineer, use your wrench then take off in a plane. Parachuting onto the enemy carrier allow you to mine the runway and do nasty things with expacks. Neither mines nor expacks hurt carriers but denying your opponent flight, even if just for half a minute is a great benefit to your team. 3 Since expacks don't hurt carriers, use your expacks on your own ship to setup explosive ambushes for boarders. Good places are at the cargo nets to kills enemies climbing up, near ammo boxes to kill grenade spamming enemies, and near the flak gun you're manning since you won't always have time to hop out and aim all you need to do is hop out and use the plunger. E) Guadalcanal Engineer sniping at it's best! 1 Be all you can be in the engineer corps of snipers. Copious amounts of hills near spawn points allow you the ability to pick off enemy infantry at a good range. Just zoom in and aim for the head. Keep shooting as it's easy to resupply on this map. 2 There's a flag by the water with a guard tower, one engineer can block road access along the water with 7 mines, leaving two as extra or as a stopgap measure at the third entrance at the giant hill. 3 There's another flag that resembles a village (and may very well be called The Village) one engineer can block the two entrances with mines and hide until infantry come into the base. At which point you can try and eliminate them. 4 In CTF at the American Base, mining the openings to the airfield prevents the enemy from swiping a flag and driving to a plane. The seconds added to their escape attempt can be the difference between a recovered flag and the enemy scoring a point. F) Invasion of the Phillipines This map isn't exactly engineer friendly. Armor plays a limited role. It's mainly an air and sea map as far as vehicles are concerned. 1 Don't exit a Patrol Boat while it's still moving to repair it. You'll just get thrown out of the back of it. 2 Repair the big capital ship. If it's sunk you won't have a spawn spot until it respawns. Anything that delays your attack costs you ticket bleed and helps the other team prepare a more solid defense. If you have one or more spawn points the ship is expendable, use it as mobile artillery. 3 Mine the bridges linking the two halves of the airfield island. It will keep enemy jeeps from driving into your half. By the same token remove enemy mines so your jeeps can attack the enemy half. ----------- e-the@tre European Theatre ----------- A) Berlin This city map can be confusing for an engineer (and everyone else.) There are many paths through the city for infantry which limits expack ambush potential, however the tanks and APC can take limited routes creating opportunities for havoc. 1 If working solo pick a location and defend it. A good choice is the bottom left hand flag. Four mines behind the tank that spawns there (start at the corner of the building by the alley and mine to the water) and three to four on the "main" entrance will close it off to physical entry by vehicles and prevent most shooting into the base. 2 If working as a coordinated unit, you can set up an ambush. Place landmines in such a way as to herd armor to a specific point, preferably one with good cover, and have a few anti-tank kits ready to blow the heck out of whatever happens along. There are no Tigers so defeating the armor on this map will be no trouble for a pair of anti-armor with the element of surprise. On a narrow road, with the jump on a tank commander, two bazookas can rip through a tank like it's made of aluminum foil. 3 As Allied there's a back way out of the base. When the round starts an Axis player will always take up position at the end of the alley in the upper windows of a building (the building at the end of the street.) If he gets there before you, you can pick him off with little trouble if he holds still. If you get there before him, setup an expack ambush in the alley, when he/they go to enter blow them to smithereens. If you try and enter the building before killing him you'll probably be shot in the back, or grenaded, or something equally not nice. Just wait patiently, he'll be there shortly. 4 Tanks don't last long on this map, use your wrench to make yours last longer. This is especially important as allied because your tanks make breaking out a lot easier. B) Stalingrad This is an interesting map. As an engineer, you'll need everything you know about the kit, and have to invent some new things to be successful here. 1) Increase your rifle effectiveness with sniping. This map lends itself to engineer sniping, so long as you don't do it for too long at one time. A good plan would be to defend an upstairs flag (more on that below) and when things quiet down snipe at enemy infantry through a window. This is a bad map to stand still on, so use your rifle to soften up an enemy base for your team to capture or just to generally annoy the enemy into doing something stupid. Just don't spend the whole round sniping, it's more of a target of opportunity thing for engineers. The middle flag at the railroad tracks is a great flag to snipe at. 2) There are two upstairs flags. Each are accessible by a window ladder and the front door and up the stairs. You can hold one of these flags single handedly with a cheap expack trick. Between the window with the ladder and the door is a corner. Prop an expack up in this corner and it will be hard to see (or invisible) to anyone assaulting the position. When you see the enemy, detonate. When doing this beware of grenades. They can be chucked in any of the windows or through the door and catch you unaware. While defending these flags, you may find time to take potshots at the enemy outside. Go for it, but beware of counter-sniping, and since you're looking out a window, the enemy may sneak in behind you. 3 Landmines are hard to use on this map. The importance of armor on Stalingrad ranges from imperative to zilch depending on circumstances. Infantry can move freely but vehicles are very limited. Just try and choke off access to a key area and hope your infantry can deal with the enemy infantry. A good place for mines is the middle flag, armor passes it regularly. Cut off easy access by mining across the rail lines so the enemy has to go around the base entirely. C) Kharkov This map is all about air superiority! 1 TAKE THE MIDDLE FLAG! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! TAKE IT! No matter whether you're playing Conquest or Capture the Flag (CTF) the middle flag is THE MOST IMPORTANT FLAG! The flak cannons grant Air Superiority. This is a small map. Flak fired from there can reach a long way. In the beginning take the jeep and preferably another player. Drive to the middle flag, bypass the first flag. You hop out at the entrance and place your first four mines, he runs up to capture the flag. If you use five mines on the entrance place three more in a triangle shape in front of the ramp. Example: o-o-o-o-o o o o The idea being they'll expect mines on the ramp (which you'll provide) so they won't expect them extending out off of the ramp in front of the base. Enemy pilots will pick your forces apart if you do not hold this base and make use of the flak guns. In capture the flag, without this base, enemy pilots can parachute into your base, steal your flag, then take off from your airfield and you'll have no way to retaliate if you can't get a plane in the air to give chase. As an engineer, you can not do better then to defend this flag. In Conquest it is an important base to hold as it is defendable and grants air superiority. Keep the entrance mined and use those flak guns. In Capture the Flag it is even more important. Mine the entrance, use the lower flak cannon nearest to your home base to shoot at planes and you can get out and snipe enemy infantry on foot. You may think it unlikely that enemy infantry will travel on foot but if you shoot their plane out from under them they'll have no choice. One round I killed the flag carrier, from that base, at least six times. Mostly with my rifle after destroying his plane or jeep or tank with the flak gun. Remember to also use your wrench to keep your team's equipment repaired. There is no repair pad there so your Wespes and rocket trucks will take damage as will flak guns as enemy planes retaliate. D) Karkov This is an irritating map for engineers. Wide open spaces make mines inefficient. 1 There are two capturable bases. Both of them have a very small flag radius. Saturate the base with expacks and wait for the flag to turn white, then detonate. Use mines to keep tanks from rolling up and attacking, with any luck several infantry will attack at once netting you a very successful ambush. The flag on the right side of the map spawns a Tiger tank. Beware of enemy infantry stealing it. It's a good idea to booby trap it if friendly fire is off. 2 Sniping is effective on this map. There are plenty of rocks and trees for cover, just beware of counter-sniping as it works both ways. E) Battle of the Bulge This is a good map for an engineer as a defender. 1 Allied engineers should spawn in, not at the windmill, but to the base to the right of it. It's across the bridge. Spawn in and race to the bridge. You need to get there before the German tanks. Mine it and hide. Expacks work well in addition to mines. You can hold off the German advance by keeping that bridge mined. If you're hurt there is a medical cabinet in a bunker high up on the hill behind the base, it's at the edge of the map before going out of bounds. 2 Axis engineers need to support their armor attacking the base mentioned in "1." Disarm the mines and expacks on the bridge so your tanks can roll through. 3 With a clear view, this map is great for sniping. You can cover a bridge and pick off anyone trying to remove your landmines. 4 The main allied base way in the back is mineable. You'll need another engineer to help though. The back entrance can be mined with five mines, the northeast entrance two, a small gap near the front entrance with one. You'll need another engineer to completely mine the main front entrance. F) Operation Market Garden There are two locations that need mining and one that benefits heavily from it. 1 The two bridges leading to the axis base need mining. The big main bridge is often mined. Just make sure the sides of the bridge are mined as well, I've driven jeeps down the sides and only once were they mined. The second bridge is easy to mine using the diamond pattern mentioned earlier in this guide. "Mining Technique C Blockade" 2 The place I defend (and you'll need another engineer's help) is the first base off of the bridge. If you're Axis and coming off of the bridge, it's the base on your left. Two mines on the ramp, one in the narrow passage with the giant hill thing, three at the entrance looking out at the guardhouse (it's white) and two behind the buildings starting at the stone pillar jutting out. That leaves four mines for the big opening in back that leads to a narrow path under the bridge and four mines at the entrance with the anti-tank obstacles. When mining the ramp, keep in mind the path tanks will have to take around obstacles to find where to place them exactly. The area I said can be mined in three, you need to use the corners of the buildings to good effect to make the three stretch across the entrance. G) Omaha Beach This is an interesting map for engineers. Be aware that what's working now may not be ten seconds from now, as both sides try and adapt to what the other side is doing. 1 In general, you *can* engineer snipe here but the terrain makes seeing scouts hard and for some reason both teams are usually saturated by scouts who'll pick you off without much trouble. 2 Allied Engineers have several roles. Keep the ship repaired, keep the tank repaired, and remove obstacles like landmines and expacks. 3 Axis engineers, keep your defguns repaired, keep mines and expacks active on the ramps, and keep your tigers repaired. A good place to defend is at the uppermost base. There's only one approach and it is filled with obstacles. Mine it to death, and what the heck, expack it too. In a building overlooking this entrance, is a machine gun emplacement. Using that to remove infantry trying to get by is not a bad idea. Just be aware that you're a sitting duck while using it. Best bet is to watch from a window and be ready to hop in and fire. Your engineer rifle will work to pick off the enemy as well. Alternate so the enemy won't know where you're at. H) Bocage This is a fun engineer map. Lots of not nice things to do here. 1 Engineer sniping at its best. You can see a long way on Bocage, and with so many rolling hills sniping frequently happens at mid-range. A good place for sniping is near the lumber mill. The base itself allows you to shoot into the flag near the Axis Main Base. And the windmill is right there. Climbing to the top of the windmill allows a great view of the flag closest to the Allied Main Base. Also, you can fire out of several small windows in the windmill to good effect. 2 As Allied, the lumber mill is a great defensive position. Mine from the corner of the building across to the water (well to the dropoff down the hill that leads to the water.) If you beat the Axis there mine immediately. Your first four will keep you within flag radius as will resupplying at the ammo box. By then you'll have captured the flag and you can finish placing mines. Frequently Tigers thinking they'd have an easy capture are stopped at the mines. It's an opportunity to sneak out one of the other exits, get to the Tiger, and blow it to scrap with expacks. You may want to wait til it's engaged by your team mates before doing this. Remember, if you die so do your mines. 3 As Allied, if you capture the flag closest to the Axis base, you can mine the main exit of the Axis Main Base. Hide the mines behind hills and in dips in the road for maximum effect. 4 Both teams can defend their side of the river by mining the small narrow bridges that lead across. 5 Axis engineers, take advantage of the windmill to snipe into the Allied half of the map. 6 Axis engineers, keep those Tigers running. They are very potent weapons if used well. Keep an eye out for landmines and don't be afraid of dying to remove a minefield. 7 In CTF, Axis engineers can really help there team by holding the flag closest to their base. It has a flak cannon to shoot down enemy planes, and it's accessible to armor only by that bridge. If infantry are spawning right outside your base, you're going to have a hard time holding onto your flag. I) The Battle of Britain Engineers will make or break this map for the Allied team. 1 Allied Engineers! Man and repair the radar stations. And keep the factory repaired as well. 2 Axis engineers, expack and destroy the radar stations. Swipe a truck or APC and use it to resupply right at the radar stations. If you have several engineers with you, using the truck, you can almost win the map single handedly. J) Liberation of Caen This map requires critical thinking skills to make good use of the engineer's equipment. 1 Mine the bridge to keep the Allies out. 2 You can mine interior roads at the back bases to slow down Allied attack. 3 Expacking the flags is efective, but be careful of expacking flags with lots of vehicles. Even if friendly fire is off, if you trash a neutral or unfriendly vehicle with a team mate next to it you can score a team kill. 4 There are these funny bike-like halftrack things. Since helmets count as part of the head model, you can get headshots on people riding in them. Aim carefully! ------------ a-the@tre African Theatre ------------ A) Tobruk This map is a nightmare for the Allied team. 1 Enough landmines will choke the Axis. If you can organize four or five engineers, you can choke the Axis offensive. The line is HUGE but using sandbags you should be able to close off enough map to really slow down the Axis assault. But getting that many engineers together and coordinated would require you all be in the equivalent of a clan. 2 As an Allied engineer, try and close off the path around the base to the rear flag. I've seen (and taken) jeeps, tanks, and APCs through this hidden route to capture the rear flag without much difficulty. One guy even tried it in a wespe. 3 If you can badly damage the Tiger, the driver will hop out. This is your chance to steal the Tiger and repair it. You'll need to be quick though as your team will be shooting at it as will the Axis. I was playing Tobruk one time, I did this and they accused me of going to their base and stealing it. I replied "I didn't steal it, it was left parked at our base." Ok so it's only funny if you were there, and were me. 4 Engineers from both teams should keep their tanks running. It is important to keep your tanks intact if you want to sustain an offensive. 5 Axis engineers, I haven't found anything for you to do here that isn't allready outlined in the guide above. If anyone knows of anything let me know. B) Battleaxe This is a great map for engineers. The sniping alone makes it worth taking the engineer kit. 1 The distance between bunkers is such that sniping is a worthwhile endeavor. 2 Landmines can be used to block off more easily accessible tank routes forcing them to detour through areas with obstacles thus slowing the enemy's attack. 3 In capture the flag, mining the upper lip of your base's hill is just as important as mining the entrance ramp. Tanks can drive right up the steep cliff face. C) Gazala There are so many paths through Gazala it makes landmines difficult to use effectively. 1 In one area of the map, are three capturable bases all in a line. The base on the right is accessible by a bridge and a road. Mine the main entrance and the areas to the sides of the sandbags. Tanks can drive across the cliff face and around the mines if you only mine the middle. Don't forget to mine the bridge too. 2 The middle flag can be blocked off by mines, but it's easy to attack with infantry. The best way to hold it is to control all three bases. 3 The flag on the left is accessible from the mountainous area (the back road leads there) and from the direction of the two other flags. Be sure to mine both. If a tank parks on the repair pad, you can sneak into the garage building and landmine it. If you choose to use expacks use all four, even if it catches on fire the repair pad will heal it, so make sure it's a complete and utter destruction. 4 You can mine the entrances to your enemy's main base to rack up some kills. Some people will think your mines belong to their engineers and some simply won't see them. Either way works. D) El Alamein This map, with it's wide open spaces, makes landmines harder to use just anywhere. You really need to pick your location well. 1 Axis Engineers the middle flag in the desert is a great location to defend. You know the Allies will be coming from there base, so mine the upper lip of the hill the base is situated on. Spread your mines thin and you're still guaranteed kills. Hop into a tank and harry the Allies as they approach so they hit your mines. 2 Allied engineers do something ultra not nice. Grab a buddy or three, take a truck, and mine the access roads from the German main base. Use the truck/APC to resupply. Two engineers and two anti-tank should be able to cause some real havoc. 3 The southern base is extremely mineable. Place one mine visibly and eight hidden behind the hills and in the barbed wire. You'll rack up jeep kills. Tanks, being slower and having guns, will pose more of a problem. Just try and get them to hit a mine. You are most vulnerable while re-mining the area. Use the flak cannon to fend off air attack and harry enemy vehicles. 4 The Northern base has more entrances then one of those circular mousetraps you see in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Even when mined this area is hard to defend. For the effort you put in defending that flag you could more easily defend either of the other two. E) Operation Aberdeen This is decidedly an engineer unfriendly map. Armor is prevalent making sniping difficult. Wide open spaces and bases make landmines less useful. 1 Keep tanks repaired. In fact, one engineer and one anti-tank in each tank will help sustain an offensive. 2 Mines are useful almost exclusively in defending the main bases. The access roads can be mined. 3 In The Village, the flag radius is miniscule. Drop an expack there and you're guaranteed a kill. Watch for grenades thrown from street level. Tank and artillery shells are less of a concern when at the flag if you remain prone. 4 The Village area is one of the areas where sniping is effective. With the flag uncapturable by tank your rifle can make a difference. Especially if you're covering the flag radius from another building while your team assaults it. conclus!on 8) The Conclusion The Engineer Kit is one of the most difficult kits to play correctly. Knowing what tool to use, and how to employ it in any given situation is difficult, yet only the tip of the iceburg. To be a "Master Engineer" means being able to use every tool in the engineer's bag of tricks. Mining, Expacking, Sniping, Close Quarters Combat, Ordinance Removal, all of these things comprise the role of... The Engineer. Copyright 2004 Rory Wilkins All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.