Greatest Military Commander Before the Industrial Age

Started by jimmy olsen, September 06, 2016, 02:15:55 AM

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Who was the reatest Military Commander Before the Industrial Age?

Alexander the Great
6 (20%)
Hannibal
2 (6.7%)
Scipio Africanus
0 (0%)
Qin Shi Huang
0 (0%)
Chandragupta Maurya
0 (0%)
Julius Caesar
4 (13.3%)
Belisarius
1 (3.3%)
Khalid the Sword
0 (0%)
Subutai
3 (10%)
Tamerlane
0 (0%)
Yi Sun Shin
1 (3.3%)
Gustavus Adolphus
0 (0%)
Fredrick the Great
2 (6.7%)
Nelson
3 (10%)
Napoleon
8 (26.7%)

Total Members Voted: 29

Voting closed: July 26, 2017, 02:15:55 AM

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11B4V

#45
September 06, 2016, 06:52:21 PM
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

jimmy olsen

#46
September 06, 2016, 07:54:12 PM
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

11B4V

#47
September 06, 2016, 08:15:56 PM
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Grinning_Colossus

#48
September 06, 2016, 08:24:12 PM
Voted Napoleon with KiW a close second.
Quis futuit ipsos fututores?

mongers

#49
September 06, 2016, 08:41:45 PM
What About Greatest Industrial Nation Before Napoleon?   :bowler:  :frog:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Habbaku

#50
September 06, 2016, 08:45:25 PM
Quote from: Solmyr on September 06, 2016, 06:18:08 AM
Quote from: celedhring on September 06, 2016, 05:13:29 AM
Quote from: Solmyr on September 06, 2016, 04:40:58 AM
What's considered "the Industrial Age"? Nelson and Napoleon could be considered part of it.

Seeing as Tamas is pushing Hungarians I'm going to push a Russian. Alexander Suvorov. It's interesting to speculate what would have happened if he lived long enough to fight Napoleon. Kutuzov was his student and one of the best anti-Napoleon commanders at the time.

Is it me or is he largely forgotten? Given Russian fondness for hyper-nationalistic bruhaha he doesn't seem to be pushed much in the Russian heroic pantheon. Maybe it's because he was never involved in a big existential war like Nappy's invasion or WWII.

He's still quite well-known and respected in Russia, though as you say not really mentioned much in the nationalistic rhetoric. Though he may have been an ethnic Finn, anyway (but then, plenty of Russian military comanders were not ethnic Russians).

It really does seem bizarre that a man of Suvorov's talent and winning record goes so unnoticed outside of certain circles.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Eddie Teach

#51
September 06, 2016, 08:48:53 PM
Quote from: mongers on September 06, 2016, 08:41:45 PM
What About Greatest Industrial Nation Before Napoleon?   :bowler:  :frog:

Egypt.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

PDH

#52
September 06, 2016, 09:12:14 PM
Epaminondas
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

HVC

#53
September 06, 2016, 09:26:54 PM
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Ed Anger

#54
September 06, 2016, 09:29:56 PM
Grumbler
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

derspiess

#55
September 06, 2016, 09:33:39 PM
Quote from: HVC on September 06, 2016, 09:26:54 PM
Quote from: PDH on September 06, 2016, 09:12:14 PM
Epaminondas
Quote from: PDH on September 06, 2016, 09:12:14 PM
Epaminondas
i agree. Damn tastie.

No shit.  Wife made a big batch a couple days ago.  That's like my lunch every weekday for the foreseeable future :)
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

CountDeMoney

#56
September 06, 2016, 09:34:40 PM
Grumblercus Scrotus Testicles Maximus

Monoriu

#58
September 07, 2016, 03:02:50 AM
I doubt if Qin Shi Huang is a military commander.

grumbler

#59
September 07, 2016, 06:59:04 AM
Quote from: Habbaku on September 06, 2016, 08:45:25 PM
It really does seem bizarre that a man of Suvorov's talent and winning record goes so unnoticed outside of certain circles.

Suvorov was a kook whose insanity motivated Russian troops but makes for difficult reading.   One of his famous encounters with soldiers came when he went to a soldier on sentry duty and asked "how many stars are in the sky."  When the soldier answered "I don't know, sir, but I will count them now and find out," Suvorov was delighted.   True, the soldier was trying to find an answer on his own, but the question was meaningless and the conversion of a sentry to someone whose attention was focused on a hopeless task shows a bizarre set of priorities.

Suvorov famously disdained firepower and wanted his soldiers trained to charge wit the bayonet at every opportunity.  Modern warfare was beyond him.  He was good against the Turks, but was successful against modern militaries only where he had superior numbers.

In short, a great commander for the tasks he faced, but not necessarily a great commander in the context of other great commanders.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!
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