Grundback Blaster

The Blaster's Rhulic ruggedness and durability make it both a brutal and economic weapon of war. Armed with a canister-fed Hail-Shot Cannon, the Blaster answers many of the demands of mercenary commanders and adds an incredible degree of flexibility to Rhulic forces fighting all over western Immoren.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Sturdy

Weapons

Hail Shot Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW			LOCATION
		SP8			1			Template:-			10			Head
Template:Powerful Attack
Bash
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		0.5				0				6				-

Theme Forces

Within mercenaries, this warjack can be used in:

• Template:Hammer Strike
• Template:Steelies
• Template:The Irregulars. If it's 'Jack Marshalled in this theme, it gains Flank [Warrior model].

Outside of mercenaries, it can be taken by Thor Steinhammer in a few more themes.

Thoughts on Grundback Blaster

Grundback Blaster in a nutshell

The twin brother of the Grundback Gunner, the Blaster is yet another gun platform with a rock-bottom price tag, and sacrifices a single direct shot for a spray template. That means 4" shorter threat range, but the added benefits of the spray weapon (most notably ignoring stealth and penalties for being in melee/cover/concealment) often worth this small flaw. While Gunners can bring the pain for a single target, Blasters are effective crowd control solutions. They also really shine when used to clear jamming models from your other pieces - Gunners, for example. Bringing one or two in a Dwarf list is never a bad idea.

Combos & Synergies

• General Ossrum gives it Tactician, Energizer, and Unstoppable force to allow you to move, place enemies together, then spray once they are packed together. Bulldoze can be especially effective to cluster up enemy models for a spray.
• Durgen Madhammer turns their sprays to flamethrowers and gives them Gunfighter on feat turn.
• Gorten Grundback isn't so good as Ossrum with them but they are already good and Energizer is a very good spell with them.

Drawbacks and Downsides

• Due to Powerful Attack their performance are tied to the power-up Focus. Watch out for armies with access for massed Disruption effects (like Nemo1's feat), or with targeted damage sources which can quickly knock out their cortices.
• Good ARM for a light (especially for its point cost), but few HP. Against dedicated warjack-busters it falls pretty quick.
• Slow speed and highly susceptible for rough terrain tricks.
• Really horrible in close combat. If your Blaster gets stuck in melee, it's worth risking the free strike to try and get away.
• Consequently, anti-shooting tricks will hurt you really bad.
• Boosted POW 10 can cause chip damage into a heavy, but still not something to play into an ARM skew, even with powerful attack.

Tricks and Tips

• Beginners' guide: Remember the targeting mechanism of the spray templates. You can target a model outside the range of the gun if that could get more enemy models under the template than targeting the actual unit you want to damage.
• Powerful Attack boosts all of your attack and damage rolls - even if you target multiple models. Use this to your advantage.
• They're perfect zone holders against armies which rely on push/drag/pull tricks, like the ATGM's of Cygnar, the Prime Axiom, Kolgrima, etc.
• Despite immunity to pushes, enemies can still slam/throw/place your jack.

Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Superiority (2006)