Recent content by Paladin

Maybe have the Romano-Britain kingdoms link up with the Dominion of Soissons? You'd have to have both of them last longer, but you'd get a true Gallic Empire.

Will Basil still campaign in the East? His last great campaigns were in Armenia and Georgia, and his conquests became the Eastern most frontier of the Empire. Mind you, some of them were completely opportunistic, but the circumstances that created them still exist.

Here's an interesting article looking at the long-run effects of a longer surviving Crusader state. It's a bit amateur, but the author makes a good case looking at is as an alt-Israel. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-lost-history-of-outremer/

There was at least one Copt centered TL around here somewhere-something about the Persian wars going worse for the Byzantines, the Copts revolt, take over Egypt, and create an independent kingdom. Don't remember the title, sadly.

There was, I recall, a brief takeover of the Taifa of Tarragona by some Norman adventurers, who tried to set up their own crusader state there. However, it only lasted about 15 years or so before being absorbed into the Crown of Aragon...

Christianity had already started to penetrate the Amazigh tribes living in the Northern Sahara-what is now southern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Give it enough time and develop the trade routes some more, and it could easily spread south as it did along the Silk Road, hopping from oasis to oasis.

Well, the rescue helped rejuvenate NASA's public support and get them back in the spotlight. Nothing like a rescue drama to get the news ratings. If the rescue hadn't happened, and Columbia had been lost, I suspect it would have had the opposite effects: NASA is even further discredited (they...

Hmm, so basically a repeat of Montisgard in 1179. Welp, on one hand, the crusader states are prolonged yet again, but on the other, Saladin has suffered similar setbacks before.

There was a short-lived move towards Int'l Brigades in the early days of the Libyan Civil War (including one right here on AH.com). However, most national governments frowned on them, the Libyans didn't have the infrastructure to support them, and the war ended relatively quickly. However, I did...

I mean that it might push him into undisputed power over Cambodia earlier. He didn't beat the Khmer Republic until 1975. Here, he might be able to do it much earlier.

If this did in fact happen, it could also see a premature rise of Pol Pot, since he was a Chinese client. Now there's something scary.

Come to think of it, does anyone know of any Sumerian TLs? That's about as ancient as you can get.

Well, hey, we could always play that favorite of POD cards, "Persecuted refugees from X set up a new home in Y, thus radically changing their culture," with "Donatists" as X, and Ghana as Y.

Closer connections with North Africa (though only just-not a whole lot you can do with the Sahara in the way), and possibly earlier development of the Trans-Saharan trade routes, and potentially more gold in circulation. However, the Roman Empire, in whatever its incarnation, would not be happy...

Another option is the Kingdom of Sicily-Roger II was the son of the one-time queen of Jerusalem, Adelaide, who ended up callously abandoned by her husband, Baldwin I, after he had spent her dowry. So, not only does Roger have a chip on his shoulder, he also has a decent claim to the inheritance...