Monday Mercenary Mutterings: Gorten Grundback and the Gunbunny Swarm

At the expense of today's post sounding a lot like a knockoff Harry Potter title, I'm going to take a quick look at Gorten Grundback, arguably mkII's least used Rhulic Warcaster. Also, it's a day late, but that was due to me having second thoughts on the first list I built (see below).

With mkIII, a lot of things changed - Gorten... pretty much didn't. At all. I'm not even joking here, he is almost identical, right down to his feat, spell list, and stats. The only changes to his card (beyond the spiffy new background) is that they threw in a bunch more Warjack Points, Solid Ground is now Friendly Faction, and he gained Tough - 5 minutes with a sharpie and you can keep your mkII card, it's downright unnerving.

However, while he didn't change, it's a lot like the game changed around him, and he is immensely better for it.

Lets take a look.



Gorten has this weird love/hate relationship with warjacks - he loves his own, and absolutely hates everyone else's.

Molten Metal is an interesting spell with pretty much a single use - finishing off or severely crippling a warjack. Given that Warjacks are now "the thing", doing 6 points of damage to one at range 10 isn't something to just ignore (like most direct damage spells, lets be honest). Combined with the higher-than-average POW on Eruption, Gorten should be able to do some serious damage to light warjacks if necessary. It may not get used a lot, but when it really matters, that's pretty nice.

Since Gunbunnies now reliably power themselves, there's not a whole lot that Rhulic Warlocks need to do to keep them going - except maybe make them immune to knockdown and give them something to hide behind (Solid Ground and Rock Wall, respectively). Both solid spells, especially when combined with Strength of Granite, which lets even the humble Basher beat the ever-living gears out of heavy jacks while pushing them around, and allow a well supported Driller to trash even Khador 'jacks in a single turn. That can mean some very good trades, especially when combined with the feat.

Now, the Feat. It is arguably the second best control-feat in Mercs, losing out to Magnus2 (because who doesn't?!), but not by that much. Being able to flat-out shove every enemy model in your control range nearly out of it is a pretty good feat. The downside is that, because of his woefully small control range, Gorten has to play pretty far up - I don't think that's too bad of an idea, since most of the guns in this list are relatively short range, and he wants to get control points anyway.

The Lists

1st List: Mercenaries 75pt
Gorten Grundback
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Wroughthammer Rockram
- Ghordson Driller
- Ghordson Basher
- Grundback Blaster
- Grundback Blaster

Thor Steinhammer
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
Gastone Crosse
- Mule

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Herne & Jonne
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen

This list is pretty close to a gunline, since most of the units (except Sylys, the Driller, the Basher, and Alexia's grunts) have ranged weapons, however the purpose of the list is more in line with control and anti-ARM. Alexia and the Risen are a speed bump, while Eiryss and Orin deal with spells.

This list lends itself a little better to the assassination style of play - use the feat to drag the enemy closer, then shoot/clobber/smash/slam/zap the enemy to death with everything you've got. The only part I'm not really solid on is Gastone and the Mule, who I'm tempted to swap out for an Avalancher on Thor for the Quake, though in doing so I lose some significant shooting potential.


After thinking about it for a day (and fighting down my instinctual knee-jerk reaction to skew lists...), I came up with another list that takes a different approach.


2nd List: Mercenaries 75pt, the Gunbunny Swarm
Gorten Grundback
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Wroughthammer Rockram
- Ghordson Driller
- Ghordson Basher
- Grundback Blaster
- Grundback Blaster
- Grundback Blaster
- Grundback Blaster
- Grundback Gunner
- Grundback Gunner

Ogrun Bokur
Thor Steinhammer
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen

This list is a bit different - it drops Orin, Gastone, the Mule, and Herne and Jonne, in exchange for a Bokur and 4 more gunbunnies (2 Blasters, 2 Gunners). I could probably drop more to add in even more bunnies, but given that I'm already terribly tempted to drop a Blaster for Saxon Orrik and a Gobber Tinker, I think this is probably close to the right amount without going outright overboard. There's also not a lot I can drop without considering the following:

1. The Basher - mkIII has given this jack some interesting improvements over it's previous incarnation, not least of which is a staggering drop in relative cost. Gorten runs it better than any other Warcaster, in my opinion, because of Strength of Granite, allowing you to get 4 POW 19 slam attacks, not even counting the POW12/POW6 attacks from the Flak Field. This lets the Basher trade really, really well against enemy heavies, disrupt enemy lines like an absolute champ, move stuff around easily, and even potentially do some damage to infantry at the end of the slam. To work the best, it needs 3 fury, but will only take 2 away from Gorten thanks to the new Focus rules.

2. Damage Buffs - Gorten needs a good damage buff that's not specific to a single warjack, in case he has to deal with massed infantry or a colossal, and Kiss of Lyliss from Aiyana will both stack with Strength of Granite, and benefit the Gunbunnies if they have to, say, mow down a unit. Some more accurate shooting out of Holt won't hurt too much either, come to that.

3. Enemy Upkeeps - The other thing Gorten needs is the ability to drop enemy upkeeps, specifically any that boost DEF, since that is a bit of a problem for him. Eiryss2 plays a lot like she used to, and is a fantastic support solo in this list. She's not going anywhere.

4. Shield Guard - Gorten, despite his high ARM and access to Rock Wall, is still a bit squishy and susceptible to assassination since he needs to be so close to the action. Being able to draw off knockdown shots and the like goes a long way to keeping him alive, not to mention the other support models, and he's much more economical than an Avalancher, so the Bokur is staying.

5. Road Block - Alexia and company are staying as a pure speedbump unit, since I've been on the receiving end of a few annoying mass charges already. Their ability to replenish their ranks as I kill enemy models (with, for instance, boosted SP8 POW10s...), not to mention needing nothing from Gorten or support solos to function well, puts them above Steelheads in this instance.

So, there you have it, a pair of Gorten lists. I'm really interested in trying out the 2nd list, though probably not until this weekend at the earliest.