Where did the Iron Horde go wrong?

[JustRob]

It seemed like a pretty good plan: Go to a version of Draenor where the orcs had not yet become slaves of the Legion, and instead rally them independantly to invade Azeroth.

However, the Iron Horde did not even get past the Blasted Lands, and after spending so much time building their precious portal, it was blown to pieces in no time at all. A dream team of Khadgar, Thrall, Maraad and other champions immediately stood ready to push the Iron Horde right back where they came from. The moment the Dark Portal collapsed, the plan was basically ruined.

How could such a huge, organized army have been foiled so easily by a handful of people? What should the Iron Horde have done differently in order to succeed?

[Pandragon]

Not kill Kairoz.

[Friendlyimmolation]

It went wrong the moment Garrosh in his urge to use his father and own race as weapon to get revenge, that he had Azeroth invaded before they had finished conquering AU Draenor.

[Tabrotar]

It went wrong the moment Garrosh in his urge to use his father and own race as weapon to get revenge, that he had Azeroth invaded before they had finished conquering AU Draenor.

So you mean because orcs being orcs?

Because they have quite a nice set of incidents where they screwed themself over like our original Guldan then Ogrim seized the control over the old horde from Blackhand.

Then Grommash went and get himself and his clan possed by demon blood again and last but propably not least the whole Garrosh posse.

[BadguyNotBadGuy]

Tbh, as long as it was required by the main story line, they would have never succeeded. They were well organised and had all they needed to win. The main fault i find from the perspective of the player is that all the main orc leaders dont get involved personally to take us out, which, being proper bosses and all, should have crushed us. Instead they sent lots and lots of underlings which could not stop us as long as we had plot armour.

I think it would have actually been pretty cool to see us get crushed, and at least a solid chunk of the Iron Horde going through the gate and becoming a permanent fixture on Azeroth in our timeline. It would have made for some interesting possibilities in the story.

[WintersLegion]

They had many issues on why they lost. As Friendlyimmolation they hadn't yet finished gaining control of Dreanor. Garrosh also downplayed how powerful we were meaning their initial attack wasn't enough to push us back and they could get a good foothold right away. Once we pushed through on their side the fact they were using Guldan and others of their enemies as the power source for the portal rather than opening a permanent one meant that by freeing them we were able to stop any more attacks on Azeroth. And then going back to them not having control of Draenor we were able to pull together some of their enemies as our allies to fight against them. Plus we were better at portals than them so were able to open portals and bring in more reinforcements.

[Arrashi]

Everywhere from start to the very end. They should be thankful that through enormous effort of burning legion they aren't the most incompetent villains in setting.

[Aquamonkey]

However, the Iron Horde did not even get past the Blasted Lands, and after spending so much time building their precious portal, it was blown to pieces in no time at all. A dream team of Khadgar, Thrall, Maraad and other champions immediately stood ready to push the Iron Horde right back where they came from. The moment the Dark Portal collapsed, the plan was basically ruined.

How could such a huge, organized army have been foiled so easily by a handful of people? What should the Iron Horde have done differently in order to succeed?

You could basically replace Iron Horde with Burning Legion and you have TBC.

[JustRob]

You could basically replace Iron Horde with Burning Legion and you have TBC.

Not the same thing. The Legion's plan in TBC was never to actually invade Azeroth. They just wanted to draw the Alliance and the Horde to Outland so that they would eventually find and kill Illidan. This was Kil'jaeden's plan of revenge on Illidan for his failure to destroy the Frozen Throne.

[Makorus]

Not the same thing. The Legion's plan in TBC was never to actually invade Azeroth. They just wanted to draw the Alliance and the Horde to Outland so that they would eventually find and kill Illidan. This was Kil'jaeden's plan of revenge on Illidan for his failure to destroy the Frozen Throne.

We are talking about TBC not the retcons of the novels.

[Jester Joe]

They technically made it up to Blackwing Mountain, it's just that was a smaller strike force type of thing it seems.

Not kill Kairoz.

Or rather, Wrathion should have been more hands on, since Kairoz was kinda going insane anyway.

[Lord Pebbleton]

They never had a chance. Garrosh saw us being able to hold our ground against the Lich King, Deathwing, everything on Pandaria incluging himself, and still thought he could take us on with orcs. He didn't even bother cleaning up the draenei, the botani, the arakkoa, everyone was still there, and most of them were willing to help us against them.
We would have fought daddy hellscream if plans didn't change to include Archimonde.
The whole expansion was basically just us going "U WOT M8? U INVADE MY BLASTED LANDS? I INVADE YOUR EVERYTHING". I think this is part of the reason why it was a letdown.

[Deleted]

Being written by blizzard was their biggest flaw. There was 0 reason besides "they have to lose" that the iron horde would attack Azeroth while still dealing with 4 zones they didn't control even 50% of. Orcs aren't stupid, they are very much capable of tactical warfare. If Blizzard wrote these bad guys as competent we could actually have a discussion about what they could have done better. The Iron Horde was written as morons.

[Maljinwo]

Iron horde? More like Copper Band

[Jorah]

Because they rushed. They should killed draeneis and frostwolves before entering Azeroth. Also they should assaulted Azeroth in full power with presence of all warlords.

[Flurryfang]

The good old German fault: Fighting one side without being done with your other side. Grom should have cleared all the problems on Dreanor before invading Azeroth. Letting either side have a rest is really what lost them it.

[Venziir]

It seemed like a pretty good plan: Go to a version of Draenor where the orcs had not yet become slaves of the Legion, and instead rally them independantly to invade Azeroth.

However, the Iron Horde did not even get past the Blasted Lands, and after spending so much time building their precious portal, it was blown to pieces in no time at all. A dream team of Khadgar, Thrall, Maraad and other champions immediately stood ready to push the Iron Horde right back where they came from. The moment the Dark Portal collapsed, the plan was basically ruined.

How could such a huge, organized army have been foiled so easily by a handful of people? What should the Iron Horde have done differently in order to succeed?

For starters, the Iron Horde decided to wage war on two fronts, which is rather taxing. They hadn't even conquered Draenor before attempting to conquer Azeroth. That's just bad.

[Deleted]

We simply countered them way faster than they expected and, seeing the zones while leveling, set several events in motion that would hinder their progress significantly.

Basically, just level a char and read quests and think about what you are doing right there, to get the point.

Summed up, what they did wrong was, attack too fast in an all-out war style instead of first amassing more and/or more effective war machinery. Garrosh underestimated Azeroth, which greatly fits his racist view of the world, where orcs are just way stronger than anyone else. He might not even have considered us to be able to come up with a plan like that to stop them.

Also, we destroyed their portal and ended the invasion pretty fast.

[George Costanza]

Look it was 90% a case of Blizzard being lazy and not wanting to have a good pre expansion event.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Being written by blizzard was their biggest flaw. There was 0 reason besides "they have to lose" that the iron horde would attack Azeroth while still dealing with 4 zones they didn't control even 50% of. Orcs aren't stupid, they are very much capable of tactical warfare. If Blizzard wrote these bad guys as competent we could actually have a discussion about what they could have done better. The Iron Horde was written as morons.

Counter proposal, give a reason to rush the Azeroth invasion. Have the Legion establish more of a presence so that Garrosh knows they're coming, forcing them to accelerate the invasion of Azeroth to evade the Legion. Of course Grommash argues that they're orcs and shouldn't flee from battle, but Garrosh convinces him that there's nothing to be gained strategically by fighting on all fronts now. Azeroth is a gamble they were forced to make too early.
If the story of Draenor had been planned appropriately from the beginning to put in the Legion as early as they did in 6.2, this could have worked, but alas, development was a mess so we got nonsense.