If you play in the battlegrounds on a regular basis this is a question you see on both sides: Ally and Horde. It seems that many players have either forgotten how to win in Alterac Valley or simply do not understand the dynamics of the strategy involved in completing a winning campaign.

In the old days the battle to win Alterac Valley was a race to see who could kill the others general first. Some times one side would throw in a monkey wrench and turn the battleground into a long protracted turtle that could last for hours. I was involved in a few battlegrounds that lasted as long as five hours and have heard of others that went much longer.

With patch 2.3 all this changed with the introduction of reinforcements limited to 600 total for each side. The idea was to make the matches shorter and more strategy based. Each side is able to lower the number of reinforcements of the opposing team by completing certain objectives that remove reinforcements and offer bonus honor to the faction that completes the goal.

For example each bunker captured is worth 63 bonus honor and removes one npc from the defending Generals defense team. In addition each bunker removes 50 reinforcements from the opposing side with Balinda and Galv each counting for 100 off the opposing teams total. Teams can further improve their position by gaining control of the mines which add reinforcements from the grave yards at a much faster rate.

This is where strategy on both sides comes into play. The team that best defends the bunkers they take for their faction and slows the advance of the opposing team will win the battle in most cases. The problem many people are having in the battlegrounds is not realizing that these objectives are extremely important.

When Alterac Valley begins 10 players should plan to begin the defense of their faction at one of two choke points that best allow them to slow down the advance of the opposing team. For the Horde the best choke point is located at Ice Blood Grave Yard. The advantage of playing defense at this point is that all Ally members must come past this point to get to the southern part of the map. It also allows the Horde to have reinforcements quickly by using the grave yard located within on a few yards to replinish their defense quickly.

The Alliance can begin their best defense at the Ice Wing Bunker and keep the advance of the Horde slowed down until they are pushed back to Storm Pike Grave Yard and begin a prolonged defense at this grave yard. The only way for Horde to gain access to the base is to make a hard and treacherous push across the bridge which is much better defended by the archers of the alliance then can be accomplished by the horde archers.

The error that is made by both sides all to often is failing to guard their offensive objectives. What seems to happen in most instances is that once a bunker flag is started on its timer many of the players simply leave believing that their job is done and all will be well. Unfortunately this is not always the case. If either side is paying attention either through the use of their maps or by addons such as Deadly Boss Mod they can effectively stop the opposing side from reaching their objectives fast enough or even in many cases completely keep them from acheiving them at all.

I have been in Alterac Valley campaigns where we simply could not get anyone to stay to help defend so I would be left defending a bunker. Sometimes things would work out, but all to often a group of opposing players would come in and make short work of my meager defense.

Bunkers are important, but so are strategic grave yards. For the Allies the first grave yard to capture is going to be Snowfall Grave Yard. This gives them a forward respawn point with which to attack Galv and ultimately their next objectives. The Horde’s first grave yard needs to be Stone Hearth Grave Yard and should be well defended by at least 2 or 3 players until this grave yard is captured. A sound strategy for the allies is to keep the horde from gaining access to this grave yard as it forces them to many times respawn after a death as far south as Frostwolf Grave Yard depending on well the allies have been at gaining their offensive objectives. One final way to a quick and easy victory is for a team of 5 stealth players to move quickly to the opposing sides base and ninja their bunkers within their base along with the base grave yard. A good team makeup is to have at least 2 druids who can help with healing in the event that a battle to retake the bunkers ensues. Remember to take them one bunker at a time to make sure you capture the bunker and do not have to do the same job twice which can delay your teams victory or even cause its defeat.

To win in Alterac Valley these days you have to have a sound strategy and a well balanced defense and offense. To much defense on either side and the whole battle will be prolonged by an extremely long time which has the added effect of reducing the overall honor you can earn within an hour. The arguement is that you gain more honor from pvp with the enemy, however, if you were to play 4 AV’s with good strategy within an hour you could make as much as 2000 or more honor from bonus and kills. The arguement by those loving turtles as they are called is that they can come out of this single Alterac Valley with close to 1000 honor points. The problem with this theory is that even with a reinforcement battle the battleground will last as long as an hour or more thus reducing your total honor that you can make. Of course this type of battleground does make for some serious fun for those that love the pvp aspect of the battlegrounds.

No matter the route you decide to take in the battlegrounds your strategy will ultimately decide whether your side is victorious or not. Remember good sound strategy and taking the time to make sure your objectives are actually captured before moving on will win the match for your side.