Engines of War

## Synopsis

**Engines of War** is a mission in the 2nd act of the base game. It sees the heroes leading a raid through swampy terrain into a Skaven warcamp hidden in the Reikland Forest. Their primary target is to destroy the Skaven's Engines of War (also known as Doomwheels). After completing the mission they retreat to a river-side village to escape with Oleysa's ship after withstanding an aggressive Skaven counterattack.

## Tomes and Grimoires

### Tomes

The first Tome can be found by going left once you exit the cave and cross the rope bridge. It is behind some trees near the ledge, within a mushroom circle.

The second Tome is located to the right side of a raised walkway upon entering the broken-down temple following the Doomwheel event. You can either take the right-most path and stay right to arrive at this raised walkway or make a slightly challenging jump from the nearby window to the raised walkway as a shortcut.

The third Tome can be found before the town at the very end. Go the opposite way (to the right as you drop down from the cliff area) and you'll find it near the map border.

### Grimoires

The first Grimoire is hidden in the first cave you enter after the initial swamp area. Stay to your left to find a small tunnel to an outside area. Jump and clamber your way along the left edge of the outside area to find the location.

The second Grimoire is placed a bit before the third tome. Once you're in main courtyard of the destroyed temple, look for a wall with grated openings in it and a large tree that leans against it. Walk up the roots of the tree to jump over the wall. Head left and you'll find the grimoire in a small alcove.

## Guide

Engines of War is a long map, and both events can turn ugly if the team gets split up. Typically you'll face one ogre and one stormvermin patrol on this map, so look to have some anti-ogre weaponry and a saved strength potion that can be shared, if possible.

### Event One: Destroy the Doomwheels

During this event, the heroes must shuttle explosive barrels from their initial location in the back of a wagon to three Doomwheels located along the periphery of the area. Unless your team is clearly "overpowered" relative to the game difficulty, or you're attempting to finish the map in record time, it is highly advised to run each barrel to its destination as a group of four. As usual, it is very important to try to avoid being caught fighting in the open. If your group is attacked while in transit, toss the barrel to safety and then get your collective backs to the nearest wall to limit your exposure. In the main clearing (where the barrels are) you can find shelter from specials and some natural rat funnels underneath the wooden platforms. The destruction of each Doomwheel triggers a horde, so be forewarned.

Once all three Doomwheels have been destroyed, a large gate will open allowing the team to exit the area. Because your team may be low on ammo at this point, and there is no guaranteed resupply before the end of the map, it is common practice for the team to make a short detour to top up on ammo at the crate on the wooden platform before leaving the area.

### Event Two: Hold the Docks

To finish this map, you must summon your getaway boat by ringing the town bell. This loud signal will trigger several waves of Skaven that will attempt to punish you for breaking their toys. Defending against the waves can be difficult. Here are three common strategies in order of most to least difficult:

* Defend the docks. The small building with a roof on the left of the docks (facing the town) is a good "command center" for a defense. The roof makes it difficult for gas rats to gas the enclosed area, and rats will be funneled as they climb the stairs. Should it be necessary to retreat, you can fall back to the docks. One or two players can float around on the docks to the rear and right of this building to snipe specials and protect the players in the building from getting flanked. When defending the docks, gas rats can be manipulated into helping the team by allowing them to target the heroes and then falling back slightly so that the horde rats rush into the gas and die.

* Defend the bridge. This slightly surprising strategy depends on ringing the bell and then running back to the bridge where you came from. The bridge will funnel the rats very effectively, and most specials will expose themselves to snipers as they make their way to you from the town area. Be careful not to hang too far back towards the field area as this will trigger special and rat spawns to your rear. To be safe, you should periodically check behind the team for surprise flankers. Once a lull occurs after the second horn blow (to be confirmed), begin your run back to the boat. It will slide into the docks shortly before you arrive if you have timed things correctly.

* Defend the cellar. This strategy is cheesy. Descend into the cellar of the largest building via the cellar door. Close the door. Whack all the rats. If you remain at floor level (resist the urge to creep up the stairs to get more kills than your teammates), specials will be unable to target the team without first descending the stairs into your melee blender of doom. One player should be watching for flanking rats attacking the team via a small spawn hole at the back of the cellar. Alternatively, the team can position itself at the back of the cellar by the chests with snipers in the back and two controllers in front between the boxes. This guarantees that you don't get pulled out by a hook rat but if your snipers are bad you can get killed by a gas rat if it's not taken out quickly.

## Tips

* As with most open areas in the game, the initial swamp region can be a deathtrap if you allow your team to be surrounded. Traversing it along one of the two sides is much safer than attempting to bee-line it down the middle.
* There are many wide open area on this map, which means that one or more heroes can snipe stationary Stormvermin very effectively to make the melee battles less dangerous. Recommended sniping weapons are bolt staff, trueflight longbow, handgun, or single-shot crossbow. Non-snipers can help pick out targets using their "ping" keys.
* If the ogre spawns at or just after the rope bride, consider retreating back to the long cliff-side walk to kite and kill the ogre, because the far side of the bridge has high numbers of static rat spawns already and you may face a horde and specials on top of the ogre if unlucky. After you've retreated, do your best to avoid being hit by the ogre when your back is to the chasm as you can be knocked off the edge and instakilled here quite easily. One player can kite the ogre all the way back to the drop-down exit of the cave portion if necessary while teammates make short work of the rats funneled by the rope bridge before turning to assist with the ogre kill.