Royal Engineer Section

Veterancy Abilities

• No. 69 Hand Grenade: Active ability granted upon reaching veterancy level 1. Once gained, the veteran squad can pay a Munition cost to throw a hand grenade at the targeted area. This boosts the combat utility of the Royal Engineer squad even further, allowing them to more effectively deal with units in cover/buildings and be a substantial unexpected threat at all times. Note that the ability only requires at least veterancy level 1, and does not require any other upgrades.

• The lower XP threshold for Sapper veterancy level 1 means that they will instantly reach level 1 as soon as Infantry Training is researched from the Training Center.

Note: The PIAT is campaign exclusive and is not available in skirmishes.

• The Hazard Removal Package upgrade equips the squad with one Minesweeper, allows the squad to destroy barbed wire via the Wire Cutters ability, and increases the squad's repair rate. While the Minesweeper is equipped, any nearby enemy mines the squad encounters will automatically be detected, revealing it and preventing it from triggering regularly (can still explode from being damaged). The squad can then defuse the mine completely (either automatically or by right click from the player), removing it from the field completely. Note that the soldier holding the Minesweeper effectively has no weapon, so in combat situations the squad will actually deal less damage. The Minesweeper can be unequipped or equipped via a toggle ability, allowing the squad member to use his weapon again but forgo detecting mines if the Minesweeper is not equipped.

• No.2 Flamethrower upgrade equips the squad with one flamethrower, which is very effective against structures and infantry, especially those in cover or in garrisons. This greatly boosts the offensive utility of the squad, though care should still be taken as they are still vulnerable due to their small squad size. The upgrade also grants the squad the Flamethrower Breach ability, allowing them to Breach enemy garrisoned buildings. Note that this weapon cannot be fired on the move.
  If a squad equipped with a Flamethrower is completely killed, the Flamethrower will be dropped on the ground and may be equipped by any infantry with available weapon slots, including the enemy!

Note that once the squad has been upgraded with one of the above packages, this decision cannot be reversed/changed.

Upgrades

• Infantry Training: Grants veterancy XP and combat bonuses to veteran UKF infantry units. See page for details.

• Flamethrower Breach: Active ability only available when the squad is equipped with a flamethrower. Allows the Sapper squad to breach a target garrison. Breach is a targeted ability that, when used on an enemy garrison, commands the squad to move over to its nearest entrance. Once there, they will begin a 'channeling' time (with progress seen by the appearance of a bar filling up) to act out the breach. During this time if the opponent is quick enough, they may react and evacuate their own troops before the progress finishes, avoiding consequences. However, if the breach successfully completes, the garrisoned troops take significant damage, and are forced to evacuate and retreat. Meanwhile the breaching squad enters and takes over the garrison.

• Minesweeper Toggle: Toggles equipping or un-equipping the minesweeper. While the minesweeper is equipped the squad can detect and defuse mines. Note that while the Minesweeper is equipped, one squad member effectively has no weapon in combat and thus the squad will deal less damage overall.

• Wire Cutters: Active ability only available when the squad is upgraded with Hazard Removal Package. Allows the Sapper to remove targeted barbed wire.

Construction Options

• Sandbags: Creates a line of heavy cover that can be utilized by infantry. Counts as an obstacle that can vaulted over by infantry. Can be crushed by most vehicles.

• Barbed Wire Fence: Creates barbed wire that cannot be passed through by infantry, but can be crushed by any vehicle.

• Tank Traps: Creates a series of tank traps that cannot be passed through by most vehicles. They also act as scattered heavy cover for infantry. These are hardy obstacles that are durable to damage and cannot be crushed by anything but the heaviest of vehicles.

• : Constructs an emplacement armed with an HMG. Effective at suppressing infantry within its frontal arc. Note the UKF version of this is built directly and thus costs more Manpower but no Munitions due to bypassing the need to upgrade an existing structure.

• Modified AT Mines G.S: Lays down a mine that is triggered when any enemy units pass over it. The explosion is significantly damaging to infantry and will initially suppress them. Also deals significant damage to light vehicles, and guarantees 'Engine Damaged' to any vehicle. Can be destroyed by taking damage or by being dismantled by a Minesweeper.

• Resource Cache: Constructs a resource cache over a captured resource node at a Manpower cost. Resource Caches increase the resource granted from its node by 50% (Munitions or Fuel). Does not increase Manpower income if built over a Manpower node. The territory itself cannot be captured until the structure is destroyed.

Additional construction options can be found below with certain battlegroup perks.

Research Upgrades

• Infantry Training: Available from the . Grants +800 veterancy XP, and veteran infantry units gain +10% accuracy, +10% reload speed, and -10% received accuracy.

Battlegroup Abilities

Indian Artillery Battlegroup

• Valour: Once Valour is attained from the Indian Artillery battlegroup, all UKF infantry gain the passive ability Valour. When the squad loses half of its members (rounding down), Valour will activate, granting bonuses to the squad. In the case of Royal Engineers, it will only activate when down to two or less members. Likewise, it will deactivate if the number of squad members is more than half. Bonuses include -15% incoming damage, +15% rate of fire, and +15% accuracy, and these bonuses are further increased by +5% up to twice, maximizing when down to the last soldier.

• BL5.5 Artillery Emplacement: Allows Royal Engineers to construct the . The emplacement is a completely stationary artillery building that can be built anywhere in friendly territory except the HQ area. While it is immobile, it makes up for it by being one of the heaviest artillery pieces one can find in multiplayer, with massive range and incredibly hard hitting damage.

British Armored Battlegroup

• Engineer Detachments: Reduces the deployment and reinforce cost of Royal Engineers by 25%.

• Forward Repair Assembly: Allows Royal Engineers to construct the . This building can be anywhere in friendly territory, including outside the HQ. When built, any allied damaged vehicles and structures nearby will be repaired over time, represented by two untargetable and unarmed Engineer entities that spawn. The repair rate of the assembly is similar to a single Sapper squad.

• The Sapper Sten gun boasts incredibly high damage per second (DPS) performance at close range. This is high enough that even a squad of 4 Sappers can have higher DPS than a full squad of mainline infantry such as the USF !

  • As such, Sappers can be absolutely devastating in the early game against careless opponents, and they can be effective flankers against set up weapons teams. However, be wary they are ineffective at long range, and taking losses while attempting to close the gap will significantly hurt their DPS.

Trivia

• Royal Engineers are often referred to as Sappers. This term is an alternative term for combat engineers and is a common term in the British Army and Commonwealth Nations.

  • The origin of the term is derived from the French word 'sapeur' which itself is derived from verb 'saper', which means to undermine a wall or building in order to cause its collapse.

• The accent of this unit appears to be Welsh.

• The phrase "Like a s**t through a goose" is an idiom uttered by Royal Engineers. It essentially is rude slang for doing something very quickly. Geese are known to have fast metabolism which allows for rapid defecation after eating, hence the slang.

Change Log

1.8.0 Update Sept 18 2024

Royal Engineers  

With improvements to time-to-kill, Royal Engineers lagged a little behind other units, despite them being geared for combat. We are improving their damage drop fall-off to make it harder to kite Royal Engineers and easier to get within maximum damage range. We have also slightly reduced their build-time to allow double Royal Engineers to help gain map control.

• Sub Machine Gun near range increased from 7 to 10

• Build time reduced from 30 to 25

1.7.0 Onyx Shark July 16 2024

Royal Engineer Squad 

• Health increased from 85 to 95 

• Accuracy increased from 0.58/0.2875/0.1725 to 0.667/0.331/0.198 

1.6 'Coral Viper' April 2 2024

We have now added a machine gun nest to the British Forces faction to give them some light defenses that can be built to lockdown areas against infantry.  

• Now available to be built by Royal Engineers  

• Costs 250 manpower