1) Alexander never faced Hannibal, Scipio, or any other first class enemy general, and died without banging heads against the Carthaginians or Romans at all.
2) Frederick and Napoleon never went head-to-head. Come to think of it, Frederick and Nobunaga might have been a Hell of a match-up to watch too.
3) Epaminondas of Thebes didn't have a decent power base and a better army.
4) The Aztecs and the Incas were unaware of that tempting target just a few thousand clicks away.
5) Australia has no real military history. Good luck to them, but from our point of view, a waste of a whole continent!
6) Model soldier companies appear unaware of how much fighting has taken place over the millennia between China and Vietnam. while mass-producing figures for a colonial war against America that hardly influenced historical trends in either country.
7) France didn't get involved in the ECW, or back the '45 seriously.
8 ) The Zulus didn't have a fleet (OK, really major fantasy there!).
9) Canada didn't get involved in the War of Northern Aggression.
10) The Hussites were opposed only by stupid generals with outclassed armies.
11) Frederick, Alexander, Frundsberg, Gustvaus, Shingen, Saladin, Ghengiz Khan, Napoleon, and Sobieski never teamed up and faced Fierce Kitty. Hmmmm, too one-sided, really. No. 11 doesn't count.
Add your own versions, gentlemen (and any ladies hidden in the ranks).
Hmmm ... interesting thought experiments. OK, don't know if I'll be able to find 10, but here we go ...
- Mantias is successful at Methone and Philip II of Macedon is killed. This leads to a resurgence in Greece, who go on to stamp out those awful Latins.
- Harald Hardraada wins at Stamford Bridge
- Charles Edward Stuart pushes on past Derby
- Marlborough and Eugene go up against each other
- Britain puts more effort into putting down a silly rebellion in the late C18
- General Moore is successfully evacuated from Corunna, and Britain has 2 world class generals in the Peninsula
- San Jacinto is a massive defeat for the Texians.
- The Centurion introduced in August 1944 to the Guards Armoured Division so ...
- XXX Corps reaches 1 Para in 3 days
- The Germans ship some Me163 Komets to Japan in 1944 using U-Boats. The Japanese become adept at using them against single B29s flying over the Japanese homeland.
Quote from: fsn on 05 May 2018, 05:57:28 AM
Hmmm ... interesting thought experiments. OK, don't know if I'll be able to find 10, but here we go ...
- Mantias is successful at Methone and Philip II of Macedon is killed. This leads to a resurgence in Greece, who go on to stamp out those awful Latins.
- Harald Hardraada wins at Stamford Bridge
- Charles Edward Stuart pushes on past Derby
- Marlborough and Eugene go up against each other
- San Jacinto is a massive defeat for the Texians.
- Britain puts more effort into putting down a silly rebellion in the late C18
- General Moore is successfully evacuated from Corunna, and Britain has 2 world class generals in the Peninsula
- The Centurion introduced in August 1944 to the Guards Armoured Division so ...
- XXX Corps reaches 1 Para in 3 days
- The Germans ship some Me163 Komets to Japan in 1944 using U-Boats. The Japanese become adept at using them against single B29s flying over the Japanese homeland.
re: the rebellion in the 18th century. What if Britain had simply given them everything they asked for? It would have entailed three seats in Commons, a couple of months from their constituents. But not a wargames issue, that one.
Kill them.
I'll play
- The U.S enters WW1 on the side of Germany.
- Grouchy prevented the Prussians from reaching Waterloo.
- the US navy failed to locate the Japanese carrier force at Midway.
- The Solemn League and Covenant was decisively beaten at Marson Moor.
- After hearing of the King's advance after Edgehill, the London mob switches it's support to Charles.
- Spain makes a successful landing in Solent in 1588.
- MacAthur crosses the Yalu.
- Constantine was killed at the Milvian Bridge.
- Vienna fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1683
- Trinity was a dud.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 05 May 2018, 12:54:53 AM
5) Australia has no real military history. Good luck to them, but from our point of view, a waste of a whole continent!
Currently working on a Denisovan tribe, for use with the Tribal rules, who will be nominally based in Australia.
Hard for the rivet-counters to complain about my reconstruction given that our knowledge of them is pretty much derived from 3 teeth, a finger bone and a mix of ancient and modern DNA :)
So, from my point of view, not entirely wasted!
I believe the point is being overlooked a bit here - it's things to be regretted by a wargamer.
Ah.
A pal explained to me once that if Charles Stewart does ascend to the throne then Germany wins WW2 - with all of the dire consequences that ensue.
Going to make a certain forumite's heart skip a beat here ...
If Hitler had been killed in WW1, there would have been no Centurion. :o
Dammit, Westie, you make it difficult ...
OK. I have to admit that no Hitler would be better than having Centurions :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
1. Wilson's govt never sold Chieftain to Israel
2. 3.7" AA was never employed against the DAK armour
3. The Anglo-Allied army at Waterloo is made up entirely of British soldiers so that the Prussians aren't even needed!!!
4. ACM A T Harris is given more free rein to test his theories
5. No one ever interviewed the Japanese garrison of Rota
6. More Churchill mkVII's weren't built
7. The Guards and 43rd Div not reaching Arnhem in time
8. The French in 1940s didn't have more radios!
9. John Moore survives his victory at Corruna
10. people not realiseing just how dross the French army at Waterloo really was! ;D
Quote from: Dr Dave on 07 May 2018, 01:17:25 PM
2. 3.7" AA was never employed against the DAK armour
Like it!
Quote from: Dr Dave on 07 May 2018, 01:17:25 PM
8. The French in 1940s didn't have more radios!
Even 3 man turrets.
That Confederate officer managed to refrain from having a cigar just prior to Antietam.
Quote from: Dr Dave on 07 May 2018, 01:17:25 PM
5. No one ever interviewed the Japanese garrison of Rota
Apart from stories of B-29s what would they have to tell us?
Well I can manage 5
That Practical Wargaming Magazine went to the wall.
That Battle magazine went to the wall.
That 15mm didn't remain as true 15mm - a most perfect scale.
That Average Dice didn't gain more traction in more systems (how any people actually have one?)
That retail has taken such a big hit from the internet, so now every town 'doesn't' have a model shop.
I do miss the average die.
1 The Russians instead of invading Poland in 1939 supplied the Poles with equipment.
2 Henry V111 successfully invades France in 1523. Becoming King of All France and England - Just think the effect that might have had on the British empire (Actually the Anglo-French Empire.) America would stayed one of the colonies and we could possibly have had all the French Colonies as well.
3 Germany and the Allies Declare war on Russian in 1945
4 That I could not stick to a single figure scale.
1. There is no "Die GishGigirFibel" explaining how Sumerian Donkey Carts were built and used.
2. Ancient Armies shamefully neglected to leave us detailed TO&E's for their forces, with the honourable exception of the Romans.
3. We have no contemporary images of the Wooden Horse of Troy.
4. Old Kingdom Egyptians and Sumerians were contemporaries but, with the possible exception of one fairly crude graffito, there's no evidence of military interaction.
5. The Meluhhans (aka the Indus Valley Civilisation) left no archives to explain whether they did indeed exist without a military force.
6. That wargaming largely tends to ignore the first 50% of military history
7. That the Romney, Hythe and Dimchurch Railway WW2 armoured train never saw action (bad news for wargamers but good news for the UK, I think)
8. Britain failing to lend military support to either side in the American Civil War. "Pickett's Charge Of The Light Brigade" anyone?
9. Russia failing to develop aircraft powerful enough to make the Antonov A-40 glider tank a practical proposition.
10. That the worse a culture behaves the more likely it is to have cool uniforms and cool "toys!"
Quote from: Norm on 07 May 2018, 10:50:24 PM
That Average Dice didn't gain more traction in more systems (how any people actually have one?)
That retail has taken such a big hit from the internet, so now every town 'doesn't' have a model shop.
Our regular host has several Average dice and they feature in firing and morale in his Napoleonic rules, along with bounce sticks for the artillery :) :D
We have seen a recent spate of closures of our 'local' model shops, the nearest is now about 35km (22 miles) away :(
Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2018, 01:28:25 AM
4. Old Kingdom Egyptians and Sumerians were contemporaries but, with the possible exception of one fairly crude graffito, there's no evidence of military interaction.
Heavens! How much do you need?
Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2018, 01:28:25 AM
10. That the worse a culture behaves the more likely it is to have cool uniforms and cool "toys!"
I am trying to think of some example to refute this .... and apart from the Spitfire and Centurion (coolest of all toys), I can't.
Except perhaps the RCMP.
Quote from: Orcs on 08 May 2018, 12:07:30 AM
1 The Russians instead of invading Poland in 1939 supplied the Poles with equipment.
They were ready to intervene directly in Czechoslovakia in '38 - the troops were ready to go at the Soviet border but Britain and France brokered a peaceful resolution. After spending the best of a decade trying to warn about the Nazi's and drum up an anti-Nazi coaltion they then gave up, correctly divining the imperialist countries were more anti-Soviet than anti-Nazi. Which bears that rather awkward fruit so little later...
A good "what if" is the Czechs say "stuff it" and take Russian help, and whether that sparks a '38 war between a deeply unready Nazi Germany, a pre-purge Soviet Union and a host of "independent" central European states, then possibly dragging in Britain & France...
This wasn't a "what if" thread!
No, but from many PoV not supporting the Czechoslovakians was certainly a regrettable incident; from a wargamers PoV you can have an amazing range of exciting engagements if anyone did. It immediately brings in Poland and/or Romania as well, as neither was very willing to let tens of thousands of Soviet troops through their borders...
It is regrettable that the following didn't happen: :D
- Napoleon taking on Wellington's Peninsula army in 1813.
- Wellington leading said Peninsula army over the water in 1815 to sort out the little disturbance there.
- Alexander getting over his bout of tummy ache and deciding that China looked like a good bet
- The French fleets had joined with the Royal Navy in 1940 and so avoided Mers-el-Kebir and various other unpleasantnesses. The Battle for the Med might have been a bit different. Perhaps Crete could have been held? Certainly Rommel would have had a harder time of it getting supplies through with a French squadron in being, especially if French North Africa had also snubbed Vichy.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 07 May 2018, 11:21:17 PM
I do miss the average die.
Try Honours of War SYW rules - the average die is very important and the rules are really good.
Quote from: paulr on 07 May 2018, 08:59:27 PM
Apart from stories of B-29s what would they have to tell us?
Rota in the Marianas became part of the live fire range area for the 5th Amphibious Group in the build-up training for Olympic and Coronet. So Rota was bombed and shelled because it was there!
It must have been akin to living at the end of a gunnery range without ever knowing when or why. It's not so much that I'm interested in what they'd have to say, I think that I'd just make fun of them - It appeals to the devil in me! ;D
Quote from: FierceKitty on 07 May 2018, 11:21:17 PM
I do miss the average die.
On a scale of 2-5, exactly how much do you miss it? ;D
Quote from: fsn on 08 May 2018, 06:34:59 AM
.... and apart from the Spitfire and Centurion (coolest of all toys), I can't.
And the Mosquito. And the Lancaster. And the B-29. And the Martlet/Wildcat. And . . .
Hmm, it does seem the Allies had all the cool aeroplanes in WWII (although I do like Me-262). Jerry just stuck to the AFVs.
Yers. I had the Mosquito and Lancaster in the list ... then wanted to put in the Tempest and the Beaufighter and the Corsair and the Avenger and the Mustang and the Liberator and then edited myself.
Quote from: Raider4 on 08 May 2018, 04:44:21 PM
Jerry just stuck to the AFVs.
... and for the Italians it was mostly the uniforms.
Oh, per-lease!
Me 109, FW 190, Ju-87 Kanonenvogel, Me 162 Komet, Me 262 Schwalbe, Arado AR 234, Horten Ho 229 and the world's first cruise missile! Toys so cool they should be kept in a fridge :)
Quote from: FierceKitty on 08 May 2018, 11:38:30 AM
This wasn't a "what if" thread!
Come now FK, you have been a member long enough. Did you
really expect the thread not to get Hijacked? :)
Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 May 2018, 06:46:24 PM
Oh, per-lease!
Me 109, FW 190, Ju-87 Kanonenvogel, Me 162 Komet, Me 262 Schwalbe, Arado AR 234, Horten Ho 229 and the world's first cruise missile! Toys so cool they should be kept in a fridge :)
Nah. Fw189 Uhu, Me321 Gigant, Bv141, Hs129 with 75mm, Fw200 Kondor. They're cool.
OK. They're FSN cool.
Which probably means they're just a bit weird. Actually, I think a lot of the Italian A/c were very elegant designs ... just under powered and under armed.
Quote from: fsn on 08 May 2018, 08:40:12 PM
Actually, I think a lot of the Italian A/c were very elegant designs ... just under powered and under armed.
I believe if you look closely at early marks of the AB41 Armoured car you could often distinguish the words "Fray Bentos" on the armour. :D
The First day of the Somme was a brilliant success, followed by sweeping cavalry charges. Plans for a land battleship remained firmly on the drawing board. :d :d :d
That would be because the creeping barrage perfectly cut the wires...