= Cpʹ, M = Li-Cs, L = crypt, 18c6; RE = La, Cp R = Cpʹ, Cpʹʹ, C5HMe4, M = Li, K, L = 18c6, crypt, THF) (Scheme 1). Evans and co-workers have extended this approach to RE(II) tris-amide complexes stabilized with the ubiquitous {N(SiMe3)2} -ligand, leading to the isolation of [M(crown)][Sc{N(SiMe3)2}3] (M = K, Cs, crown = 18c6, crypt) and [K(18c6)2][Y{N(SiMe3)2}3]. Frontier molecular orbital analysis of the RE 3+ precursors revealed a LUMO with strong dz2 character, which is preserved in the SOMO of the RE 2+ anions, thus giving a formal nd 1 configuration to all these species. This is particularly important for the La 2+ derivative, where the equatorial ligand environment promotes the lowering in energy of the d-manifold to disfavour a 4f 1 3d 0 configuration. [Sc{N(SiMe3 We reasoned that AE 2+ (Ca-Ba) complexes with trigonal planar geometries could have a similar frontier orbital profile to the RE 3+ congeners (Sc, Y, La), thus making them suitable for reductive chemistry. It is noteworthy that the role of d-orbitals in heavy AE complexes has been intensely investigated in recent years and spectroscopic and theoretical evidence of dorbital involvement in AE(CO)8 (AE = Ca-Ba) complexes in low-temperature neon matrices has been established. Here we report the synthesis of a series of tris-amide AE(II) tris-amide AE(II) complexes have been reported previously, however to the best of our knowledge the feasibility of their reductive chemistry has not yet been assessed computationally.