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In order to use the "will lay mines in front of unit" feature for engineers, do I have to have purchased some mines before deploying, or do engineers 'automatically' carry mines with them?

Also, what's the rate of mine laying for a single section of engineers, assuming no suppression?

engineers 'automatically' carry mines with them

Jess

In Larry Holt's Tactics guide there is a very good chart under Battle Drills that shows how engineers do this.

Looked in Larry Holt's Guide, but could only find charts on clearing mines, not laying them . . . ?

ORIGINAL: Flyboy

Also, what's the rate of mine laying for a single section of engineers, assuming no suppression?

Mine laying seems to depend on the experience of the units placing the mines (or some other statistic). It is not consistent and you shouldn't count on getting more than a few mines placed unless the engineers are left alone for a long time. I've never seen more than 6 mines placed by one squad (that means one, two or even zero mines per turn), but then again, I'm not very patient about leaving them sit around doing that when there's killing to be done. [:)]

rb

I got pretty good at using my Marine Corps engineers to lay mined ambushes in the Watchtower MC. There are a number of scenarios in there where you are suddenly confronted with swarms of Japanese squads heading through the jungle towards your rear. Works great if you can get in front of them for a few turns - switch to defensive stance (big help!), start laying mines, keep your platoon leader behind you in direct contact with the squads (you get an extra rally that way). You don't need a lot of mines in each hex for this to be effective - the occasional "boom" is very demoralizing. Scout out the jungle a little bit in front of where you are going to ambush - the jungle is often higher in some places and marshy in others. It's best if your men are high and dry, and the enemy is below you in a swamp. And don't suddenly charge at those units you made retreat - just sit there and see if they try again. (They probably will, and if you stay still you will be pretty impervious to most arty they may throw at you. Just watch your flanks.)

Do remember to change back to a neutral state after you lay mines. I have left this feature on only to see my dedicated troopers put mines in the path of my reinforcements. Happy hunting.