When do you hire a union miner?

[Jordon]

I just recently bought the union miner box and have assembled them. As I built them however, I found myself wondering when I would actually put them into a list? Every time I look at their card I just sort of feel a bit underwhelmed. Their damage output is poor and even with the positives to damage they end up more or less average. They're not particularly durable, especially with our excellent 4ss options in metal gamin and molemen.

In terms of survivability and hitting power, they seem to be completely outdone by rail workers, who ironically synergies better with the M&SU upgrade (bleeding edge tech) as well as most other masters baring Ironsides. Even with Ironsides, I sort of think they fall short given the extra stone buys you soulstone miner or large arachnid.

So I'm thinking the real reason you take them is for false claim? I guess my question is when is this power worth hiring the miners? Is there a particular set of schemes that this model can accomplish better than others? For the extra stone you can hire a soulstone miner, who I think is another excellent schemer that is actually decently survivable and hitty. Or for a point less, the steam arachnid and molemen. 

Has anyone had some experience with these models that they would care to share? 

[Kevin Finch]

I think you nailed it with false claim.  They aren't terribly fighty, but Ironsides helps out with that.  Throwing around some ranged burning is cute too.

[Fog]

With a lot of the newer schemes you need a marker x far from an enemy, marker or place. False claim makes them that much harder to prevent.

[OldManMyke]

I've found them awesome at getting Convict Labour and at putting a massive amont of burning onto the rail golem

[Ludvig]

Placing markers on poorly defined terrain with false claim is a game winner. I could see them poviding markers  near an enemy for a performer to blow up.

They also go well with listening to Bruce Springsteen and drinking beer during your game.  

[Bengt]

Apart from schemes like Set Up and Detonate the charges they can be AP effective with All Together Now as that happens before you need to remove one of the markers.

[retnab]

False Claim and their ranged Burning attack are really their strong points, I avoid melee combat where possible.  I love them with Large Arachnids, as one False Claim can put two Scheme Markers down so two Arachnids can (0) to eat one each for their  flips during activation. They can kind of be considered similar to the Mannequin / Performer combo slinging Scheme Markers forward, but half the range and cost to do so. I like them for Set Up and other schemes that need Scheme Markers close to enemies, especially when paired with the Mech Rider (together they can almost guarantee Set Up or Detonate Charges).

[decker_cky]

Companion is a nice ability to have around, and makes stand together work.

No Df triggers is a solid ability to keep in the toolkit (particularly against gremlins, but there's plenty of df triggers to go around these days).

Stand together and critical strike make it so your opponent can't afford to let them hit. While not as potent as rail workers they have a higher top-end damage, and don't rely on a discard effect (something people underestimate the cost of).

Are they top tier models? Obviously not. Is it worth it to take them when you won't get value from false claim? Probably not. But there's a definite niche where they have value.