What is the logic behind the attack on Dazar'alor?

Hello,

So im a Horde player only, and therefore havn’t played through the Alliance war campaign. But im curious about what logic is given for attacking Dazar’alor instead of a more obvious target, like Orgimmar.

The Zandalar is not the Alliances primary enemy and is only negotiating an alliance with the Horde. Attacking them would only cement this alliance.

The attack clearly wasn’t meant to severly criple the Zandalar army, since the plan was to lure the main army away and the goal seemed more like an assasination mission.

Sure they blew up a part of the Zandalar fleet, but they could have done that without doing an attack.

Is there something im missing?

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The Fleet is the most important thing in this expansion, apparently. By crippling the fleet, the Alliance gains an advantage. The Alliance blew more then half of the Zandalari fleet up.

As for severing the ties between the Horde and the Zandalari by attacking them, well, these are the same writers who made Sylvie’s genius plan of splitting the Alliance by…god knows how.

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I get the destroying of the fleet. But the bombs that destroyed them was put there weeks or months ago. They could have destroy the fleet at any time. Im just curious about the choice of attack.

If the plan was to server the ties between the Horde and the Zandalari, then yes, that pretty bad writing…

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Drama, I suppose? I don’t know, as you already said, it all boils down to:

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I fear this is closer to the truth than what I’d want to admit.

Suffice it to say, WoW’s writing board lacks even a hobby-level interest in general strategy or military matters.

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This entire war campaign from the Alliance’s side should have been blowing up the ships. Period.

Drawing Zandalari army away, sacrificing our own troops, barging into the city… It all makes no sense at all. It was pointless.

Writers think, I guess, that this is “driving a wedge between Zandalari and the Horde”.

I have no clue how could anyone have thought that showing Zandalari that they need the Horde to survive is going to make them not join the Horde.

Basically:

And that’s just it.

Bad writing. They are clueless.

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I have to agree that Orgrimmar would be a better target, especially since all the heroes are currently away on some island somewhere.

I too struggle to see the Zandarlari as a threat.

There has also been little effort to establish a bitter rivalry between the Kul’Tirans and the Zanzibari. I would understand if these two were bitter rivals some how… but as I’ve experienced it in game the few times those two have met are highly limited. (I think they antagonised each other once on an island expedition).

This is an attack primarily on the Zandilari, not the Horde.

OR… perhaps I’ve missed something.

Now, if the Zandilari burned down Teldrassil we’d be talking.

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I agree completly.

I remember having the same thoughts about the invasions. Why is the Horde invading Kul Tiras instead of areas in Eastern Kingdoms? Or why is the Alliance not attacking Kalimdor?

It feels wierd to me, that the Horde and Alliance is at war with each other but mostly fight on completly foreign lands.

I guess the warfronts is supose to show that there is battle elsewhere, but imo that doesn’t really get the message across.

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Frankly the story of this expansion is crap.

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Which is worse, do you think - WoD or BfA?

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Still WoD but BfA isn’t over yet.

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This whole set-up was frankly stupid from the very start. It was clear from the beginning that the trolls would sooner or later join the Horde, even from an in-universe perspective as the trolls simply have more in common with the Horde and centuries of warfare between dwarves, humans, night elves and trolls are not simply forgotten. Especially not from the Zandalari.

The attack should have served a simple purpose, “We go in there and completely crush them. We’ll take them out of the war and show the rest of the world what happens to you, when you ally yourself with the Horde. We go in destroy their shipyards, their barracks, their fleet, their priests, maybe one or two loa, and annihilate them in such a way that it’ll take decades if not centuries for them to recover.”

It’s basically like you beat up some random average guy, who gets out of the hospital after a few days and goes after your butt together with his two friends who both work as bouncers.

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My guess is the whole “drive a wedge” thing is just an excuse used by Genn or someone else to either get Anduin to agree to it or Anduin wanted to use capturing Rastakhan as a bargaining chip to buy the Zandalari’s neutrality in the war. Which would I suppose technically be driving a wedge between them and the horde.

Either way all actions in war are ad hoc justified anyway.

This made me smile.

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“Drive a wedge between the Alliance and the Horde”. Let’s say this plan was carried out perfectly, but let’s change the instances of how this is done, in just a few simple steps:

Step 1: Detonate the fleet. Bam, that’s one asset dealt with that will struggle to recover.

Step 2: Turn IT around! I am not sold that there’s a sudden deployment in Nazmir to warrant apparently all of the Zandalari army to leave the city. If the raid was instead based on capturing Talanji, then that would’ve made more sense.

Step 3: Read step 2 again.

Step 4: Zandalari are now wedged into a corner. Should they join the Horde, Rastakhan will risk losing his most beloved treasure. Therefore making negotiations even more difficult.

Result: Alliance got what they wanted, Horde is at the same stage right now, but with less expenses and insensibilities.

#done

The purposes of the attack were to:
-Destroy most of the Zandalari fleet and cement Alliance naval superiority for future battles; also makes the Zandalari less appealing to the Horde. This part was a success.
-Destabalize the Zandalari. Although Anduin hoped for Rastakhan to surrender, killing him has achieved the same end result; even with Talanji set to succeed him, 8.1.5 shows her leadership is far from accepted, leaving the Zandalari in another period of civil unrest.
-Force the Zandalari out of negotiations with the Horde. The only major failure of the attack, alongside losing Mekkatorque. The Zandalari are now motivated to fight the Alliance, and therefore more likely to join the Horde for vengeance.
Although not intended, Talanji becoming Queen has also helped start destabilising the Horde; spoilers ahead here, but Talanji demands to be equal to Sylvanas in the Horde. To gain the Zandalari as allies, Sylvanas must lose her absolute control of the Horde, opening further opportunities for division in the faction.

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Saurfang, Talanji and Baine dream team to overthrow the Lich Queen? Take note Blizzard!

I agree with the most of the comments here.
The Horde supposed to attack Exodar. The last Capital of the Alliance at Kalimdor.
The Alliance supposed to attack Silvermoon. The last Capital of the Horde at EK.
And the Alliance and Horde should looking for new Allies to be capable to defend their lands …
I like Darkshore warfront … but Ashenvale is destroyed and taken by the Horde. Teldrassil is burned … And surrounded by enemies.
The most important Capitals are not involved into this war… Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

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To be fair we saw a conflict of priorities raise up from it, technically the worgen and night elves should be out cause of darkshore but then again that would explain the “oh snap retreat” once the main army comes back from Nazmir

Aye, but you see, this is where further inconsistencies kick in. Night elves fight in Nazmir. Who leads the Alliance charge in Dazar’alor? Greymane, alongside Shaw and Gelbin…