Dealing with Grundback's Landslide

[Noble Seven]

We pigs can be pretty slow. Carver and Arkadius do have tricks to speed us up, but right out of the pen, we are infamous for trudging along.

I've been playing a few scenario games against Grundback and am having a difficult time countering his Landslide feat when it comes to holding objectives (especially in mosh pit). With the ability to push all of my models within 10 inches of him away a full 8 inches, reducing their speed by 3 (not to mention their rat and def) and keeping my units from giving charge or run orders- holding on to them is not easy. And the next turn I struggle to reach the objectives again with Warhogs moving at Spd 1 and units not being able to do more than advance.

Any tricks or tactics on how to counter this?

[Dogma]

Well, against Gorten you have to remember a few things that you might be able to use.
1.) Focus 5 leaves him with only a 10" ctrl area, and that puts the dwarf right in the middle of the action if he plans on catching the majority of your troops with it.

2.) It is only 10", if you leave even 1 min unit of brigands in the back specifically in the possibility of his feat being dropped, then you have a pretty good chance of them being outside his control area when it drops. And if he does try to move up the little dwarf that far to catch them, then you should have him overextending and leaving his caster vulnerable.

3.)After his feat is spent, Gorten doesn't have a great deal left to use against you. While not a one trick pony, the only other things he's going to have is Solid Ground and Strength of Granite, and only 5 focus to play with. Granted, Solid Ground will screw up the Gun Boars and Razorback Crew when targeting infantry, then that means its just time to put some dents in his jacks.

I hope this was mildly helpful, I've played Gorten a fair bit before and find that the only really scary things he brings to the field is his feat and strength of granite on a focus laden Driller.

[ShatteredFaith]

Strength of Granite on himself is pretty scary, and focus camping he's a tough nut to crack at 24 Armor, as well as if he doesnt want to move at you a boosted pow 16 shot. His main gimmicks are Strength of Granite, but iv been finding myself more and more taking the Rockram for assault, so the assault shot + his melee...with +4 str behind it. Wrecks alot of things good and well, esp on feat turn when they have -3 defense, which makes even the highest defense models a 14 w/o buffs.

[Cannibalbob]

I've played Gorten a fair bit before and find that the only really scary things he brings to the field is his feat and strength of granite on a focus laden Driller.

I disagree. Gorten has a lot more than just his feat and a beefy Driller. He has Rock-wall, which when used well is a very potent spell. He also has both-barrels - which when used alongside a few Gunners is usually game-ending.

And if the opponent is not playing Searforge then it is pretty easy to get Gorten into Landslide position since you should generally have Madeline Corbeau in his army if you can. That extra 3" of movement a turn makes Gorten a whole lot meaner and is well worth the 2 points she costs.



In regards to how to minimize his feat - it is rough. I play Gorten a lot and I have found that no matter how someone tries to prevent you from using your feat effectively there is almost always something punishing you can do. As a Gorten player, the best way opponents can minimize the feat against me is to force me to use the feat on their terms and not mine. One of the ways you can do this is to engage him as early as possible with as much as you can and force him to throw you backwards off his army. If you let Gorten use his feat when he wants to then you are almost always going to be in a very bad position - and if it is a scenario then you have probably just lost. He is easily one of the roughest scenario casters around.

[dboeren]

I've only had a couple of games against Gorton with my pigs, and he's really one of those casters that I've found different people play differently.

Brigands have seemed to be of great utility against him, you can hit his low-DEF dwarven troops fairly easily and POW is good enough to have a good chance of getting kills. Also, when you can't charge on feat turn having ranged weapons is very useful. AD or redeployment should help you get favorable troop matchups - Horgenholds are great targets for Brigands I find.

If you're using Arkadius you may be able to hit his heavies before he's ready for it, losing his Driller and having a War Hog near Gorton puts a lot of pressure on him, and even if Gorton can kill it he's likely going to burn a lot of focus doing so.

Rorsch & Brine can make a good flanking force with enough speed (through Diversionary Tactics) that you may be able to stay out of his feat area or force him to feat not as far forward.

Generally speaking I find that best success against Gorton always comes when you can put him in a reactionary role by pressuring him early in the game. Make him use his feat more defensively to stave off threats rather than when and where he wants to.

[Mod_Faultie]

To sum up the last two posts: play Gorten on your terms, not his. If you are playing for the control scenario, it will be very, very difficult to beat him. Between Corbeau and a well-placed Charge, Gorten can get between 17 and 20" threat on his Feat. Be aggressive, force him to use his feat early, and you will have a much better chance.