So with MoP remix I saw the Alliance side questing to Jade Forest for the first time.
So the Skyfire is still intact and functional, they haven’t found Anduin, they know there’s Horde in the area in addition to all the hostile wildlife, and instead of using the big flying fortress and army inside of it to search for “The White Pawn”, which to my understanding was their explicit reason for being there, Sky Admiral Rogers pulls back her forces to wait for the main Alliance fleet to arrive.
In two months.
Look, I don’t care how good SI:7 is, you’re leaving, what was it, five people? To search the unexplored continent for the Crown Prince of Stormwind? Are we sure we got every black dragon in Stormwind?
You do understand that the Jade Forest is deep jungle, Yes? Armies don’t move well in jungles, and the thick and massive trees obfuscate the Skyfire’s field of vision. The SI:7 are the most elite spy organization on the planet, and they are sworn to the King of Stormwind. Looking for the Crown Prince of Stormwind is their whole entire purpose of existence, and keeping the Skyfire and army back is basic logic.
Furthermore, if Anduin was kidnapped by someone, then the huge flying fortress and huge moving army would kind of alert the captors that they are being followed.
No, sending the SI:7 was a much more intelligent move.
Instead we should talk about how the Alliance went to Pandaria to rescue Prince Anduin Wrynn, while the Horde went there for petty and senseless conquest.
Instead we should talk about how the Alliance went to Pandaria to rescue Prince Anduin Wrynn,
Because Lion’s Landing, Strongarm Airstrip and all the other Alliance strongholds sure did scream ‘We’re rescuing Anduin Wrynn’, not to mention Varian’s own order given to the SI:7 to ‘secure this new land.’
Pandaria isn’t empty, it’s a settled continent. Networking with the locals and using their understanding of the land to search is far more logical than dumping a legion of soldiers into the jungle and hoping for the best.
And you can’t do both, because invading their homeland kinda nixes any chance of securing local cooperation.
So, first of all, there’s more to Pandaria then the Jade Forest. Assuming Anduin was still in the Jade Forest and hadn’t been captured by any of the hostile forces within, then sending the SI:7 alone probably would have been fine.
But they’d already encountered Horde in the area, and needed assistance from the Skyfire to combat them. Considering their entire purpose for being there was to find Anduin, diverting military resources away from where they already knew the Horde were situated sounds like some Katrina Prestor style tactics.
And if the “most elite spy organization on the planet” are half as good at their job as they’re supposed to be, presumably they’d suss out where Anduin is, with a missile barrage from the Skyfire for any major obstructions, rather then conscripting locals to fight for them.
Why? What about the conflict between the Horde and the Alliance during MoP hasn’t already been discussed to death? If you want to stir up ragebait spamming the forums with pointed jabs, you can just start another Jaina thread.
The Alliance had already started networking with the locals in Paw’don village and the Pearlfin Jinyu, after the Skyfire struck Horde bases. I’m not suggesting they start dumping soldiers to wander around the Jade Forest putting up missing posters and looking in trees, but considering the Alliance had already gotten into conflict with Horde in the area, keeping the Skyfire nearby to combat any more Horde they know are around and to assist if Anduin indeed has been captured seems logical.
The rank and file troops (including the player character) weren’t told what the “White Pawn” was, but Rogers and SI:7 knew the truth to my understanding.
This is what happens when Blizzard story boards and designs one faction before they even think about the other. They planned and designed the Horde story and then had to try and figure out how to fit the Alliance into the story. While it was not as blatant as during Cata, it was still present in MoP. The whole spy cat was a more blatant example of it. But, the Air ship was part as well. It had to leave because it had not been part of the Horde story events, so it couldn’t be present.
I thought the Horde story was poor. The Alliance is worse in my eyes. Have the writers make the Horde look as much like the legion as possible, do evil things for no apparent reason, and use mustache twirling dialog. Then write a bunch of kill-gather quests while the NPCs act self-righteous and phone it in.
Bland and unpredictable. At least the Horde stuff has some humor
It was not Rogers who pulled back. She was RECALLED. Which means these orders came from high command(likely Varian). I assume the moment the Alliance realized this was bigger then Anduin and it could cost the Alliance the war it decided that Anduin had to take a backside to the war effort and thus had the Skyfire recalled in order to get the entire Alliance navy involved.
Rescuing Anduin certain was a mission and one Varian may personally wanted to have persude first and formost. But I think he would be reasonable enough to realize that if the Horde won saving his son would mean squat because the Horde would likely destroy the entire Alliance.
or it would be more logical to have it used to defend the entire Alliance navy so it could get to the continent and if Anduin was still missing at that point, use the entire Alliance man power to help search it.
For one, ending Moira’s reign and helping create the Council of Three Hammers. Second, helping the Alliance beat the Twilight’s Hammer in the Twilight Highlands. Third, without Shaw and Flynn all of Darkshire(maybe even Stormwind) would have been destroyed by an undead army had they not stopped them in Terror by Torchlight.
There is also all the other little things they do, like making sure certain artifacts remain sealed/maintained which is what Exploring Eastern Kingdoms was about.
I think that this thread perfectly encapsulates the problem with the Horde. The Horde thinks that only violence is the solution, the “ZUG ZUG me orc me smash” squad.
Of course the Horde would uproot an entire army just to locate one guy, thus causing unprecedented damage to the land and the inhabitants, because armies cause damage just by moving.
The Alliance is diplomatic, the Alliance is wise, the Alliance is noble, so the Alliance doesn’t uproot an entire army just to locate one guy. Rest assured that the Alliance has a better reputation in Pandaria than the Herd.
Maybe they could have gotten the assistance of the locals by not horrifying one of the leaders of the local population with an act of savage and cruel brutality the first time he meets you.
Obviously Zhu had no interest in joining either side but he might well have put out the word to help find and rescue Anduin if he had a solid reason to believe the Alliance would peace out after recovering him
Which they got. Paw’don village joined the Alliance and became their base of operations in the area. The Jinyu followed soon after (while the Horde got ugly monkeys whose greatest achievement is building a hut).