Posts made by swordsman3003

I play several times a week during the summer.

I have a dedicated family who loves to play the game.

Germany is able to win World War 1 because the British have to expend huge amounts of resources defending Canada from invasion by the United States, and is subject to many economic attacks by the United States Navy.

England is also attacked in the Pacific by the United States. This seems more than enough to tip WW1 in favor of Germany, especially with all those things happening against England from the get-go.

It’s not just a case of “a neutral USA causes Germany to win WW1” - unlikely. It’s “Central-Powers aligned USA helps Germany out and they win WW1”

And I think it is actually quite realistic of Turtledove to have authoritarian forces take over in different countries based on the alternate history. IRL Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal…they all went fascist. Russia went communist. What’s wrong with a distraught CSA following a similar path?

I don’t think Turtledove takes the easy way out of writing history; rather, he believes that certain things in history create cauldrons of inevitability.

I love timeline 191.

I love maps.

Oddly predictive; hits Iron Curtain almost to the mile.

Patton - and I will defend my choice.

Many commanders are famous for how the excelled at some particular facet of war; logistics, politicking, inspiring loyalty, etc etc.

Patton, in my opinion, could be dumped at almost any point in human history, given some sort of fighting force, and he would study the situation and excel.

Thus, I feel it is fair to compare him to naval, air, artillery commanders, etc. because he would probably have been talented at any aspect of making war.

my $.02

If the United States “declared war” on Germany by supplying Britain as a friendly-neutral, then the USSR “declared war” on the UK by supplying Germany with Oil, ore, etc.

Please.

I think that if Germany sunk at least 700,000 tons of shipping per month, Britain would have surrendered.

I do not think Air Superiority would have won Germany such a victory; consider how long Germany lasted against massive aerial bombardment. Furthermore, Hitler would not have invaded England even if they had achieved air superiority as he was preoccupied with notions of Lebensraum.

I do not consider the sea war “The Battle of Britain” but rather “The Battle of the Atlantic” and thus do not believe winning the air war “Battle of Britain” would have greatly impacted the war.

My opinion on Patton is based pretty much on his military merit.

Consider - if there were a politician running for election who supported almost all the issues you supported, wouldn’t you be willing to give him a lot of leeway on his personal life? At least, this is my taste when it comes to powerful figures. For example, I am willing to overlook Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions when I try to measure whether or not he was a successful president.

So before I move on, I guess I should discuss the character flaws I’m going to overlook.

Patton had, in my opinion, a large number of character deficits. He was often stubborn and arrogant, had difficulty compromising, and held others to a nearly impossible standard.

He believed that he was the reincarnation of ancient military figures. (For me, this is a deficit, make of it what you will)

He made numerous political blunders that had to be cleaned up, sometimes, according to some historians, accidentally divulging secret information.

Now, all the being said, let us consider his value to the American military:

Here was a man born for war. He trained his whole life, studying the tactics and strategy of military commanders long dead. He didn’t just learn it; he applied it. In this way, he was able to take into account the accumulated strategic wisdom of all of human history when he made command decisions.

Patton seemingly itched for war, wanted nothing more than to participate in great battles. Convinced that he had died gloriously in ancient wars, he had no qualms about dying heroically in the name of American conquest. Probably his greatest frustration was that World War II ended. Some of his comments indicate that he wanted to keep going at the end of the war, attacking the Soviets after German surrender.

In other words, Patton was an unstoppable killing machine.

Whatever else you might say about him, that is precisely the sort of man I would want in command of my military during wartime.