Ghordson Earthbreaker

99% of this website is about Mark 3 (mk3), which is the previous edition of the game (2016 to 2022). The reasons for this are explained here. 1% of the website is about Mark 4 (mk4), but only in regards to which mk3 models are useable in mk4 Prime and which are mk4 Unlimited. See Legacy Armies for more detail.

Ghordson Earthbreaker Mercenary Rhulic Colossal Warjack

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Rhul Guard. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

When the wealthiest Rhulic clans need to leverage immense power—whether at a construction site or on the battlefield—they mobilize the Ghordson Earthbreaker. This hulking construct, outfitted with drilling torpedoes and massive steam claws, can level opposing soldiers and warjacks as easily as it moves mountains of earth. While these great machines were once employed only within Rhul, the emergence of Colossals in the wars of the Iron Kingdoms has motivated Rhulic mercenary warcasters to invest in Ghordson Earthbreakers to maintain their competitive edge.

Basic Info

Ghordson Earthbreaker
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Huge SPD 5 STR 17 MAT 6 RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 8 ARM 20 CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 60 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE N/A COST 33 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.

Colossal - Colossals are mega-warjacks, even bigger and stompier. They use nearly all the same rules as normal warjacks but with a few alterations. These changes are summarized here or can be read in full here.

Rhulic Warjack - This warjack must be controlled by a Rhulic model.

Abilities

• Construct
• Pathfinder

Weapons

Torpedo x2
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW			LOCATION
		10"			1			4			13			Left & Right
Attack Type - Each time this weapon is used to make an attack, choose one of the following special rules: Crater - The AOE is rough terrain and remains in play for one round. Quake - On a direct hit against an enemy model, all models hit are knocked down. From Beneath - Attacks with this weapon ignore cover and concealment.
Repeating Cannon x2
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW			LOCATION
		12			d3			-			13			Left & Right
Steam Claws x2
		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		2				4				21				Left & Right
Open Fist

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Hammer Strike
  • Soldiers of Fortune
  • The Irregulars

• Other Factions
  • As of 2021.07, there are no other Factions that can take this Colossal in a theme force.

Thoughts on Ghordson Earthbreaker

Ghordson Earthbreaker in a nutshell

Being the second sturdiest colossal in the game (right behind the Victor and the Conquest) the Earthbreaker is a range-focused colossal. As it has no way to significantly augment its ranged damage output, it is primarily taken for the knock down torpedoes that ignore cover and concealment. This is an excellent assassination threat and hit fixer against high DEF lights and heavies. However, with POW 13 on all its guns, it's going to struggle when presented with a lot of ARM 19 or higher, which is not at all unusual. Against slower, high ARM targets, and armies without pathfinder, it's better off using the difficult terrain torpedoes as a board control piece.

Combos & Synergies

• General Ossrum: Snipe on the Earthbreaker makes it an assassination tool to be respected but ties up a ton of Ossrum's points and he runs so many other things well.
• Durgen Madhammer: Arguably the best Earthbreaker caster because Field Marshal: Continuous Fire allows its blast weapons to take out blast-immune infantry, and Redline gives it melee and ranged threat extension along with a damage boost to melee.
• Gorten Grundback: Strength of Granite. For when you really, really, really want to crush everything in one sweep. Many armies can't get to an Earthbreaker with a well-placed Rock Wall in front of it.
• Thor Steinhammer: He is more or less mandatory with the Earthbreaker because Tune up is effectively 2 or more free focus for that first knock down torpedo attack..
• Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile has Artillerist for extra RAT. Same thing with Herne of Herne & Jonne.
• It can reach RAT 9 under Mark Target and Artillerist in Soldiers of Fortune for all that it's worth (no Thor in the theme stings).
• Bamfist hands out focus to it.
• Widget gives it an out-of-activation shot.
• Asphyxious4 provides a damage-upper via Dark Shroud.
• Lanyssa Ryssyl or a Diffuser run by Gaspy or Nemo4 provide threat extension as well, and a free charge.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Slow, with weak ranged guns.
• It 'forces' you to take Thor Steinhammer for the extra boosts and/or an artillerist, so it's a 36 point package at least.
• As of 2018, the Earthbreaker is a rare sight in the Rhulic lists:
  • With all the LoS blocking terrain on the board in SR2018, its assassination threat is greatly diminished even with Snipe.
  • It costs almost as much as two Ghordson Drillers and two Grundback Gunners or Grundback Blasters combined. It's hard to justify putting that many eggs in one basket or expecting it to do more work than that combination.
  • In another perspective: bringing 6 Gunner or Blaster instead of the Earthbreaker will yield you 6 Focus on Power Up (which quite often equals 12 Focus due to their Powerful Attack rule), while you'll get only a single one for the Earthbreaker.
  • 2 Hammerfall Siege Crawlers cost 1 points more, with more HP, greater utility, and much more board presence. Their critical effect can often match, or be superior to your torpedo's.
  • Colossi are best with casters who have spells that greatly augment single warjacks. There is, at present, no Rhulic caster that turns the Earthbreaker into a murder machine that justifies its high price point. Durgen's Redline spell comes closest. It awaits either a caster that unlocks whatever hidden potential it has, or a buff within a CID cycle.

Tricks & Tips

• Knock things down with the Quake then strafe the survivors with the guns.
• Don't neglect the difficult terrain effect. Unlike Quake, Crater requires no direct hit. Feel free to blind-fire into the enemy's general direction, and hope for a good scatter (Artillerist support improves your chances for it).

Other

Trivia

• Released in the Warmachine: Colossals expansion (2012).

Who can take this warjack

To include this mercenary warjack in your army, it must be controlled by one of the following Rhulic warcasters or marshals. Thus, to include this jack you first need to find a controller that works for your army.

Rhulic 'Jack Controllers (Edit)
Warcaster	Durgen Madhammer - General Ossrum - Gorten Grundback
'Jack Marshal Cannot take Colossals	Thor Steinhammer

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Open Fist  (aka, Power Attack Throw)     (Edit) Throw ( Edit ) See also the Throw article for a recap of the core Throw rules. If a model is somehow thrown at itself (which can happen with Durst1's feat) it would not move, it would be knocked down, and it would take a standard power attack damage roll but it would not take an additional die for colliding with itself. (Infernal Ruling) Because you move the target model between the attack roll and the damage roll, you can get different buffs applied to the two rolls. For instance, if you throw the target in or out of a Flanking model's melee range. Incorporeal vs Slammed/Thrown models ( Edit ) Incorporeal models cannot be moved by someone trying to slam them. Slammed models can move through Incorporeal models. If they have enough movement to get past them, no dramas. If they land on them, you move the Incorporeal model out of the way as per the Rule of Least Disturbance. If the Incorporeal model cannot be moved (i.e. it's a flag) then you move the slammed model out of the way, also by the rule of Least Disturbance. For the purposes of Collateral Damage, only the model(s) you contacted before you applied the rule of Least Disturbance count as contacted. The same logic applies to Throws. Collateral Damage Collateral damage cannot be boosted and is not considered damage from an attack or model. Refer page 33 of the 2021.08 version of the rules pdf. As a result: It doesn't trigger stuff that relies on being hit by an enemy (such as Shock Field) or damaged by an enemy (such as Vengeance). It doesn't get bonus damage from stuff that adds to a model's damage roll (such as Signs & Portents or Prey). It doesn't matter if the attacker has crippled weapon systems or aspects. Throw - Power Attack When you make a Throw Power Attack, no other abilities of the Fist weapon (such as Chain Strike) are applied unless they specifically mention Throws. (Locked Thread) If you do a Power Attack Throw and you choose to throw the target directly away, no deviation is rolled to determine the final position of the model. (Locked thread) A model that cannot be targeted by melee attacks (such as Una2's feat) cannot have models thrown at them, either. (Infernal Ruling) Since throwing Model [A] at Model [B] involves making a melee attack roll vs Model [B] which is out of your melee range, it technically breaks a whole bunch of core rules. (Infernal Checking) Even though you make a "melee attack roll" vs Model [B] you don't actually make a melee attack vs it. Also, the damage it suffers is from Collateral damage, not from the original attack. So you can't trigger stuff like Snacking from damage you did to Model B.

Rules Clarification : From Beneath - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Attack Type and/or Arcane Savant     (Edit) If you forget to declare your Attack Type before rolling the attack, and you and your opponent can't agree on a fair fix, then the Judge's Policy is that the first listed Attack Type is the one that will be used. If your target can only be targeted by certain kinds of attack (ie a Menoth warjack with Passage), you can first choose the correct Attack Type (ie Magical Damage vs Passage) and then that allows you to target it. The Attack Type selection and target declaration both occur at Step 1 (Refer Appendix A). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Crater - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Quake      (Edit) If the weapon misses, then it will deviate and do blast damage as per a normal AOE (assuming it has a POW to begin with). Other effects of the attack will still occur (such as the Mitigator's auto-point of damage to all models hit). Knockdown (Edit) - Remember, knockdown only prevents what it says it does. Refer to the Knockdown page for a recap of what a model can/can't do.

Rules Clarification : Colossal      (Edit) See also LPG - Colossals & Gargantuans: Has a newbie-friendly summary of colossal rules. Warjack: Has a copy-paste of the official colossal warjack rules. LPG - Infernals: Has a copy-paste of the official colossal horror rules. Huge Base (Edit) You can draw LOS from your Left arc to a target in your Right arc (and vice versa). See also this diagram Huge-based models get bonus distance if they do a Power Attack: Slam or Power Attack: Power Strike. But this bonus doesn't apply to slams triggered by normal attacks (such as Critical Smite or the Hurricane's Thunder Charge ability). Also, simply being on a huge base triggers a bunch of rules scattered throughout the rulebook, click to read them.   [Show/Hide] From the 2020.02 edition of the core rules (Edit) Fields of Fire Page 37 A huge-based model’s front arc is marked on its base. Its front arc is further divided into two 90° fields of fire. These fields of fire determine which models a huge-based model can target with its weapons, depending on the location of those weapons. Weapons located on a huge-based model’s left side (L) can be used to target only models in its left field of fire, and weapons located on its right side (R) can be used to target only models in its right field of fire. Weapons with locations “S,” “H,” or “—” can be used to target models in either field of fire. If any part of a model’s base is on the line separating the left and right fields of fire, the model is considered to be in both fields of fire. Concealment, Cover, LOS Page 49 Concealment & Cover - Huge-based models never gain the DEF bonuses from concealment or cover. Page 60 Clouds - Cloud effects do not block line of sight to huge-based models. Page 87 Forests - Forests do not block line of sight to huge-based models. Huge-Based models in melee Page 54 - Huge-based models never gain the Target in Melee DEF bonus. Page 65 - Combined Ranged Attacks cannot target a model in melee unless it has a huge base.

Rules Clarification : Rhulic Warjack - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Pathfinder      (Edit) Pathfinder (Edit) - Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary movement (pushes & slams). (Infernal Ruling)