Great Commanders

[Stryker]

Just for a bit of diversity;

Boudicea - Queen of the Iceni and slayer of Romans
Catherine the Great
Augustus Caesar
Attila the Hun
Rameses II
Spartacus
Alfred the Great
Robert the Bruce
Pelayu - King of the Asturias
Louis Botha

[Ivan]

Novel selection, nice to see women included;)

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

Good to see the field widened but think it's time for you to educate me again mate :)

Catherine the Great!!! surely her only military triumphs where her Admirals & Generals, and that in bed! You may know something I don't (please enlighten me), seems a bit like suggesting Queen Victoria, but ... ?

As for Rameses II Hisss!!! Burn him!. In my opinion the world would be a lot happier place if that Mother F##### (probably literally as well) had, a) better labour relations b) at least been able to command his Cavalry/Chariots properly; we wouldn't have had the Monothesic religions creating Murder, Missery & Mahem down the centuries! :soap:

All the Best
Peter

[Stryker]

You're right, Catherine perhaps shouldn't be included in this list because she wasn't a great commander in the sense of this thread, and I nearly took her out just before posting... but left her in as I might Victoria, because she was a great leader who acheived great things for her (adoptive) country...

Rameses II is in here because I've visited his tomb :P and because he deserves a mention

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

Yer amazing women, and reputely loads of stamana as well as a brain.

Hope you spat on his grave :)

All the Best
Peter

[Steel God]

Cool, another thread question that is so open ended and subjective that it can never be answered to anyone's satisfaction...so jump right in. :stir:

Here's my list...not in any particular order. My selections are best not so much on them being "the best" tactician, etc, but all are men whose military achievements changed the world significantly, or changed the way wars were fought. Enjoy.

1) William the Bastard
2) Lord Horatio Nelson
3) Alexander the Great
4) Julius Caesar
5) William T Sherman
6) Don John of Austria
7) Napoleon I
8) Giuseppe Garibaldi
9) George Washington
10) Sir John Hawkwood

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

You bin on Holiday Paul if so hope it was a goodun.

OK I'll play 'Fall guy' :) William the Bastard ? = William the conquerer ?
He came so very, very, close to absolute disaster at Hastings, with nowhere to retreat to etc, arguably only Harold death saved the day for him. Enlighten me :conf:

Interesting snipit re Nelson you may know already, but apparently his gunnary tactics were the insperation for Barnes Walliss 'Bouncing Bomb' for the Dambusters raid.

All the Best
Peter

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

IMO, part of being a great commander is timing. And I'm talking about the timing of war, for without war, we wouldn't have heard about hardly any of them if any at all. I can't help but wonder where or how far or how good or bad these individuals would be had they been in the position of higher command at the time of war....

Gavin of the 82nd AB in WW2
Robert Frederick of the 1SSF/45th ID in WW2
Bigeard of 6th BPC, Fr paras in Indochina, especially Dien Bien Phu (If you want to read a great book "Hell in a very small place")
Richard Winters from Easy Company(Band of Brothers)

[Steel God]

Hello Peter....yes I've been away for a bit. It was nice, but as with all such things, over before you know it. ;)

Like I said in my post, I picked commanders who were not necessarily the greatest stratigest, or greatest mobile warfare commander, etc; instead I picked commanders who changed history or at least changed the way wars were fought.

Duke William's actions clearly changed history. Hastings can be seen as one of the top 5 moments in Western Civilization upon which the entire nature our our clture can be defined. That's why Duke William makes my list.

As for Lord Nelson, I knew of his gunnery tactics, but was not aware they were considered the basis for the dam busters raid. Probably due more to my infamilarity with the later than with the former. I am aware of that bombing mission in only the most general of terms. I picked Nelson for two reasons:

1) His refusal to fight in Line Ahead but to to aggressively close with the enemy was revolutionary for it's day.

2) Trafalgar is another one of those handful of moments that help define Western civilization.

[Kingmaker]

HiHi

Trouble is with a 'Good Holiday' is you need another to follow to recover! :)

Yer saw your caveat and did hesitate about sticking my neck out, I was wondering if you were going down the crouched lance concept that has been mooted for Hastings, ie it set the style for the later Middle ages, never was keen on that idea as a look at the Bayuax (?spl?) tapestry will show it was a bit, out of order

As I understand it the idea behind the defining moment in history thing is that it led to a powerful England with all it's ramifications throughout history.

Well although it's sort of counter history stuff, it could be suggested that the conquest actually blunted English (Anglo-saxon) developement/culture.

Sorry I'm in a hell of a rush at the moment gotta go to work tonight but I wanted to get something back to you and not just leave it hanging in the air, if you wish we can develope this train of thought see were it leads, but it will have to be later in the week for me.

All the Best
Peter