By: ÌHPÉTurem Bain

PART ONE

Beyond what some people may think: If you are playing the Engineer then you are playing the most difficult and most rewarding of the professions in RTCW.

The arguments are strong. An Lt. has the greatest capacity to clear the path for his team and has the indispensable ability to reload his team. The Medic is the only one that can keep his team moving through the map to the objective. Flame-throwers and a Panzerfausts are indispensable in terms of weapon power, but none of these can win a game. The Engineer carriers the dynamite and the pliers necessary to arm it… so by definition the Engineer carriers the game on his back. As a result, the Engineer becomes the target. If the enemy sees a group of enemy units bearing down on the objective and one of them is an Engineer… you can bet that he is the one they are aiming at.

So what is an engy to do? Objectives are covered in smoke, loaded with grenades, and suppressive fire is laid into it. You cant just bear down on an objective in the middle of the enemy and expect to lay your dynamite. Even if you do: they will have 30 seconds to disarm the dynamite. What are the best tactics to use? When should you plant? Where should you plant? All of these questions are pertinent and you can hope to blow up the objective if you do it right.

I’m no expert. I used to think I was good at the game until people like Seegster, Seed, Pliers, and Jocky came around. I guess its easy to be on the top when you are the only one trying to be on the hill, but I figure that I can at least help out you HP’s that are tryin' to get better at planting. I’ll go through what I know from both the Allied perspective and the Axis perspective. I hope this is helpful.

• Ammo. Though you are good enough to get to the objective and plant you must try and defend your dynamite. If you don’t’ put up a fight with the enemy engineers that are trying to disarm your dynamite… then they will have a much easier time at it. That’s why you should try and conserve as much of your ammo as possible when moving to the objective. Get ammo before you leave for the objective. That is what the Lt's. are for. Two packs of ammo is all you need so run around the spawn and try to ammo up as much as possible before you go. Its important to gain those few seconds and the possibility of killing that enemy engineer.
• Exceptions: Sometimes it is better to simply bolt for the objective (or a hiding place behind enemy lines). Time is as much a factor as anything. I'll go through that below.

• Route. Being an engineer means that you need to be able to get to the objective. You should know your pathways. Know which ones are used more often and at what times. Know where the enemy is probably going when they control certain point in the map. Know alternate routes when you run into the enemy along the way. One way to do this is to pay attention to the top right of your screen. You’ll see the top scoring people on your team there and more importantly: where they are at and how healthy they are. You can see that they are all in the FDA and dying or whether they are in the ruins and alive. You can tell if they are in the axis base somewhere alive or dead.
  • If you are playing in the Depot as an allied engy, the Axis control FDA, your team is dying in the trains, and you are looking for a way to get to the gun… then you should probably try the tunnels.
  • If you see your best scoring teammates are in the axis base and healthy, the Axis control the FDA, and you are in the Trainyard Elevator looking at a whole bunch of axis enemies: then you should try to make a run down the trains and find your teammates.
  • Say you are an Axis engy in the FDA: your teammates are all spread out in the tunnels, FDA, and trains in full combat. You can't really make a run for it without hitting a few enemies along the way… I would advise waiting until the clock reads zero and then making a break for the warehouse so that you can hide somewhere because at that time there will be as few enemies as possible and the one that are alive will be wounded. Remember that time is important.

So know your routes. I can’t really get into every possible route with you now, but one way that you can begin to get a better idea of the good ones is to follow the people like Seegster or Jocky when you are dead and see where they are going. You can do this by hitting your fire button and cycling through your teammates views. Also, you can just play the map a whole lot. Go places that you don’t normally go, but an important thing to understand is that the best route is the one with the least enemies along the way. If you run into a whole bunch of em and die then go another route because they wont be on that one… hopefully.

• Time. I cant tell you the number of times that I have hid away in a cubby hole and watched any number of enemies run by me without getting into a fire fight. This is accomplished in part to the hiding place (which I cant really help you with… you’ll just have to find them), but mainly knowing when THEY are gonna be coming. If you can learn to judge when they are more likely to be running your way then you can learn when to hide. That will save you ammo and more importantly: health. If you cant seem to get the pattern down then a good approach would be to kill all those enemies around your hiding spot, be sure they have been gibbed so they can’t follow you and see where you go, and then hide. This only works sometimes cause people may go to find you after they respawn. It does work if you have a good hiding spot… then they just wont find you, they’ll give up before they find you, or if you’re lucky: they’ll think that someone else killed you.

Time is a very important factor in the game when considering the issues of dynamite. You have 30 seconds before the dynamite explodes from the time that it is armed (when you say "Dynamite Planted"), it takes you 5 seconds to arm dynamite, and it takes you at least 1 second to drop the dynamite. What I have found to be the best time to arm the dynamite ("Dynamite Planted") is exactly before the respawn because any enemy engys that are not going to respawn near the objective wont have enough time to do so. That means that you should drop your dynamite at the objective at about 23 or 24 seconds on the respawn clock. If you're faster than you thought you would be at getting to the objective you can stop arming your dynamite just before the activity bar reads full. Wait till just the right time (29 or 30 on the respawn clock) and then tap on your mouse button to finally say "Dynamite Planted"… but this is chancy. I have often found myself hovering above my dynamite, needing only that one small tap, and I get wacked by someone who has just come up to find me there. But that only means that I missed someone else I should have killed before I "dropped my load".

On the note of timing and defense: I can’t count the number of times that I have been on my way to the enemy objective and one of theirs has planted at my own objective. There is one thing that you can do… even if you are WAY TO FAR AWAY from your own objective: dive on your own grenade. This’ll only work if you have enough time for the grenade to kill you before the respawn, but I have to say that I have done this many times and successfully disarmed enemy dynamite. So, if they plant and you see that you have about 6 or 7 seconds before the respawn… drop a grenade and hit "m" on your keyboard. This will bring up the setup screen and set yourself to respawn nearest your objective. When you respawn… do your best to sprint to the enemy dynamite and then disarm it. Don’t check for enemies or do anything but run directly for the dynamite cause any time you waste on lookin around or shooting will only bring detonation closer.