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I'm thinking of starting a Searforge mercenaries army (and warmachine) with the battle box in the near future, but I am wondering is it possible to to run nothing but Searforge successfully?

If this wouldn't be possible what units would be a good addition to a searforge army?

Many thanks.

yup, the searforge commission is a legit merc contract in warmachine. you can run the following models in a pure searforge list:

Warcasters

Durgen Madhammer
Gorten Grundback

Warjacks

Ghordson Avalancher
Ghordson Basher
Grundback Gunner
Grundback Blaster
Wroughthammer Rockram
Ghorsdan Driller

Units

Highshield Gun Corps
Horgenhold Forgeguard
Horgenhold artillery corp
Herne and Jonne

Solos

Crag and Lug
Thor Sterinhammer
Lord Rockbottom
Ogrun Bokur
Gudrun the Wanderer

i find the searforge contract to be to restrictive. some players like the challenge, but i like to run the dwarf warcasters in other contracts to get more options.

Thanks for the help ,another question I have is the searforge successful on their own or do they need a other units from other armies to fill in the gaps.

define success. i have seen solid searforge lists win tourneys.

I have to confirm. As much as Searforge is limited in the number of available units/models it is still a very competitive army that does not really need any "help from outside".

Madhammer benefits more from other mercs, I think. Blow everything up just works
better with more things to explode other things with, I suppose.

Gorten's defensive posture and board control FEAT benefit more from the
Searforge contract in that he really likes the extended deployment zone
and the ability to take more Bokurs to protect more fragile key pieces in his army
such as Thor and Rockbottom.

I think Gorten runs pure searforge better, Durgen really shines with other merc models in his army( looking at you reinholdt and Dougal). Pure searforge is fun but challenging, good luck.

warsmith pyrus wrote:I'm thinking of starting a Searforge mercenaries army (and warmachine) with the battle box in the near future, but I am wondering is it possible to to run nothing but Searforge successfully?

It's possible to run pure Searforge with the battle-box -- and, with my fairly liimited experience of it, granted, it does fairly well. Gorten is a low focus caster (five focus), the warjacks that come in the box have handy focus-saving abilities. The three Gunners, for instance, will require only one focus point assigned to them each to get a boosted attack and damage roll. For three focus, you're getting three RAT 6 / POW 12 boosted shots.

The Driller, sadly, is going to require a bit more focus poured into it. It has the sstained attack ability on it's drill, which lets you automatically hit with it's drill if you've already hit with it in the same activation. When the enemy is close enough to charge with it, I'll usually assign three focus to the Driller - one for the charge, one to boost the first attack roll, and one to allow it another go with the drill. Combined with Gorten's Strength of Granite, it's pretty nasty.

Outside of the battle-box, I'm fond of the Basher, which is another warjack that doesn't need too much focus assigned to it to perform well, as it can make a Slam attack for free.

The biggest downside in running Searforge, IMO, is that people will often come to the table knowing what to expect from your force. It's not that the Searforge options are bad, it's just that they lack the flexibility of the other forces. When somebody says, "Hey, I'm bringing Cyngar...", that could pretty much mean anything. When you say, "Hey, I'm bringing Searforge Commission...", they'll probably have a good idea of what you're bringing to the table*.

* Hopefully, an ass kicking.

I would think anything past battlebox you would want Thor.

Tuneup is just so good. And it is another focus-replacement

skrulnik wrote:I would think anything past battlebox you would want Thor.

Tuneup is just so good. And it is another focus-replacement

Not to mention he's a good looking model,but anyhow I don't mind if playing searforge makes my list is a little restricted.
Any way I guess I'll start with the battle box.

i run both of the dwarf casters in highborn contracts just because i like selection, but we have 2 very successful searfgorge players at my LGS.

I played against Searforge with my Trolls. At first, I was laughing them off, thinking the game would be cakewalk. Oh how wrong was I???

They may be slow, but they are double tough. They gave me a real run for my money in MkII. Even by not having many units, they are still a competitive force.

I'd do a Searforge army, if I didn't already have 3 WM armies and Trolls.

Searforge is probably the most challenging Merc Contract/Warmahordes army to play effectively. It is however, really fun, because as someone mentioned earlier, your opponenets think that beating you will be easy. Madhammer can be used to great effect with AOE's, so use multiple Avalanchers and Artillery Corps. The Searforge, I believe allows a +1 to the field allowance of units and solos, so you could field 3 artillery corps and jacks in general are unlimited. Thor is also important and the Basher heavy jack is really good.

Azeroth wrote:(...) and the Basher heavy jack is really good.

The Basher is really good. Played a game at the FLGS earlier in the week, which saw a Basher slam into a Spriggan, which knocked over Supreme Kommandant Irusk. The Basher then followed up (getting into base-to-base with Irusk), activated Flak Field and then finished off Irusk with an extra melee attack. Killing a Warcaster for only one focus felt pretty good.