Thanks to Clay, I hope you're feeling enlightened about the Enlightened faction and their bosses!

Time for a quick round-up of the underbosses...

Thomas Edison

Edison is a tool box. He has so many options available to him and every one is a useful choice. His stats are pretty decent giving him great marksmanship, decent influence, and one of his first amazing aspects, 4AP! His weapons are a little unconventional BUT they all have great uses. His bread and butter is the Phonic Blaster, it uses the large template yet has no pow on it. This is a head scratcher... until you see the Wave Motion attribute, which moves any model hit by the weapon to the edge of the template. But we'll get more on this later. His next weapon is an Ion Pistol which, as we discussed with Dr. Carpathian, is mostly used to just shut off enemy weapons. However, Edison has an easier time with his as it has an excellent 18" range. The next weapon to discuss is his Grenades, pow 10 3"AoE and Irradiate is pretty handy. And he has his fist but if you are using this you may have made some mistakes along the way! 

So, his weapons are all pretty interesting but it isn't until we get to his abilities that everything comes together. First off is the Grenade Launcher which lets him use two AP to make his grenade attack at 12" rather than the normal 6". This allows him to use his grenades from a safer distance. Next is the big incentive to take Edison; Master of Sound. Remember the wave motion on the Phonic Blaster? Well, Master of Sound lets Edison choose any edge of that large template to move a model to when hit. This is huge! This means Edison can shoot anything with this blaster and then push and pull them any way he chooses. Usually, this will be used to push your own models forward to save them the trouble of walking up the board and use their AP for attacks, but it also is useful to pull enemies closer, out of cover, out of combat with a model you don't want in combat, or many other applications. Combine this with Edison's AP of 4 and you can easily get your models out of harm's way or where you want them without much trouble. His last ability is Repair, which lets him patch up your large creations or even Countess Byron! 

Edison is a must have model since his ability to repair your models and move anything else on the board in ingenious. He is one of the most valuable models you can include in your posse and I more often than not bring him along for the fight!

Vladimir Ursul

Vlad is a sniper. He has an excellent marksmanship stat, and the rest of his stats are solid especially being armor 2 and having fairly durable lifeblood. He isn't incredibly fast so deploying him in the right spot can really make his job easier. Or, if you can't deploy him quite where you want, Edison can always help give him a boost to where he wants to be. His main weapon is Old Pisca which is a great 36" range pow 10 Rof2 thermite sniper rifle. It shoots far and hits hard. His other two weapons are the fun Bear Trap and his reliable melee blade; Vendetta. The Bear Trap is something you might use to disable a would-be assassin and then put them out of their misery with a few shots (or just let the roaming constructs have them). And, if that doesn't work and you have to get physical, Vendetta can deal great damage and let Vlad get back to his nest. 

His abilities are simple. He isn't impeded by terrain and can leap off a building with no problem, PLUS he gets a free aim action each round which also lets him get critical hits against a target within 15" on natural 8+. 

So Vlad is a simple model, he takes out important targets at range or wounds them enough so your other models can finish them off. He's a great control piece in that he can cover a huge area of the board and going on the lookout can make your opponent have to play differently knowing Vlad can easily Maim any model that gets in his sights. 

Creation 7

As I said in my first blog, 7 is one of the biggest reasons I love this game.

His stats and abilities don't disappoint! 7 Has some enormous durability clocking in at armour 4 and 35 lifeblood! He can take hits from anything in the game and just keep going. While he isn't very fast and his aim is pretty bad he makes up for this with his decent melee ability and just sheer tank-ness.  His weapons are a Flame Thrower and Gatling Gun for ranged, the Gatling Gun has a solid Rof3 with pow 8 thermite, and the Flame Thrower is a large template pow 10 fire. Great for any sort of non-vehicle enemies. His melee weapons are the Drill and Buzzsaw, both armour piercing and pow 10 and 12.  Creation 7 can be dangerous at any range and will take a LOT of firepower to even entertain the idea of putting down. 

The abilities are where he comes together as a true brute for the faction. Animation, of course, means that once the enemy finally does manage to put him down, he can be reanimated by several of our models and keep being a terror. Split Personalities is when he starts his activation he is able to roll die to see if he gets 2 AP ( 1-7) or a mighty 4 AP ( 8-10)! This means 7 can chug up the board 4 times, or if in range just unload his weapons. Lastly, he has Fear which can be handy to get some models to forfeit a turn when he kills other models in melee and, of course, Steady which lets him treat all his weapons as one-handed. That one ability lets him fire his Gatling Gun and Flame Thrower at the same time every AP he uses to make a shoot action. Which is just like his melee attacks which also can have him swing his Drill and Buzzsaw for one AP and just obliterate whatever he might be near. 

All said and done, 7 is just a walking juggernaut that dispenses death in any form. He is a big target- and a scary target at that! He will eat the enemies bullets for breakfast and trudge across the board to accomplish whatever goal you set out for him... He is a common sight on my tables.

Check back for my next instalment!