Gaming with Gorten

So I've been playing my Searforge for the past 3 weeks or so and gotten in about 5 games with Gorten in preparation for T-Town Throwdown! aka the 35 pt SR2011 tourney Micah is organizing on Saturday. So I've only gotten in 3 games with the 35 pt list, all with no scenario (which is one of the places this list will shine), but I'm really liking the heavy armor and focus efficiency of the Dwarves. I've also gotten in 2 games with Gorten at 25 pts against David and his Cygnar. So I'll give a brief summary of our game last night. Definitely a fun one.

eStryker vs Gorten

To start, here were the lists:

Points: 25
Lord Commander Stryker (*6pts)
* Ironclad (7pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

Points: 25
Gorten Grundback (*7pts)
* Grundback Gunner (3pts)
* Grundback Gunner (3pts)
* Ghordson Basher (7pts)
* Ghordson Driller (6pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)

David won the dice roll, and deployed first. Stryker in the middle, Ironclad on the right with ATGM's, Stormclad on the left with Stormblades. I deployed with my extra 4" from the Searforge contract with my Forgeguard facing off against his ATGM and Ironclad along with Thor's Blaster, with Thor and Gorten hiding behind the Driller, 2 Gunners, and the Basher. For terrain, there were 2 4x6" forests in opposite right hand-corners just in front of standard deployment zones, 8" of linear obstacles slightly farther forward on the opposite side, and 2 3x5" trenches also diagonal to each other in the middle, to create a symmetrical board.

1st Turn: David runs up a majority of his army, and casts Deflection to protect them from the gunbunnies ranged attacks.

2nd Turn: I know that I need to be blocking lanes to get to Gorten from not just his Stormclad, but also from the ever popular eStryker SCUD missile. To block this, I make about an 8" wide jack wall with the Driller, 2x Gunners & the Basher, protecting them from the Stormclad charge with Gorten's Rock Wall. Gorten also dropped some focus for the no knockdown in his control area. Thor's pronto'd Blaster manage to get 1 out of 2 Gun Mages in his spray, but no real damage. Forgeguard just ran up and did their "come get me" thing.

3rd Turn: David was scared of the counterattack, so decided to use this turn to feat. He charged and nearly wrecked my Blaster with his Ironclad (leaving him on 1-3 boxes, I forget since he took 2 gunbunnies down to 1 and 3 boxes). His Stormclad charged to the side of my rock wall and took a Gunner down to a few boxes (whatever the other one didn't have). Then comes the interesting stuff. The Stormblades run across the map to get all up in my Driller's grill. Then Stryker walks forward, drops positive charge on the Ironclad, pops feat, and shoots/disrupts my Basher. The Stormblades use the 3" move to surround my Driller and get more of them in melee range. Only 4 of them actually had range to make an attack, but they were swinging at MAT 7, P+S 15 for 2 of them (thanks to their built in +2 from the leader) and P+S 15 for the other 2 (thanks to Positive Charge). No charge dice, but he still managed to take out a large chunk of my Driller. Then the Ironclad swings around the Basher (which has a disabled head at this point), and takes a swing on the Driller at dice+1 thanks to Positive Charge. My Driller survives with 5 boxes left, Right Arm and Cortex okay, but surround by Stormblades and an Ironclad. The Stormclad moves around the damaged gunner to take a swing on my Basher, but doesn't manage to take out any systems.

4th Turn: I measure my Control area and see that eStryker is sitting about 1" out of it. I decide not to upkeep either my no KD spell or the Rock Wall. It's time to retaliate with my feat turn and try to end things. First of all, I allocate 1 focus to my Gunner who is untouched. Thor then moves out of Gorten's way and tunes up the Basher's attack rolls (since he can't get focus, I better make sure he hits). The Gunner moves up and potshots at Stryker, dropping 5 dmg onto his stupid orange-haired, goggle eyed face. Gorten then throws Strength of Granite onto the Basher and walks around to get the range for his feat. He pulled everybody toward my table edge for a 4" (an extra 2" more than I needed for the Basher's range I think), then dropped a wall right behind Stryker. I hope you see where this is going, cause this is the whole reason that Gorten got the Basher instead of Thor. The Basher then activates (now disengaged from the Stormclad thanks to Gorten's feat) and successfully slams Stryker. Before I did my slam attack, I activated the Basher's flak field for the unboostable POW 12 against Stryker, dealing another 3 damage or something. The Slam attack only needed a 7 on 3 dice (thank you tune up) to hit, which it did. The dmg roll is at dice +1 for 4d6. He's down to 11 health left at this point, I need to roll a 10 to kill on 4 dice. Below average, gravy. Out comes an 8... Stryker lives with 2 life left. Well, I say to myself, all isn't lost. Nobody in my ctl can charge, Stryker is engaged, the Stormclad can't get to Gorten, and I can wreck his Ironclad easily enough with my Forgeguard (which they do). Maybe I'll survive this next turn.

5th Turn: David is left with 3 Stormblades near Gorten, a Stormclad which is out of range, ATGM kinda far back, as well as Arlan and a Stormsmith that are out of the fight. He was thinking that maybe Stryker should just risk the free strike until I reminded him how Gun Mages can push models. He starts there and ends up pushing the Basher 4" away with thanks to several missing from shooting into melee. Stryker now has an open line to Gorten (5.25" away), but can't charge. First he uses his stormblades to try and deal some damage, ending up laying down about 7 damage on Gorten. Stryker, who hoarded all his focus, then casts Velocity to get close enough to Gorten to lay the smack on. With 2 life, he can't risk overloading, even with just
one dice. This means that he's swinging at P+S15 vs. ARM 19. Not horrible odds for him, but if he rolls low, I win... He didn't roll low.

But it was definitely an exciting game. I didn't quite cover all my contingencies like I should have on my feat turn, but it was definitely a fun game.