Puoi usare le parentesi per consentire l'uso di ORDER /LIMIT su singole domande:
(SELECT * FROM some tables WHERE ... ORDER BY field1 LIMIT 0, 1)
UNION
(SELECT * FROM some tables WHERE ...)
ORDER BY 1 /* optional -- applies to the UNIONed result */
LIMIT 0, 100 /* optional -- applies to the UNIONed result */
