Ufthak Blackhawk

Ufthak Blackhawk is an Ork warboss of the Bad Moon clan who appears in Mike Brooks’s Warhammer 40,000 novels. He treats a Waaagh!, the large-scale Ork war effort, as a means of advancement, and he favours heavy firepower, which Orks call dakka.

Brooks’s novels follow him from an obscure figure, whose early success owed much to chance, to a warboss of practical use to Ghazghkull. In Ork terms, this means he attacks directly and then deliberates. His campaigns bring him into conflict with the forges of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the guns of the T’au, and they include mishaps involving squigs. Da Big Dakka places him in a war fought chiefly with firepower. He emerges from it with greater wealth in teef, additional scars, and a following that values both.

Ghazghkull’s campaign requires subordinate commanders who can direct fire effectively. Ufthak serves as an example of a Bad Moon whose ambition survives combat against capable opponents.