I was playing around with the engineer squad. and it is rather disappointing. (this is all german side)
the AA gun seems nice but a bit under-powered, you need almost direct hits vs infantry. there is almost no splash damage.
and it does nothing vs armored cars.
sandbags are also kind of strange, they work but dont do much. most effective use is to build 2 sandbags close to each other go prone and shoot tough the gap in between them.
something bigger like AT guns, pillboxes, bigger sandbag fortifications, ammo dumps for tanks & infantry, tank traps, repair stations for tanks would be nice so you can actually have some big impact on the battlefield.
right now the AA gun can do some damage then placed in a good spot and a squad comes around a corner running towards it, you can wipe that squad in one burst.
i have only seen planes once so far so i cant tell much about its AA performance.
the building process itself is ok but still feels kind of clunky. after selecting what to build you have to press ESC to cancel the building selection.
also after building you “loose” you main weapon. it is not listed anymore in the weapon select, slot 1 is empty. only after switching to knife will make it show up again.
AA gun most likely uses HE ammo. That’s why it does nothing to armoured targets. It should have two belts, AP and HE.
This is also an alpha after all, engineers for sure will get more stuff to build like MG nests, AT guns, more fortifications, etc. Ammo dumps/crates is a good suggestion though. I often see myself running out of ammo if I survive long enough.
Maybe its better for the AA to stick with the HE shell, it would be a rampage agaisn’t current tank selection. But we definitely need AT gun with AP and HE shell selection.
Btw, put the AA gun inside a building with a opening on the objective, maybe block the windows with sandbag.
=> enjoy
Engineer squad can be very, very powerful when used right and left alone for a while on a capture point. They can make it nearly impossible for enemies to contest a point with AI’s getting stuck on sandbags, the absurd ammount of cover and firepower a single AA gun provides, and the fact that everything can be placed indoors
A good idea for engineers would be that they could build or use the famous German Pak-43 or Flak-88 to devastate enemy tanks, in the case of the Russians the same, but with their anti-tank guns.
Machine gun nests would also be a good idea or forts, they don’t have to be made of concrete and metal, as long as they are made of wood it would be enough.
Ammunition depots would be fine, but only for the infantry so they could replenish their ammunition there.
I personally think engineers should come with their own equipment / blueprint loadout.
1 field gun (Light AA, AT gun, or heavy AA. Going from lowest firepower, highest protection to vice versa)
1 fortification (sand bags, door barricades, barbed wires, etc)
1 utility (ammo packs, maybe anti-tank mines?)
It would also be nice to see constructables outside of the play area being removed from game after a certain period of time to prevent engineers from becoming useless because they couldn’t deconstruct their AA /sandbags in time.
any soldier type can destroy buildings, I think engineers should be able to destroy them much faster than other soldier types though. When placed in important spots, they get taken out relatively quickly so it isnt too much of an issue