How strong was really the Iron Horde ?

[Venziir]

Warlord Zaela was about to let the Black Rock Volcano erupt and end Stormwind.

Again "about to" not "did it".

[Ivarr]

Again "about to" not "did it".

Indeed, Warlord Zaela was about to let the Black Rock Volcano erupt and end Stormwind.

[ohwell]

The Iron Horde should've been super strong and a legitimate threat to the Alliance/Horde forces, BUT they rushed it all.

That said, the Warlords of Draenor lore seems like a golden era compared to what's happening right now.

Most certainly not, but hey keep trying to earn them cool points by joining the band wagon with that nonsense. You might be able to buy a sticker soon with all those points!

[McNeil]

The Iron Horde had potential to be a serious threat, but they didn't get anything done and the moment they came out of the Dark Portal they got wrecked on every turn. I'm not sure if this is because of all the cut content and storylines or that Blizzard already had this mentality that new bad guys always had to be defeated anyway. What was even the point of returning all the warlords if al lthey do is show up a few times just to get their asses handed? We haven't even seen Grom actively play a war other than trying to intimitate the players after the Dark Portal intro.

Their power level would be quite high on their peak, but due to very poor leadership it all went down the drain and no amount of muscles can make up for it.

[Firefall]

I think the Iron Horde is one of the only examples where in-game stuff like leveling is actually representative of the threat. The Iron Horde would not be a major threat in today's lore situation. Their key advantages were their size and technology. In today's WoW, the alliance and horde are on better terms and would work together negating the size factor, and both have made simply massive technological strides since WoD. The Iron Horde would be a threat today, but not the threat they were (intended to be) in WoD.

[Venziir]

Indeed, Warlord Zaela was about to let the Black Rock Volcano erupt and end Stormwind.

Blackrock Mountain*, but again - she didn't and like Verdugo pointed out, it likely wouldn't have done much damage.

[Ivarr]

Blackrock Mountain*, but again - she didn't and like Verdugo pointed out, it likely wouldn't have done much damage.

Muradin Bronzebeard calls it a doomsday weapon and he seems more knowledgeable about that Blackrock Volcano place than whoever your source is.

[Venziir]

Muradin Bronzebeard calls it a doomsday weapon and he seems more knowledgeable about that Blackrock Volcano place than whoever your source is.

Okay, let me try and make this even more clear than it already is... Zaela did have a bomb, yes. But it was *never* used. So was it a threat? Yes. Was it ever made relevant? No. It ended up being a joke like the rest of the Iron Horde, and a waste of potential. A random genesaur ended up being a bigger threat to Stormwind than a nuke aimed at it.

[Ivarr]

Okay, let me try and make this even more clear than it already is... Zaela did have a bomb, yes. But it was *never* used. So was it a threat? Yes. Was it ever made relevant? No. It ended up being a joke like the rest of the Iron Horde, and a waste of potential. A random genesaur ended up being a bigger threat to Stormwind than a nuke aimed at it.

Then you can say the same thing about N'zoth. Never ended up being an actual threat to Azeroth, after all, his plans got thwarted. The World of Warcraft is a pretty harmless place -give or take a Teldrassil- in hindsight, there's always a group of heroes making sure everything ends well.

[Aurabolt]

Why did the movie have such as focus on Lothar?

Because lorewise, he was probably the most important character in WC1 for the Alliance. The movie was based on WC1: Orcs and Humans though a few things were changed from the game to fit within the alloted movie time. I have said movie on DVD. The biggest change is Stormwind City isn't destroyed which does happen in WC1.

Anduin Lothar is considered one of the greatest Warrors in Human history. In WC1, after Llane was assassinated and Stormwind is sacked Lothar leads the refugees north to Lordaeron. He acted as Regent Lord of Stormwind as well as the Supreme Commander of The Alliance during the Second War until he was killed in battle. Varian named his son Anduin after him so...yeah. Lothar was to Llane what Bolvar was to Varian: A close friend.

While obviously the movie's U.S. release window was to coincide with the release of WoD, it did not result in a wave of moviegoers getting into WoW as Blizzard had hoped since most who saw it were already famiiar with the source material.

[Venziir]

Because lorewise, he was probably the most important character in WC1 for the Alliance. The movie was based on WC1: Orcs and Humans though a few things were changed from the game to fit within the alloted movie time. I have said movie on DVD. The biggest change is Stormwind City isn't destroyed which does happen in WC1.

Anduin Lothar is considered one of the greatest Warrors in Human history. In WC1, after Llane was assassinated and Stormwind is sacked Lothar leads the refugees north to Lordaeron. He acted as Regent Lord of Stormwind as well as the Supreme Commander of The Alliance during the Second War until he was killed in battle. Varian named his son Anduin after him so...yeah. Lothar was to Llane what Bolvar was to Varian: A close friend.

While obviously the movie's U.S. release window was to coincide with the release of WoD, it did not result in a wave of moviegoers getting into WoW as Blizzard had hoped since most who saw it were already famiiar with the source material.

Yes thank you, I'm well aware of that. My point was, IF WoD was supposed to be a sort of fluffer for the movie, why on Earth did Lothar - a character *not* found in WoD, play such a big role? In other words, no WoD was not made to fluff up the movie.

[DingDongKing]

Most certainly not, but hey keep trying to earn them cool points by joining the band wagon with that nonsense. You might be able to buy a sticker soon with all those points!

Who are you?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

How much of a power and threat was really the Iron Horde to Azeroth, and rather to the Alliance and the Horde ?

In the First War, the Orcish Horde overran the southern half of the Eastern Kingdoms due to 1. their numbers (entirety of the Orcs in Draenor barring down on the kingdoms in Southern EK), and 2. the superior strength of an Orc over a Human. However, it is important to note that the Alliance hadn't been formed yet, so people weren't pooling their difference resources and strengths together.

The Iron Horde was even stronger due to its mechanization, but this time the enemies they were facing were far more powerful than the Iron Horde. Rather than facing isolated nations, the Iron Horde was facing a near united Eastern Kingdoms that had superior number of forces, economy, industry, and technology. Said Alliance was just fresh off of crushing the Horde warmachine in Kalimdor.