Unveiling the Eclipse

UNBOXING THE LATEST FLEET FOR DYSTOPIAN WARS - THE HONOURABLE ECLIPSE COMPANY

With their incredibly detailed airships, intriguing undersea bases and awesome giant gatling guns, the Eclipse Company looked too good to miss out. In an attempt to keep up with George and rule the skies, Good Friend Ben has invested in the Honourable Eclipse Company. Here, we look through the boxes and discuss some of the new models.

The main box set for the Eclipse Company - The Aerial Battle Group

The usual good packaging we expect from Spartan Games

Great to see the Token Sheet and four Sheaf Fire Templates

The Elysium-class Large Airship. I love the fact that the Earth Shaker Cannon is the size of a Frigate! The banks of additional balloons and broadsides put me in mind of the FSA airships - this is referenced in their background

The three Phoenician-class Scout Flyers - these guys are BIG

Two Oceanus-class Bombers - really appreciate that these guys are resin. Cool layered design to the hull and impressive detail on the crew compartment 

The squadron of Hades-class Small Flyers - metal, and with a pretty heavy amount of flash. Nice detail on the glass, but I'm going to have to look at these guys closely to work out what all the details represents

The Tiny Flyer Tokens - these strike me as somewhat smaller than the planes for other Nations

The boxset cleaned and laid out - a nice fleet! 700pts all together. Number of models is standard with the extra TFTs compared to other Core Fleets

The Support Box

Another fleet booklet, good to share with friends etc.

More tokens! Excellent

The Cadeiros-class Fortifications, with their Atlas Assault Craft - and nice and simple with just a turret to add on

The rather ornate Tartarus-class Fortification - with choice of tops and plastic struts to support it. 

The Stingray-class Assault Craft, ready for their gold, blue and silver paint job

Another two Oceanus-class Bombers, giving you a full squadron combined with the other box

The set together - defined by the sheer number of small models and fortifications. The fortifications and the blimps are my favourite parts of the Eclipse Company

The two sets together - a solid 1250pts with some upgrades. It may seem slightly light but the fortifications are very expensive points wise

Overall, I'm impressed. The detail is really something else, and the casting quality is the usual Spartan standard which is fine for me. The small flyers were a pain as the metal brings with it a lot more flash and mould lines, but this is to be expected. I'm just happy the medium bombers were not metal!

The large fortification shows Spartan again using plastic for the important struts as they did with the legs of the rigs in their Merchant Navy set. This is certainly preferable to resin that could warp, bend or break easily.

With nine unique ship/token types, the fleet is quite varied, and features a great deal of different materials and textures - canvas, wooden decking, sculpted figureheads and latticed metalwork. I am personally looking forward to the fortifications and the multitude of tiny tokens, though the blimps will bring the chance for some interesting metallics.

Conclusions

• Value for Money - compared to the Black Wolf or Danish fleet, this is not exactly the best pound for point set Spartan do. Nonetheless, for a 1250pt fleet I would say the two boxes are a nice and simple investment, with a lot different squadrons all at full strength. You do get a LOT of resin, given the large size of the ships, which is important to remember
• Flash - acceptable across the board, aside from the small metal flyers. These guys are always a pain!
• Detail - really great, really packed in across the fleet. I would venture to say the medium and small flyers were TOO detailed, and may be a struggle to paint without looking too busy. 
• Extras - some alternative tops for the fortifications, but unlike naval-based fleet boxes this one has no turrets or alternative generator options, leaving the build for the different airships pretty standard. 

Painting begins as soon as I'm broken into my painting shed and recovered the models (the lock broke this afternoon...). All being well I'll them ready for the table, a rules review and a battle report soon!

Thanks for reading,

George and Ben