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Any renewable that can't match the low cost, convenience, and energy density of oil would fall by the wayside pretty quickly in a heads-up competition. That's why the original "renewable" fuels, alcohol and peanut oil, didn't last more than a few years despite support from the likes of Henry...

No other fuel alternative is as energy-dense, as malleable, and as convenient as petroleum. I almost think you'd have to somehow butterfly away the Industrial Revolution to reduce/eliminate world reliance on oil. There's a reason other alternative fuels, such as alcohol and vegetable oil, fell...

And what is Justinian's reaction when he hears that (a presumably hostile) Bellisarius is in Britain?

Hmmm. It could resemble the Chinese-English mix that we saw on the TV series Firefly. Or for more real world examples, the way English and Hindi (?) have mixed in India, with each borrowing words from the other, or English and French have melted together in the St. John Valley of northern Maine...

Good idea, but coordination with the ERE would be difficult as long as Rome controls the Med and land routes between the ERE and Gaul/Britannia. Justinian may consider them expendable pawns, though, in the chess game he's playing with Rome. And who knows what influence J is buying in Rome itself...

The rationale behind moving from longbows to muskets has always struck me as a bit of a puzzle. The argument that urban slum dwellers can be trained up to use muskets much more quickly than they can be trained for the longbow makes sense. That said, it seems logical that bows can also be used as...

Seems likely in this scenario that Justinian is also spreading mischief (and gold) in Gaul and elsewhere. Neither are really part of the Western Empire, but they can be used to create tension and divert Rome's attention toward the west while Justinian is busy elsewhere on Rome's borders.

Certainly there were Nazi sympathizers in the U.S., including major industrialists, but it's a huge stretch to consider any of them active Nazi agents passing on highly classified information to the Germans, even assuming they have access to it. Pre-war American counterintelligence may have been...

That's the one aspect of this otherwise excellent timeline that bothers me. Apparently the American rocket and jet programs are simply riddled with foreign agents of all stripes, because no sooner does the U.S. make an advance in a particular technology but that it almost immediately shows up in...

The dragon and the eagle flying side by side. Why do I see a future Britannic coat of arms in this scenario? Great scene, Cymraeg. I couldn't tell if my goose bumps were from your writing or the fact that our furnace decided to quit on the coldest night of the year. (-1 Fahrenheit outside at 8...

Brooke -- who died Saturday at 95 -- was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966 as a liberal Republican from Massachusetts. (Believe it or not, in those days most middle-class blacks who could vote were members of the GOP.) Made a quite a splash in the national news at the time. I was only a...

"And if the priest objects -- send him to me ... This is Deva, not Rome. We look after our own here." This is one of the very few references to religion you've made throughout this saga, going back to that first scene on the training ground. It sounds like Christianity has a lessened role in...

The closest analogy I can think of is Omaha-Douglas County. Douglas County is Omaha and vice versa.

The Eagle: Good question. Why do I think we'll gt the answer somewhere in this saga?

Yesssss! All hell is about to break loose, and there's a Cato in command, with the shades of his forefathers riding next to him under that banner. Cymraeg, you have been consistently out-doing yourself with this new tale. Keep it going, please. [/SIZE][/FONT]

I think you mean this one: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=327341&highlight=MacArthur MacArthur is fatally injured in a car accident and Wainwright takes over.

Cato has his suspicions apparently; thus the call to rally his veterans in that last graf. His ad hoc cavalry unit may be the only loyal force available in that part of Britain.

I owned a 1965 Corvair convertible with the turbocharged engine. Still consider it one of the top three cars I ever owned. With the top down it it resembled a Camaro. Never felt the car was unsafe, but the turbo engines had a tendency to blow oil seals, which happened on a memorable trip to...

And if we know Cymraeg, Cato will need all of them. Like Chekov's gun, they wouldn't be mentioned if they weren't needed.

Excellent news. Congratulations!