Worst Screws in AH

What are the worst examples you have seen of a country, religion, or culture getting screwed in AH? Mine would be the Stars and Stripes trilogy, where the British Empire, as well as the U.K. itself, gets dismantled after an intervention in the ACW that spiraled out of control. The emphasis here is on screws that are implausible; screws can be well-written on occasion, like what happened to the British Empire in the Madness-verse, for example. Thoughts?
 
Well, most of the Axis victory timelines would qualify as screws for the allies, thus I nominate the Man in the High Castle as the worst US-screw I have ever seen. Most Axis victory timelines don't have an American surrender, much less the dismemberment and occupation of the "American Reich".

As for Russia-screws, the proto-fascist "sure, let's take on the entire world"-Russia of the "Es Geloybte Aretz" would come to mind. As mentioned in that excellent timeline, most screws are in fact just another nation's bukake ;-)
 
Well, most of the Axis victory timelines would qualify as screws for the allies, thus I nominate the Man in the High Castle as the worst US-screw I have ever seen. Most Axis victory timelines don't have an American surrender, much less the dismemberment and occupation of the "American Reich".

As for Russia-screws, the proto-fascist "sure, let's take on the entire world"-Russia of the "Es Geloybte Aretz" would come to mind. As mentioned in that excellent timeline, most screws are in fact just another nation's bukake ;-)
I did think of TMitHC at first. There are few worse Ameri-screws. I haven't "Es Geloybte Aretz." What's it about?
 
I did think of TMitHC at first. There are few worse Ameri-screws. I haven't "Es Geloybte Aretz." What's it about?
Well, basically, Russia does a pearl habour-like attack on Germany in 1905, and ends up fighting against a coalition of pretty much the whole world minus France and the US. Just follow the link above :)
 
The Footprint of Mussolini is probably worst possible Arab world screw.

The Anglo-American-Nazi War sees awful Germany Screw. Probably only some WW3 TLs are even worse German screw. It too see horrible Russian Screw, Poland screw and screwing of European Jewish community..
 
Humanity as a whole got pretty screwed over in the Draka series. Because somehow a bunch of racist slavers from the American South that exile themselves to South Africa can in just a couple of centuries become supermen who conquer not only the world but the greater galaxy.
 
Humanity as a whole got pretty screwed over in the Draka series. Because somehow a bunch of racist slavers from the American South that exile themselves to South Africa can in just a couple of centuries become supermen who conquer not only the world but the greater galaxy.
The Draka are pretty absurd. Stirling said his goal was to create the ultimate villains, but after a while things just become so ridiculous that you can't take them seriously anymore.
 
I think Southern Victory is a screw for the United States. Sure, it wins out in the end, but to get to the end of the series, it has to go through not one, not two, but four wars against the Confederate States. According to the Great War series, the United States loses a excess of 1.5 million soldiers killed in action in the Great War alone. The United States is scarred from seventy years of continuous warfare, not just physically, but psychologically. The American people in this timeline have had continuous tastes of what it's like to see blood and carnage in the same way the Europeans did in the 19th-20th Centuries. War cemeteries must be huge in this timeline's USA.

Then there's the Population Reduction by the Confederacy, so the US is going to have to deal with the legacy of a 20th Century industrialized genocide occurring on their continent in which eight million blacks were gassed or shot, according to In at the Death. American children will probably have excursions to Camp Determination like how in Poland OTL, they have excursions to Auschwitz.
 
Last edited:
I think Southern Victory is a screw for the United States. Sure, it wins out in the end, but to get to the end of the series, it has to go through not one, not two, but four wars against the Confederate States. According to the Great War series, the United States loses a excess of 1.5 million soldiers killed in action in the Great War alone. The United States is physically scarred from seventy years of continuous warfare, not physically, but psychologically. The American people in this timeline have had continuous tastes of what it's like to see blood and carnage in the same way the Europeans did in the 19th-20th Centuries. War cemeteries must be huge in this timeline's USA.

Then there's the Population Reduction by the Confederacy, so the US is going to have to deal with the legacy of a 20th Century industrialized genocide occurring on their continent in which eight million blacks were gassed or shot, according to In at the Death. American children will probably have excursions to Camp Determination like how in Poland OTL, they have excursions to Auschwitz.
I wonder if the TL-191 United States is more or less interventionist as a result of everything it's been through. On the one hand, they could end up with a deep desire to make sure something like this never happens again. But on the other hand, seventy years of almost constant fighting could very well have left them exhausted and indifferent towards the rest of the world. I can also see relations between the Americans and Germans souring after GW2, leading to a Cold War analogue.
 
I wonder if the TL-191 United States is more or less interventionist as a result of everything it's been through. On the one hand, they could end up with a deep desire to make sure something like this never happens again. But on the other hand, seventy years of almost constant fighting could very well have left them exhausted and indifferent towards the rest of the world. I can also see relations between the Americans and Germans souring after GW2, leading to a Cold War analogue.

I think the US would defend interests closer to home, most likely against regional rivals like Japan, while allying with Britain post SGW. I do not see it expending the time or resources to conduct foreign adventures in places like the Middle East. That would be the Ottoman Empire's sphere of influence and probably a German one, now that I think of it.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
You can't really beat the Euro-screw that is The Years of Rice and Salt, can you?

It's like: congratulations, you just don't get to exist anymore.
 
The worst USA screw i ever saw was on "The crown atomic", three USA civil wars and the country is split up, it's so over the top that the author has to think of new ways all the time to make it gets worse and worse.
 

MaxGerke01

Banned
I wonder if the TL-191 United States is more or less interventionist as a result of everything it's been through. On the one hand, they could end up with a deep desire to make sure something like this never happens again. But on the other hand, seventy years of almost constant fighting could very well have left them exhausted and indifferent towards the rest of the world. I can also see relations between the Americans and Germans souring after GW2, leading to a Cold War analogue.
I just don't see why TL-191 USA and Germany would get into a USA/SOVIET type Cold War and certainly not a hot war. They just have too many similar interests and the same enemies and friends for the most part. What do they have to fight over ?
Canada seems to get screwed frequently in AH form Guns of the South to Southern Victory to INTPOME Canada gets a raw deal....
 
I just don't see why TL-191 USA and Germany would get into a USA/SOVIET type Cold War and certainly not a hot war. They just have too many similar interests and the same enemies and friends for the most part. What do they have to fight over ?
Canada seems to get screwed frequently in AH form Guns of the South to Southern Victory to INTPOME Canada gets a raw deal....

Well, sheer lust for power and normal human ambition. I believe myself that the flashpoint would be Africa, the USA has no competitor for now since Russia is down and Britain and France got crushed, so to be the main world power they need to surpass Germany as they are already stronger and more influent than japan.. I believe that the USA would see the anti colonialist struggle as the starting point, sponsoring rebels.and trying to pop up puppet states there, while draining the German economy and their government support by keeping the war.
 

xsampa

Banned
China in What Madness is This: colonization followed by war of independence followed by nuking
India in Look to the West: Multiple colonial powers, a Mahdist Jihad in North India, a Second Plague, bloody wars of Independence, Societist[1] takeover of Andhra Pradesh
[1] A totalitarian internationalist ideology
 
The Draka are pretty absurd. Stirling said his goal was to create the ultimate villains, but after a while things just become so ridiculous that you can't take them seriously anymore.

There's two mitigating factors with the Draka.

1: The tone of the actual books is clearly a soft and not hard setting. This is a literary problem too, because any "a mirror darkly" or similar message Stirling may have wanted to tell gets drowned out in sleaze and pulp.
2: If Drakon was any sign, a changed final outcome would just be "Villain Sues overpower their hapless opponents for a huge portion and then only lose via a big contrivance".
 
Top