Who are the Best Mechanical Engineers.

[Urgat]

Can the Dwarves make a reaper bolt thrower? Do they build tall graceful towers that defy logic by simply remaining upright?

They certainly can do both. It's hinted somewhere that the DE crossbows have been invented by dwarfs, and dwarf slaves are used in the DE cities to make buildings.

[The bearded one]

They certainly can do both. It's hinted somewhere that the DE crossbows have been invented by dwarfs, and dwarf slaves are used in the DE cities to make buildings.

snap.

Reading various snippets of dwarf background from novels, armybooks, sourcebooks etc. there's a lot of impressive engineering in the dwarf background that simply does not come out in their armybook. In comparison the skaven and chaos dwarfs kinda cheat as they incorporate warpstone/daemons to actually make their stuff work, and this is rather detrimental to their reliability and safety. The engineering of the empire is starting to get close as they are more willing to experiment, but they did learn everything from the dwarfs and there are plenty of expelled dwarf engineers working in the empire engineeringcolleges

[Denny]

Skaven can almost certainly create more powerful weapons than the other races mentioned but surely nobody can debate that they are by far the worst mechanical engineers.

QFT. The Skaven fluff book (can't remember what it’s called) had a great section on this. Basically, the Empire scholar charged with examining Skaven society concludes that the technological ‘miracles’ that Skaven manage are due to their access to warpstone (and the fact they can use it without dying/mutating horribly!)

Warpstone allows them to circumvent issues that other races would have to solve with mathematics/science/craftmenship. Skaven just hammer chunks of Warpstone into the problem areas and (providing nothing explodes) the problem is magically solved.

Doesn't stop them being the master race of course. Hail the Great Horned Rat!

[Gillburg]

To me I feel the Chaos Dwarfs have the highest technological level, Their whole nation resides on industry and have near enough put the steam engine into mass production which no other race has or could. The fact they have invented Mass production leads to the reason that the Chaos Dwarfs may not have the best Mechanical Engineers but it seems that the mastery of the dwarfs mixed in with the relentless obsession of chaos has created Industry.

[Lance Tankmen]

pretty sure bretonnians trebuchet is a work of ark, just saying

[Iron_Lord]

Bretonnians had some of the best sailing ships (at least, for humans, elven ships tended to be better) in Man O'War.

[LegioIgnatum]

Wow, no one mentioned the mecha-horse that empire employs in a combat environment.

We can build cannons, or submarines, or tunnels, or nukes today BUT as of now humanity have not been able to create a decent robot that can walk without falling over (silly Honda robot ). Yet those wacky collage of engineers dudes have not only created a perfect copy of muscle/nerve/synapse of an equine in the mecha-horse but they use those to cave in some orc skulls in a combat environment.

Nothing that dwarfs (zepplins and cannons meh) or elves (big bows, or towers really??) or cd (rockets and tanks meh) created can beat that.

Will change my mind if the new Dwarf book comes up with the steam golems. But conceptually a running mecha horse is still harder to create than a walking robot.

[Gillburg]

Wow, no one mentioned the mecha-horse that empire employs in a combat environment.

We can build cannons, or submarines, or tunnels, or nukes today BUT as of now humanity have not been able to create a decent robot that can walk without falling over (silly Honda robot ). Yet those wacky collage of engineers dudes have not only created a perfect copy of muscle/nerve/synapse of an equine in the mecha-horse but they use those to cave in some orc skulls in a combat environment.

Nothing that dwarfs (zepplins and cannons meh) or elves (big bows, or towers really??) or cd (rockets and tanks meh) created can beat that.

Will change my mind if the new Dwarf book comes up with the steam golems. But conceptually a running mecha horse is still harder to create than a walking robot.

Chaos Dwarfs have giant robots in the book Grudgebearer.

[Urgat]

Wow, no one mentioned the mecha-horse that empire employs in a combat environment.

We can build cannons, or submarines, or tunnels, or nukes today BUT as of now humanity have not been able to create a decent robot that can walk without falling over (silly Honda robot ).

You need to check out BIGDOG, man. Besides, in I don't remember which Gotrek book, it's hinted Malakai Makaison helped build the horse.

[Little Joe]

Dwarfs, but the good kind. Because like in real life engineering is a lot about creating standards (EN, DIN, ISO) and applying and maintaining them. Sure there is inovation, but it is the foundation that counts.
Anecdotal evidence of traditionality among engineers: I know many engineers only willing to drive old vehicles because they are better (their opinion). The rest would drool over the blueprints.

[The bearded one]

Wow, no one mentioned the mecha-horse that empire employs in a combat environment.

Wasn't there a magical component in that horse?

[Korraz]

In the one paragraph blurb, nothing of that is mentioned. The only vaguely magical thing noted is the dynamo that generates enough energy while running to release a big shock.

[Munin]

...In comparison the skaven and chaos dwarfs kinda cheat as they incorporate warpstone/daemons to actually make their stuff work, and this is rather detrimental to their reliability and safety....

I agree with this. The connection is even more obvious if we look at Warlock Engineer and Daemonsmiths which both are (can be) wizards where the dwarvs engineer and runesmiths are different proffesions.

[TheDarkDaff]

They certainly can do both. It's hinted somewhere that the DE crossbows have been invented by dwarfs, and dwarf slaves are used in the DE cities to make buildings.

I've never seen anything that even hints that the dwarves had anything to do with the creation of repeater crossbows (let alone the Rearer Bolt Throwers i originally referenced). In fact any time i've seen mention of them credits their invention to the Druchii. And again the use of Dwarf slaves to build the Dark Elf cities doesn't have any bearing on their engineering capabilities, it just shows that they are great craftsmen (which i'm not disputing here). The mason and engineer are 2 different people in 99.9% of cases, although some latitude can be given in a fantasy setting. In fact the main reference to dwarven slaves building the Druchii cities (the Malus Darkblade series) even notes that the only thing the Dwarves actually get to design is their own tomb in the foundations.

[Munin]

I've never seen anything that even hints that the dwarves had anything to do with the creation of repeater crossbows (let alone the Rearer Bolt Throwers i originally referenced).

In the Malekith novel it is the dwarfs that present this new kind of weapon to the elves which they later perfect iirc.

[Urgat]

I've never seen anything that even hints that the dwarves had anything to do with the creation of repeater crossbows (let alone the Rearer Bolt Throwers i originally referenced).

As Munin said, it's in Malekith (I didn't remember )

In fact the main reference to dwarven slaves building the Druchii cities (the Malus Darkblade series) even notes that the only thing the Dwarves actually get to design is their own tomb in the foundations.

Foundations are what make that kind of buildings be able to stand in the first place. I don't have the time to check all my Warhammer stuff, but I'm pretty sure you can find a few pictures showing dwarf buildings that are as gravity-resilient as the elf buildings anyway. If the Empire can make the skullvane manse, dwarfs can too, anyway.

[The Odor]

I would say the Chaos Dwarves are the best. Their engineering doesn't seem to demand Daemons to work (Tamurkhan) but they seem to do more what the lesser Dwarfs do with runes. They build something Super-Duper Fancy (Dreadquake Mortar. Just Dreadquake Mortar) and then can choose to bind a Daemon to it to get it tougher. True a few Warmachines require Daemons to work (Two out of five. The Hellcannon and the Deathshrieker (and even then only the ammo in one of them)) but if the Book is anything to go by nowhere near everything demands it. They also bulid crazy stuff like the K'daai but that I essentialy see as a whole diffrent line of work (like runesmithing for dwarfs).

The Empire I think are FAR to onesided. They have some master pieces (Steam Tank comes to mind) but the Chaos Dwarves and Dwarves (and Skaven) are more focused on many more things than War like most of the Empires engineering pieces seem to be.

The Skaven seem not to be as much great engineers as they have so many more of them than the others as well as the power of Warpstone.