For the record, my stance is "consider the second agenda only insofar as it visibly advances the first one". So help the dwarves with their orc problem; help Kul Tiral so long as we get their fleets to give our faction more breathing room, etc. Diplomacy may be helping orcs in the long run, or it might not, depending on who's in charge and what their agenda is. Alliances are fragile and situational. We must get something tangible from our efforts here and now.
I thought I'd make some remarks about this point and others.
Grok took up the position of Constable for various reasons. I don't want to repeat them all now, but for example, he knew that he was perhaps the only person in a position able to resolve some of the problems the Orcs of Lordaeron are facing, while also promoting peace with the Alliance.
Being Constable, as well as a sort of clan chief and a sort of Warchief, means that Grok is pulled in several different directions. Some of the objectives of these fucntions are mutually exclusive, some are complimentary. For example:
1. As Constable of Alterac, assure the security of Alterac and act as a leal servant to Queen Prestor
2. As a high official of Alterac and potentially the most powerful and respect person, assure the longer term security of Alterac through diplomacy.
3. As an Orcish leader, assure the position of the Orcs of Lordaeron through safeguarding them in Alterac
4. As a person of broader vision, assure the security of Azeroth more generally through strengthening the ties between the Horde and Alliance, while facing various foes.
There are certain things I won't allow you to do, for example things that go strongly against the prevoiusly established ideals of Grok. However, outside that, this is your Quest and you are the players. For example, if you wanted you could basically ignore the Alterac stuff and just use it to build up your Orc stuff, in preparation for attacking Rend at the end of Grok's 2 year term as Constable.Comparably, you could plow all the Orcish strength and Alterac's resources into throwing your weight behind the Crusade and fighting the Lich King. These are mutually exclusive, you cannot both safeguard the orcs while also throwing them into the teeth of Icecrown, obviously.
Grok's place in the constitutional functions of Alterac is somewhat unclear. Where does the power lie between Queen Prestor, Regent Gregor and Constable Grok? This allows room for manoeuvring there. In theory, you could seize power in Alterac, sideline Gregor and just do stuff on your own given Prestor is busy being a dragon in Stormwind and runnign that kingdom. However, that wouldn't leave as much time for other stuff.
Of course, this is partly by design. While I certainly permit space for, and indeed encourage clever or efficient write ins, naturally the set up of a quest means you cannot take all actions at the same time.
As a wider challenge for the thread, I would encourage discussion about your long term plans. What do you actually want to use the Alterac arc to do? You have at least 5 turns left of it. After that you could stay in Alterac, or you might want to leave to do something else. Grok has resolved that he'll spend at least 2 years there (8 turns), but it's not like he values owning land or anything etc.
For example, Dathrohan's political objectives are partly to dominate the rest of the Alliance so he can use them to destroy the Scourge, and then various other parties, while also corrupting them from the inside to serve the Legion's ends. That's why he's bringing in stuff like the Risen or undead or other dreadlords working with him like Westwind. Grok is aware he's trying to dominate the Alliance but doesn't know about demon stuff obviously. As such, to what extent does Grok care? Does Grok care about the political stability of the Alliance? I don't really think he does, not his circus not his monkey etc, but he might care about the knock on effects of this.
Would he rather a strong centralised alliance to fight enemies, but also one which would be an existential threat to the Orcs? Or would he rather be able to negociate with the constituent kingdoms? As one example, there have been time limited options to reduce or prevent Lordaeronian influence in Alterac. One was too prevent Regent Gregor brining in Lordaeronian officials and burecrats into the administration of the Regency, while the other was to get Karlus made Archbishop instead of the Red Bishop who got appointed instead. Does Grok care about that? Again probably not. Absent the orcs, Alterac doesn't really mean anything to him. However, does Grok want to prevent other kingdoms being brought into Lordaeron's and Dathrohan's sphere of influence? Would Grok want to prop up Gilneas to prevent Dathrohan doing so? Maybe sure.
Anyway, it's your job to have a think abotu it so do so.
A couple of other points:
On the Scourge situation, at the start of this arc I rolled for stuff that's going on in the world generally. For example, Deathwing, the Cataclysm and the Hour of Twilight are not necessarily on a timer, its not that they'll happen in 5 years or something, but the plans of the Old God faction are based on various things happening. By accelerating these things they may happen faster. Currently Deathwing will emerge slightly earlier because of Forneus weakening the barrier to Deepholme. Comparably, the Burning Legion are actually fine with how things are going on Azeroth now, given Balnazzar is leading the Alliance etc, so any moves by them to start the 3rd Invasion will be delayed as they're not feeling it necessary to do that yet. So for example this:
Kul Tiras is important both to have the possibility to use their ships... and because the Scourge is about to launch a Prepared Invasion of Kul Tiras.
Isn't necessarily specific to Kul Tiras, it's a broader invasion by the Vrykul and the Lich King generally, who are working on a significantly accelerated timescale and so are preparing their attacks now, rather than much later. For example, Tirion reports 'giants in the mist', which is the start of the Vrykul attacking the north of Lordaeron. They're killing Kul Tiras first because the islands are basically between the Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend.
If we want cannons, don't we go to dwarves for them? If it isn't cannons, then what, and more importantly, in what quantities? Who will be armed with these new weapons? Orcs are not famous for having good riflemen and artillery officers.
That's mostly human politicking, no? Good for the Alliance, but irrelevant to us in the short term.
What do they have to offer us? I hear weapons, but this is contingent on a lot of factors I am unsure about.
On Gilneas. One of the main attractions is indeed gunpowder technology, which appears to be the most advanced (at least among humans) in Gilneas. I would also say that the human methods of warfare are fundamentally different from those of the Dwarves for example, so may be more useful to get than Dwarf stuff. Furthermore, the Dwarves rely on Gunpowder and their more advanced tech to keep them safe and ahead, so they wouldn't be willing to share their most advanced stuff.
And as a last point, Liam Greymane seeing his kingdom being devoured by werewovles is a lot more desperate than Mangi Bronzebeard just chilling in Ironforge. Gilneas would be much more willing to accept a less equal deal, or one which benefits Grok/Alterac more, than would Mangi. Sure, Ironforge has way more 'stuff' than Gilneas will, more money, more raw resources and finished goods, more expertise, and better tech of stuff like guns, but they're also not in dire need of your assistance currently. Mangi is willing to trade some of his treasure to prevent him from having to expend Dwarvish lives in a conflict they're pretty unsuited for.
Comparably, you already haven't been choosing Gilneas, and that's meant that Liam has already had at least some discussion with Dathrohan and potential assistance from the Scarlets. Do you want to help Gilneas now and prevent them from becoming yet another client kingdom of Lordaeron? That's up to you, and goes to the general point about 'alterac aims' above.
