Gorbad Ironclaw
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Gorbad Ironclaw is a Warhammer Fantasy orc character and was the creator and leader of one of the biggest shitstorms that ever ravaged the Empire in its long history. Sat on his mighty war piggy "Gnarla" Gorbad was a huge Warboss (most of the famous ones are big) but what make Gorbad stand out from other Warbosses is he was one of the few who understood how to utilise Goblins and actually valued them to be part of his army, and a lot of his battles revolved around him being "kunnin (but also Brutal)" as he seemed to understand basic battlefield strategy which is usually enough to throw most people fighting Orcs through a loop, as it's very uncommon for most orc strategies to be anything more than; 1) run screaming towards foe 2) hack to bits.
But despite this he was still a massive fuck off orc and could easily beat the Tabasco juice out of any opponent. He got shit done as he is personally responsible for; building "Iron Rock" one the greatest Orc fortress in the entire Old World, wiping out the entire province of Solland, and killing the reigning emperor (well one of them) during his invasion.
History
Rise to Power
Gorbad first appeared as a blip on the radar when he very quickly started carving out his own orc empire in the Badlands, as he conquered tribe after tribe of other Orcs. This fast growth was primarily attributed to Gorbads way of conquering rival orc tribes, in which he would leave most of the tribe alive but would very messily and brutally kill the Orc in charge to intimidate the rest of the Orcs into joining his forces, and since orcs respect strength watching a Warboss rip your leaders spine out Predator style was usually enough to convince most orcs to join his Waagh. Leading his tribe out from Iron Rock, Gorbads aggressive expansion meant that very quickly he was the head of the primary ruling power in the Badlands with only a single orc tribe rivalling Gorbads size and power known as the Broken Tooth tribe. This little orchish rivalry didn't last as Gorbad lead his Waagh against the Broken Tooth tribe and proceeded to dig a tunnel underneath the Broken Tooths stronghold of Black Crag and unleashed a Squig herd into the Warbosses chamber which stampeded and killed the opposing Warboss. After seeing the green and red paste that was their former leader, the Broken Tooth tribe swore allegiance to Gorbad and joined his Waagh.
After this, Gorbad took his massive Waaagh and started raiding the Dwarf holds and outposts, which brought him further into Dwarf controlled territory. He razed every Dwarf outpost and hold he encountered, killing all the dwarfs inside and stealing every thing inside the forges, treasuries and armouries and this attracted more orc tribes to his banner further swelling his Waaaghs numbers and making the dwarfs more and more nervous, until they simply closed their holds doors and waited until Gorbad and his horde passed by. Gorbad was very upset by this turn of events and when the dwarfs stopped fighting him he started making tracks for some one who would.
The Invasion of the Empire
In his search for an opponent more willing to put up a fight, Gorbads Waaagh stumbled into Black Fire Pass, and they soon found the fort that guards the entrancement into the Empire. At this point Gorbads Waaagh was unfathomably large and unlike the Dwarfs, the fort didn't have the defensive capabilities to simply lock the doors and was utterly destroy by the orcs as they marched straight into the Empire and the province of Averland. The peasants of Averland had no idea that the huge Waaagh was on its way and the first they knew about it was when a green screaming retard kicked in their door. The invading orcs tallied up such a kill count and plundered such a large hoard of treasure that Gorbad had to stop the Waaagh on the borders of the Moot to set up camp and go through all the things he looted. After finding out that his lands were infested with orcs the Elector Count of Averland sent an army to stop the Waaagh, and requested that the surrounding provinces send reinforcements to help.
When the Averland army met Gorbads Waaagh they were hopelessly outnumbered and almost the entire army was wiped out in a single battle, with a few knights getting away and warning the rest of the Empire of the sheer size and strength of the invading army. After the side show of the Averland army, the orcs continued into the Moot to beat up the Halflings for a few days (in which the invented lots of fun games to torture the little buggers like putting them in pit fights against Snotlings, and roasting their feet over fires) and then destroyed the city of Avierhiem where most of the halflings and citizens of Averlands countryside had fled. The massive Waaagh then swung round headed towards the city of Nuln.
Nuln actually had a few days to properly prepare for Gorbad, and so the Elector count spent the time rallying all his remaining troops, forming militias and reading the cities defences, as well as drawing up plans to try and kill as many Greenskins as possible. During this time Gorbad was also preparing his army as roaming orc tribes in the Empire were currently flocking to his banner, further making an already big Waaagh even bigger. The defence went....poorly. The walls were almost immediately overrun by the orcs and the Elector count called his forces to act out a fighting retreat across the bridge spanning the river Riek, which they then destroyed meaning the orcs had no way to get across. That was until a bunch of greenskins sailing really shitty ships came up the river and started to ferry orcs across the river with a bunch of big'uns acting as shock-troops. Gorbad very pissed off that another enemy had deiced to run awaay again told his boyz to start building a floating bridge across the river using wrecked ships and any pieces of wood to build it. Gorbad then charged his orcs into the defenders who were once again forced to retreat and abandon the city. All the survivors of the battle hauled ass towards Altdorf as it was the best defended city in the Empire and was their only chance of finding a location that could hold off Gorbad.
Gorbad kills a province and attacks a city
After Gorbad had looted and plundered Nuln, the Empire was obliviously very keen on killing him before he destroyed any more cities of importance. So in an attempt to bring down Gorbad the Elector counts of Solland and Wissenland joined their armies together and marched on Gorbads Waaagh, who had started raiding the surrounding provinces. It went badly. Really badly. During the first battle the Elector count of Solland was killed by Gorbad who then took the Solland Runefang and decimated the remaining army. The Elector count of Wissenland escaped but had no more troops to fight of Gorbad, and with no one to put up a fight the Orc razed Solland. The province was so badly ruined that the Empire decided to just have Wissenland and Averland absorb its land, and is the one of only two time the Empire has lost a province and had its neighbours absorb its land (the other being Drakwald which was just one big forest which very few people lived in and was infested with greenskins and Beastmen so keeping it around was kinda pointless).
Gorbad started moving towards Altdorf, and Emperor Sigismund ordered the Knightly orders to start delaying actions to slow Gorbads Waaagh down and as result a small army of Empire Knights had formed up under the command of the Elector count of Wissenland. After some flanking and small skirmishes against some Goblins, the Empire knights and Orc boar riders slammed into each other in a massive cavalry battle, with Gorbad at the centre of it. The Elector count of Wissenland noticed Gorbad in the center of the melee and order the Knight to concentrate on Gorbad, resulting in Gorbad krumping a whole bunch of knights. Realising he was running out of troops, the Elector count led the last wave of knight personally and charged the orcs, king Théoden style. As the Gorbad and the possibly suicidal Elector count clashed, the count was able to shove his Runefang through Gorbads chest, and while this certainly injured Gorbad, all it did in the short term was slightly stun him and Gorbad responded to this botched acupuncture by ripping the Elector counts arm off. The remaining knights were able to grab the Elector count and his Runefang before the very angry orc finished him off and high tailed it towards Altdorf with the screams of a very miffed off Gorbad behind them.
Pissed off that his enemies escaped him again, Gorbad quick marched his army towards Altdorf and began to siege the city. It was at this point Gorbad started acting strange (well strange for Gorbad, but normally for other orcs) as he order his troops to throw themselves at the walls, which were 25 meters tall and 5 meters thick so the orcs bounced of the walls and were obliterated by every kind of ranged weapon the empire had access to. He probably began acting like this because he was extremely angry about being wounded and having the git who wounded him escape, and while he eventually regained his senses the unravelling had already begun. Since the orcs had suddenly started losing, a lot of orcs in the army started talking about how Gorbad no longer had it in him to win, not to mention Gorbad had taken a wound that was really starting to hamper him in battle at this point because it simply wasn't healing (Runefangs motherfucker). Because of this even when Gorbad started acting like a tactician again, large groups of orcs started to slip away and go do their own thing.
With his army starting to shrink from both deserters and causalities caused by the defenders, Gorbad decided to release a group of a dozen wyverns to try and break the defences. The wyverns started to cause chaos on the walls and within Altdorf. One of them crashed into the Imperial palace and went fucking mental, killing everyone and eventually getting to the Emperor, who it grabbed hold of and ate him. Unfortunately for Gorbad this didn't break the defenders as they actually martyred their fallen Emperor and fought harder. Even though they had caused a lot of chaos the wyverns had failed to break the defences, so with very few troop reaming Grobad was forced to break the siege and do a runner for the mountains.
Ultimate fate
With most of his army abandoning him, Gorbad and what was left of his Waaagh (which was a handful of goblins and his original tribe at this point) exited the Empire as fast as they could to escape the Empire soldiers chasing him. After entering the Badlands again Gorbad was set upon by the Dwarfs who very much remembered all the outposts he had destroyed, and began to wipe out his army. Eventually Gorbad was left standing alone on his tod, surrounded by pissed off Dwarfs. What happened next is unknown (mostly because the army book wanted to keep Gorbad surrounded in vale of mystery) but he was most likely dog pilled by a bunch of angry midgets and beaten to death as he was never heard from again and this all happened 700 years before Karl Franz became Emperor. Thus ends the tale of Gorbad (until Total War brings him back).
| Orcs & Goblins Gitz and Bosses | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orcs: | Azhag the Slaughterer - Gorbad Ironclaw - Gorfang Rotgut - Grimgor Ironhide - Grumlok and Gazbag - Wurrzag | |||||||
| Goblins: | Grom the Paunch - Skarsnik - Snagla Grobspit - Black Gobbo | |||||||