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basically any game that i have played have german engineers (or pioneer infantry) that have fantastic attack abilities. Since these guys always seem to be fighting who did the bridge building and mine clearing etc., duties that i would have expected engineers to do. So what are these units representing, what was there role and how where they armed.

Hi, the units in SPWaW are combat engineers.
While they can also build bridges ect they were trained to build/take down defense's and make close assualts against hard points (bunkers ect) Combat engineers ar up front hard core fighters (Battle of Stalingrad involved many combat engineers) the German pioneer unit was a semi combat engineer trained mostly in preparing defensive positions. (I think SPWaW makes them into Panzer Grenadier Engineers) Use them to lay/clear minefields and take out bunkers (but they do real well against infantry only 1 hex away (while their flamethrowers still have gas)

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I'm not retreating, I'm attacking in a differant direction!

Thanks, Mogami! Very interresting information.
I've notised that in PG2 there are separate pioneers, bridge engineers and (I can't remember clearly cuz I only play SPWAW nowadays!) even grenadiers. Do you or does anyone know the differensies? Of course the names tell a lot but I'm not an expert and therefor likely to guess wrong!

Usually, pioneer troops stayed at the rear and did generic engineer duty; built roads, repaired rails, fixed bridges, laid out airstrips, etc. They didn't tend to have special equipment suitable for combat.

Combat engineers went up to the front to handle mines, build field works, wire bridges, and such like; if the enemy happened to be there, too bad. They had some special gear for dealing with strong points available; but little formal training in that kind of fighting.

Assault engineers, which I believe only the Germans had, were specially trained and equipped to deal with (attack) enemy field works and fortifications, opening paths for the ground pounders. Very dangerous work, but they were invaluable in dealing with improved positions.

Of course, the names changed as you went from army to army (or unit to unit). A friend of mine's uncle was an assault engineer, and his official title was panzer pioneer (not to be confused with the regular kind).

Originally posted by Igor:

Assault engineers, which I believe only the Germans had, were specially trained and equipped to deal with (attack) enemy field works and fortifications, opening paths for the ground pounders. Very dangerous work, but they were invaluable in dealing with improved positions.

The Russians had something similar I think.

A little clarification is needed. I am speaking from experience. I was an Assault Pioneer in the Canadian Army. We performed task equal to Combat Engineers the only difference's were that Pioneers where trained has infanteers first. A Pioneer Platoon is organic to an Infantry Battalion.
Combat Engineers are the experts because that is all they train to do.
Pioneers will be called upon to blow holes in wire obstacles has I have done with the bangalore torpedo. In a nutshell the just do taskings that are supstantially smaller. But they (Pioneers) could never build a bridge.
Hope this helps

I could speak only about the Bundeswehr, but I believe names haven´t changed:
The word Panzerpionier just means that the engeneers are part of a Pz or PzGren brigade and therefore equipped with SPWs.