Abyssinian Engineering - Building an empire

[Dejavu]

The more I look at the Abyssinian engineers the more I think they really help advance, support and optimise the faction, just like engineers do in real life (an opinion that's totally not biased my chosen profession).

Free card draw every turn for existing is amazing. This is partly comparable to a tactics token per turn. While the tactics token is more flexible the extra card draw frees your tactics tokens for more stratagems, , coordinated strike etc.

There is a cost to adding these to your lists but let's say you have basotho cav in your list at 4 points, you could take 4 engineers instead (if you have 4 other squads), then use the stratagem behind enemy lines to summon the basotho cav early in the game for 4 tactics tokens (assume lord of Steel). After reinforcing they do end up one model short, but in exchange you now get 4 tactics tokens worth of card draw each turn for as long as the engineers are alive. With Kassa you could also summon a unit of south Wales borderers with the stratagem instead who seem like they'd be really annoying in an enemies deployment zone early.

A unit with an engineer can use the card draw to use a prototype almost for free due to the extra drawn card making up for the discarded one. Not quite as good as the electrocutioners whose ability works if they have multiple prototypes or Prince unathi and can also benefit from an engineer, but it is available to most other units.

 

They add an extra shooting attack to the squad which is accurate, longer range (than the Abyssinian average) and packs a punch. The extra shot with card draw increases the squads chance at flipping to glory. The mechanised infantry especially love engineers due to their tracer rounds ability to the point where mechanised infantry in my mind now cost 9 and include an engineer.

 

Lately when looking at list builds I've had between 2-4 engineers in every list. I've always thought engineers were amazing (again not at all biassed) but I don't find myself wanting other factions adjuncts anywhere near as much. Does anyone else think they are amazing or have other great tricks?

[rancor709]

Engineers are phenomenal and you should be using them if your taking abyssinian squads.  Another super fun piece is the rail gunner, who can potentially draw you 2 cards a turn because there card draw is an action with a target number. Meaning if you flip or if you have cheap tomes, you get a 2 for 1 cause of the radio in enemy movement triggers the faction has.

 

Also don't underestimate the fact the adjunct extra attack ignores cover. 

[rancor709]

Now as for the other factions, their adjuncts are equally useful to the engineer within their faction. The card draw is very strong but remember were paying a lot for the privilege of abyssinian technology in the squad itself and abyssinia needs the cards to fuel prototypes and to have the tactics tokens available to utilize our strategem deck. Which for abyssinia can often be the difference between winning and losing. I completely agree the engineer is phenominal but remember every 2 you take are removing an activation from your list in the form of the rail gunner. If you include 3 you are denying yourself Samantha Thrace or a Maurder. They are definelty strong and I use them a lot but remember you are giving up options by selecting them. If its a kill strategy where more units won't help and having a weak activation is giving my opponent points then yes the engineer spam is great. However if the operation is about body count in a location, then I may be better off taking the additional unit or units I could get from the engineer investment.