Gorbad Ironclaw

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"That'll do pig. That'll do"

Gorbad Ironclaw is a Warhammer Fantasy orc character and was the Warboss 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 made Gorbad stand out from other Warbosses was that he was one of the few who understood how to utilise Goblins and actually valued them to be part of his army. Not only this but 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) krump da gits.

But despite this he was still a massive fuck off orc and could easily beat the Tabasco juice out of any opponent. He also 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
• Killing the reigning emperor (well, one of them) during his Waaagh.

History

Rise to Power

Gorbad first appeared as a blip on the radar when he started carving out his own orc empire in the Badlands, as he conquered tribe after tribe of other Orcs with notable speed. 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. Since orcs respect strength, watching a Warboss rip your leader's spine out Predator style was usually enough to convince most orcs to join his Waaagh. Leading his tribe from his fortress of Iron Rock, Gorbads aggressive expansion meant that very quickly he was the leader of the primary ruling power in the Badlands, with only the Broken Tooth tribe rivalling Gorbad's in size and power. This little orchish rivalry didn't last as Gorbad lead his Waaagh against the Broken Tooth tribe to wipe them out. He succeeded by digging a tunnel underneath the Broken Tooth's stronghold of Black Crag and unleashing 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 Waaagh.

Gorbad then took his massive Waaagh and started raiding the Dwarf's holds and outposts, and then he started moving further into Dwarf controlled territory. He razed every Dwarfen outpost and hold he encountered, killing all the dwarfs inside and stealing every thing inside the forges, treasuries and armouries, which attracted more orc tribes to his banner and further swelling his Waaagh's numbers and making the dwarfs more and more nervous. The Dwarfs eventually realised that a single hold wouldn't be strong enough to fight off Gorbads Waaagh, so they wrote in their big book and simply closed their hold's doors and waited until Gorbad and his horde passed by. Gorbad was very upset by this turn of events, and so he left to find someone 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 entrance into the Empire. At this point Gorbads Waaagh was unfathomably large and unlike the Dwarfs, the fort didn't have the defensive capabilities to lock the doors, so it was utterly destroyed 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, so imagine their surprise when some screaming green retard kicked in the door of their home. 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 to go through all the things he had 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 they invented lots of fun games to torture the little buggers like putting them in pit fights against Snotlings, and roasting their feet over fires) before marching on, and destroying the city of Averhiem, where most of the halflings and citizens of Averlands countryside had fled. The massive Waaagh then swung round and 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 readying the city's 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 to ensure 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, now very pissed off that another enemy had tried to run away 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 of the survivors began to retreat toward Altdorf as it was the most defended city in the Empire and thus was their only chance of holding 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 Gorbad's 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 Gorbad, and with no one to put up a fight the Orcs utterly razed Solland. The province was so badly ruined that the Empire decided to just have Wissenland and Averland absorb its land, and is one of only two times the Empire has lost a province it absorbed by its neighbors (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 Gorbad's Waaagh down and as a 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 ordered the knights to concentrate on Gorbad, resulting in Gorbad krumping the lot of them. Realising he was running out of troops, the Elector count led the last wave of knights personally and charged the orcs, king Théoden style. As 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, perhaps due to his rage, Gorbad started acting strange (well strange for Gorbad, but normally for other orcs) as he ordered his troops to throw themselves at the walls, which were 25 meters tall and 5 meters thick so the orcs bounced off the walls and were obliterated by every kind of ranged weapon the empire had access to. although Gorbad 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, Gorbad decided to release a group of a dozen wyverns to try and break the defences, a last chance to turn the tide of battle. 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. Despite causing a lot of chaos, the wyverns still failed to break the defences, so with very few boys remaining Gorbad was forced to break the siege and escape to 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 [I hope]).

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