Places of Conflict for BFA

For now, the Alliance and Horde are trying to undercut and subvert each other on Zandalar and Kul Tiras. The current war is focused primarily on these lands, though we've of course seen some devastating battles in northern Kalimdor and Lordaeron.

It's clear that this is meant to be a global war, which is reinforced in the mission descriptions at the command table (though even as someone who is careful to read quest text, even I forget to read this stuff about two thirds of the time.)

There's certainly a possibility we'll see new locations added in patch content, but what of existing areas?

One of the benefits of phasing that they don't actually use all that often is the ability to have us do stuff in old areas - Gilneas is a great example, where Alliance players (namely Worgen) get one version of the zone while a big chunk of the Horde experience in Silverpine actually sends them into Gilneas as well - in fact, it feels rather similar to how the two sides are sent on incursions into the opposite continents in BFA (particularly for Horde, as Kul Tiras feels much more like a unified nation than Zandalar.)

We know we're getting Warfronts in some of the older areas - Arathi Highlands will see the Alliance and Horde clashing over Stromgarde and a new Horde base in the northwest of the zone. There's a lot of speculation that the Southern Barrens might expand into a true Warfront as well.

One sticking point that seems ripe for development is Gilneas - for a long time, the Gilneans have been forced out of their home due to proximity to the Forsaken, but now that the Undercity is lost, it seems the perfect time for the Worgen and Humans of Gilneas to return.

There is, of course, room for a guerrilla campaign against the Horde in northern Kalimdor, where the Kaldorei might wish to exact a great price for the fate of Teldrassil.

The Horde doesn't have a lot of territory to take back, as they didn't have much territory to begin with, but one area I'd really like to see in conflict is Quel'thalas. The Alliance now has both High Elves and Void Elves (only the latter being playable, of course,) and so it would seem that an effort to claim Silvermoon for the Alliance has some legitimacy. I'd actually find it interesting if we saw the Void Elves attack Quel'danas and try to claim the Sunwell, though the Draenei and High Elves might take issue with that. But it would put the Horde in a position of being both defending and having the moral high ground for a change.

Northrend is another area I think we could return to. It's one of the few areas in the game that truly feels like a full continent rather than glorified islands (yes, I realize that even EK and Kalimdor are only the size of Manhattan if translated into the real world.) Dragonblight seems the best location for such a thing, given the wide expanse of snow between two major fortresses. And given Sylvanas' experiments in necromancy, Northrend is a pretty relevant place.

There's obviously a limit to how much they can do here, and I doubt we'd see all of these battlefronts over the course of this expansion. Still, I tend to like when they reinforce the idea that the older continents remain relevant to the story even after we've finished the expansion there, and this Alliance/Horde war seems like a good opportunity to see them.