I like how they can just put bombs on every ship in that harbor. If SI:7 is that good, why not do that before? Or every time from now on? Very convenient that not a single sentry was alerted on in a wide open bay full of ships that don’t even have a single iota of gunpowder on them. Must have been some large bombs to make explosions like that, too.
Large noticeable bombs.
How did they even get on there? How did they escape? Magic?
Perhaps it’s the same magic that allowed Jaina to subvert Sylvanas’ well earned tactical victory outside the walls at Battle for Lordaeron. Or the same magic that allowed Jaina to shield and then teleport all of the Alliance leaders away from the successful trap she set at Battle for Lordaeron.
All the Alliance victories except for Darkshore seem to be comparable to “I am invincibul that’s my force power” in a pretend lightsaber fight.
Tell you what, when I level my Alliance character he better be the one to set all those bombs in a quest, because the player characters should be the only ones that skilled to do so.
I’d call it something like, being the main character of an mcu movie that isnt an avengers ones.
You know they’re going to win no matter how insane the bad guy is
Like how the Horde needs a mysterious smuggler’s route the night elves forgot about despite using it themselves in the last 50 years, the Alliance to forget blight exists, the Alliance to forget they have airplanes, the night elves to pull their entire armed forces out of position, everyone to forget about the space ships, my aforementioned dwarf steam tanks (RIP, Trollplough), how numbers matter so much until they don’t (void elves), teleportation – magical or mechanical – being barely utilized, and so on.
We’re running on “Rule of Cool”, and it’s not just Sylvanas’s “cunning plans” suffering for it when the desires of the writers need someone to take a fall.
…Though Sylvanas’s clever plans rely a LOT on everyone else being written like complete dunderheads. Like, Alleria can open void rifts too. How in the world did she think the Undercity bomb was going to actually work?
Yeah because the magic zandalari fleet that hadn’t even officially joined the horde yet was sunk. Now magically the horde armies are somehow falling apart as the alliance drafts farmers. Gnomes flipping tauren warriors over their shoulders, night elves killing orcs 1000 to 1 the horde elves ( the top magic users per in game lore) conveniently forgotten in their cities, the kul’tirans which are basically the equivalent to a pirate back water are dropping elite troll warriors that have the blessing of literal gods. It makes so much sense great story writing.
If it’s going to bother you that much, I’ve got news. It’s not a new development. And it’s not only in service of the Horde. Or the Alliance. It’s in service of the story.
Though I think you MAY be underestimating the Alliance a wee bit.
No I expect the alliance to be on par with the horde dead even in fact. I expected after the horde pulled their stunt in Ashenvale out flanking the night elves and burning teld, that the alliance would be repelled at the walls of undercity only for SI 7 to hit the sewer entry way take the guards out and an alliance army to push through not jaina in a magic flying boat rescuing the alliance and making them look incompetent. I expected an actual war that flushed out the races and their leaders not forsaken vs humans. Right now it’s just a disservice to the races in game and all the lore put into them. How cool would it have been to have a gilneas world pvp zone between the remaining undead in eastern kingdoms and the worgen trying to retake their kingdom? Maybe have fel wood become another world quest zone because the night elves regrouped on hyjal and are pushing back into their territory. The way things are thus far make no sense.
The Horde never engaged the night elf army – except for a few ships – and took 8:1 casualties.
Against the night elf “civilians” and the Darnassus city guard.
Slyvanas’s Undercity stunts decimated the Horde army at the start of the cinematic. Baine is told to get what’s left out. ….And next time we see him, he’s in a zeppelin with no soldiers with him.
I feel like the Horde would be in a much better position if they HADN’T STARTED THE WAR BY THROWING THEIR FORCES DIRECTLY INTO TWO MEAT GRINDERS IN A ROW. Between that and Tyrande’s powerup, I’m not exactly having trouble believing that the Horde is taking a brutal beating.
Like, that’s the sort of consequences we’re both advocating for, at least a bit. Now WHY it’s happening will be interesting to see.
Again that’s terrible story writing ( even if your numbers are inaccurate) the warsong slapped around the night elf military in Warcraft three and now suddenly their civilians are elites? What kind of joke is that the orcs nearly conquered the world twice do them some justice in their depiction, it can be a slug fest between the two armies but don’t give me this crap that the civilians held the line that’s a joke.
To be fair, Grom couldn’t step up to the night elves without sucking down the demon blood, and the ENTIRE HORDE ARMY just chose to go around the Silverwing Sentinels during Wolfheart because they couldn’t take 'em out.
And the reason civilians is in quotes is that a lot of night elves have some combat experience – Saurfang gets kicked by a monk, the druids are making trouble, Malfurion is roaming around, there’s a young night elf rogue – but they’re not the night elves’ standing army. The sentinels. Who were lured down south.
Sorry, that’s how it’s written.
Civilians cost the Horde 8 dead for every combatant the Horde killed. The only reason War of Thorns was a victory was the magical smuggler’s route, because both Saurfang and Sylvanas note that if the kaldorei army lands, it’s probably over.
Now WHY it was a brilliant idea to start the war by throwing punches at arguably the strongest Alliance race in their home turf and wrecking your army to achieve precisely diddlysquat (no broken hope, night elves already pushing horde back) is something I have yet to figure out.
That’s not what Saurfang and Slyvanas thought. Source is still the novellas.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s silly that the night elves can take on the entire Horde alone. And I think that’s the REAL, narrative reason why War of Thorns was a strike at the kaldorei – to take them down to where that’s not such a thing in the future by decimating their noncombatant population. Doesn’t change the (also source: the novellas) drubbing the Horde army took during the whole thing.
Which is probably why the Horde is currently in a very bad place.
Night elves get worf’d a lot, and their victories tend to be discussed in a few lines. Like the ultimately-lost War of Thorns being a multi-week event with two tie-in novellas. And the source for the Horde losing their grip on Darkshore/Ashenvale is… What, the Wartables maybe, something Shaw says, something Nathanos says.
Anyway, my point is that maybe swinging a punch at the biggest guy in the bar was a terrible start to a war, and we maybe shouldn’t be surprised it hasn’t worked out for the Horde.
Dude the elves got steam rolled by a single clan to the point they had to bring a wild god to help them, that clan then drank demon blood and still won when the elves had a wild god and a substantial numbers advantage. The night elves are not the biggest guy in the bar they are of a local power house but not a true threat to either faction by themselves
I played through it multiple times the night elves attack the orcs without even identifying themselves get their bases destroyed and then launch a counter attack led by a wild god that breaks the orc lines where they then discover the demon tainted moon well drink from it and manage to win
There’s a reason the night elves are presented as on par with the Horde or the Alliance.
And why Grom needs demon blood to step up to the “perfect warriors.”
The night elves as a third faction, with the corresponding powerhouse status, has led to a lot of problems in WoW itself, where night elves are either portrayed as bafflingly ineffectual, or we’re left wondering how the heck the war is still going.
I understand why Night Elves were presented as on par with the Alliance and the Horde, but I think it’s worth mentioning a big part of why Night Elves were able to go one on one with them was because they had A: the Ancients backing them up, whom apparently suffered heavy losses during the third war and were never very numerous to begin with;
and B: had a great deal of aid from other residents of Kalimdor who have either apparently wandered off and aren’t helping Night Elves in any capacity as far as I’ve seen;
seemingly committed themselves elsewhere and are offering little aid to the Night Elves;
or only just reappeared in 8.1 allied with Night Elf forces, as far as I am aware;
People complain about how Night Elves were neutered between WC3 and WoW, and it’s surprisingly accurate considering nearly all the heavy hitters for the Night Elves just aren’t around.
It’d be like if between WC3 and WoW the dwarves pulled out of the Alliance, and took most all their tech with them, or if the Tauren left the Horde, and took all the kodos with them. They’d still function as a faction, but they’d be operating with one hand tied behind their back.