Starting Out: Enlightened

SCIENCE! Abominations! Blowing up your own troops! So what if we don’t have long range, as soon as we get over there we’ll make you regret it! Also, there’s a surprising amount of crabs.

The direction they took this faction for Armoured Clash is definitely interesting. I wasn’t expecting a tough melee force, but it’s been fun marching across the table with a horde that just won’t die. Hopefully we’ll get more elite options; the spoiled art has me hopeful.

My general starting out guide for Armoured Clash can be found here.

Overview

Playstyle: Hordes of (Melee) Infantry, supported by fast cavalry and light tanks.

Offense: Very punchy in melee, and strong short range shooting. Most things have an anti-light attack, for anti-heavy you need specialists or melee.

Defence: Tough Infantry and Cavalry, while Tanks tend to be on the lighter end.

Movement: Slow overall since you’ll be running a lot of infantry, but the supporting units are quick for their class. A lot of our units also have Vanguard, which lets them move forward before the game begins.

40K Faction: Tyranids. Hordes of infantry, with melee focus, and even morale immunity around your Commanders.

 

Buying In

I went with intro + starter because you really want to run bolstered infantry units, as you’ll see down in the sample lists. More basic infantry would probably be the first thing to pick up.

Build Choices

Enlightened, being infantry heavy, have quite a lot of monobuilds, with most of the choices just being a weapon swap.

Behemoth: Horsell Super-Heavy Extractor vs Wells Super-Heavy Surveyor

I magnetized mine, but I’d probably just suggest building the one you like and proxying, the differences are very minor. Gameplay wise your choice is the Horsell’s melee vs the Wells with all the guns, with the Wells probably being a slightly better choice to anchor your lines.

Tripods: Mars Battle vs Deimos Guardian vs Phobos Assault (Reinforced)

Your choices are anti-heavy gun, anti-heavy melee, and anti-air, with all three having a strong but extremely short range anti-light attack. I think the Mars is probably the best bet as a general purpose choice to start with.

Crawlers: Encladus Mortar vs Europa Artillery vs Callisto Assault (Reinforced)

Unlike the general advice of always going with the indirect anti-infantry option, here I’d actually recommend the Europa. First, it’s also indirect. Second, it still has a very respectable anti-infantry attack. And finally, you have plenty of anti-infantry options in the rest of your list. The Encladus isn’t bad at all, I just think the Europa generally works better in the context of an Enlightened list. Finally, the Callisto’s main claim to fame is being the cheapest way to fill your required Armour slot, and that’s pretty much the only reason I’d bring one.

Sample Lists

1K Skirmish (Starter or 2x Intro)

ENLIGHTENED FACTION BATTLEGROUP
	COMMANDER
		Citizen-Soldier Command Contingent (Reinforced)		90
	INFANTRY
		Brute Warden Cohort (Reinforced)		95
		Hellion Cohort		40
		Heavy Construct Devastator Cohort		85
		Brute Enforcer Cohort		60
	CAVALRY
		Strider CAV Cohort		70
		Mono CAV Cohort		70
	ARMOUR
		Mars Battle Tripods		130
		Phobos Assault Tripods		125
	ARTILLERY
		Europa Artillery Crawlers		105
	ROTORCRAFT
		Sickle Gyro Cav Cohort (Reinforced)		110
	BOON
		Forlorn Hope		15
			Total:	995

A standard bit of everything list, with a good block of infantry, a lot of tripods, and a strong rotorcraft contingent. Your tide of infantry can march forward to take objectives, while your tripods, cavalry, and rotorcraft harry the enemy. 

 

Some tips:

Having multiple melee units next to each other (possibly at a slight angle facing away from each other) makes it much harder for your opponent to evade your charges.

Tripods are quite short ranged. Reserves and Flank Attack work quite well with them.

Don’t overextend your rotorcraft. It’s easy to get carried away trying to get the perfect shot, but they don’t have the surviveability to operate within your opponent’s AA envelope.

Don’t hit the big red button (Overcharge). Only when you’re sure the unit will get wiped anyway, or when you really need the target gone.

1.5K Battle (Intro + Starter)

ENLIGHTENED FACTION BATTLEGROUP
	COMMANDER
		Wells Super Heavy Surveyor		425
	INFANTRY
		Brute Warden Cohort (Full Strength)		145
		Hellion Cohort		40
	ARMOUR
		Mars Battle Tripods (Reinforced)		220
	ROTORCRAFT
		Sickle Gyro Cav Cohort (Full Strength)		170
ENLIGHTENED S.U.R.G. AUXILIARY BATTLEGROUP
	COMMANDER
		Citizen-Soldier Command Contingent (Full Strength)		120
	INFANTRY
		Heavy Construct Devastator Cohort (Reinforced)		145
		Hellion Cohort		40
	CAVALRY
		Strider CAV Cohort (Full Strength)		180
	BOON
		Forlorn Hope		15
			Total:	1500

1.5K is a somewhat tough spot for Enlightened. The behemoths take up a lot of points, but building without it is hard if you only have limited models to chose from. This list doesn’t have nearly as many activations as I’d like, but needs must. This is aimed to be a bit of a start to a stronger list, or at least one that hits hard. 

The Hellions should be placed so they can threaten an objective grab round 1, while still staying hidden. Your big infantry and cavalry blocks, and possibly the Wells, should aim to be taking/contesting objectives Round 2, when possible in pairs. The Wells is not as tough as it looks though, so it should be played more defensively. For flank attacks, I would consider the Mars or Strider units, depending on what your opponent is bringing and what the mission is.

To expand to 2K, I would add more infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Enforcers, Europas, and Mono CAV would probably be the best choices out of what’s still available from the starter + intro.

Closing

If you have any other ideas for what should be in a starting out article, let me know. Thanks for reading!

Lists were written with the 1.03 Orbat. The list layout was adapted from the Warcradle blog.