The Battle of Nebelheim was a battle fought between the forces of Ostland and an Orc Waaagh! that is often held up as an example of proper military strategy by scholars of the Empire of Man.[1a]
To this battle the army of the Empire, led by Konrad, Elector Count of Ostland, engaged a large horde of Orcs, led by Warlord Gorkfang. Knowing that the Orcs would press on regardless of losses and seek to overwhelm the Imperial army by force of numbers alone, Konrad chose his ground carefully and devised a cunning plan.[1a]
Then he deployed his army in the path of the invading Orc horde, forming up his carefully considered battle line in open, rolling terrain that formed a natural arena for the battle. Konrad deliberately positioned thin lines of missile troops in the centre and big blocks of solid heavy infantry troops on the flanks.[1a]
The Orcs approached and seeing the apparently weak Imperial centre, went into a headlong and ill-considered charge. Of course Konrad's centre gave way and the Orcs surged onward, oblivious to the approaching doom. It was now time for Konrad, relying on the immense discipline of his soldiers, to close the trap. [1a]
The Imperial formations of heavy infantry on both flanks swung inwards and hammered the Orc army from both sides. It is said that the Orcs were jammed together so closely in the melee that they were unable to use their weapons and so fell readily and in great heaps to the massed halberds of the Ostlanders. Gorkfang himself fell, and his horde was annihilated. It was a famous Imperial victory over the Greenskins.[1a]
Trivia[]
The tactic employed during the Battle of Nebelheim is identical to that used during the famous Battle of Cannae, where Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca defeated a massive Roman army of nearly 86,000 legionaries and auxiliaries in a pitched battle where Hannibal deployed a "double envelopment" tactic, using a crescent-shaped formation to lure the larger Roman army into an encirclement, where the Roman line was struck in the side by superior Libyan infantry whilst a charge into their rear by Numidian cavalry blocked all hope of escape.
Unable to maneuver or even use their weapons as the troops was jammed so tightly together, the Roman army was slain to a man. The battle resulted in one of the greatest losses of life the Roman Republic ever endured, resulting in the deaths of nearly one in four of all Roman males of military age at the time as well as nearly half of all Roman military officers.