I mean, that’s exactly what comes to mind when I think of a civilian militia in WoW forming to repel anything. So I don’t see why that’s not an applicable reading of how WoT played out.
But you might be asking the worst possible person on this forum about if rewriting the Ashenvale invasion would make me happy, because I wasn’t looking forward to the faction war as a premise. 
Nothing ruined the content because the concept sucked to me.
Not because of inferior manpower, if that is any consolation. The Horde lost the battle of Dazar’alor because it fell for the diversion. Because head on, the Alliance could not win. For whatever reason. Not that it mattered, since the whole victory was nullified when the Alliance fleet fell into Nazjatar.
For Darkshore, it took a special ritual simply to push the Horde out, after extended fighting. A victory perhaps, but hard fought, and hollow.
I’ll give you that Arathi was a victory. What it ammounts to, if anything, remains to be seen.
I understand but visually what did the Horde player see?
Night Elf armies and tons of them.
Horde player wasn’t running from house to house in Ashenvale and Darkshore killing defenseless NEs armed with haphazard sticks and homemade armor.
If Blizzard had said “yeah thats the main NE army” nothing would be visually different.
I’m not claiming that the Alliance victories were these big fist pumping moments. But they are technically wins illustrating the Horde was on the back foot. Regardless of how they got there the Alliance still won most of the key engagements.
Again, I recognize that nothing in BfA was really all that enjoyable. Heck, it’s why I quit so early in the expansion.
The same could be said of why the Night Elves lost the WoT.
At the end of the day, it was terrible writing.
Maybe I just see the value of civilians in the story differently. Admittedly this is a big “if” moment, but had the tables been reversed and supposedly horde civilians pushed back the entire alliance force, I imagine I’d just be making jokes about the brave cockroach vendor or how maybe the alliance would have won had they just brought enough booterangs to hold back the peons.
I’d agree, if you are talking about after 8.1. before that, there was no indication the Horde was losing. if anything, it was the opposite. And then 8.2 hit and invalidated whatever victory we had at Dazar Alor. So yea, it was technically a win. A win that ultimately ammounted to nothing.
If I saw Alliance march on Horde capital, break through every barrier and then either destroy or capture the place then I would count that as a win.
Like Dazaralor. If Alliance left a burning husk when the retreated it would have been a win even if the Horde chased us the whole way.
But now its just a raid to assassinate a king and then run away before the big bad horde shows up.
I don’t really care if Blizzard says “yeah that was just 1% of the true Zandalari power” I still destroyed their city and killed their king. If they can’t ever deploy the other 99% against me then who cares?
You mean besides having to go scorched earth at the SoL and losing Saurfang?
Just like the WoT for The Horde. Tyrande and Malf were still active and the Night Elves were still able to field troops everywhere.
Again, it was a terrible story beat all around.
Well, you got 2 - 2.5 of those things. 
Yeah, that’s fair.
Like I’ve said before in the thread, I just find myself in this weird spot where it sounds utterly bizarre for the faction to get tripped up over civilians, while simultaneously not wanting to see the horde be successful anyway.
It’s like the narrative version of being told my character has to beat up an old infirm. There’s no outcome that makes you look good there. And I know that doesn’t paint the night elves in a good light because Blizzard had to portray them as crippled to set up that example in the first place.
They should have just let the Alliance destroy Lordaeron. Horde got the last laugh with that one.
Mission accomplished if the goal was to frustrate me.
Maybe.
Personally, I wasn’t laughing. I didn’t care so much about losing Lordaeron as I was losing Saurfang.
They probably did it so the NE fans could save face and to explain the NE army that shows up out of nowhere in the Darkshore warfront.
The Horde player wasn’t much of a factor probably.
A battle that was catastrophic for the Alliance, and seemingly swung the pendulum into the Horde’s favor hard, and the reason a frontal attack on Dazar’alor was impossible.
Difference is, the WoT did ammount to something, just not something positive for you. Just a big fat wound that is still festering, and that is showing no signs of healing.
Do you at least think his death was a good one? Its all the guy wanted.
And the same could be said of every battle the Alliance won.
SoL - Removed UC as a Horde stronghold in the EK and captured the orc racial leader/ architect of the WoT.
BoD - Destroyed the Zandalari navy (the entire reason for wanting the Zandalari to ally with the Horde) and killed their King.
Darkshore - reclaimed by the Alliance
Arathi - Claimed by the Alliance
Again, I’m not saying these are huge wins. But they did amount to something however temporary.
No.
Not at all. It was probably one of the worst ways for him to go. His son had a better death. Both times.
How should he have been killed to make it satisfactory or not all?
Not fighting the Horde for starters.
So he should have joined back with Sylvanas in Org before the Alliance arrived?