Horde navy

The Horde navy, formerly known as the Orcish Armada, is the collective maritime military force of the various members of the Horde. As the naval wing of the Horde military, these combined navies protect the Horde's interests throughout Azeroth and beyond, and have seen particularly frequent service against the Alliance and its navy.

When the orcs arrived from Draenor, they originally had no ships and even no naval tradition, as most of the superstitious clans feared the open sea.

But following his victory in the First War, Orgrim Doomhammer still wished the refugees of Stormwind pursued across the Great Sea. So following the Horde's conquest of Khaz Modan, Doomhammer planned to build a fleet of ships and launch a surprise attack in the heart of humanity's territories. Many orcs had reservations about this, for they were not a seafaring people. However, Gul'dan and his Stormreaver clan urged their allies that it was the best course of action, and in a bay tucked in the southwestern Wetlands Orgrim oversaw the construction of the fleet. To build the fleet, the Horde used iron and timber pilfered from their recent conquest of Khaz Modan and its dwarven mines.

While the orcs knew little of shipbuilding, some of their ogre allies had maritime knowledge and helped construct the immense juggernaughts — heavily armed and armored floating fortresses. The forest trolls also helped with their own destroyers, while the Stormreavers also captured giant sea turtles from the South Seas, to be used as a submersible orcish craft after being pacified by potent spells of control. To augment this, Doomhammer also enlisted the aid of the goblin Steamwheedle Cartel. The warchief provided the goblins with vast quantities of gold as payment for new technologies, maps, information, and ship-building services. The orcs had virtually no need for gold currency, and they were still rich in it from plundering the Kingdom of Stormwind.

Beyond conquering the remaining human kingdoms, Gul'dan and the Stormreavers were secretly assisting building the great navy in order to later find the Tomb of Sargeras.

At the start of the Second War, Orgrim Doomhammer ordered the Blackrock clan to establish a base of operations on the island of Zul'Dare, not far from Lordaeron's shores, in order to prepare their strike towards the coastal human settlements. Just before the battle of Hillsbrad Foothills, Admiral Daelin Proudmoore and the Alliance navy intercepted the Horde fleet near the island, successfully attacking the enemy ships, but the arrival of three enslaved red dragons turned the battle and Daelin and his ships were forced to retreat.

With the coast cleared, the Horde built several oil platforms in the Southshore region before launching their landing on the coast of Hillsbrad.

After the battle of Hillsbrad Foothills, most of the Horde navy was left anchored at the recently-conquered seaport of Southshore. Gul'dan then enacted his plans and came back from Quel'Thalas to take a portion of the fleet to the Broken Isles. The Black Tooth Grin clan later came back to Southshore as well in order to take the remaining ships and pursue the traitors. A lot of Horde ships ended up wrecked at Stormreaver Wreckage, while some others litter the coasts of Crestfall and Tol Barad.

The Horde navy ceased existing on Azeroth after these losses, but kept surviving somewhat on the orcish homeworld of Draenor, where Zeth'kur served as Ner'zhul's shipyard.

Warchief Thrall's new orcish Horde escaped the internment camps of Lordaeron in stolen ships from the Alliance of Lordaeron. In fact, throughout the entire Third War the Horde would produce little to no ships of their own, instead hiring mercenary transport boats from goblin shipyards when necessary. However, after the second invasion by the Burning Legion had ended, the Horde could instead focus on expanding their presence on land as well as on sea.

The Cataclysm led to the war against Deathwing, in which Warchief Garrosh Hellscream ordered the Bilgewater Cartel to build an armada that he would name Hellscream warfleet, hoping to use it to persuade the Dragonmaw clan to ally the Horde. However, corruption and delays in Bilgewater Harbor meant poor quality despite high costs, but intimidating the Bilgewater Foreman in charge helped get the warfleet done in time for the Horde to successfully launch an incursion into the Twilight Highlands. The Warchief, on board the warfleet, ordered the Horde air guard to seize the opportunity and attack the Alliance armada while it was in close formation. Though the Alliance apparently inflicted heavy casualties, the fleet was left seriously damaged following this ambush. The Horde's zeppelins too would pay for the sudden attack, when they were soon afterwards wiped out by a group of twilight dragons led by Deathwing, having dispatched all their close air support to deal with the Alliance.

Elsewhere, the Horde's sea fleet was also attacked by Alliance naval forces in open waters en route to the Twilight Highlands, inflicting heavy damage.

Captain Skullshatter commanded the gunship Storm's Fury into Deepholm where it was shut down and crashed.

During the Attack on Theramore Isle, the Horde erected a naval blockade around Kalimdor, with the Warchief's Fist engaging with the Alliance ship Elwynn.

Later, the Horde navy was victorious at the coasts of Tanaris and Tol Barad. A southern fleet encountered an Alliance envoy and an uncharted landmass.

Garrosh Hellscream sent Admiral Hagman to control the Horde fleet confronting Admiral Hodgson of the Alliance in a battle on the High Seas.

At the start of the third invasion of the Burning Legion, Horde navy assaulted the Broken Shore.

After the Argus Campaign, too many of the Horde navy's ships were destroyed either by the Legion or by the Alliance. Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner had Horde dockmasters working overnight.

During the Fourth War, much of the Horde's naval power was docked in the Echo Isles. Alliance champions were sent to infiltrate the troll capital, and set fire to the ships.

The Horde fleet grew a great deal in size after the Zandalari trolls introduced their Golden Fleet to the Horde. However, it was almost entirely destroyed by the Alliance during the Battle of Dazar'alor as the ships had been sabotaged and later detonated.

• Blood and Thunder (ship)
• Mannoroth's Bones

The Horde navy features ranks similar to those of their Alliance counterpart.

The Forsaken do have an amount of Dread-Admirals and Dread-Captains such as Tattersail, Coldfathom, Graham, Nadeux and Winge. Some of them also share the same naval uniform, such as Tattersail, Captain Lightpast and Captain Dreadwake.

• Golden Fleet
• Alliance navy