Ghordson Earthbreaker

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

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Pathfinder

Weapons

Torpedo x2
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW			LOCATION
		10"			1			4			13			Left & Right
Template:Attack Type Template:Crater Template:Quake Template:From Beneath
Repeating Cannon x2
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW			LOCATION
		12			d3			Template:-			13			Left & Right
Steam Claws x2
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		2				4				21				Left & Right
Template:Open Fist

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Template:Hammer Strike
  • Template:Steelies
  • Template: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).