How did the alliance suddenly lose so many?

[Kithelle]

Is it any surprise? I mean how many times have the Alliance had the power to just destroy the Horde but didn't? Jaina wanted to obliterate Orgimmar but didn't. Varian was set to dismantle the Horde but didn't. Alliance has space ships but didn't use them at all.

[Evaddon]

Its seems you completely ignore the assaults and Warfront battles...these were canon and continued conflicts,even after we couldn't fight within. That's not counting any off screen skirmishes between grunts that could've happened, then many died on the ships during the Nazjatar event, killed by Naga or captured

[therealbowser]

And where were the alliance shown to have a dearth of Azeroth technology, or the horde having acquired more than them?

Like, it was the entire purpose of the story. Horde got the jump on Azerite and began making war machines with it before the Alliance did. In fact the initiation of the Dark Iron was in many ways linked to their ability to work with it, because the rest of the Alliance hadn't gotten into it yet.

I mean no offense, but are we playing the same game here? This was made pretty blatantly in the pre-BFA content and really, through out the story, and you're acting like this never came up or something.

I'm not saying that it stayed that way later on; by the end of the war the Alliance had a lot more azerite and more azerite war machines. The Horde no longer had that technological edge, or at least not enough to make up for their loss of numbers, so the principle still applies, and it just doesn't make sense how things have turned out.

[Feanoro]

This just in, Blizzard is completely ignorant of logistics, agriculture, military strategy and tactics, civilization growth, architecture, literary devices, consistency, logic...

[alt-ithist]

This is true. Even in that cinematic where Anduin releases Saurfang from the Stockades they act like their army is gone. We never actually see the army being beaten or destroyed, but we're constantly told that they're running out of troops.

Oh well, it is what it is.

That one would’ve been easy to explain. Sylvanas lured the alliance army into Lorderon then blew it up, would assumed a shit ton of the alliance forces died to that. Then the night elf army didn’t take part in the siege 2.0 or the war at all be frank. If you think about it, The part about the alliance was close winning is the one that doesn’t make sense.

[Seylene]

I kind of read it as the Alliance is currently overstretched on too many fronts. Despite all the lists we can make of armies just sitting on their hands, it doesn't fit into Blizzards "Its the story we want to tell." I mean personally id love to see what the Army of the Black moon can really do, and even more so I am curious what the Dwarves are up too, they haven't really sent more than a handful anywhere so there could be legion upon legion of stumpy bearded bad#sses ready to go!

[Averrix]

How many times have you done the Stromgarde and Darkshore war fronts? They keep losing troops over and over again!

[Varodoc]

Both sides do though.

And we know from Nathanos' statement from 8.1.5 that the Alliance was winning those fronts and tightening its grip.

[KaPe]

Its seems you completely ignore the assaults and Warfront battles...these were canon and continued conflicts,even after we couldn't fight within. That's not counting any off screen skirmishes between grunts that could've happened, then many died on the ships during the Nazjatar event, killed by Naga or captured

There is no canon that says that the Horde is completely dominating either Warfront. At best, it's a stalemate, so no side should be gaining any major advantage. Plus, Alliance was supposedly close to victory *after* Dazar'alor, which happened after Arathi and Darkshore - so unless the Horde made some amazing comeback, the Alliance should still be in decisive lead.

[Evaddon]

There is no canon that says that the Horde is completely dominating either Warfront. At best, it's a stalemate, so no side should be gaining any major advantage. Plus, Alliance was supposedly close to victory *after* Dazar'alor, which happened after Arathi and Darkshore - so unless the Horde made some amazing comeback, the Alliance should still be in decisive lead.

I didn't say they were dominating. I suggested people were dying during these events,I also suggested these events were still ongoing conflicts as stated in the 8.2.5 dialogues there are still pockets of conflict between the Horde/Alliance...so I'd attribute Warfronts/Assaults to this statement alongside events of the War table. Nothing more.Nothing less. Seems reasonable enough.

And all these events lead up to 8.2.5 meeting between Saurfangs Horde and The Alliance...which the OP is asking about so...its reasonable to assume alot of people died along the way?

[Musta]

Bad writing probably tbh.

[UnluckyAmateur]

This is true. Even in that cinematic where Anduin releases Saurfang from the Stockades they act like their army is gone. We never actually see the army being beaten or destroyed, but we're constantly told that they're running out of troops.

Oh well, it is what it is.

its ok, they'll release a book in like 3-4 years explaining how the majority of the army was off dying some stupid way. That'll improve the storytelling!

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

I guess they just needed to even the odds for the final fight.

It's just a shame they do so in very shoddy writing...

[Aphrel]

yupp, and to top it off, we even hear horde leaders moaning about not having tropps and "the alliance closing in" in the cinematic right afte the dazar alor raid.
It gives the impression of horde being on the run as if alliance is an unstoppable force.

Then the story does a 180 turn where sylvanas destroys the entire allaince army in duskwood and burns down teldrassil... how? Not a fucking clue...

But then all of a sudden we ahve troops again, a bunch of ships chasing one lone horde ship when azshara decides to flash her titties at us and say "come get me i also got free beer".

And now aparently the alliance is pretty much done for by the sounds of anduin. Wer like the rebels in starwars. Yet for some weird reason we are besiegeing orgrimmar?!?!?!?

This mages no sence.. i hate this storywriting.. as a player i ahve no diea wtf is going on.. everywhere i go i see only landsliding victorys for the alliance. yet every cinematic i see were apparently being slaughtered..

[Raven]

A big part was probably becouse Alliance couldnt raise the dead like Sylvanas did, kinda hard to fight someone that can just raise all the dead on both sides after the battle and hey new army.

[Kuja]

Can't say about others, but I started to play as horde after warmode was so broken for alliance.

[Friendlyimmolation]

its ok, they'll release a book in like 3-4 years explaining how the majority of the army was off dying some stupid way. That'll improve the storytelling!

They al caught yellow fever in Zandalar.

[bullseyed]

You do realize it was AFTER Dazar'alor but before Azshara that the Alliance were winning, right? Not before. If you're going to try to slam writers at least try to not be blatantly wrong.

The Alliance were winning because they killed a cursed Troll king by the skin of their teeth after using a diversion to draw the Horde forces up to an empty swamp? And then got routed while fleeing?

- - - Updated - - -

Their navy was decimated in Nazjatar, their army was down to conscripted farmers during the events of 2nd cinematic. Most of the Night Elven population was wiped out at Telderasil. What do you expect to be left?

The Alliance also didn't gain much of a huge population via an allied race. Void Elves, Lightforged, and Dark Iron Dwarves are few in numbers, only Kul'Tiras had a substantial population. The Horde allied races came with much larger populations, and as a result larger armies, which put the Alliance at a numeric disadvantage.

So yeah, not really sure why anybody would be confused by the massive Alliance military losses. It's one of the few things Blizzard has remained oddly consistent in.

Keep in mind as well that orcs are approximately 1.5x taller than a human and weigh about 3x as much. A single orc can take 3 humans in hand-to-hand combat easily. The humans can even be armed while the orc is barehanded. Think gorilla with a ragdoll.

- - - Updated - - -

...what, precisely, was their "tech advantage?"

If you had watched any of the BFA cinematics, you know the Horde had developed "an azerite-powered war machine" that decimated Alliance troops.

Two patches later the Alliance had developed their own knockoff... which gets routed by Horde randoms doing world quests.

However, none of the other content/cutscenes shows the Horde using these war machines or the impact it is having on the battlefield.

[Yoshingo]

Because they need to find some way to keep pretending the Horde and Alliance have equal numbers.

Otherwise they would have to write the Alliance as actually winning.

[nerv234]

Because horde in mop lost so much while alliance only lost their "Eccess" from Theramore. And what i meant by saying eccess is that From the start Alliance got one big city more than the horde, they got Theramore and horde as a counterpart got only small village of Stonard.