No, Nate’s smuggling pass was entirely nonsense, but the Shatterspear were part of the WoT canonically. They do know those territories to some effect, and if they were really isolated in that tiny vale for 10k years of their own history … then no wonder they betrayed the NEs in Cata. It would have been a continuation of policies adopted by the Kaldorei Empire when it comes to Trolls. But, no, at the bare minimum with the inclusion of the Shatterspear survivors, the Horde was not blind in Darkshore at least.
It wasn’t one - it was an attack directly on your argument. You should research what an ad hominem attack is as well.
Yes, now apply that to strident claims about how things ARE OR HAVE BEEN in response to arguments about how things SHOULD be.
Yes, this is my understanding as well, although I’ve seen various numbers thrown out including 4:1, 8:1, etc. None of which I’ve seen citations for.
This is headcanon being used to justify the War of the Thorns - which brings me back to this, again: STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY THE WAR OF THE THORNS.
If you didn’t like it, stop defending it. It was bonkers “make it work” logic that destroyed what you purport that you want the Horde to be. If you do like it, then own up to it so that we can have a real discussion about whether it’s fair to give one faction that comprehensive of a win over the other in an MMO.
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What are you talking about? They had physical isolation, caused by geographic boundaries for super long. If they had a chance to know their territories it was for the previous few years after their home was ripped off when they joined the Horde. They also lived in a corner of the land, so it is weird they had much to offer considering we never saw them outside the Vale.
Also, it wasn’t their policy, they lived in peace with the night elves until Garrosh recruited them in Cata, atleast as per quest giving. The night elves also lived alongside darktrolls so trying to snub night elves for not living alongside trolls is pretty disingenuous when the trolls there decided to ally with the Horde and attack them, even killing civilians wandering nearby (Alandrian Nightsong)
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So, which is it? Did they live in isolation from the NEs (completely contained in their little fragment of northern Darkshore), or did they live in peace with the NEs (and were allowed some access to the NE territories, even if they didn’t live there)? Because you can’t have peaceful co-existence without “co-existence”.
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Yeah, trade between people through mountain passes is a non-existent concept.
On a serious note, Blizzard didn’t explain how the Vale (Shatterspear Pass) suddenly opened up. But we do know from questing, that
- the night elves lived in peace with them until whenever the Horde showed up
- the Vale was closed up to Cata and we do not see the Shatterspear anywhere else.
That doesn’t mean they do not live in geographic isolation even if they can sometimes move out of the valley, but to get a lay of the land beyond northern Darkshore and NW Felwood?
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Sure? Any halfway decent trackers, gatherers, or hunters who could move into those lands even just to bring back supplies would have a general understanding of the terrain. Not nearly to the degree that the NEs did, but after 10k years (and for Trolls that is a lot of generations) … they would have some. Enough to at least be of benefit to the Horde. Granted the WoT was utter dogtrash on so many conceptual levels, so I shouldn’t even give that much credit. So much of that nonsense didn’t make sense on even a strategic level.
I found the only quote I could find, which is admittedly a bit racist from a night elf Sentinel:
I shouldn’t have expected these filthy trolls to stay peaceful forever. There’s no place for trust with any sympathizers of the Horde.
Jor’kil the Soulripper: The days of peace with the Shatterspear have passed, and so the Shatterspear must pass as well."
Also, the Cata changed the terrain of Darkshore quite a bit, and in the WoT the Horde didn’t ally with the Shatterspear until they were already deep in Felwood, so it is not like they got strategic assistance from the Shatterspear anyway, besides the rando pass that presumably the Shatterspear used to escape Darkshore in Cata (into night elven lands, lol).
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It is never stated that Horde died eight to one compared to the Night Elves, no. At best Saurfang made this analysis when the Horde made it to Astranaar:
- Malfurion struck hard all across the Horde’s lines, killing those foolish enough to charge into battle with him. When the final numbers were tallied, there would be more slain Horde than kaldorei.
But Saurfang had anticipated that. He didn’t like it, but when you threatened an enemy’s home and invaded their land, you paid a certain price.
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And yet he did not anticipate having a means to actually get onto (let alone into) the Skyscraper sized tree in the middle of a Sea he was trying to invade and occupy. Outside of a handful of ships that were somehow stolen from the Kaldorei? God that nonsense was bad lol!
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They were going to let Sylvanas banshee-fly across, and single-handedly conquer the tree. Because they believed in her.
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If the tree was close enough to the beach to hit with catapults they probably could have just marched across the water. [/sarcasm]
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Hey now, it was Sylvie’s brand of SUPER catapults thank you very much lol! Armed to the teeth with her own potent brew of Plot-Convenience! Her greatest of weapons! 
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I love how in A Good War they establish that the catapults have a limited range, create this moment where it looks like the Night Elves are going to win as the wisp wall goes up and Night Elven ships are bombarding the shore with cannons - and then remove those constraints arbitrarily so that catapults can win an artillery duel with said cannons.
We got technology all wrong, folks. Ditch the cannons, we need those catapults.
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Wait? The Night Elves had cannons? WHY DID THE NIGHT ELVES HAVE CANNONS? And the Horde had Catapults?
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Because the Night Elves are better at adapting than your narrative gives them credit for.
Want me to really blow your mind? Wardens were gathering goblin land mines as early as Warcraft 3.
On that subject, I would like to submit this method for completing Warcraft 3 as canon:
I do not believe we had cannons, as Kaldorei do not use gunpowder technology. They were bombarding the shore with glaive throwers, which are effectively a specialized form of ballistae. A RL Ballista could at max shoot about 3/10ths of a mile, but imagining the Kaldorei have been advancing the tech for as stupid long a period of time as 10,000 years and magic perhaps they managed to up the range significantly.
Well … the Dwarfs sent them “sniper guns” to shoot down the wyverns and their riders. The night elves, it is true, asked for guns, but these are trifles.
The first is the siege cannon. The second is a gun.
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The novellas disagree, as does Cataclysm questing as brought up by Shernish.
Were there books where the night elves had guns?! Where?
A Good War
Elegy
Both of them establish that the Night Elves are using shipborne cannons.