Bonjour, Ciao, Hola and Olá, blessed citizens of the Alliance! With the new Global Update offering Generals new ways to play, you may be wondering how to best capitalise on the changes to the Alliance ORBAT?
This blog builds on the previous Alliance Tips and Tactics article to highlight how you can harry the enemies of the Prince-President with even more panache and daring-do. Much of the previous, Alliance-centric article is still great advice to a budding Alliance player but this addition is designed to act as a companion piece to help you make the most of the recent changes.
Compared to some factions, the Alliance has not received too much attention in this update, as they have been in a generally solid place since their introduction last year! However, we have focused on providing a boost to those few units that we feel are being left on the shelf when it comes to building an Alliance Force, especially the Alpeni Rangers, Becerrillo War Dogs and Destreza Baldestriders.
There’s no better time for new Alliance generals to jump on board with the Alliance Faction Battlegroup, serving as a perfect entry point.
All Aboard!
With the Alliance's transports benefitting from the points decreases applied to Transport units across all ORBATS, now is the perfect time to invest in lightning-fast armoured assaults. Corregedor Heavy Transports are now even cheaper than they were before, meaning that your hordes of Ordenenza Militia can now travel in style, especially as the Alliance Faction Battlegroup now allows one of these dependable transports to be Bolstered without taking up the valuable Bolster option from your other Armour choices.
French Drop Capsule units have also seen a points cost decrease, making Legionnaire assaults from the skies an even more efficient way of plunging your opponent's carefully-constructed battle plans into disarray. Even the mighty Ghent Landfortress has had its cost decreased by 20 points, meaning that you can easily squeeze a cheap boon into a pre-existing list with minimal changes. Collectively, these small points decreases can really add up, allowing you to squeeze in an extra unit or Bolster an existing one, especially as Ordenanza Militia are already so inexpensive.
En Garde!
The new reduction in the costs of melee units across all factions has made both the Becerrillo War Dogs and Destreza Baldestriders slightly cheaper, especially when taken at Reinforced or Full Strength. This decrease in points costs is a nice boost to units that are impressive in close combat but can be quite an expensive loss if they are felled before they have a chance to reach the enemy. This also encourages Alliance Generals to make the most of their Infantry and Cavalry Bolster options to create a scary division of close-quarters specialists that can tear through enemy battlelines, especially if they're able to come in from an unexpected angle with a well-timed Flank Attack.
Becerrillo War Dogs have also received some much-needed attention, with their unit type trait switching from Cavalry to Infantry. This puts them more in line with the Cossack Ovcharka War Dogs of the Commonwealth and allows them to utilise Transports and Garrison Defensible Buildings, granting them far more versatility on the battlefield. To reflect this change, the Les Aigles Imperiaux Auxiliary Battlegroup has also been amended slightly so that it can still contain two units of these deadly duelists, despite their change in trait.
The Power of Faith
Avignon Mobile Chappels can now be taken as Reinforced and Full Strength units, which not only increases the survivability of these support pieces but also increases the radius of the unit's important Shrine of the Faithful (6") special rule*. This aura is now even more important than it was before, as the Last Rights Boon has now been updated to only affect units with the Faithful trait, making Shrine of the Faithful (X") more important than ever for getting the most out of this potent Boon. The fact that this unit now also possesses the Terrifying (Alliance) special rule gives these tanks an interesting offensive capability, encouraging its deployment to the front lines to apply that tasty -1 Discipline modifier to enemy units.
*Which I always assume is a product of the speakers mounted on said Shrine Tanks blaring out the French children's song, sur la pointe d'avignon, in the heat of battle.
Riposte, riposte, riposte
The Trap quality has been updated to target units that have at least half of their models in either Difficult or Dense Terrain, or which are Garrisoning Defensible Buildings. This makes Alpeni Rangers even more dangerous - enemy Generals will have to be far more cagey when positioning their favourite units! Additionally, the Avispa Gyro-Automata have also received some attention to make them more suited to their role as deadly, floating sentry guns by gaining the Stalker special rule and having the long ranges of all their attacks increased to 20".
The changes to these two units give you the option to build a highly reactive Force that can make the most of Opportunity Fire to deal significant damage to enemy units, even during your opponent's turn.
Capitalising on these Changes
With the changes to this Global Update in mind, you may be wondering how to build a list for this bold new frontier. To that end we have revisited the Battle-Scale List from our original Tips and Tactics blog, to offer inspiration and a solid place to start if you’re new to the Faction.
A 2000-point list
If we go back to the 2,000-point list in the Alliance Tips and Tactics article and apply the relevant points changes and remove the Élan Boon, we suddenly have a saving of 100 points!
This is just enough to add a Basic Malinois Interdictor Squadron to the list to grant the Force some extra mobility, as well as the ability to go after units that are tucked away in otherwise inaccessible places.
However, if we tweak the original list, we can still craft a Force using only the contents of the Alliance Faction Battlegroup Set and the Alliance Introductory Set, whilst building on the theme of making the most of the Faithful trait. In this respect, taking a Reinforced rather than Basic unit of the Avignon Mobile Chapels should allow more of your units to gain the Faithful trait compared to the previous list. Additionally, the Reinforced unit of Bercerrillo War Dogs can now be transported across the battlefield using the Basic unit of Corregedor Heavy Transports, increasing their chances of getting into combat without attracting enemy fire. The new unit of Avispa Gyro-Automata can also be positioned and placed On Lookout early in the Clash, ready to open up on any Light unit foolish enough to risk sprinting towards a nearby Objective, whilst the extra unit of Alpini Rangers gives you yet more opportunities to punish enemy units seeking refuge in cover.
Points values correct as of the Alliance v1.04 BETA ORBAT
For more information regarding the overall changes of this Global Update, read the summary blog.
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