Imperial Engineers School

Founded five hundred years ago, the Imperial Engineers School of Altdorf, also known as the School of Engineers, is responsible for many of the Empire's technical innovations over the past few centuries. The brainchild of the Tilean genius Leonardo of Miragliano and the Prince of Altdorf, it was founded by the former. Leonardo of Miragliano was inventor of the Steam Tank and pioneer of heavier-than-air flight (a fatal obsession that led to his early demise and the destruction of many of the original Engineers School buildings).

The school has been rebuilt on no less than a dozen separate occasions, following misguided experiments and catastrophic malfunctions.

Many of the Engineers are Dwarfs. Some of them are renegades from the Dwarf Engineers Guild which frowns upon innovation and regards much of the Empire's new technology as a heinous break with ancient tradition. The Engineers School attracts inventors from all over the Old World and has provided the Empire with a number of experimental weapons such as repeating muskets and pistols, multiple-barrelled cannons, mobile battle-towers called War Wagons, and the formidable Steam Tank.

Though much of an Engineer's time is spent tinkering with half-finished inventions of whimsy, each recognises that the ultimate purpose of their labours is coming up with new ideas to combat the multifarious threats to the Empire. Anti-flyer devices, tunneling machines, ice rays, alchemical bombs and all manner of weird devices are but a handful of the deadly inventions devised by the Engineers. They are eccentric individuals, muttering incomprehensible gobbledygook and bustling from one machine to another to improve its performance. While they are not soldiers, Engineers are often found on the battlefield, taking advantage of the fighting to field-test their latest inventions or snipe at the enemy with a variety of powerful experimental handguns. They also provide troops in the form of riders equipped with experimental repeating handguns.

The contraptions Engineers bring to battle range from utterly lethal, such as the Helblaster Volley Gun, to the downright bizarre, such as von Hugon's Terror Bell, the Thunder Barrel or Herstel-Wenckler's Pigeon Bomb.

However, it is not just their position as supplier of all that is most advanced and deadly in the way of weapons that makes them valuable on the battlefield. Individuals from the School attend to the artillery of the Empire forces, baffling the gunners with talk of parabolic arcs and making small, last minute adjustments here and there as the battle rage and ensuring that the Great Cannons and Mortars perform perfectly. Though no self-respecting gunner would ever admit that a bookworm could improve on years of experience behind a gun, the presence of an Engineer actually does make artillery more accurate. Well, most of the time!

The End Times
The Imperial Engineers School defended their city en masse. Armed with all manner of death-dealing inventions, the Engineers filed out onto the plains to help a massed battery of artillery take up position on either side of Altdorf's main gate. Then the four steam tanks that the Engineers were able to push into operation shook the earth as they trundled faster and faster towards the barbarous hordes.

Source

 * Warhammer Armies: The Empire (5th Edition)
 * pg. 15
 * pg. 53


 * Warhammer Armies: The Empire (6th Edition)
 * pg. 14


 * Warhammer Armies: The Empire (7th Edition)
 * pg. 46


 * Warhammer Armies: The Empire (8th Edition)
 * pg. 20
 * pg. 21

Escuela Imperial de Ingenieros
 * The End Times Vol II: Glottkin
 * pg. 88