I’m going to reverse myself here. After reading back through some other threads on the forum it would seem more likely that this problem is a bad Arduino. Since the machine movement is far greater than the requested move, it is more likely that the Arduino is issueing more steps pulses than it should — maybe due to a failing I/O port.
It is possible that the gShield is at fault, but more likely to be the Arduino.
Meanwhile i have received a new g-shield and an new arduino from inventables (@SamAlaimo great customer support!) and everything works great! The g-shield was broken, the arduino was fine after all.