How to use Illuminated

[Whut]

I've been on a depleted and/or Waldgeist kick recently and I want to try out our third staple resilient minion.

How do you use Illuminated? Thinking primarily with Dreamer/Collodi/Lilith/Pandora (so, not Lynch). Two Illuminated heavily compete with Nekima, who puts out a stronger single activation at the top of the turn and is (one of?) the best Doppelganger synergy we have (and Dopple makes it into about 80% of lists).

When does their shooting attack come into play? Do you take one? Or two? Do you take a depleted or two to spread brilliance (I really dislike the cost of Beckoners, I don't like them)? Have you ever taken them without something that spreads brilliance at all? How do you make sure they don't get bursted down after activating? Is there any faction or strat/scheme pool that they really shine against? Do you hide them around corners? If so, how do you push them to let them charge out? Or, maybe you just let them walk and shoot to set up for a charge next turn?

Thanks!

[D_acolyte]

21 minutes ago, Whut said:

I've been on a depleted and/or Waldgeist kick recently and I want to try out our third staple resilient minion.

How do you use Illuminated? Thinking primarily with Dreamer/Collodi/Lilith/Pandora (so, not Lynch). Two Illuminated heavily compete with Nekima, who puts out a stronger single activation at the top of the turn and is (one of?) the best Doppelganger synergy we have (and Dopple makes it into about 80% of lists).

When does their shooting attack come into play? Do you take one? Or two? Do you take a depleted or two to spread brilliance (I really dislike the cost of Beckoners, I don't like them)? Have you ever taken them without something that spreads brilliance at all? How do you make sure they don't get bursted down after activating? Is there any faction or strat/scheme pool that they really shine against? Do you hide them around corners? If so, how do you push them to let them charge out? Or, maybe you just let them walk and shoot to set up for a charge next turn?

Thanks!

Quick answer: I tend not to.

Moderate answer: I use them when I need to take and hold a point, this is especially true with Dreamer or Lucius as both can really up the effect of minions. I will take opportunity shots with their gun be for the most part I right it and brilliance of if I do not take Lynch because they are survivable enough at 7 stones the rest is gravy. I will stick them in soft cover or near point and tell my foe to come to me for turf war or some other strategies then charge out when they get close to me. This is not how I like to play often but it works well with jack models like them. I tend to activate them mid turns and if possible I will shoot one to hope for the trigger for brilliance before the other charges but no big deal if it does not. The other way to take them is in a non-Lynch Lynch crew, what I mean by that is make a crew that focus on brilliance led by Pandora, Lucius, or the Bog Hag and they will perform as well as they do in most Lynch crews.

I feel the Illuminated is about a stone to cheap compared to where it is on the power scale.

[Yvarre]

Illuminated are great standalone models that don't really need synergy with or support from the rest of the crew.  They can fairly comfortably range out into an opponent's crew and survive a couple of hits from reasonably powerful models and bounce back.  They tend to go down when focused on, especially by masters, henchmen, and any heavy hitters in tandem, but they can typically eat a fair amount of AP and heal 2-4 points back each turn.  With their unreasonably far charge range, they are great for running down the opposing crew's scheme runners and can also run schemes in a pinch, though dedicating tots, silurids, etc. to this task is better.

The brilliance bonus, as is the case even in thematic Lynch builds, is more just icing on the cake.  With a base 2/4/5 damage spread and a Ml of 6, they are gonna hit hard even without Brilliance, though Brilliance makes them absolutely absurd.  Their sh 5 with a mediocre damage spread leaving a marker that gives out Brilliance is really not so great.  When paired with a second illuminated, you can set up a charge, assuming that the model(s) afflicted don't just walk away, but typically they are better alone, flanking and tracking down outliers and scheme runners and only shooting when there are no other options.

Often they may compete with the spots of waldgeists in Neverborn crews, but I feel that Waldgeists are best suited for tying up large areas and holding points while the illuminated are more often solitary hunters, though they too can hold points when needed.

Depleted are great when you need tarpits to just tie up your opponent's models a bit, but as they only give out Brilliance when they die they aren't a reliable source for spreading it.  Beckoners are ok for pulling things out of position and handing out Brilliance in a Lynch crew, but the Lelitu and Doppelganger combo is much more potent and versatile with any other crew.

I would recommend Illuminated for strats that will spread models out more like recon, interference, possibly Squatter's Rights- really any situation where they'll have targets to run down with only moderate retribution, and they are great if you expect your opponent to choose marker heavy schemes where they'll have fast df 4-5 scheme runners with 4-6 wounds or so to hunt down.  They are pretty resilient and can be really painful if your opponent keeps sinking AP into them and not taking them down, so they can also play the role of tarpits that hit back pretty hard.

[Mxbedlam]

Illuminated have a ton of uses, being both resilient and having a decent damage track + flay trigger. I like to use them as Personal Puppets for Collodi, as bodyguards for Lucius (he can have them shoot brilliance at something, then on their turn they can charge and take anything out), I've taken a BB Shaman and given them black blood turn one, dropped them into a ball of enemies and watch the shenanigans ensue. Of course they are the staples of a Lynch crew. Almost every game I have taken them, Illuminated have consistently carried their weight more than any other model.

[Ludvig]

If you want to, you can extend their life between activations by taking Master Queeg and forcing them to self-heal. Not sure if it is worth the 7ss but I'll definetly try the trick myself when I have all the models painted since it seems like the most powerful interaction Queeg has.

[Patzer]

Depleted are great at spreading Brilliance out, as well as being annoying. Be aware of Distract and Cursed Object when you are hiring them though. 

Dreamer's push and punch action is pretty darn great with these guys. 

I use them as an all rounder model. They aren't super expensive and can do pretty much any job you want them to. They can hold down a flank, protect a spot, run schemes while killing scheme runners, etc, etc. Their shooting attack can be ok if you run them in pairs and want one of them to rush in with a charge, but it requires a lot of set up. Thus I only use to opportunistic scale of a wound or two with a pot shot, given that an Illuminated doesn't have anything else to do.  

[Yvarre]

I've actually been forcing myself not to use Illuminated for the last few months, and I took them out again yesterday.  My god, that 4 moderate damage makes things dead fast.

[RobertSirc]

With Lilith if the pool is kill heavy I will run two and I normally keep them together to face roll what ever comes close. Depleted are great for some board control because they just take so much to drop, but I tend not to use them as something to hand out brilliance. Illuminated are great for just that killing things dead. I never use their shooting attack I prefer just to keep them in the thick of things.