Is BfA the 8th war??

[Piamonte]

Hmm...

Vanilla, the Quiraji were more of an incident than a full war.
I would agree that in BC - there was no war. Just adventurers coming out of their factions. More of a search for destiny and future - reunification of old ally / horde, old draenei and remainder of Kael'Thas' Belfs.
Wrath saw the first full scale campaigns of the Horde and Alliance. First invasion of Undercity, betrayal of Putress, flight of Varimathras / first deception of Sylvannas. Horde and Alliance annihilate themselves in Icecrown, defeated by the undead, involvement of the Silver Hand, Argent Dawn and Scarlet Crusade. For sure Wrath was a full war - I would say it is the Fourth War.
Cataclysm was an incident. Both factions were recovering from Wrath, Deathwing and the Twilight's Hammer come out of nowhere - heroes resolve the crisis without signification factional involvement and resources.
MoP saw heavy faction fighting, but the sides were more scrambling for resources and skirmishing / interceding when needed. Was not a full scale effort by either side until the Seige of Ogrimmar, but Seige was itself a crisis in which both the horde and alliance worked to stop Garrosh for the sake of justice. Not a traditional war - so I wouldn't title it the Fifth. From the Horde side it was a Horde Civil War with Alliance support.
WoD - not really sure what to make of this. It was adventurers again going through the portal to stop an invasion incident. The Iron Horde certainly was at war, but the factions weren't involved until later and only used draenor to extract resources and artifacts, relying on the native frostwolves and draenei to resolve the conflict and end the legion threat. It also did not take place on Azeroth and therefore wouldn't be a war in series with the others regardless of opinion.
Legion is almost certainly the Fifth War. Massive scale, massive deployment of resources, faction involvement like we've never seen, order hall involvement. -Basically everyone in Azeroth vs. Legion minus some Naga and Harpies.


TL;DR

Vanilla - Conflicts
BC - Adventure / Expeditionary
Wrath - Fourth War
Cata - Crisis, Adventurer resolved
MoP - Horde Civil War. Starts as Expeditionary skirmishes, escalates, Thunderking involvement w/ side campaign against Zandalari, ultimately ends with Horde Civil War
WoD - Adventure / Expeditionary. More resources extracted than put in, reliance on natives to resolve conflicts, didn't take place on Azeroth.
Legion - Fifth War

this was the kind of responde i was looking for, thanks

anyway i still thinks that the war of the shifting sides counts as a war, its the only example that actually has the word "war" in the name, more clear than that cant be. It was the united forces of horde and alliance against a common foe, and i have trouble seeing the massive numbers of the quiraji as an incident and remember that if they won, C´thun would have had a clear path to destroy everything. A battle for the survival of the world cant be called an incident

Cataclysm is more debatable, but i stay with what i said earlier, Pandaria saw huge armies being sent into its shores, and not only that but the high king of the alliance and Tyrande (a military leader) were both present in the fight. You have to also consider the incident with the blood elves almost changing sides

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Those don't count. That's like saying we should be on World War XXVII because of Alexander the Great or some shit.

i try to see some logic here, but i cant. Alexander the great happened before the first world war and they are not related at all

[Elestia]

this was the kind of responde i was looking for, thanks

anyway i still thinks that the war of the shifting sides counts as a war, its the only example that actually has the word "war" in the name, more clear than that cant be. It was the united forces of horde and alliance against a common foe, and i have trouble seeing the massive numbers of the quiraji as an incident and remember that if they won, C´thun would have had a clear path to destroy everything. A battle for the survival of the world cant be called an incident

Cataclysm is more debatable, but i stay with what i said earlier, Pandaria saw huge armies being sent into its shores, and not only that but the high king of the alliance and Tyrande (a military leader) were both present in the fight. You have to also consider the incident with the blood elves almost changing sides

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i try to see some logic here, but i cant. Alexander the great happened before the first world war and they are not related at all

Yea what started in Cata resolved in the Horde Civil War in MoP.

For Vanilla, the War of the Shifting Sands I think would just be called that. It was too brief with not enough impact to be categorized the same as the other world scale conflicts. There was a threat and powers that be put the threat down.

Imo..
Third War
(Outland Expedition)
War of the Shifting Sands
Fourth War
Cataclysm
Horde Civil War
(Draenor Expedition)
Fifth War


--Also, "Five Torches to Light Our Path" ... Might not be referring to the world trees?

[Selastan]

i try to see some logic here, but i cant. Alexander the great happened before the first world war and they are not related at all

Exactly. The World Wars were a specific set of wars. The numbered wars in Warcraft are notable conflicts involving both the Alliance and Horde. The War of the Shifting Sands was thousands of years before the Alliance or Horde, and they only helped finish it during the raid on AQ, it was mostly the Cenarion Circle and the Bronze Dragonflight. The war against the Iron Horde was very small scale with only powerful individuals and no massive armies from Azeroth. The war with the Lich King doesn't count, although it probably should. Cataclysm started the Fourth War. That's all we know. We aren't just counting wars, the Numbered Wars are specific things.

[Piamonte]

Yea what started in Cata resolved in the Horde Civil War in MoP.

For Vanilla, the War of the Shifting Sands I think would just be called that. It was too brief with not enough impact to be categorized the same as the other world scale conflicts. There was a threat and powers that be put the threat down.

Imo..
Third War
(Outland Expedition)
War of the Shifting Sands
Fourth War
Cataclysm
Horde Civil War
(Draenor Expedition)
Fifth War


--Also, "Five Torches to Light Our Path" ... Might not be referring to the world trees?

so according to you, Bfa is the sixth war. It´s still kinda impressive

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Exactly. The World Wars were a specific set of wars. The numbered wars in Warcraft are notable conflicts involving both the Alliance and Horde. The War of the Shifting Sands was thousands of years before the Alliance or Horde, and they only helped finish it during the raid on AQ, it was mostly the Cenarion Circle and the Bronze Dragonflight. The war against the Iron Horde was very small scale with only powerful individuals and no massive armies from Azeroth. The war with the Lich King doesn't count, although it probably should. Cataclysm started the Fourth War. That's all we know. We aren't just counting wars, the Numbered Wars are specific things.

you are forgetting that there was an event before entering aq that was called the second war of the shifting sands

the war against the lich king, counts

[Thage]

Wrath through MoP was collectively the Fourth War as, before, there was an official peace from Hyjal and after, there was an official peace as part of the agreement for the Alliance to withdraw from Orgrimmar. Between WotLK and MoP the war never technically ended--there were temporary ceasefires drafted up that kept being broken. BFA is the Fifth War as reckoned by the numbered wars, which are largely reserved for Alliance-Horde wars (the Third War notwithstanding due to being grandfathered in).

[Elestia]

so according to you, Bfa is the sixth war. It´s still kinda impressive

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you are forgetting that there was an event before entering aq that was called the second war of the shifting sands

the war against the lich king, counts

Technically, yea, titled 'Second War of the Shifting Sands' and it's the resolution of the original conflict 1000 years prior.

Bfa 'could be' the sixth. Depends upon what actually happens.

[THEORACLE64]

The first and second wars were orcs vs humans, or horde vs alliance if you will

the third war was, elves, orcs and humans against the legion and their undead forces. So considering this can we list the other wars as well, whether or not they are about alliance vs horde??

the fourth war would be the second war of the shifting sands that happened in Vanilla. The united forces of the horde and the alliance against the quiraji.

the fifth war would be the war against the lich king. No, im not counting tbc because that wast really a war. It was more of an expedition of several different forces against Illidan and the legion.

the sixth war is the war that started with Garrosh´s war machine in Cataclysm and ended with the siege of Orgrimmar in Mist of Pandaria.

the seventh war is, of course, Legion.

and finally, the 8th war is Bfa.


did i miss anything??

It depends, and it depends on how many times peace was declared during those wars. The only time that peace can have considered to of happened was between WC3 and WoW, going by the voice over for the WoW cinematic. Since the beginning of WoW at least we've been at war with the horde, and considering every conflict and an outside evasion as a war would mean we've probably been through 1000's by now.

[Evaddon]

i dont know how you can say that the war of the shifting sands wasnt a war, or the war against the lich king, or against the legion!!! i mean, c´mon!!

Oh I wasn't counting Wars against other forces...nor was anyone counting Shifting Sands
I was purely looking at the War between the opposing factions. Alliance and Horde (or the various versions of the Horde after the opening of the Dark Portal)

All "wars" fought against the big bad of the expansion(s) I look at as campaigns

[Vespene]

8 world wars in 30 years. Has the population of Azeroth at least ticked down? It seems that there's only so much the races could take.

[Traveler Voltin]

4th war was cata/MoP when horde vs alliance appeared last time

[Deleted]

Hmm...

Vanilla, the Quiraji were more of an incident than a full war.
I would agree that in BC - there was no war. Just adventurers coming out of their factions. More of a search for destiny and future - reunification of old ally / horde, old draenei and remainder of Kael'Thas' Belfs.
Wrath saw the first full scale campaigns of the Horde and Alliance. First invasion of Undercity, betrayal of Putress, flight of Varimathras / first deception of Sylvannas. Horde and Alliance annihilate themselves in Icecrown, defeated by the undead, involvement of the Silver Hand, Argent Dawn and Scarlet Crusade. For sure Wrath was a full war - I would say it is the Fourth War.
Cataclysm was an incident. Both factions were recovering from Wrath, Deathwing and the Twilight's Hammer come out of nowhere - heroes resolve the crisis without signification factional involvement and resources.
MoP saw heavy faction fighting, but the sides were more scrambling for resources and skirmishing / interceding when needed. Was not a full scale effort by either side until the Seige of Ogrimmar, but Seige was itself a crisis in which both the horde and alliance worked to stop Garrosh for the sake of justice. Not a traditional war - so I wouldn't title it the Fifth. From the Horde side it was a Horde Civil War with Alliance support.
WoD - not really sure what to make of this. It was adventurers again going through the portal to stop an invasion incident. The Iron Horde certainly was at war, but the factions weren't involved until later and only used draenor to extract resources and artifacts, relying on the native frostwolves and draenei to resolve the conflict and end the legion threat. It also did not take place on Azeroth and therefore wouldn't be a war in series with the others regardless of opinion.
Legion is almost certainly the Fifth War. Massive scale, massive deployment of resources, faction involvement like we've never seen, order hall involvement. -Basically everyone in Azeroth vs. Legion minus some Naga and Harpies.


TL;DR

Vanilla - Conflicts
BC - Adventure / Expeditionary
Wrath - Fourth War
Cata - Crisis, Adventurer resolved
MoP - Horde Civil War. Starts as Expeditionary skirmishes, escalates, Thunderking involvement w/ side campaign against Zandalari, ultimately ends with Horde Civil War
WoD - Adventure / Expeditionary. More resources extracted than put in, reliance on natives to resolve conflicts, didn't take place on Azeroth.
Legion - Fifth War

Cataclysm was all out faction war.

Level 1 to 60 stuff

[Saverem]

There were many battles, but I wouldn't call them "war" - like the one versus Legion.

If you don't count the stuff that just went down in Legion as a 'war' then nothing in the Warcraft universe would qualify as a war.

The events that occurred in the Legion expansion is lore-wise the BIGGEST Azeroth has ever gone through, easily beating the first 3 wars.

The ENTIRE PLANET as well as ARGUS came together to finally beat WARCRAFT'S MAIN VILLAIN, Sargeras. In his last moment he plunged a continent-sized sword into the planet that is literally the catalyst for the events of BfA. It's literally causing the entire planet to bleed out and we'll be fighting for her blood in BfA and using it to power our magical necklaces and such.

Azeroth hasn't received this much damage, probably ever. The only comparison would be when the continents divided and the maelstrom was created when the Well of Eternity exploded.

[Gurluas]

Oh I wasn't counting Wars against other forces...nor was anyone counting Shifting Sands
I was purely looking at the War between the opposing factions. Alliance and Horde (or the various versions of the Horde after the opening of the Dark Portal)

All "wars" fought against the big bad of the expansion(s) I look at as campaigns

Third War wasn't Horde vs Alliance at all, the new Horde was barely established and basically left.
It was the world vs the Legion.

[Vynestra]

The wars don't go up like that, they're usually referenced as like "the third battle against the legion" or something

or in mop during the "expedition to pandaria" or whatever

they don't usually call them War 7 war 9 or anything for xpacs.

[Piamonte]

8 world wars in 30 years. Has the population of Azeroth at least ticked down? It seems that there's only so much the races could take.

truest words have never been spoken. Its surely getting ridiculous how the armies of the horde and the alliance keep resisting so much

[Evaddon]

Third War wasn't Horde vs Alliance at all, the new Horde was barely established and basically left.
It was the world vs the Legion.

Yes?
10/char

[MikeBogina]

The first and second wars were orcs vs humans, or horde vs alliance if you will

the third war was, elves, orcs and humans against the legion and their undead forces. So considering this can we list the other wars as well, whether or not they are about alliance vs horde??

the fourth war would be the second war of the shifting sands that happened in Vanilla. The united forces of the horde and the alliance against the quiraji.

the fifth war would be the war against the lich king. No, im not counting tbc because that wast really a war. It was more of an expedition of several different forces against Illidan and the legion.

the sixth war is the war that started with Garrosh´s war machine in Cataclysm and ended with the siege of Orgrimmar in Mist of Pandaria.

the seventh war is, of course, Legion.

and finally, the 8th war is Bfa.


did i miss anything??

If you're counting all major wars since the Horde's first invasion or are you going by wars actually named in numbers? Because there's only 3 so far of those.

Major wars since Horde Vs Alliance? Also .5 is conflicts during a major war or between major wars.
1st War Horde vs Stormwind
2nd War Horde vs Alliance
3rd War(Invasion of Draenor) Ner'zhul's Horde vs Alliance
4th War Nerubian Empire vs Scourge
5th War(3rd War) Scourge/Legion vs Azeroth
6th War Kil'Jaeden's war against the Lich King
6.5 numerous major battles, but nothing world threatening. Horde vs Kul'tiras, Horde vs Alliance, Backrock mountain war(Rag vs Nef), and others
7th War Second War of the Shifting Sands
7.5 Azeroth vs Naxxramas, Outland adventures, Night of the Dragon, Gilneas Civil war
8th War Nexus War
8.5 Ulduar Raid that prevented the world ending, but hardly a war
9th War War against the Lich King
9.5 Operatin: Gnomeregan, Zalazane's fall, Elemental invasion, Invasion of Gilneas, Horde vs Alliance(Cataclysm conflicts)
10th War Cataclysm War(Old God Forces vs Azeroth)
11th War Pandaria War(Horde vs Alliance)
11.5 Major battles vs Mantid, Mogu, Zandalari(but none of them merit being a war)
12th War Azeroth vs Iron Horde
12.5 battling Ogres, Arakkoa and Legion, small alliance vs horde skirmish
13th War Legion Invasion(Azeroth vs Legion)
13.5 Genn's attack on the Horde, Battle for the Emerald Dream, Battle against Naga... possibly more to come in the book.
14th War Battle For Azeroth(Horde vs Alliance)


Major wars, BFA is 14th war

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Third War wasn't Horde vs Alliance at all, the new Horde was barely established and basically left.
It was the world vs the Legion.

Third War is just Warcraft 3. If they came out with a Warcraft 4, it would probably be called the 4th war, but the numbering makes no logical sense and there's no point in trying to bothering with it.

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The wars don't go up like that, they're usually referenced as like "the third battle against the legion" or something

I was always confused as I never played anything before Reign of Chaos. I didn't know if the wars meant Legion attempts or Horde vs Alliance, so I thought it could be War of the Ancients, Horde invasion and Scourge/Archimonde(1,2,3) or Horde's first invasion, Ner'zhul's Horde invasion and Thrall's new Horde(1,2,3)

But to find out it wasn't either, just made it stupid.

[Kellorion]

Umm there was a war
Wrathgate till SoO

[MechaCThun]

Well... the game isn't called War of Worldcraft for nothing

[Vonazak]

First War: Warcraft I, The Horde wins.

Second War: Warcraft II, The alliance wins.

Third War: Warcraft III, Everyone loses

Fourth War: The conflict starts on Cataclism when Garrosh is made Warchief by Green Jesus and starts attacking the alliance, BUT, you can say that the war really started on WOTLK at the Wrathgate and the invasion of Undercity, then its expands when Pandaria its discovered and ends with the treaty of Versa... Orgrimmar, but then you have WOD that's like the continuation of that war, so the war ends when Green Jesus kills Garrosh.

So, you have a 4th war who spans WOTLK (Wrathgate), CATA, MOP and the first half of WOD (The Mak'gora between Thrall and Garrosh).

Then you have the Legion invasion, thats just something like the Spanish Civil war was between the First and Second World War.

So, we are starting the Fifth War, a war that started when the alliance attacked the horde fleet at the start of Legion, or when the Horde pulled out at the Broken Shore, that depends on whether you are an unbiased player who knows everything like it happened in game or an Alliance zealot. But on a more serious approach, these were minor skirmishes that preceded the war, like the Balkan wars before WWI.

If you count the Alliance aggresion at the start of Legion, or the Alliance aggresion at the end of Legion (the death of those goblin workers are an act of war), in Legion starts the new war, and i hope that it will end with BFA.