Proposal: Engineering Teams

[dragoon500ly]

In my own version of the Project, I long ago, decided to go with two levels of engineering teams, State and National/Regional. Over the years, I’ve had any players who’ve wanted to play as engineers, so while I’ve doodled and noted, never really sat down and wrote up a description. So for your reading pleasure, here goes!

As always, grips, cheers, tears and flames are cheerfully welcomed!

A State (or Group) Engineer Team is a fairly large group with 30 personnel assigned, and equipped with three V-150 APCs (armed with .50 caliber HMG), a 5-ton tractor-trailer loaded with two backhoes, a 5-ton tractor-trailer loaded with a bulldozer (D-5 Cat), two 5-ton dump trucks, and three 5-ton cargo trucks loaded with engineering supplies (armed with .50 caliber HMG).
This is a very bare-bones organization, intended more for light duties such as road clearing, bridge repair, facility construction, demolitions work, etc..

The National/Regional Engineer Team is a very different breed. At this level, they are concerned with major projects such as bridge construction, dam repair, airfield clearing and construction, harbor clearing and dredging, etc.. From my reading on this subject, this would involve large numbers of personnel and equipment. Trying to impose a upper limit, I’m going with a team of up to 150-200 personnel, operating from a base located near their primary mission objective. This type of team would not be strategically mobile without a lot of assistance.

Thoughts?

[mmartin798]

This does bring up the question of what are the teams' function? Are they to be a stand-alone units capable of doing jobs with no extra personnel, or are the intended to be units that supply the engineering knowledge and gear but rely on locals or other teams, like Recon teams, to supply the man-power?

[dragoon500ly]

The State teams are to be able to function either by themselves or to assist Recon Teams and local survivors. They are not scheduled for early recall, but rather upon command of the local State Command Team.

Now the National Team should be able to handle jobs by themselves. But I can certainly see them calling in other assets or recruiting local labor, just like the State teams.

[cosmicfish]

I think there is some confusion here between engineering and construction.

Engineering can be done with pretty small groups, especially with advanced computing resources and some pre-designed solutions that simply require modification. Engineering is mostly slowed down by outside assistance unless it is usefully skilled.

Construction needs a small amount of management, a cadre of skilled workers, and a lot of relatively unskilled workers. A construction team would still be relatively small and would recruit from local Project or populace to get the additional manpower.

[dragoon500ly]

Think of the State teams as more on the line as a Sapper Team, they can blow stuff up, move most stuff out of the way, repair a bridge with field expedient material, dig ditches, make (very) makeshift dirt roads, etc.. They would have access to lots of plans and their caches may contain material such as mixers and concrete, lots and lots of nails, screws, bolts, maybe a portable sawmill.

The National/Regional Teams seem to be more along the lines of your construction engineers. Able to bring an airport back online, clear a harbor, repair a railroad, etc..

[ChalkLine]

And added to that construction these days uses less and less workers. One of the reasons that many workers are still employed is that 'plant' (heavy construction equipment) requires skilled operators and will take some time to wear out and be replaced. A late era Project might sequester drone plant that only needs a program to run.