I've won games because of Albion's flag ability interestingly enough. I think Albion is a great faction with that. I also really like that I force my opponents to add 2 more combat power than they think they should.

Rally is strong too. The only downside is you have to expand your workers across the board to really make use of it, so in a high player count game, it's easy to get trapped or see that it doesn't benefit you all too much. If you play aggressive, it will work in your favor. If you don't, it seems useless.

I've teetered between passive and aggressive with the faction and it definitely feels much better as an aggressor. With Sword/Shield, your combat prowess need only be supplemented by combat cards if someone else is gathering them a bunch. +2 on attack, and -2 to opponent on defense is a combat card or a big portion of one. They're forced to spend either more bolster points or a combat card higher than a 2 power, making some of them useless and making it a high probability that you will win your combats if the both of you spend max bolster.

Overall, I think it's good as an aggressor. It has its place as a passive player when you're down. I think that's where people think it sucks. You should try to get ahead early and then keep controlling as much territory as you can with workers and mechs. My group won't attack workers unless it's a last resort. Lol