Lore: Is Alliance or Horde more powerful?

[Shalaator]

I remember during the end of SoO, Varian says "We will End you," with Jaina pleading for Varian to slaughter them all; however, the Horde races/factions were split during this time period. Yet, that being said, Varian said it in a very confident manner, as if the Alliance "ending" the horde would be a relatively easy feat, even after the Horde was to regroup under a new leader (Voljin).

Thus, the impression that Blizzard has given, over the past few expansions, is that the strength of the Alliance is at least one order of magnitude greater than the horde's (if some numerical metric were to be assigned to either faction's strength).

[barrsftw]

They would have to be relatively similar no? Otherwise one would have 'ended' the other by now. It does seem like a lot of the powerful alliance figures have recently become neutral however so I'm not sure how that would play in.

[Sorrowseer]

They *should* be, considering how many civil wars the horde has had, how their races besides orcs were not that populous to begin with and several factions splitting off from them (blood elves in Outland and the recent void elves to name a few), that said they bounce back every expansion with a limitless reserve of fresh soldiers, and I doubt blizzard will ever do a population census...

[Soon-TM]

I remember during the end of SoO, Varian says "We will End you," with Jaina pleading for Varian to slaughter them all; however, the Horde races/factions were split during this time period. Yet, that being said, Varian said it in a very confident manner, as if the Alliance "ending" the horde would be a relatively easy feat, even after the Horde was to regroup under a new leader (Voljin).

Thus, the impression that Blizzard has given, over the past few expansions, is that the strength of the Alliance is at least one order of magnitude greater than the horde's (if some numerical metric were to be assigned to either faction's strength).

Alliance is far, FAR more powerful than Horde lorewise. Alliance is a cohesive lot with little to no internal struggles, it has the most disciplined and numerous armies, the strongest navy (especially after BoD), the best spellcasters, the strongest economy (even if their people starve at times, c.f. Westfall) and even a big !#$%ing SC battlecruiser-like spaceship. What does Horde have? Blight...?

[Fahrenheit]

The Alliance has a player race (two if you want to be technical) capable of engineering a spaceship. It's not even close.

[Obelisk Kai]

The Horde suffered a grievous blow during Mists of Pandaria, but that was more due to the civil war that the Alliance exploited than the Alliance beating the Horde.

The Horde however was weakened, Metzen acknowledged this by naming the Alliance the sole remaining superpower at the following Blizzcon.

After Mists the Alliance and Horde ventured to alternate Draenor, which was surely a year of rebuilding for both factions.

The Legion invasion saw both factions under attack, with assaults in both Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms being fought off as well as the catastrophe on the Broken Isles. Both sides' navies were decimated. I imagine that at the end of Legion, both the Alliance and Horde were weakened, yet the Alliance would have still had the edge.

The Allied races recruited though may have changed the calculations. The Horde has recruited the Kingdom of Suramar, Highmountain and the Zandalari Empire into the Horde. That is three sovereign states with substantial military muscle and which have strongly bolstered Horde power. In contrast, the only member state of an equivalent size the Alliance has inducted has been the Kingdom of Kul'Tiras. While the Dark Irons have been formally added in BFA, they were actively assisting the Alliance and contributing to it's war effort during Mists and were probably counted in the measurement of Alliance power.

Groups such as the Mag'har Orcs, Void Elves and Lightforged Draenei don't really bring much in terms of infrastructure to the table and while they increase player choice I don't believe they can be said to greatly increase faction power. The Vindicaar has not been used during the war, and given the severity of the conflict I have to assume it is somehow 'out of order'.

The events of the Battle for Dazar'alor mean that the Alliance once again has a stronger Navy than the Horde. Both Alliance and Horde dialogue following the battle indicates the Alliance is on course for victory within weeks.

The short time scale presented to players of both factions indicates the Alliance is likely to get badly punched in the face in 8.2 as I am sure Blizzard wishes for the war to continue until the expansion ends and we aren't even halfway through it. The common theory is that with the Zandalari fleet decimated, Azshara will take the opportunity to weaken the Alliance by attacking the Kul Tiran fleet which will wipe out the Alliance's naval advantage over the Horde, prolong the war and leave both sides worse off against her but even against each other.

In summary, I believe the Horde has closed the gap between itself and the Alliance in terms of raw power due to the addition of three full sized nations to the Alliance's one, but that the Alliance has the edge after the Battle due to their undoubted naval supremacy.

[etheldald]

that depends on many things. like if the alliance is going to use all the toys they have.

As for bfa-legion-wod period the alliance was and is superior in almost every aspect, the horde has stronger soldiers and aren't scared to use super weapons.
But even with super weapons or resorting to "dity" tactics, the horde still lose simply because the alliance has the demigods.
jaina alone survived 20 murder hobos that killed literally titans.
now imagine if someone like alleria helped her in that combat, the horde stands no chance.
not even speaking of tyrande ultra instinct or malfurion super saiyang. alleria,turalyon, the vindicar...

this imbalance of power is the result blizzard killing or nerfing horde characters.while developing or buffing alliance characters. is insanely stupid.
there is a joke that these alliance characters should make a 5 man group to solo orgri, probably with velen as healer, who could stop them?

[laplacedemon]

In terms of "heroes", Alliance is at a different level to be honest. They have more of the characters who are "THE" best at something; like Jaina is the mage, Velen is the prophet/priest (and probably the least active person in the whole universe and beyond), Tyrande is the warrior priestess/the chosen one of Elune, Malfurion is the druid. Although less prominent, Gelbin is probably the tinker and Alleria is the one who defied void whispers. Horde has less of those special characters. Saurfang is probably the warrior now that Varian and Garrosh are both dead and Sylvanas is the most banshee, the bansheest or whatever. Rest are just good at what they are.

But both factions are as powerful as the "story" needs them to be at a specific moment.

[micwini]

They Alliance is way stronger. They just don't use everything they have at their disposal (vindicaar, gnomish inginuity, Elune's powers, Siege weapons, etc.). Blizzard could do a better job of writing and explaining why the Alliance doesn't use all this. If this was a real war, this would have been over very quickly, especially after the win in dazar alor

[Lord Pebbleton]

The Alliance is stronger, but for some reason, they refrain from using all the superweapons/tricks up the sleeve they have; and when the horde wins a battle, the Alliance just says "nooo, don't" and then doesn't do anything. Or, like in the Siege now, they pull the "we mustn't become like them" bullshit and stand still.

[Varodoc]

Even with the handicap given by the writers (can't use the Vindicaar/Aurobos, main characters constantly dumbed down, etc.), the Alliance are still winning the war, so much so that even Nathanos realizes that the Horde are losing on all fronts, and Sylvanas herself is so desperate that her only hopes now are Derek Proudmoore and whatever power is left inside Knaifu.

[Shalaator]

Even with the handicap given by the writers (can't use the Vindicaar/Aurobos, main characters constantly dumbed down, etc.), they are still winning the war, so much so that even Nathanos realizes that they are losing on all fronts, and Sylvanas herself is so desperate that her only hopes now are Derek Proudmoore and whatever power is left inside Knaifu.

Sylvanas needs to drop her panties before Anduin before we loot them. War over, horde survives.

[TheImperios]

The balance moves up and down, but in general the Alliance is stronger.

[XDurionX]

Horde have been nothing but cannon fodder since warcraft I.

[Venziir]

Horde have been nothing but cannon fodder since warcraft I.

The Horde won the First War...

[Ophenia]

Alliance Leaders :
- Most powerful Mage on Azeroth
- Most powerful Priest(ess) on Azeroth x3
- Most powerful Druid on Azeroth
- Random Worgen
- Random Gnome who will probably end up with superpowers from the freezer, as Magni did before him

Horde Leaders :
- Banshee with superpowers (unsure about how powerful she is thought, that's fluctuating)
- Random guy with the power of love for the above-mentioned Banshee
- Random Goblin
- Powerful Orc, if we still consider him as a Horde leader (but in the range of Genn so who cares)
- Random Ranger
- Edit: forgot the totally random Cow as he's 100% transparent even nowadays
- A bunch of random NPC with no specific feat

[Amaterasu65]

The Alliance is stronger. They have some insane technology and also overpowered leaders in their ranks. Don't expect this to be represented in game though.

[Faroth]

I remember during the end of SoO, Varian says "We will End you," with Jaina pleading for Varian to slaughter them all; however, the Horde races/factions were split during this time period. Yet, that being said, Varian said it in a very confident manner, as if the Alliance "ending" the horde would be a relatively easy feat, even after the Horde was to regroup under a new leader (Voljin).

Thus, the impression that Blizzard has given, over the past few expansions, is that the strength of the Alliance is at least one order of magnitude greater than the horde's (if some numerical metric were to be assigned to either faction's strength).

Well, after Siege of Orgrimmar, Blizzard stated that the Alliance was the only remaining super power. However, they were on equal footing immediately afterwards in Warlords of Draenor. That, however, was a small forward advance unit.

In Legion, the Alliance and Horde again seemed to be on equal footing and lost their airship. However, the Alliance arguably gained a space ship capable of firing giant frikkin' lasers from the sky. The Horde has no equivalent in that terms, so it's just..... ignored.

The Horde has the blight, though questionable how much is left after it was used to plague bomb Undercity and the ruins above.

Right now, they're basically returned to equal footing with Alliance edging out the advantage in terms of naval strength, but the Horde had the head start in weaponizing Azerite. Supposedly the Horde are going to put their giant cannon in Azshara aimed at Stormwind to use this expansion, so we'll see what that means.

[Dakhath]

Anyone who says the Horde is even close is deluding themselves. The Vindicaar could destroy the entirety of the combined Horde forces but since this is an MMO, the greatest weapon the Alliance possess is just hanging out somewhere else instead of contributing to the war effort.

[Fabinas]

Isn't there a LORE subforum?