Depending on what was the goal of this skirmish it could be either a good victory or the worst military blunder for the Alliance. Anduin told us that the goal was never to kill Rasty and Gelbin did manage cripple Zandalari fleet.
If the goal was just to weaken Zandalari Empire then we can call this a victory.
If the goal was to capture Rasty to use him as a hostage so that Zandalari won’t support the Horde then this was a big military blunder. Not only did we kill the guy who we wanted to capture but we solidified the alliance between the Horde and the Zandalari Empire.
Really, I find that argument highly dubious. As if Zandalar wasn’t already halfway in the Horde, and wasn’t actively helping them. As if they wouldn’t have joined anyway. Heck, Talanji asked for their help around the time of the Battle of Lordaeron.
And Blizzard seems to think so as well, considering that they originally planned to give us the Zandalari allied race in 8.0 and only moved that up after they decided to give the Alliance Kul Tirans, and needed more time to work on that.
Doesn’t mean that the alliance couldn’t have been prevented by essentially holding a gun against their king’s head and saying “Join the Horde and he dies!” especially since according the lore Rasty was beloved by the Zandalari.
I’ll agree that they failed (if that was the objective), but you seemed to argue that they didn’t just fail in reaching their objective, but did some damage to themselves here. That’s the part I disagree with.
Well Anduin told us that killing Rasty was never the objective.
Anduin Wrynn says: Yes, but at what cost? So many fallen… including Mekkatorque, whose life hangs by a thread. And I fear the death of Rastakhan will ignite a fire in the hearts of the Zandalari.
[…]
Anduin Wrynn says: But our mission was to drive a wedge between the Zandalari and the Horde. Instead, we may have strengthened their bond.
To put it bluntly: The Alliance failed the mission so spectacularly that it made the military alliance between the Horde and the Zandalari Empire a certainty rather than a strong possibility. Until now the Zandalari Empire had no personal grudge against the Alliance.
A trade alliance, sure, but I don’t think they were at a point of a military alliance yet meaning I don’t think Zandalari were considering joining to the squabble between the Horde and the Alliance yet.
The Horde’s fleet is buggered. Less than half of it survived. That alone means the Horde will lose unless we (Or the Old Gods/Naga) find a way to even the odds.
The Alliance attacking Dazar’alor beyond that seems rather stupid though. It was a costly battle that gained them a small fortune in Zandalari gold and served only to anger and humiliate the Zandalari, forcing them into the Horde just to survive.
Anduin really doesn’t seem to understand diplomacy that well. First kidnapping a princess, now setting his army loose on their capital and having them murder the Zandalari king? Did he really expect the Zandalari to abandon the Horde after the Alliance showed them they can’t survive alone?
He thought that the Zandalari would give up on the Horde after siding with them brought only ruin and death. It was a gamble that ultimately didn’t pay off because it pushed the Zandalari to the savage Horde, but the idea was brilliant.
No problem.
I just thought that was how things were going to go after reading you doing likewise with my post.
Glad we cleared that up. All is good now
I’ll agree that the plan was stupid, considering what other targets they could have attacked instead and how most of the damage was done by the bombs and didn’t really need any army.
But the Talanji point is rather weak. She was travelling with Zul (the guy behind all troll crap in cata and MoP) to deal with the Horde, an enemy with which they are at open war. Of course she was detained. We don’t even know if the Alliance had any idea who she personally was.
I would say that I would usually expect much better quarters and treatmeant for any seemingly noble hostage that you might want to treat with later, but Blizz had to put her in the stockades to have her close to Saurfang and break her out, while avoiding designing another kind of Alliance prison, so that’s that.
