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I actually started to write a story around the idea of Majorian turning around the WRE from the brink. The immediate POD was him being tipped off about the vandal naval attack that destroyed his fleet. But defeating the vandals was only the first step. He would also have to overthrow the...

This would depend a bit on your view on randomness. For example, suppose that I record the exact time of decay for an atom of an unstable isotope (an event that is as far as I understand truly random). Then I go back in time and observe the experiment from afar. Will the atom decay at the exact...

Because the institution of Emperor was at this time seen as entirely legitimate and beneficial. Rome had enjoyed nearly a century of good emperors. The view would probably have been that an Emperor was needed to make the Republic work and to keep the army in check. Of really bad Emperors, there...

Nah, merely creating some reasonable and mildly interesting setup for the second movie. Regarding Lucius ”Golden Age”, the Republican restoration is always going to fail, and cause civil war sooner rather than later. Also, it’s the only way Lucius is going to be emperor, as a second best option...

Proposed timeline for Gladiator and aftermath up to the second film. Deviations from our timeline in fat. 165 AD Antonine plague breaks out but is much less deadly than our timeline, killing only one in ten of the afflicted. 165 AD A young Centurion of the army fighting in...

Problems with the original Gladiator movie set to begin in 180 AD. The opening text tells us this, and this was also the historical year of death of Marcus Aurelius. However there are some problems and inconsistencies, which it would be more fun to attribute to one or several independent PODs...

Historical timeline 161 AD Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus succeed Antonius Pius as Emperors. War with Parthia 162 AD Chatti and Chauci invade Raetia 164 AD Lucilla and Lucius Verus married. 165 AD Chatti and Chauci defeated, the Antonine plague spreads...

There's apparently going to be a Gladiator II movie https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/7647115/gladiator-sequel-russell-crowe-revealed/ set 20-25 years after the original and centered around Commodus nephew Lucius. Now, the original movie made rather enormous changes compared to our...

Hm, if Husky is delayed 2 months, then probably von Manstein would get his wish with pressing home the Zitadelle offensive. The Southern pincer hadn't exactly broken through, but it had pierced the prepared defence zone and won a what is now recognized as a rather stunning victory at...

In all likelihood, the oil would make a much greater difference than the tungsten. I'm having a hard time estimating how much the Matzen field would have contributed to the Reich petroleum production, but it does look relatively major, perhaps something in the order of a 15-20% boost to total...

The collapse of a victorious III Reich would probably resemble the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the USSR, because, just like those entities, only massive violence or the threat thereof would be keeping the structure together. So as long as the Reich is fine with summarily massacring any one...

BTW, wouldn't this tank have been able to turret-mount the 88L56? IF so, the 75L70 might never have been developed and the VK30 simply upgunned with an 88 in 1942... Going slightly more ASB-ish, suppose Guderian draws the logical conclusion of realizing the need for 75mm guns for infantry...

Love the pictures! I have an AH project of my own involving a 35 ton panzer, wonder if I might use them for that? Hmmm... up until the 75L70 gets mounted I do not see this changing much for the Germans... having a heavier and (I assume) more thickly armoured tank than the Pz IV but with the...

Was Hitler poorly educated and ignorant? Yes, check. Was he in thrall of his phobias and hatreds? Yes, in mega-spades. Was he (increasingly as the war progressed) unbalanced and prone to wishful thinking? Absolutely. But stupid? No, by any definition of the word the man had genius-level mental...

Well, I've never said that the A-A line could be reached in 1941, did I? But yours seems very a very deterministic view to me. If we're assuming OTL circumstances until June 22, Leningrad especially seems a very attainable objective. German mismanagment of their resources (18. Army especially)...

Which are all valid arguments for claiming that Clark was wrong and that a German victory was impossible. Not so much for claiming a German victory is ASB. The Wehrmacht cannot push into the heart of Siberia during 1941-42, on this I think almost everyone can agree. But neither can the USSR go...

And yet Clark, one of the most respected ww2 historical writers, who wrote the classic account of the war in the east mantains that the Germans came very close indeed. That does not qualify as ASB to me - you're of course entitled to your opinion and mantain that he is simply wrong on this and...

My picture of the war in the east began to form reading Clark :). Later some parts of that picture have changed reading for example the works of Nipe, Zetterling & Franksson on the Zitadelle campaign. But the basic outline remain pretty much the same, that Hitler had a great part of the blame...

I frankly doubt this. If Lenin could sign Brest-Litovsk, then so could Stalin. In fact, you could argue that the survival of communism could have been saved only by making a painful Peace if the Red Army is mauled so badly that the Germans reach their original intended line of objective (roughly...

Interesting, I was thinking precisely on "Wages of Destruction". I once debated the very same points you are and got hit with Tozee to show me the error of my ways. But sure, to me having a war economy does not equal the massive "Notprograms" of 1944, and especially not building things for the...