Starting Out: Union
The Union roars into battle aboard hover trains, hover bikes, and huge trucks, ready to give ‘em hell. Advancing behind a firestorm laid down by their artillery, Union troops are supported by automatons fighting alongside them and ride into battle on the best transports available (the kind that don’t kill you when they are inevitably blown up).
This is my favorite faction for Armoured Clash so far (We’ll see if Sultanate manages to dethrone them). I was a fan of the Lakota the minute they spoiled it in Dystopian Wars, and it ended up amazing in Armoured Clash (CHOO CHOO!).
My general starting out guide for Armoured Clash can be found here. It covers some more general advice that I didn't want to repeat for each faction.
Overview
Playstyle: A fast and flexible close range shooting force, centered on combined arms and transports.
Offense: Good shooting overall, though range is on the shorter end. There are a few decent melee units, but it’s not a specialty of the faction.
Defence: Generally fragile, except for non-transport armour which are decently tough for their class.
Movement: Very Fast. Transports move your infantry up the table quickly, and your Cavalry and Tanks are also on the fast end. The only slow units are the Mechs and Artillery.
40K Faction: Dark Eldar. A mobile transport based force with hoverbikes and guns especially good at dealing with infantry, supported by tougher constructs.
Buying In
Most of the general advice applies here, though if you want to go all-in on Trains I would probably do 2 starters instead of starter + intro.
 |
| A starter's worth of models |
Build Choices
Here is a summary of the different build choices for Union. In most cases all the options are good, but there are some outliers that are more specialized. I’ve underlined my default pick, and what reinforcement level I would build to initially, assuming you’re aiming for 2K sized games.
 |
| Lakota and Friends |
Firebase Carriages: Magnetize or just don’t glue. The difference is just the turrets.
Cavalry: Iron Horse Cavalry vs. Blazer Heavy Cavalry (vs. UR-31E Iron Eagle Cavalry) (Full Strength)
Both are great, but for slightly different roles. Iron Horses are incredibly fast, able to grab objectives or charge backline artillery early. Blazers instead bring better firepower while still being quite zippy. I recommend starting with the Iron Horse since melee is somewhat rare for Union otherwise, and I’d build to full strength.
Iron Eagles are technically a separate mono-build. However, the front piece for the blazer and iron horse are compatible, and the models otherwise look basically the same (especially with a bit of cutting). The Iron Eagles lag behind a bit rules wise, so you could use them to build the other variant too.
Transport: Ironhide Transports vs. Lamplighter Flame Trucks (Reinforced)
Both options are good, but I’d suggest the Ironhide since the Pacifiers work really well out of a Newhaven too. Since Union Infantry is difficult to bolster, reinforced units are plenty here.
Tanks: Rolling Thunder MBT vs Kodiak Artillery Tanks vs Reaper Arc Tanks (Reinforced)
This one goes to the Rolling Thunder. It’s a great generalist fire support. The reaper is also decent, but it doesn’t bring enough to justify the short range and price increase. Finally, the Kodiak ends up as just a worse rolling thunder or worse artillery.
Artillery: Armstrong Heavy Artillery vs. Moab Thermobaric Mortars (Reinforced)
Moab all the way. Indirect Torrent Artillery is great, and the anti-heavy and anti-air profiles are the cherry on top. The Armstrong just doesn’t compete, especially with the Rolling Thunder around.
 |
| Arc Mechs (a bit converted) |
Mechs: UR-45 Heavy Mechs vs UR-45E Arc Mechs (Full Strength)
Again, both options are great, with the Heavy bringing better melee and the Arc being better at shooting heavies. I’d probably suggest the Heavy to start out, since it can help protect your infantry a bit, but there’s no bad choice here.
Sample Lists
Intro Set Skirmish (~700 points)
At this level, I would suggest building what you like from your intro box (2 of each sprue) and playing that, possibly using boons to even out the points.
1K Skirmish
| UNION FACTION BATTLEGROUP | ||||
| COMMANDER | ||||
| Lakota Super Heavy Engine | 230 | |||
| Newhaven Forward Garrison | 65 | |||
| INFANTRY | ||||
| Federal Trooper Platoon | 30 | |||
| Federal Gatling Fireteam | 30 | |||
| UR-31E Arc Trooper Fireteam | 25 | |||
| Federal Trooper Platoon | 30 | |||
| Federal Gatling Fireteam | 25 | |||
| CAVALRY | ||||
| Iron Horse Cavalry (Reinforced) | 120 | |||
| FIELD GUN | ||||
| Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon | 70 | |||
| ARMOUR | ||||
| Ironhide Transports | 35 | |||
| UR-45 Heavy Mechs | 75 | |||
| Rolling Thunder Main Battle Tanks | 125 | |||
| ARTILLERY | ||||
| MOAB Thermobaric Mortars | 120 | |||
| BOON | ||||
| Forlorn Hope | 15 | |||
| Total: | 995 | |||
This is aimed to be a general trying everything out list, with a focus on what I consider the core of the Union playstyle. Keep in mind that your objective holders are not the toughest, so when to move onto the objectives is one of the central challenges. But the aim here is to figure things out and have fun.
The Lakota is the only Behemoth that can be taken in Skirmish sized games, but I think it’s fair enough and something a 1K list can deal with. It’s also hella fun.
1500 Battle (Starter Box)
The central goal here was a good list you can build out of the starter box. This is something of a skeleton of the list I’ve been running, with a good mix of roles. The Lakota and Mechs cover your midtable brawling, the Rolling Thunders, Hotchkiss, and MOAB’s provide fire support, and the Iron Horses can fill in as needed. To expand this to 2K I would start by bringing some Blazers. More objective grabbing, plus good firepower, but incredibly fragile. Taking the Mechs to full or adding more Infantry would be my next step. ClosingLet me know if there’s anything you think is missing or too much for a starting out article, I’ve been back and forth on what all I should have here. There’s a deep dive for Union in the works that’s mostly done already as well, so who knows when I get that up. Thanks for reading! Lists were written with the 1.02 BETA Orbat. List layout was adapted from the Warcradle blog. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments
Post a Comment