Originally Posted by
bloodmoth13
how does the alliance win in magic when the horde has quel thalas and suramar? alliance have the kirin tor, granted, but i still think thats second rate to the highborne? and its not that a large portion of dalaran didnt swear for the horde either. I know the draenie are supposed to be godlike mages, but i got the feeling that they abandoned that in favor of the light and that the mages became a smaller part of their faction, so i assume that they would make a less significant part of their main forces. Gnomes prefer engineering, they have a talent for magic when it comes to it, but i doubt mages and warlocks would make greater than 4% of their main forces
Also, i get the impression in lore that its quite difficult to become a mage, while shamanism takes more of a lifestyle, i can imagine that horde shaman would outnumber alliance mages by a large margin just because the horde races are generally much more attuned to the elements, so while not as sophisticated as the alliance i think they have access to powerful and wild offensive magic (lightning bolts and fireballs sort of thing) a lot more readily than the more tactical, less offensive alliance magic (polymorph, slow, teleporting etc)
Also i wonder how the races would stack in different combat scenarios, in a decisive battle i dont see troll regen mattering, but it would be godlike in guerrilla warfare and wars of attrition or other drawn out conflicts. Same with forsaken, they dont need to eat, they could hold a siege for decades without provisions taking a toll.
I think in the case of tactics horde would have an advantage in guerrilla warfare and hit and run tactics, orcs make great raiders for example. Dwarves and gnomes would probably be the best for siege tactics, and i think humans specialty is mass melee with shield walls and group conflict.
The way i see an all out war happening between both factions is the alliance grouping fro a huge mass melee, while the horde splinters and performs geurrilla tactics, the alliance will win the main conflict, but they would return home to nothing. Horde can live off the land as nomads, alliance races wouldnt perform nearly as well.