A WP_Query to combine queries and order by category?

The design dictated that there be a paginated list of posts that started with posts from the primary category, and then drew from a custom taxonomy. Not going to lie. This was a doozy.

// set the "paged" parameter (use 'page' if the query is on a static front page)
$paged = ( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) ? get_query_var( 'paged' ) : 1;
// Get the first query - all microsite posts
$posts1 = get_posts(array( 'category_name' => 'combined', 'posts_per_page' => -1 ));
// Get the second query - all posts tagged with microsite
$posts2 = get_posts(array( 'post_type' => 'post', 'posts_per_page' => -1, 'tax_query' => array( array( 'taxonomy' => 'otherposts', 'field' => 'slug', 'terms' => 'combined' ) ) ));
// Combine the queries $mergedposts = array_merge($posts1, $posts2);
$postids = array(); foreach( $mergedposts as $item ) { $postids[] = $item->ID;
// Create a new query only of the post ids }
// Create an array of post IDs
$uniqueposts = array_unique($postids); $args = array( 'post__in' => $uniqueposts, 'paged' => $paged, 'orderby' => 'post__in' );
// Loop through the posts
$the_query = new WP_Query($args); if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) { $checking = 0; while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) { $the_query->the_post();
// Handle posts here }
wp_reset_postdata(); } ?>