[@Tortoise] Think that as GM, you ought to get one now :lol

[h2]Codex - Earth Cultural Union[/h2]
[i]Lights! Camera! Action! New Hollywood demands a show and the ECU's army will give a performance worthy of Old Earth. Through the power of showbiz and literal movie magic, the ECU military will dazzle, woo and wow both the viewers at home and the divergent, degenerate abhumans before them. The ECU alone are the true heirs of Mother Terra and the paragons of humanity. With the lessons of the Savants to guide them, victory is all but assured![/i]
[h3][u]Special Rules[/u][/h3]
[list][*][b]Hardlight Hologram[/b] - Units with this rule are unbreakable and have a 4+ Ward save against all attacks. EMP attacks however automatically wound if hit.
[*][b]Purity of Form[/b] - Units with this rule gain Hatred against any non-baseline human unit, allowing them to reroll attacks and wounds. This rule does not apply to alien or non-human units.
[*][b]Student of the Savants[/b] - Units with this rule may take a Savant's Lessons upgrade.
[*][b]Star of the Show[/b] - At the start of the game, designate one character as the "Protagonist". Reroll a failed saves on this character and any unit within 12" can use the character's leadership instead of their own. However, killing the Protagonist nets the opponent double the amount of points normally they'd normally gain.[/list]
[h3][u]Play Style[/u][/h3]
[s]PURGE THE UNCLEAN[/s] The ECU is an army with mediocre units boosted by some excellent rules and synergies. Which is good since unlike most other factions, you're stuck with unaugment humans. You don't even have near-unbreakable troops like Augustilia. But unlike Augustila, the ECU excels at weakening the enemy to the point they can fight them, especially with their Purity of Form special rule.

Before we get into units, we need to talk about the cornerstone of the ECU: the Lessons of the Savants. There's both selfish, self buffing ones and AOE aura buffs. These can dramatically change how a unit behaves from giving new abilities to simple stat improvements. However, only Oligarchs can take them (you can take them on Oligarch Heirguards and Enforcer Captains but Heirguards prefer self-buffing ones and Captains require you to also buy a Script of Wisdom for them). Thus keeping your Oligarchs protected and safe is very important to get the most out of your boring, unaltered troops. Also always refuse Challenges, you can take the Leadership hit and discretion is the better part of valor; its not cowardice, its survival. Good luck getting an Oligarch to 1v1 a Vampire or Enhanced Hierarch.

Holograms make for incredible tarpit units, on par with the Midnight Technocracy; they won't kill a lot but they can hold for an insane amount of time given that they're unbreakable and have a 50/50 chance of straight up saying "no u" and not taking a wound. Lessons of Savant Gabor makes them even more sticky by increasing their ward save to a 3+ and letting you resummon 1 hologram per turn on a 5+. Not exactly the vampire's undying horde but Holograms are arguable stronger than them anyways. Once your enemy is bashing their head against a hardlight wall, feel free to either flank around and destroy them or go grab objectives. EMPs though are your enemy and you have no easy way of stopping it.

ALT: Instead of just using them as tarpits, Holograms can be used in a supporting role as well. Holographic Horrors already give an 9" AOE fear to everything around it and the Rod of Romero gives any unit Fear for a turn. A blob of 30 Holograms suddenly turning into a blob of shimmering monsters can fear a lot of units if they're in base contact. Throw a Holo-Controller into your list to give your Holograms some more toys to play with. "Spectral Dazzle" forces enemies to reroll 6's to hit which gimps a lot of powerful exploding 6's abilities and "Iron Curtain" projects a wall that either gives a -1 to hit from range or force enemies to reroll charges and take the lowest. "Illusionary Support" isn't as good as it used to be as its not capped at 10 temporary holograms who can't even cap points. For even more troll-tastic fuckery, give your non-Hologram units Spotlights and/or Firework Cannons to blind and slow enemies even more.

The biggest downside to Holograms is that they don't have Purity of Form but that is where you Protectors and Enforcers come in. Free Hatred on most of your army is good, but Lessons of Savant Byrne makes it even better. Having an Oligarch list of Byrne's ramblings give you exploding 6's to hit, giving you a free attack for every 6 to hit. The ECU also has access to one of the strongest single items in the game: Relic of Old Earth. Usable once per game, it basically gives any unit Killing Blow, letting them completely ignore any armor, ward or invul save. An Oligarch with a Lessons of Savant Byrne and Relic of Old Earth can make a fully kitted out Augustilian Duke or Vampire sweat nervously hilariously enough. Even a unit of Stagehands with the same buffs can grind through Chosen Enhance Hierarch Guard or Augustilian Grenadiers with good rolls.

Special mention to Savant James Herald. This silver fox stands alone among all named characters and he's the only motherfucker who lives up to the title of "Savant". He can take up to three (yes, THREE!) Lessons on himself for an easy deathstar build. While his combat stats are just barely better than a normal Oligarch, his Neo-Matrix Training ability and Bullet Timer Watch item makes him insanely hard to kill or snipe out without the need for Star of the Show. Note: Herald must be the general of any army he is a part of but SotS doesn't have to be. You can make a pretty cheap meatsheild Oligarch with SotS, Lessons of Savant Irons and Hardlight Defense Field to "dramatically and heroically sacrifice themselves" by tying down the enemy and taking challenges for Herald.