I think they're worthless. Ingenery do just fine. The mechanics can't even build any new stuff, unlike the Luftwaffe. Speeding up tank production is meh. I don't think I've ever really needed the increased production.I think they should be taken out in favor of something else. I never use them, and when I used to, they never changed anything. Why not just replace them with increased vehicle production and advanced repair? Doesn't have to be the first thing you get either. I mean, that's all people use them for anyway. Why make people spend manpower and have them be killable when you can just make it passive and maybe make it cost 1 command point more? Something like..."Advanced Ingenery""Decrease the production time of all vehicles by x%, and enables Ingenery to repair vehicles at an increased rate."Or they could just do something like the Americans have with Field Repairs (or whatever it was called) where you spend munitions to repair your tanks. Mechanics are slow, frail, and inconvenient.
Mechanics are useful in utility but Breakthrough lacks a munitions sink other than the existing two abilities and cage armor.
*Cough* Men against tanks *Cough*
OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD AND RAPE CEASERS GHOST IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN!?
If mechanics get a new ability it should be support, i.e. Over-repair, Stat Buff. They are meant to support assaults not shore up a defense.