How did the alliance suddenly lose so many?

[Deathknightish]

Right before Azshara, the Alliance were crushing it and were weeks from winning the war.

During the setup for Siege of Orgrimmar 2.0, Anduin says it's their last troops.

Am I missing something? What happened?
Did the battle against Azshara dwindle all their numbers or what?

[Niroshi]

Nah the Alliance just up and somehow lost most of their forces somewhere off screen before Dazar'alor. The writers weren't concerned with a consistent war story, they just wanted a cheap framing device to show their character dramas against.

[korijenkins]

Nah the Alliance just up and somehow lost most of their forces somewhere off screen before Dazar'alor. The writers weren't concerned with a consistent war story, they just wanted a cheap framing device to show their character dramas against.

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.

[Friendlyimmolation]

Maybe Alliance military tactics consist of trying to drown the Horde in Alliance soldier's blood or something.

[Powerogue]

I mean Azshara did destroy most of the Kul'tiran fleet. It's hard to say how many survived that, but given I only saw about the same # of Alliance and Horde npcs playing through their questlines, and the Horde only brought the ONE boat...

I also got the impression from the 8.2.5 cutscene that in the interrim we don't see of them gathering in Dustwallow Marsh, the Alliance had been significantly supplying forces to the rebels while they were forming a significant fighting force. "How many can you provide?" I took to mean he had asked this a few times while the rebellion gained steam.

[Shelly]

Our forces are split.

We lost a lot in the various sieges and Tyrande ran off with the Night Elves and the Worgen to Darkshore.

[Syegfryed]

prob because he is implying that he only had that to bring to orgrimmar, since the night elves and worgens kinda moved their forces.

this or just blizzard flip-flopping with their lore changing every cinematic for the rule of cool.

[Goldielocks]

Did the battle against Azshara dwindle all their numbers or what?

If I had to guess, Azshara probably greatly diminished the Alliance forces right before 8.2 began so that the war would continue on and neither side would notice Azshara releasing N'zoth when they're too focused on each other. If the Alliance won then the fighting would stop.

[Budong]

In game events rarely demonstrate the true scope of actual canon lore. The cgi cinematics would take precedence over anything we as players take part in..including quests and raids. Those are gameplay functions and not always representative of actual lore. We saw a few ships fall into Nazjatar but in reality the bulk of both fleets were there.

Also the books and short stories carry more weight than what we see in game. As players we see Sylvanas having trouble with Malfurion but in the book she was knocking him around and having much more success.

[Skyforge1]

Majority of the Alliance fleet was lost to Azshara when chasing down the remnants of the Horde, combine that the forces Anduin sent to Thunder Bluff and the forces that would have followed Tyrande, There wasn't much left

[cparle87]

Nah the Alliance just up and somehow lost most of their forces somewhere off screen before Dazar'alor. The writers weren't concerned with a consistent war story, they just wanted a cheap framing device to show their character dramas against.

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.

[Mixxy]

Nah the Alliance just up and somehow lost most of their forces somewhere off screen before Dazar'alor. The writers weren't concerned with a consistent war story, they just wanted a cheap framing device to show their character dramas against.

Reminds me of a line I saw somewhere on these very forums.

"The Alliance: routinely snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."

[Varodoc]

I mean Azshara did destroy most of the Kul'tiran fleet. It's hard to say how many survived that, but given I only saw about the same # of Alliance and Horde npcs playing through their questlines, and the Horde only brought the ONE boat...

I also got the impression from the 8.2.5 cutscene that in the interrim we don't see of them gathering in Dustwallow Marsh, the Alliance had been significantly supplying forces to the rebels while they were forming a significant fighting force. "How many can you provide?" I took to mean he had asked this a few times while the rebellion gained steam.

Before Azshara, the Alliance was winning on every front. All the fronts in the war are on the land. So even if Azshara destroyed a huge portion of the Alliance fleet, why should it have impacted the Alliance's war effort in said land warfronts like Arathi and Darkshore? I mean, the Alliance was winning on every front (as reports from every Horde outpost said), and they didn't need their fleet to win ON LAND. So them losing their fleet shouldn't have magically increased the size of the Horde army while at the same time drastically handicapping the Alliance. Plotholes, plotholes, and even more plotholes. That's what BfA is.

[bmjclark]

Honestly, I was under the impression they lost a lot in Undercity. I don't even know how they had as many left as they did in Dazaralor, let alone during nazjatar.

[Beloren]

Right before Azshara, the Alliance were crushing it and were weeks from winning the war.

During the setup for Siege of Orgrimmar 2.0, Anduin says it's their last troops.

Am I missing something? What happened?
Did the battle against Azshara dwindle all their numbers or what?

Alliance is not the centre of the story, alliance are supporting role for the horde. Maybe one day it will shift back to them, or one day become equal, but that day is not today.

[Quaade]

Right before Azshara, the Alliance were crushing it and were weeks from winning the war.

During the setup for Siege of Orgrimmar 2.0, Anduin says it's their last troops.

Am I missing something? What happened?
Did the battle against Azshara dwindle all their numbers or what?

The plot said they did so screw consistency.

[Thorqin]

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.

[schwarzkopf]

Am I missing something? What happened?

Attrition - by far the largest source of casualties, and remember all the troops in the two warfronts etc, the battle at Undercity, the skirmishes with invasions etc.

So just because we don't see every soldier's death - doesn't mean they didn't happen.... just like real war.

[Every Pwny]

They lost their whole navy chasing those three horde boats in Nazjatar or something, which was also most of their troops. So they needed a part of the horde and the full alliance to attack a part of the horde.

[Zmagoslav]

The thing is; they probably didn't. They just stopped putting all their forces into these assaults after what happened at Nordrassil in 8.0.