Gorten's Gunbunnies (Tale of 4+ gamers) - 24.9.08 Test mini added

I thought I'd throw up a thread for the small force I'll be working on for the tale of 4+ gamers from next month. I'm planning a small, themed mercenary army for WARMACHINE. I already have a rather sizable Cygnar foce which can offer me a numer of differnt play styles and compositions for variety, and a small, themed Circle army for HORDES which is ridiculously effective and comes out for tourney style events where the goal is to win (although it is a bit of a one trick pony!). With that in mind, I'm really only looking for a small modelling project rather than an unber competative army.

I've always liked the rhulic dwarf models PP puts out and have decided to do a 500 point self contained Searforge Commission mercenary contract force. Although they are fantasic in game, I have eschewed the ubiquitous Ogrun Bokurs in favour of all dwarves and am currently working to the following list:

-Gorten Grundback
__Grundback Blaster
__Grundback Gunner
__Grundback Gunner
__Grundback Gunner
__Ghordson Driller

-Thor Steinhammer

-6 Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps

-6 Horgenhold Forge Guard

which is bang on 500 points. It' basically the contents of the Gorten battlebox (the small, rhulic light warjacks being colloquially referred to as gun bunnies), an extra gun bunny and one of each of the pure rhulic models available (except for Joln Rockbottom, who is realy more of a pirate). After some test games, I expect I'll wind up having the driller marshalled by Thor instead of under Gorten's control, but need to give it a try.

What I'm stuck on is a colour scheme. I've currently got 3 possibilities in my head:

Grey - use charadon granite as a base and add more and more khaki into the highlight until you get a warmer khaki grey as the extreme highlight. This is very similar to the standard gorten colours, but would be extended onto the forgeguard and highshields

Brown - a nice, utilitarian brown colour to suit the dwarves' pragmatic and practical nature. Probably a brown with a little splash of another colour mixed into it, like the greeny-bown of VMC English uniform

Green: Play up the steampunk aspect with a nice British Racing Green scheme (somewhere around catachan green, with grey added for highlights) set off by a rich brass/bronze trim on the metals.

any thoughts?

Thanks
Corai

Huzzah for the Gunbunnies

I take it the driller will be marshalled and the bunnies will be run by Gorten... thoguh isnt he likely to run low on focus

I'd say the Racing Green, just because it'd be something different to see

Whilst Gorten’s 5 focus isn’t exactly anything to write home about, my theory (completely untried!) is that if Gorten is able to fully handle his battlebox which is 3 gunbunnies and a heavy, swapping out the heavy for another gunbunny shouldn’t make a massive difference, as the Light jacks are very focus efficient (thanks to the special rule allowing all attack or damage rolls to be boosted for just a single point of focus) and Thor’s drives and tune up should get the best out of the Drillers ability.

At least that’s the theory!

Thanks
Corai

I suppose i keep thinking of 5-6 focus (actually 5 as you say)... then 4 jacks, 1 focus each is fine for shooting but leaves you without spells... actually thinking it through properly you'll rarely be handing out 4 focus a turn as the AoE's can happily miss and still cause damage

Month 1: October Goal Post

__The Test Model
Being the master of all things killing two birds with one stone, I've finished up a test model for my army (which also features as my entry for th best progress painting comp in the butchers cauldron!). I went for the racing green colours in the end and am fairly happy with the result IRL (the pics are a bit off and dark!). I think the scheme could use a bit more brass or grey in it to contrast the dark green armour, but there isn't really anywhere to do that on the forgeguard minis. The jacks with their larger metal expanses should provide a more balanced scheme (I Hope!). I actually ordered a few resin bases from microart studios, u they were taking a while to get here, so have decided to go with some cork and snow bases instead (the micro art ones will always find another use!)




__The List

Searforge Commission

-Gorden Grundback
___Grundback Blaster
___Grundback Gunner
___Grundback Gunner
___Grundback Gunner

-Thor Steinhammer
___Ghordson Driller

-Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps

-Horgenhold Forge Guard
___________________________________________500 points

__The Strategy
The idea is that Gorten's gunbunnies will rush ahead early on to support the advance deploying high shields whilst the rest of the dwarves hoof it to keep up! The Driller should always recieve the tune up ability from Thor before charging, and the haste drive he can give it would also help to mitigate it's low movement. Ideally, as the driller can recieve no focus support (being jack marhsalled rather than run with a warcaster) it will be supported by the forgeguard unit. I've kept the unit small and compact to make the most of it's ganging up abilities, but suspect, against some opponents, a couple of gunbunnies will be drafted in to screen them. Gorten's feat can be used either to draw a defensive army closer to me before charging them (again mitigating the Rhulefolk's low movment) or keeping murderous units like doom reavers and trollkin champions far away from me. This can also be helped by casting rock wall.

Thanks
Corai

I've been toying with the idea of running highborn covenant instead of searforge commission so I can include a converted rhupert carvolo (he'll be turned into a dwarf ). Bascially I loose one of the gunbunnies to include Carvolo and 2 more forgeguard. That would turn the forgeguard from a nice support unit to being the main hamer unit of the army as, supported by the Piper, they would be truly horrendous in combat! The downside is the high shields looe the ability to advance deploy, making their low movement and short ranges something more of a hindrance. Hopefully the piper's march song could mitigate that somewhat

any thoughts?

Thanks
Corai

As a plan it certainly as merit... as you say March would help no end... from what i've read i'd go with using it on the highshields to get them into position moslty so the mechs keep up with the forgeguard

Losing advanced deploy would be a pain but it could give you a nice twist against what people might expect and it gives you one less gunbunny you have to allocate focus to... i'd say go for it, convert the model, add it to what you'll be collecting and if it turns out not to work then revert to the current list

I wish I understood what you guys were talking about   I guess I'll get it after Corai's battered me around the tabletop a few times.

I'm really looking forward to it - warmachine seems like a great game.

Honestly i would advise against going with Highborne Covenant if youre still planning on only including Rhulic models (sans piper). It takes away one of the huge strengths of the contract-being able to take other units/jacks, the advantage is of minimal use (1 model advance deploying) and neuters your list in any scenario thats not purely caster kill (no advance deploy for the highshields). Highshield count on it, otherwise they have to run which means theyre not in shieldwall and theyre not aiming which makes them unable to hit the broadside of a barn. With thier low defense and armor (non shieldwalled) theyre easy pickings. Being advance deployed your opponent will have to deal with armor 19 highshields using covered fusilade while the horgenhold run into place to counterstrike safely. The piper will likely be busy with the Horgenhold, speeding them up and bumping their defense from being auto-hit to maybe someone will occasionally miss me. I'd also seriously reconsider including the bokurs, just using conversions-maybe Dwarven Tower Guard, something of that nature.

Now keep in mind all of this advice is purely based on gameplay, thematically i would love to see a dwarven piper. In the end play with what you like. Oh and i like the color scheme! The green is a little too dark but you said the pics were dark so ill just assume its actually lighter.

Thanks for the advice Calibretto.

I've used bokurs a few times in the past, and they sure are awesome (espescially when compared to the equally priced gunbunies!) and some conversions may pop up in the future, but for the time being, I was trying to keep it all short That being said, I already have all the parts I need for the piper conversion so I might give it a try anyway, if the conversion works alright I'll try running highborn a few times. If not, it will be all searforge all the time

thanks
corai

No problem, i understand wanting to keep the theme. And hey if you can make it work, more power to you!

I got a bit mroe time to work on the steam-stunties this evening. I managed to get the other 7 Forgeguard, thor steinhammer, one gunbunny and Gorten himself stuck together before I ran out of cork for the abses. The aim is to hit homebase/B&Q etc on tuesday and pick up some more, as I have a game arranged against the Stronghold's own Wildcard next weekend and want to have the whole force assembled by then.

Accordingly, assembly is going to take precedence over painting this week, but I'm still aiming to get the rest of the forgeguard painted if possible.

...

Assuming I don't need anything else for the woodeles before the tourney!

Thanks
Corai

and I'm looking forward to that game.  My force will be assembled as soon as my cankerworm arrives (if it doesn't I'll just sub-in a stalker) - and I'll try and have some of it painted by then too.

ack, so far all attempts to find cork floor tiles has failed. I'm going to try hobbycraft tomorrow and see if I can pick up some craft-corks to get the basing done on these guys! (doesn't help that I've been distracted by more BFG tau either )

Thanks
Corai

If your stuck for cork Monk Bar Model shop in york sells it in big rolls. If you cant make it over here I can buy it for you and bring it over when im next at the nightowls. Ment to say hi on sunday but you left pretty quick. Got my ass handed to me by paul at SoTR.

cheers
haydn

ack, so far all attempts to find cork floor tiles has failed.

I picked up quite a few of these at an Office supply store, not sure if you have similar in your neck of the woods. Look in the whiteboard/corkboard area ... maybe you will luck out?

Thanks guys, after failing at B&Q, Homebase, Staples and Hobbycraft I finally found somewhere that just sells actual cork in town so have now assembled and based the entire army, including my counts as conversion to represent Rhupert Carvolo in rhulic form. I'll get some pics up tomorrow

Ment to say hi on sunday but you left pretty quick. Got my ass handed to me by paul at SoTR.

Sorry I had to run off, I was actually working this sunday so had an appointment to go to, I'd over estimated how much time I could spend at the club! And being that Paul was one of the primary playtesters for Secrets, I'd say loosing to him is nothing to be ashamed of!

Thanks
Corai

Well I didn't get anything else done yesterday down to a nasty bout of man-flu rendering me bedridden for the bulk of the day. Back at work today but I'm not sure if I'll manage any pics tonight as I pack up what I need for the WFB GT this weekend.

If nothign else you'll see some photos of my game with WC this weekend

Thanks
Corai