Unboxing: Enlightened Heavy Regiment

 

Dropships! Stompy boys! CRABS! The new box brings amazing new options, opening the faction from just an infantry horde to much more varied playstyles. Armour focused lists can now bring the Atlas (with CRABS), Undertakers, or Pandoras with infantry to hold objectives, more balanced lists have broader access to Peer Review and some fun new options, and I think this might be the first faction that can do an aerial focused build now.

For New Players

I think the variety of extra peer review options in the Atlas, Hyperion, and Selene should make starting out with Enlightened much easier. If you don’t like painting infantry this is also the box for you. I’d recommend picking up 1-2 boxes.

Construction/Magnetizing

First up: the shipping containers on the Pandora. Make sure the notch in the container side (part 25) faces up, otherwise the part won’t align properly with the grabber claws. The base of the walker (part 16) also twists a bit, but adding part 20 stabilizes that nicely, so put those on immediately and force all the parts together.

Magnetizing the Pandora/Selene is fairly trivial, though since the mounting point for the base is on the part you switch out you might want to prepare a second base if you go that route (there were 4 in my box, so plenty of spares).

While the box only comes with the proper parts to make 1 flyer and 1 walker, you’re only really missing the vent inserts for the flyer. The underside of the walker parts look fairly close, so if you want to make 1 Pandora and 1 Selene out of a box I don’t think you’ll have any issues.

The Atlas and Hyperion only differ in the weapons in the front, but the mounting point for that is quite small. You could probably cut off the tab for glueing and add 2x1mm magnets, or magnetize on the base of the tentacle and use spare tentacles from the undertakers for one of the variants. I might try mounting a DW turret on the front or bottom for the Hyperion.

The Creeper legs are also a bit of a pain. The middle leg doesn’t fit particularly well; the square peg seems to be a bit too large for the mount. With plastic glue and placing it first, you should be able to make it fit, or you can remove the peg. The other legs fit, so if you have trouble you can let the middle legs dry and then add the others so nothing slips. My creepers also don’t fit well on the base width wise, so I’ll probably be mounting them sideways.

Speaking of legs and pain, the undertaker legs are also annoying. Small mounting points with long skinny pieces makes for painful assembly. I’m still working out a good way to get these together.

The Canceris Constructs are officially 6 bases per box (1.5 reinforcement levels), but depending on how much you like the carpet of gribblies look, making 8 bases isn’t an issue (or using spares for basing/padding other models).

This box comes with quite a lot of spare flying and long bases, since you only need 1/2 and you get a full sprue of each. I also really love the officer bits we get here: 2 of the enlightened command poles and a window cupola for the walker/flyer (which I’ll have to try on the regular tripods).

Box Contents

Sprue Front 

Sprue Back 

Analysis

Infantry

Canceris Constructor

Halleluja, an infantry choice that doesn’t require painting infantry. 4 non-bulky models with 16 hits means you can fit a lot of bulk into an Atlas or Pandora, and their relatively high (for enlightened) discipline will hopefully let them operate somewhat more independently. Offensively they need overcharge to do anything, but their 1/4 profile serves them well there.

These lil guys also got a custom boon that gives all of them in your force Ambushers. If you aren’t bringing much that needs cards (or have the SURG battlegroup, which works on ambush too), it might be worth considering.

Cavalry

Note that the creepers are not as initially shown 2 each per box, but 2 total. Also, as currently written, Carrier on the Pandora lets you carry one basic cavalry unit per model, which might lead to some silly clown car builds. I expect this to get changed though.

Aegis Support Creepers

I was not expecting this level of buff but hot damn does this thing look spicy. Most of our infantry goes up to 24 hits per level with this, and crabs go all the way to 32, making them the toughest infantry in the game. These are going to be a priority target as well as needing peer review support, but if you can sneak them in via Pandora your opponent might not have enough stuff on a flank to deal with them and the unit they’re protecting.

Hephaestus Strike Creepers

I’ve long had the problem with Enlightened of lacking good ranged anti-heavy, and these guys fix that in a hurry. The main problem is going to be getting enough of the model, especially since they’re a variant on the Aegis which you also want many of.

Armour

Atlas Heavy Assault Walker

If you’re looking to build Enlightened Oops all heavy then this is probably your starting point. You’re probably marching this to the midtable and hoping out with crabs R1, which should be a tough nut to crack. You are lower on ranged anti-heavy versus bringing the more usual Hyperion and Mars, so you might want to compensate for that (No, go all in on the glorious melee crab wave!).

Hyperion Heavy Battle Walker

Peer review on our mandatory Armour slot is going to be great, alongside the anti-heavy attack you were already bringing the Mars for, plus a bit of AA to swat at forward rotorcraft. You lose a bit of health and speed versus reinforced Mars, but that’s still a worthwhile trade. I’m not sure what Iron Resolve is supposed to do here, but why not I guess. I have the sneaking suspicion it’s supposed to make Uncanny Reconstitution better on it, but Rules as Written that only works if you have another peer review unit along.

Untertaker Automata Servitors

First off, the model looks so much better in person than on the marketing images. They’re huge, almost the size of the regular Tripods. This is the other part of oops all heavy, a (potentially) scoring heavy armour selection. I think they’re going to be difficult to make work but glorious when they do (kind of my summary for enlightened overall). I’ll need to get a reinforced unit on the table and see what they can do, possibly from reserve.

Note that stilted doesn’t actually let them look over terrain to charge, so they’re going to have a hard time pushing heavies off objectives when staged safely back. This might also be unintended though.

Rotorcraft

Pandora Transport Rotors

It’s time to play Dropzone Commander! I’ve been wanting a transport for Enlightened since the faction launched to play a more elite force, and damn this thing does not disappoint. A reinforced/full strength Heavy Construct or Cititzen Soldier Command unit backed up by aegis creepers and then striders or hephaestus for a fireteam like punch sounds great. Otherwise, a basic Pandora can carry reinforced crabs.

Now for the downside. 12 hits isn’t nothing, but it’s low enough that a dedicated AA unit will shred at least one coming in, and size 6 prevents you from using cover. Options for dealing with that include dropping further back from your target (possibly with assault ramp), bringing along more aircraft/rotorcraft to overwhelm enemy AA, or running empty models as ablative wounds. We’ll see what ends up working.

Selene Attack Rotors

My guess is this thing ruined someone’s day during playtesting and that’s why we don’t get nice things (bolstered slots). As it stands it’s an interesting way to get on demand peer review where you need it as well as a decent shot into any kind of target. I think it’s going to be more of a finess tool, but I’m very interested in trying it out.

Conclusion

While Enlightened were in a decent enough place, this box really opens up options for us. More Peer Review and getting access to Transports are the big ones, but the creepers and crabs also add things we haven’t had before. Now to get more built!

No AI was used here.