Combat Engineers

Every army needs the people who go forward with the charges. Combat engineers clear the obstacle, blow the bunker door and bridge the trench while the rest of the line waits behind them, and they do it under fire with tools rather than glory. This is a squad of those specialists, sculpted for a grinding attritional far-future war. They wear the heavy coats and enclosed masks of soldiers working in bad air, they are hung about with demolition satchels and breaching kit, and they carry the short-ranged, unglamorous weapons of men who expect to fight at arm's length. Postures are low and businesslike rather than heroic. For a guard-style force at tabletop wargaming scale it adds a specialist unit with an obvious job, and it gives a painter a welcome break from ranks of identical riflemen. It comes as a multi-part kit.