Where? The Carrion Fields, Dragonblight

There’s something to be said for the Lich King.  Granted, I’ve already said it, but it bears repeating.  The guy has massive power at his fingertips and has little to no strategy.  You let the greatest heroes of Azeroth get to your throne and then try to convert them into powerful servants and just assume that it’ll all work out in your favor.  Wonderful, brilliant, a stroke of genius.  I’m sure not one of your generals would have pointed out the number of logical missteps and oversight that plan had, namely because the Lich King comes off as the type of evil overlord who kills people who disagree with him.

But what does this have to do with what I’m talking about today?  Well, I was flying about my business in the Dragonblight the other day when a strange thought hit me as I passed over Wintergarde Keep.  Why the heck is Naxxramas positioned over the Carrion Fields?  I mean, the position of Naxxramas in the Eastern Plaguelands always seemed to make some sense, it was positioned over Stratholme, a fortified city that was controlled almost entirely by the Scourge (The Loonies held one building and the western square, but they hardly were much of a threat to the Scourge.)  So it made sense to establish your floating citadel of death and doom above it.  Kind of. Not really.

The necropoli were designed to be mobile fortresses for massive deployment of Scourge forces directly in enemy territory.  The shining example of this was the use of Acherus the Ebon Hold to lay siege to the Loonies’ city and take control of New Avalon before the Scarlet Nutballs had a chance to react.  No sooner than the capture of Havenshire, the Ebon Blade had already captured the chapel and the house out by the Orchard and began to assault the city proper.  This is how the Necropoli should have been utilized.

Instead what do we have?  Well, during both Scourge Invasions, the necropoli were positioned outside of the major cities of both factions and also some really strange locations.  I mean, I can see sending a necropolis to the Blasted Lands, as it would actually be quite advantageous to seize control of the Dark Portal.  However, sending one to the south end of the Eastern Plagueland, and desolate pointless places like Azshara or Winterspring never quite made sense to me.  Also, why not position your forces directly over the enemy cities? Dropping your forces in mass right in the middle of the city streets.  Can you imagine dropping a cauldron of the plague of undeath directly into the middle of Stormwind?  Certainly this can’t be accomplished with every city, Ironforge and the Undercity both lie buried under the earth, and the Exodar has a roof over the entire place.  The strategy however works more than it doesn’t, and shouldn’t be disregarded so quickly.

This brings me back to Naxxramas and the Carrion Fields.  My understanding is that the Carrion Fields are where the lowest tier of the town of Wintergarde stood.  It fell to the Scourge, and thus it became the Carrion Fields.  Not bad, direct deployment to take control and everything.  But why the heck start at the bottom of the hill?  Wouldn’t it have been a smidge better if you had started your attack at, oh you know, the center of the fortress on the hill instead of the town below it?  You know, leave a less fortified area for the 7th Legion to hole up in?  I mean it’s the 7th Legion for Pete’s sake.  Do you know what they are capable of? (For those not aware of what the 7th Legion is capable of I suggest you read up on them here.  They are AWESOME.)

This is sadly just another example of the Lich King’s complete and utter lack of strategic ability.  It’s not surprising considering he is the fusion of a stubborn prince who burned his own boats on purpose and an orc whose great idea for getting the hell out of Draenor was to open more and more portals till the planet was shredded.  Still, I have to wonder how then, did the Lich King manage to so eloquently recruit the Cult of the Damned and spread the plague grain across Lordaeron without being noticed for so long.  Did merging with Arthas drag him down?  Did the scheming foursome of color coded dreadlords come up with it?  Was it actually Kel’Thuzad or something?

It’d be pretty sad if it was Kel’Thuzad.  Sitting on his chair in Naxxramas with his skull in his hands repeating over and over, “We’re doing this all wrong.  Why didn’t we just go with my idea and start at the top of the hill?  Why do we always listen to HIS ideas?”  Probably cause he’d kill you if you didn’t, Kel.  He’s just that kind of evil overlord.