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  1. Challenge: tanks made obsolete

    If the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan were as well armed and drilled with anti-tank rockets as was Hezbollah during the last Israeli invasion, those wars might have spelled the end of the MBT in western armies. I fear, however, that we've drawn the wrong conclusion - that tanks are still...
  2. Direct British-Isreali Military action against Idi Amins Uganda

    He should be more concerned about the Israelis conspiring with the Kenyans and Tanzanians than the Brits (who had already lost their influence / were unlikely to regain it).
  3. More Prepared Barbarossa

    Hmm... that sounds like it might actually work. That is, Stalin is wilfully-blind enough to believe it.
  4. More Prepared Barbarossa

    If this is the plan, why not have Italy stay out of the war entirely? Germany's whole southern front would be screened by neutrals. Of course all this has the effect of making the Soviets more paranoid and hence more prepared. Personally, I don't think there's any way for the Germans to...
  5. WI: An Objectivist America?

    I don't see how any 'utopian' libertarian society doesn't inevitably devolve into monopolism, nepotism, and violent class conflict. An ideologically-libertarian USA in the 1950s probably experiences a brief spurt of growth/dynamism, before collapsing socially and economically. Pretty much the...
  6. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    A messy but undisputed occupation of Western Europe and the Middle East is still much preferable to outright defeat as in OTL. It may also be preferable to stagnation and decline in a no-war scenario (Fascism seems to have an expand-or-die inherent dynamic) I agree Germany still wouldn't be the...
  7. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    My aim with this scenario is for Germany and the other Axis countries to pursue rationally obtainable war aims. Germany was never going to be wholly self-sufficient in everything, hence the necessity of peace with the Soviets to keep that supply channel open. With neutral Finland and Pol-Lith...
  8. How would the other Axis powers fare in an Axis victory timeline?

    Agreed. Not sure how the Germans would get Italy to swallow that, but the relationship with France is too important, and France could NEVER reconcile itself to those losses. Mussolini will need to be paid-off elsewhere (I propose in Egypt and the Levant here)
  9. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    This scenario would imply no Manhattan Project / Quebec Agreement, so the British/Canadians keep ploughing ahead with Tube Alloys. I'm not sure when Britain would get the bomb, but almost certainly too late to effect the outcome of this war, although certainly well ahead of the Germans or...
  10. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    If the war goes down as I propose, Germany is master of Europe, has oil resources of its own in the Persian Gulf, and a Soviet Union at least on trading terms. Plus very warm relations with its Axis co-conspirators. I'd hardly call that pariah status. Germany can't be truly autarkic within...
  11. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    So, IOTL the USA sat by and did mostly-nothing while Nazi Germany: - Partitioned Eastern Europe - Conquered all the democracies of Western Europe - Invaded the Balkans - Made a free-for-all of world and especially Atlantic shipping - Bombed British cities - Tore into the British empire...
  12. WI: smarter Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; can the Axis *guarantee* a win?

    Frequenting alt-history forums for years, it seems to me nearly all Axis victory timelines violate at least one of these truisms, and are hence prima facie implausible: - The Axis are almost certainly destined to lose any war against the Soviets - The Axis are CERTAINLY destined to lose any war...
  13. The North secedes over slavery.

    Seems as simple as having slavery explicitly allowed in the Constitution. That'd delay any possible legal abolition (with an amendment) way into the future (the South'd fight tooth-and-nail to prevent the free/slave state ration from being to imbalanced) and the North might just get impatient...
  14. WI: Inuit's in Northern Canada developed Pyrcrete in the 1200's?

    Again, why no just dig into the permafrost to preserve food? Seems like this stuff offers a lot of solutions to nonexistent problems.
  15. WI: Inuit's in Northern Canada developed Pyrcrete in the 1200's?

    Dunno anything about building ice houses in the arctic, but I assume all you need wood for is trusses, and then you can use cut snow for the bulk of the roof. Seems much less hassle than somehow chipping the wood and forming it into moulds (of what?) with fresh water (from where?) to make roof...
  16. WI: Inuit's in Northern Canada developed Pyrcrete in the 1200's?

    The only advantage vs. plain ice/show would seem to be in roof beams, but you could also use plain wood for that job, and if you're going to make pykrete you need wood anyhow... so again any advantage seems very very slim. Really, just seems like a waste of scarce wood. Now if you want to...
  17. WI: Inuit's in Northern Canada developed Pyrcrete in the 1200's?

    Plain old ice and snow seem to work pretty well (see: igloo) and are much more readily at hand
  18. WI: Inuit's in Northern Canada developed Pyrcrete in the 1200's?

    I suppose they could build some damp and uncomfortable houses with it. The fast it isn't used for anything in OTL suggests there's not much use for it in another timeline.
  19. Scariest States That Never Were

    Are there any good fascist USA timelines out there?
  20. Could the Third Reich have been more successful than OTL?

    Even if the Soviets got the bomb in time to use it in a war against Germany, it'd take a long time to build up a decisive number of them. Russia isn't like the UK, which can sit tight in its island fortress and nuke Germany into submission at its leisure: a Russian-German war will be settled on...
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