Atlach's Shipyard

So I’ve been working on a Union overview but I first wanted to get my thoughts in order as far as the general structure of the game and how it pertains to evaluation of orbats and units first. This is a deep dive aimed at explaining how I evaluate units generally, as well as the roles they fill on the table. This was written May-June 2025, after the Imperium release. (I keep fiddling with little things instead of just posting the damn thing) Union Combined Arms Orbat Analysis Battlegroups The first thing I’d look at is what bolstered slots your faction battlegroup gets. Full Strength units tend to be your main hitters, and you need to play at least 1 faction battlegroup. Furthermore, adding another just costs you a command platoon and any required slots, so these are going to be your most spammable full strength units. Battlegroup abilities tend to be more variable between factions, but are usually on the stronger end. Consider which ability you want to keep the most and assign yo...

  So I finally got a second army assembled, and so did my regular opponent. Today we move away from Union vs Crown to the more standard Crown vs Empire. We played Find the Lady, which ended up a lot more interesting and tense than I expected it to be. It was also the first game which actually ran to the end, the game being decided on the second to last activation of turn 5. Deployment   Crown Forces I had decided in advance that the Monarch would go on a flank, to hopefully always have a target outside of the minimum range, but well forward so that it could get its secondary weapons into play. Each objective got a unit that could grab it turn 1 to hopefully be able to shape where the main battle would take place. Sapper Tristans in the center to hopefully cause some pain to the Laoshan, and Spitfires in position to support as needed. Basic Sapper units on a hill and in the center would hopefully give me spotter to priority targets. Tonight on Fun with Flags Empire deploye...

  I finally got a game in against Empire. We ended up on Flanking Maneuvers, 2K points, on 4ft x 4ft. I also decided I would not be using the transport missile to clear out buildings, so that’s a bit of a house rule I guess. Deployment The flank objectives are worth more, so those should be the priority. Each player has one close and one far, so locking down the close one with walking infantry sounds good, followed by a fight for the center. Seems reasonable. (That’s not what happened.) I put my mechs in the center to hopefully be able to engage any central forces, or to move to engage any heavy pushes to one of the other objectives. His objective got my fast movers (bikes and ironhides), especially when I saw him deploying an artillery park there. The central woods got a pacifier unit to hopefully take the center and some field guns in a similar role to the mechs. My home objective got the Lakota to hopefully flank and Troopers to hold the objective. To hopefully not get my M...

  Got another game in against Crown, moving up to 2K points. We’re still sticking with a 4ft x 4ft battlefield as recommended, and we played Lord of the Manor this time. I even took notes this time! Union Forces ready to manifest some destiny Deployment Lord of the Manor doesn’t leave much room for creativity. I deployed my mechs centrally to stay out of LoS from the Galahad and Monarch brick. I figured I could tank a bit of fire from the Mordreds on my heavy mechs or lakota. MOABs went behind a hill as is their custom. Iron Horses went in reserves to again try Artillery hunting (now at full strength), and the Blazers went a bit further on the flank to hopefully not get murdered immediately. A wave of Crown Steel Crown formed a brick of all the TANKS on their left flank, with the Mordreds on and the Bors behind their central hill. Spitfires were ready to engage from behind the tanks, and the Sharps were deployed aggressively to claim the objective.  Deployment after vangu...