The Coalition is arguably the face of Cortex Command, and provides a stable supply of generic, capable soldiers with a well rounded arsenal and a handful of perks. It's the most "standard" faction to use and exists as a good benchmark against the strengths of other factions. This guide aims to provide a through overview of the units and weapons as well as it's varying effectiveness.

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The standard infantry of the Coalition are average combat units with a couple perks and are fairly durable, comparing favorably against other faction troops in several ways.

Soldier (Light, Heavy)
The Coalition Soldier is a green and white dressed space trooper. They are notable for being flesh-based, giving them a slight resistance to fall damage compared to mechanical troops, but are vulnerable to bleeding out and small arms fire. Each comes with a standard issue jetpack for amazing mobility and a helmet which can help survive a headshot.

Light Soldiers are fairly quick and retain full jetpack flight, whereas their Heavy counterparts are fitted with better armor and are slightly more durable at a cost of some jetpack speed and use. However, both are similar enough to justify interchangable use with defensive or offensive combat.

Gatling (Drone, Turret)
The Gatling Drone and Turret are well armored and equipped with a Gatling Gun, making them excellent defensive tools. The primary difference is that the Drone can act as a siege weapon with it's limited mobility, whereas the Turret is almost completely static and immoble, reserving it for defensive roles almost exclusively. Both Gatling Guns have a spoolup time in order to fire, and the Turret variant has a max ammo capacity of 200 shots, double of the Drone's 100 shots, allowing it to sustain fire for a longer stretch of time.

Tactics
Ideally slower and heavier soldiers are best suited for defending stationary bases, but a lightly equipped Heavy Soldier can fly around the scene just as well as a well equipped Light Soldier can.

Gatling Drones and Turrets are durable enough to be dropped in the middle of an enemy crowd, buying the unit ample time to rev up it's Gatling Gun to shred enemies close by.

Pulse Digger
The Pulse Digger is the only Coalition-specific tool, with a fairly fast digging speed but is only really capable of digging through dirt. Rocks, concrete, and metal all stop it dead in its tracks, making this digger only useful for quick dirt excavations or base cleanup, as there is little threat to the tougher structures of your base when using this digger. All in all, not a particularly good digger when cheaper, more efficient choices are available.

As with all diggers, can be used in close combat to eviserate an enemy that flies too close.

The real perk of the Coalition faction is their array of generic yet outstandingly reliable weapons that should be familiar enough to do what you expect them to do. They are all relatively powerful in their own right and the heavier weapons in particular have unique mechanics, ensuring the potential for fun and creative gameplay within this particular faction's arsenal.

Pistol (Standard, Auto, Heavy)
The default Coalition Pistol is a very cheap solution for a gun, with 10 shots and a low stopping power and weight. Hard to justify using it alone - it is definitely best as a finishing weapon when your primary weapon is reloading, or as an emergency sidearm should your primary weapon break.

The Auto variant is indeed automatic and fires in a burst of three shots for a total of 18 shots. The Heavy Pistol has a total of 8 shots, better damage, and can still be fired relatively quickly. Both are good for a loadout that lacks a mid-ranged primary weapon, like the Sniper Rifle or Shotgun.

Assault Rifle (Compact, Standard)
The Assault Rifle is a very reliable automatic rifle that outputs enough damage to kill most enemies in a clip or less. The default has 35 shots, good accuracy, and good damage, but has a fairly noticible effect on jetpack flight with it's weight.

The compact variant has a cheaper price and lighter weight, but takes hits in only having 25 shots and a larger spread on top of slightly weaker damage. Do not be fooled, as it still is a very capable weapon.

Shotgun (Standard, Auto)
The Coalition Shotgun deals excellent damage up close and is capable of fair damage at mid range, with it's relatively tight pellet spread working well at a distance. The standard Shotgun holds 6 shots and reloads one at a time, whereas the Auto Shotgun holds 10, fires very quickly, and reloads all ten at once.

Remote-GL
A Grenade Launcher for the Coalition, which fires in a gentle arc and sticks to surfaces and other actors. Grenades must be manually detonated or removed via the pie menu, and can be detonated in midair. Can damage friendly units, so be mindful of placement. An effective trap or offensive explosive, but clumsy to use. Six shots.

Gatling Gun
With 100 shots and a spool up time before firing, the Gatling Gun has a huge firerate and damage potential, but is slow and heavy to use. Probably only effective in defensive situations or dealing with heavily armored enemies, like dropships and crab mechs.

Sniper Rifle
A very strong precise rifle and the only real long ranged tool for Coalition troops. Compared to other factions and their equipment, it's only an average sniper rifle. Taking advantage of it's sight range and strong damage makes it a good weapon for picking off actors of most factions with a single headshot.

Auto Cannon
A rapid fire grenade launcher that has a gentle arc and explodes on contact. The explosions are fairly strong, and it is a effective anti-dropship weapon with its very fast fire rate. It's a strong area denial given enough open space, but fails roughly when attempted to use indoors. Hideously expensive and heavy.

Missile Launcher
A strong explosive solution with fair splash damage. It can switch between a two-shot unguided mode with a noticible arc and a single shot guided missile that follows the cursor. Hefty price, but capable of destroying almost all single targets on a direct hit. Cuts mobility and jetpack use down by a significant amount, however.

Uber Cannon
A strong artillery cannon with a unique reticle that gives a fair estimation of the projectile's trajectory. Explodes in midair on proximity to a surface to scatter a bunch of clustered explosives, detonating on a fairly wide area around the target. Strong arc, long reload, and heavy weight reduces mobilty to little more than walking. Very hard to use effectively without either a height advantage or a lot of open space. Painfully expensive for how hard it is to use effectively.

While the Coalition has an array of standard-use grenade types, these grenades typically end up getting the actor holding them killed in a fit of self detonation. However, when used correctly most can bounce and can take advantage of an arc for a safer kill.

Grenade
A typical fragmentation grenade that explodes in about three seconds. Effective when exploiting angles and cover, but fairly unpredictable.

Cluster Grenade
Explodes into a series of smaller explosives that cover more area and explode shortly after, similar to the Uber Cannon's smaller explosives. Better as an open field kill grenade.

Incendiary Grenade
Produces fire after it explodes with a delay, dealing damage over time in an area. Effective at area denial and flushing out defenders from a small nook or cranny in the map, but lacks an immediate effect.

Timed Explosive
A thrown explosive that does not go very far at all, and explodes after approximately 10 seconds. Remains static on contact with a surface. Beeps for its countdown, and has an above-average explosion radius. Overall, typically not worth using unless attempting to breach doors with with weak guns or lure braindead AI into traps.

Tactics
Equipping a grenade on each Coalition grunt can give each actor an option for an effective suicide, but primarily at the risk of the grenade blowing up in their hands prematurely while grouped up with other soldiers.

Cold Hard Reliability
Coalition Soldiers are of an average durability and have several weapons that work in a very simple, linear fashion, with their Assault Rifles being above-average bullethoses. When things don't go to plan and the enemy gets in close, a stereotypical group of soldiers with rifles being dropped in will always have a strong degree of effectiveness until you figure out what to do.

Range Specialization
Coalition weapons compliment each other most through the difference in their effective range, creating the need for protecting the Soldier with an Uber Cannon with enough riflemen for enemies that like to come in close. A sniper or grenadier being escorted by Compact Rifle wielding infantry offers an effective way to cover weaknesses.

Weapon Alternatives
Unqiue about the Coalition is the presence of weapon "sidegrades" which may be weaker overall, but are cheaper and function as similarly to it's counterpart for an army on a budget. Where other faction weapons are very unique in their function and design, Coalition players can choose to cut corners on spending without downgrading their entire rifleman platoon down to pistols only.

Expensive Hot Potato
The heavy weapons of the Coalition troops are worth their weight in gold, and there are several to choose from. Having spare soldiers around with inferior weapons can help cut costs by simply picking up the pieces after an accident, as long as they weren't too close.

Armored Core
An often underutilized part of the Coalition arsenal are the Gatling Drones. More than anything, these drones are a fairly tanky solution to the fleshy soldiers along the frontline, while your bipedal troops take advantage of the Coalition weapon selection for more specialized circumstances. Be mindful that the Gatling crabs are not very mobile and are painfully slow.

That concludes this guide on the Coalition. Some additions may be implemented into this guide in the near future, such as matchups, typical unit builds, and strategies.
Other faction guides will also be provided in the near future and subsequently linked here.

Free Trade / Tradestar Midas

If you would like to see other things covered in this guide at the expense of it being "TL;DR", please comment and I'll look into adding it. Thanks for reading.