MAG URUK THRAKA Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka (trans. Metal-skull great/big Ork ruler) is that most dangerous of Ork leaders, one with both drive and ability in abundance. Ghazghkull has plagued the Imperium for decades, his apocalyptic creed sending untold millions of warlike Orks into battle with the forces of the Emperor. Orks are a wild and barbarous race scattered through the galaxy in their billions. Consummate scavengers and improvisers they can cling on in the harshest conditions and thrive. It is reckoned by Imperial scholars that there are more Orks than Men in the galaxy and were they to ever unify Mankind would be lost. The Orks' thirst for violence is unmatched and their considerable energy is taken up with fighting those around them, including other Orks, much of the time. However, when their numbers start to grow the often random aggression of Orks takes on a terrible purposefulness. Tribes are conquered and combined into ever greater coalitions, warbands flock to the banners of the most powerful warlords and the crazed Mekaniaks start building ever-greater engines of destruction. This is when the Orks go to war. A yelling horde of Greenskins will hurl itself across the stars in a headlong rush for conquest, part mass migration, part invasion, part lemming-like rush to oblivion. The collective roar of thousands of charging Orks has long since been acknowleged as the best expression of this atavistic wrath incarnate - the Ork Waaagh! The impact of an Ork Waaagh! can bring whole worlds, even whole sectors, to their knees. Ghazghkull began his days in the ranks, one of the Boyz on the backwater world of Urk. During some forgotten raid a bolter shell pulped a large area of his cranium and he suffered extensive brain damage. However, the physiology of Orks is incredibly hardy and with the crude surgical skills of an Ork medic, Mad Doc Grotsnik, Ghazghkull survived - albeit with a big adamantium plate riveted across his shattered skull. It may be that the experience awakened latent psychic powers in Ghazghkull, or simply that he suffered delusions, but, for whatever reason, after his injury he claimed to be in contact with the Orkish war gods Gork and Mork. Some Dark Power certainly favoured Ghazghkull for his rise to prominence was meteoric. He swiftly fought his way up through the ranks to become warlord of the entire planet. Orks respect little other than courage and battle prowess and without any doubt Ghazghkull possessed both these abilities, but he also had something most Orks lack: he had vision. He stirred the Orks with a sense of common purpose and overwhelming destiny, declaring that the time had come for the Orks to conquer the galaxy, to force all others to bow before them and pay tribute.
The strategically vital hive world of Armageddon was the first to feel the impact of Waaagh! Ghazghkull. By evil chance the Warlord struck a crippling blow on the lynchpin of the entire Armageddon sector, and found it woefully ill-prepared to counler the onslaught. The planetary governor, Overlord Herman von Strab, proved boo over-confident and incompetent, frittering away the considerable garrison forces in a series of disastrous engagements, despite lessons amply demonstrated when Armageddon almoS fell to the forces of Chaos earlier in the 41st millennium. Even when the Orks had overrun the continent of Armageddon Prime, and stood poised to sweep into Armageddon Secundus, von Strab vacillated and dismissed the threat. Finally an Imperial Guard Commissar attached to von Strab's staff took matters into his own hands and instructed the Astropaths to send a signal for aid. So it was that Commissar Yarrick was exiled to Hades hive, which came under attack after Ghazghkull's invasion force smashed its way through the Imperial defences at Infernus. Ghazghkull's battles on Armageddon had by now drawn an increasing number of Greenskins eager to loot the manufactoria and weaponshops for which Armageddon (Armour-geddem to the Orks) is renowned. As these pushed on to other hives Ghazghkull's restless attention was drawn to Hades, which stubbornly refused to fall. Inspired by the indefatiguable Commissar Yarrick the people of Hades fought for their homes with unprecedented ferocity, staving off the Ork warbands massing around the hive. Ghazghkull himself intervened to take control of the siege of Hades as the rest of the Ork hordes swept onwards to the last unconquered hives of Acheron and Tartarus. The battle which ensued at Hades has been written off in many places, an epic due! of Ghazghkull's cunning and savagery against Yarrick's determination and grit. In battle Ghazghkull was a masterly opportunist and quick to exploit any weakness. Once combat was joined Ghazghkull fought at the head of his troops, inspiring them to ever more reckless abandon and plunging into close combats to get famously 'up close and personal'. After weeks of ploy and counter-ploy, infiltrations and full frontal attacks, Ghazghkull gathered enough Ork warbands into a force big enough !o overwhelm the hives' defences. Already it was too late. Even as his Ork warriors rampaged into Hades hive reinforcements led by Space Marines from the Blood Angels, Ultramarines and Salamanders Chapters arrived and broke the siege. It seemed that Ghazghkull had allowed himself to be drawn into a battle of wills at Hades and ignored reports of Imperial counterattacks from the south. Only at the last moment did the trap Ghazghkull had laid become apparent as fresh Ork reinforcements poured in from the west. They threatened the virtually defenceless hive of Tartarus to the southwest of Hades, capturing it would cut off the Emperor's forces in the shattered ruins of Hades and leave them bereft of supplies. Only a desperate gamble by Commander Dante of the Blood Angels, a nigh-suicidal orbital assault by drop pod into the heart of the Orks, could turn the tide in time. No Son of Sanguinius can be said to lack courage and the Blood Angels made their assault. The Orks were caught by surprise and thrown into contusion by the attack. As the outnumbered Blood Angels furiously carved a path through the Greenskin horde the call went up that Ghazghkull himself had been sfain and the numberless thousands wavered as the Imperial forces assailed them with ever greater fury. Waaagh! Ghazghkull was broken apart, individual warbands fighting their way clear or standing their ground and fighting bitterly until the last bullet. Waaagh! Ghazghkull had been defeated. Or so it was thought. Were Ghazghkull any ordinary Ork warlord his story would undoubtedly end here, his horde defeated and his life lost or challenged by another Ork on some forgotten battlefield in a galaxy torn by wars... But Ghazghkull was not dead. He and many of his followers escaped Armageddon and found their way to the secretive and almost forgotten forge world of Golgotha. There, guided by Gork and Mork, he mustered enough strength to challenge the tech-adepts and overcome their heavily defended strongholds one after another. Even the arrival of Commisar Yarrick (only recently recovered from terrible wounds he'd suffered at Hades hive), and limited Imperial Guard reinforcements, could not save the sparsely populated world and Yarrick himself was captured in the fighting. Though Yarrick was able to escape (Ghazghkull is alleged to claim he let Yarrick go as he enjoyed having a 'favourite enemy' to fight) the whole Golgotha sector was eventually lost to the Emperor's Light and its extensive forges have been the haunt of Ork lootas and Mekaniaks ever since. Ghazghkull had a new divinely-inspired plan. He would test the defences of the Imperium, it being the biggest opponent the Orks would ever find, and learn how to beat it. Over succeeding decades reports of Ghazghkull grew sparse; rumours of raids against Imperial outposts led by Ghazghkull himself, unusual activity in the space surrounding Golgotha, nothing to excite a major reaction. Even the destruction of the military facilities on Buca III by a surprise missile attack in 962.M41 provoked no Imperial response. Once again Imperial governors and commanders had grown complacent. In 972.M41 a mass of Orks identified as Waaagh! Ghazghkull overran the strongly defended agri-world of Chigon 17 in a lengthy guerrilla campaign which rendered the Imperial defences utterly useless. This was followed over a decade later by Ghazghkull's capture of the hulk of the battlecruiser Radiant Way and its escorts after leading a sudden attack by Ork pirates. The Imperium finally responded in force this time but discovered that the Orks were long gone by the time they arrived. Following these events Ghazghkull allied with another infamous Warlord, Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub, to launch a devastating surprise assault on the planet Piscina IV. The Imperial garrison was taken by complete surprise when the Orks employed previously unknown teleporter technologies to transport their warriors directly onto the planet from a space hulk hidden a massive distance away. Only the presence of the Dark Angels and Harbingers Chapters of Space Marines saved Piscina from being overrun before reinforcements could be rushed to the scene. Once again Ghazghkull was driven back, but with his new ieleport device tested and perfected he now turned his sights back to an old prize. Fifty seven years to the day after his first invasion Ghazghkull launched what was to be the Third Armageddon War. Instead of an opportunistic rampage this was a long planned assault. Despite the tighlening of Imperial defences the sheer size of the invasion astounded Imperial commanders. The deadly vision of Ghazghkull had spread throughout Orkdom and taken on a life of its own. Whole tribes of warriors had come to Armour-geddem from all of the greatest Ork enclaves to do battle. Once again the agonies of Armageddon are well documented elsewhere, but suffice to say that with supreme efforts the Imperium held against the invasion until reinforcements could arrive and stem the tide. Bitter fighting still rages across hives captured by the Orks though most are now little more than blasted ruins pulped by continuous artillery barrages. The Orks have dug in, quite literally, breeding in foetid pits beneath their ruins and the trackless equatorial jungles and volcanic mountains. More Ork warbands continually arrive in the system to try and run the Imperial blockade and participate in the war. Through the creed of Ghazghkull Armageddon has taken on a mythic quality for Orks, a valhalla to test the mettle of the hardiest of their breed. He has learned that while Orks thrive on battle Men are weakened by it, and that Orks can live under the very guns of their enemy and grow strong. Due to the unique biology of the Ork race this is true, the more fighting Orks do the bigger and tougher they get. Imperial forces have encountered Armageddon Ork juveniles which mass the same as full-grown Ork warriors from other worlds and adults are twenty percent larger. The Orks constantly multiply in the blasted wastelands of Armageddon and the Imperium is forced to tie up huge reserves of Men and machines just keeping the Greenskins in check. After some months of fighting all signs of Ghazghkull disappeared from Armageddon just as the combined might of the Imperial armada and the Space Marine fleets closed in around it. A space hulk believed to be carrying him was tracked to Golgotha but several raids led by vengeful Black Templar Space Marines suffered badly for no gain. His whereabouts have been sought since, and some agencies, in particular the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, believe he has rejoined Nazdreg to rebuild the Ork fleets by reaping the rich wreck-fields and hulks from the war to remake as attack ships, kill-kroozers and assault boats. Should Ghazghkull continue his efforts and infect more worlds with enough Orks, and the warlike conditions they live for. the entire sector will be destabilised and most likely slide into anarchy. More reinforcements get sucked into the stubborn embers of the Armageddon war daily, producing a worrying shortfall among nearby sectors likewise plagued by Xenos raids and depredations of the Ruinous Powers. There are more Orks than Men in the galaxy, and if Ghazghkull's ideals spread they will increasingly come into contact with Mankind in sufficient enough numbers to spread from world to world, bringing war and revelling in it. Firm intelligence on Ghazghkull's horde during the Third Armageddon War have been hazy as the constituent warbands break up and reform on an almost daily basis. The following is an estimate of those following the Prophet of Waaagh! after the initial period of the invasion. Great Overlord Ghaighkull's War Horde (Esimated four hundred warbands.
18 Gargants) Compiler's Note: Ork warbands number between between 600 and 3,000 warriors plus associated war machines and artillery (typically equal to 20-25% of warband strength, rising to 50-100% for `Speed Kult` and `artillery` warbands). `Gargants` where listed indicate Titan-weight Ork war engines of all classes. An Ork army of at least 2,000 points may be led by Ghazghkull. If you decide to include him then he counts as one of the HQ choices for the army. He must be used exactly as described below, and may not be given additional equipment from the Ork Armoury. In addition he may only be used in a battle where both players have agreed to the use of special characters.
Wargear: Big horns, bosspole, mega armour, mega boosta, stikkbomb chukka, adamantium skull, kustom shoota (S5 Assault 2) Adamantium Skull: In some forgotten firefight long ago Ghazghkull took a bolter round to the head and was almost killed. However, Ghazghkull was saved by the 'skills' of Orky surjery and his own Ork hardiness. The adamantium skull plate Ghazghkull now has adds +1 to his Toughness (as shown on his profile above) and gives him a special headbutt attack. When Ghazghkull charges into combat he gels an extra free head-butt attack against one model in base contact with him. The head-butt is resolved as an attack made at Initiative 4 - roll to hit as normal for a close combat blow and if a hit is scored roll to wound with Ghazghkull's Strength of 5. A model which suffers a wound from the headbutt is stunned for the rest of the turn and may not attack in close combat.
Goff Army: Ghazghkull is a member of the Goff clan and his army is shaped by his preiudices. An army including Ghazghkull must include at least one mob of Skarboyz and may not include more than one unit of each of the following troops or vehicles: Kommandos. Burna Boyz, Wartraks/buggies, Warbikes, Big Gunz, Loolas, Looted vehicles. Independent Character: Ghazghkull is an independent character and follows all the special rules as detailed in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. Bodyguard: Ghazghkull may be accompanied by a bodyguard as detailed for an Ork warboss in the Codex army list. |
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All
this might have come to nothing if Urk's sun had not begun to flicker
and die, beginning its slow expansion into the sullen crimson orb of
a red giant. Ghazghkull told the Orks this was a sign from Gork thai
the time had come io launch a Waaagh! and stain the stars themselves
with blood. Those who wished to join the great war would follow Ghazghkull
and those who wished to disobey the will of the gods would die. To an
Ork they chose to follow Ghazghkull and conquer the galaxy or die gloriously
in the attempt!
Power
of the Waaagh!: Ghazghkull has always been a mighty prophet of Waaagh!
capable of rousing entire planetary populations of Orks into a Irenzy
of conquest and bloodshed. Once during a battle Ghazghkull can unleash
the powef of the Waaagh!. the awesome unconscious psychic energy of
Orks fighting. The power of the Waaagh! can be summoned at any time
including during an opponent's turn. For the remainder of that player
turn, and all of the following player turn, Ghazghkull gains a 2+ Invulnerable
save. In addition, for the duration of the Waaagh! all Orks pass their
Leadership tests and Morale checks automatically and recover from pinning
immediately. Orks fighting in close combat double their Initiative just
as if they had charged in and passed a Mob Size check this turn. Note
that Grots never beneiit from the power of the Waaagh! (they're just
too weedy).