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War of Dakka

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War of Dakka
WarOfDakka.jpg
Commander Farsight battles Nazdreg on Dregrokk
Date 900s.M41 - Early M42
Location Damocles Gulf
Outcome Greenskins largely defeated and scattered
Conflict merges with Arks of Omen Campaign
Combatants
Tau Empire (original)
Farsight Enclaves (later)
Ork Empire of Alsanta
Waaagh! Nazdreg (later)
Commanders
Commander Farsight
The Eight
Grog Ironteef (KIA)
Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub (MIA)
Strength
Substantial Tau Empire force (original)
Majority of the Farsight Enclave (later)
Trillions of Orks
Casualties
Unknown, presumably heavy Unknown, presumably heavy

The War of Dakka began in M41. Originally, it pitted the Orks under Warboss of Ork Empire of Alsanta Grog Ironteef against Tau Empire forces under Tau commander Farsight.[1] Later, Farsight broke away from the Tau Empire, while the Orks shattered into many warbands, eventually to be reunited under Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub.[3]

Prelude

After engaging a fleet of Kroot Warspheres escorting trade routes off the Tau Sept of Dal'yth, Ork Warboss Grog Ironteef had found that the vicious Kroot, who preferred close quarters combat, made for a "proper fight". This was in stark contrast to most other troops of the Tau Empire, who preferred to fight battles with long-range firepower, a battle style the Orks found highly irritating. Engaging the Kroot in a protracted campaign of "head-bashing", the Tau would eventually come to the aid of their Kroot allies.[1]

Overview

Grog was furious at this interruption and declared war upon the Tau Empire, determined to show them that the Orks were not to be trifled with. Unfortunately for Grog, his armies were outclassed and outgunned again and again by well trained and equipped Tau Cadre's. Though his horde of Orks was massive, Grog found his forces being whittled away.[1]

Thus Grog decided to take a different tack. Deploying many Tankbustas, Flash Gitz, and the Freebooters of Kaptin Badrukk, Grog managed to upgrade his armies firepower as well as loot captured Tau weaponry. Ready to face the Tau, Grog managed to use his armies newly acquired long-range firepower to penetrate the Farsight Enclaves in a bloody exchange of fire. The Tau were only saved by the arrival of a Tau Manta Missile Destroyer, which cut down Badrukk's Flash Gitz with railgun fire and forced the Freebooter captain to retreat.[1]

As the battle in the Farsight Enclaves escalated, Grog embarked on his most cunning plan yet. Utilizing the concept of "retreat", something nearly unheard of in Ork "Kultur, Grog managed to overextend the aggressive Tau hunter-killer teams and crush them in a bloody ambush. Pursuing the retreating Tau back to their base, the Orks looted and pillaged even more of the Tau's impressive arsenal and become an even greater threat. The tide of the war had turned decisively in the Orks' favour.[1]

Since that day, many more Ork warbands have flocked to Grog's banner, eager to join this "good fight". Having taken 3 Tau Sept worlds in the space of a year, the Orks are still locked in a bloody war of attrition with the Tau. No many how many times Farsight and his forces cut down the Orks, more take their place.[1]

Da Big Raid

The Blood Axes of Waaagh! Grog tell a story about the greatest Kommando attack ever, known as Da Big Raid. It happened on the world of Vor’sanar, when Waaagh! Grog smashed into the edges of the Tau Empire. Freebooter raids on the Tau planet had been previously repulsed by a huge alien warship with more dakka than anything in the Ork fleet. Called the Korst’la by the Tau and Da Big Dakkaship by the Orks, it stalked the space lanes around Vor’sanar, annihilating anything that trespassed on the Tau Empire. The Korst’la’s only weakness was that it needed to use the huge orbital docks around Vor’sanar to refuel and rearm. While Grog knocked the heads of his Freebooter Kaptins together, trying to get a large enough fleet together to storm the Tau planet, a mob of Blood Axe Kommandos came up with a more cunning plan. They would attack the orbital docks while the Korst’la was away, wrecking the Tau station, and denying the warship a place to repair itself or rearm.[2]

The Kommandos set out in a looted Tau transport ship, using captured codes to approach the Vor’sanar dockyard under the pretence of having been damaged in an Ork raid and seeking safe harbour. The Tau were initially suspicious of the lone vessel limping into their station, but every demand for identification was met with a satisfactory response, and the idea that Orks could undertake such a ruse was unthinkable to the Tau. It was a horrific surprise then when the vacuum seals opened and Ork Kommandos poured out into the station. By the time the Tau had mustered to repel the invaders, the Kommandos had reached the station’s reactors. Smashing them to scrap, they set off a chain reaction, dooming the station and allowing Waaagh! Grog to ransack Vor’sanar and ultimately the entire sector.[2]

Grog's End

Grog Ironteef ultimately met his end in the Farsight Expedition, but the Warboss' successors have continued to blight the Damocles Gulf.[3]

Continued War

After a temporary parley with Badrukk's Freebooterz in the Trugruk System, the Ork Warboss Nazdreg turned his Waaagh! towards the Farsight Enclaves. Hearing of the War of Dakka, he was deadset on proving his ladz were far shootier than 'sum shifty bunch of pirate gitz'. In addition, the warboss has heard of the Stormsurge Battlesuit and is intent on building one into a Stompa. Commander Farsight and his Tau forces found their worlds beset by Ork forces.[4]

By the formation of the Great Rift, the War of Dakka was still raging on in the Farsight Enclaves despite years of attempts by O'Shovah to subdue Grog's successors which were now led by the infamous Warboss Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub. Nazdreg was able to establish strongholds on both sides of the Damocles Gulf and recruited as many Mekboyz as possible to build him many advanced weapons systems. In the cataclysmic battles that followed, the Orks devastated the Tau in both land and space.[3]

Farsight was forced to introduce a new doctrine dubbed the Way of the Short Blade, which sought to engage the Orks in point-blank firefights in hit-and-run tactics. Farsight further created a specialist recovery corps of Air Caste pilots and Earth Caste engineers to strip every battlefield of wreckage to prevent the Orks from salvaging scrap to produce more weapons. The lack of scrap caused many frustrated and disinterested Mekz to quit Nazdreg's Waaagh!. This allowed Farsight to finally introduce his Killing Blow against Nazdreg and his lieutenants. Despite ferocious Ork counterattacks, the war had firmly turned against them and they lost many strongholds in the Damocles Gulf.[3]

Always of great survival instinct, Nazdreg fled across the Gulf to his stronghold of Dregrokk. At the same time he commanded his remaining Mekboyz to create their greatest weapon yet. Nazdreg intended to introduce a scorched earth policy to annihilate the worlds of the Gulf if he could not have them. On the world of Wurrbork, a mob of Mekz managed to create a powerful Tellyporta and Force Field weapon known as 'da tellyfragga' that could rip apart anything in its path. Nazdreg was pleased, and intended to up-scale these weapons and mount them on an armada of vessels to purge the Damocles Gulf.[3]

However Farsight discovered the Ork plans after his forces captured Wurrbork. Forced to abandon his previous plan to regroup his forces and wait before launching the final strike at Dregrokk, Farsight instead immediately set to end Nazdreg before he could put his plan into motion. More worrying for Farsight, Dregrokk occupied the same system as the blighted world of Arthas Moloch. Meanwhile, Nazdreg gathered trillions of Orks to his cause, creating a wave of disorder and infighting as he sought to complete his force of tellyfragga's. The Warboss would have to launch an attack soon in order to retain control of his Waaagh!.[3]

As the Orks labored on Dregrokk, Tau gunships suddenly appeared in the skies and their warships unleashed a bombardment that disabled the Greenskin space elevators to prevent reinforcements from reading their docked ships in orbit. Using the mayhem as cover, the Tau managed to land substantial ground forces with the intention to strike directly at Dregg City. Led by Pathfinders and Stealth Battlesuits, the Tau knocked out several power generators to disable Greenskin anti-air defenses, allowing for waves of heavy landing craft to enter unopposed. These forces now pushed deeper into Dregg City, hammering the Orks with massive firepower. Nazdreg knew time was on his side and focused only on the northern battle to the largest Tau concentration. It was here the Warboss believed that Farsight was leading from the front, engaging the Stompa mob of Skragga Fundastomp with heavy Battlesuits.[3]

However as Nazdreg departed aboard his persona Battlefortress Gitcrusha, Farsight instead set down from a Manta directly in Dregg City. Alongside The Eight, Farsight targeted the Tellyfraggas under construction. Meanwhile, Nazdreg arrived at the front and when he did not see Farsight present quickly realized he had been outwitted. Seeking to immediately return back to Dregg City, he activated the Shokk Projector aboard the Gitcrusha to make the trip instantaneously. A green portal emerged twenty meters above the Tellyfragga construction yards, and through it Ork reinforcements flowed through including the Gitcrusha itself. The sudden attack surprised the Tau, and most of The Eight took damage. Farsight ordered Sha'vastos to lead the tellyfragga attack while he and Bravestorm dealt with Nazdreg and the Gitcrusha.[3]

The duo quickly landed upon the Gitcrusha and came into combat with Nazdreg himself. Farsight was nearly backed into a corner by Nazdred and his Nobz, but this too had been a distraction to allow for Bravestorm to disable the Battlefortress' Shokk projectors. Bravestorm destroyed the projectors and along with Farsight lept into the sky as the Gitcrusha imploded from the aftershock. Nazdreg was thought dead, and in the aftermath the Orks on Dreggrok quickly folded. As the Tau withdrew, the Waaagh! descended into chaotic infighting. As the Tau fleet prepared to make its next move in orbit, a fleet of Chaos vessels emerged directly alongside them.[3]

These new arrivals were a Balefleet led by the Daemon Prince Ughalax the Soul Eater. Commanding the Ark of Omen Unhallowed, the War of Dakka effectively reached its conclusion and the conflict then merged with the Arks of Omen Campaign.[3]


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