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  1. Victory at Kolin/Surrender of Prague WI?

    Frederick's opening moves in the Seven Years War put the Austrians in a tough spot, removing a major ally and shutting their main army in Prague. However, their victory at Kolin forced him to relinquish his siege and the whole position in Bohemia. However, if Frederick had won at Kolin, could...

  2. WI: Decisive Austrian Victory at Aspern?

    On 21 May, Napoleon had 3 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions on the north bank of the Danube. The infantry held the villages of Aspern and Essling, while two cavalry divisions covered the wide gap between them. Archduke Charles had four times as many men in his 4 army and 2 reserve corps, but...

  3. Alternative Gunpowder Weapons?

    At the beginning of the gunpowder age, it seemed there was a huge variety of different applications. Over time, muskets and cannon became clearly the most effective uses of gunpowder, with Mysorean/Congreve style iron rockets as potential runners up, alongside mining under walls. What other...

  4. WI: Gustavus Adolphus captured alive at Lutzen?

    During the Battle of Lutzen, the Swedish king personally led several cavalry charges, becoming separated from his men and taking multiple wounds. When he fell from his horse, an Imperial rider unceremoniously dispatched him with a shot to the head (IIRC more Swedish cavalry were drawing near)...

  5. PC: Mass SMG use in 1914?

    When did (simple blowback, open bolt, fixed firing pin etc.) submachine guns become practical to manufacture in large numbers? I realize the tactical doctrine wasn't there yet in 1914, but would there have been any industrial/technological reasons why the Great Powers in the First World War...

  6. The Cloud from the West: An Ancient Vignette
    Threadmarks: The Cloud from the West

    Hey everyone! This is my first AH writing attempt; it might be a little rough around the edges, but this was a lot of fun! Let me know if you have any feedback/comments/questions. [Excerpted from the Histories of Demetrius of Pergamon, Book VIII, 35-52] Having gathered his great army at...

  7. WI: Antiochos III conquers Egypt

    In 192 B.C., Antiochos III embarked on his invasion of mainland Greece, hoping to take advantage of the withdrawal of the Roman garrison army. The ensuing war with Rome, Pergamon, and Rhodes led to a humiliating string of defeats, the loss of most of Asia Minor, and a crippling indemnity. At...

  8. Austrian invasion of Hungary?

    From Geoffrey Wawro A Mad Catastrophe Seeing as the decline of the Habsburg army led pretty directly to the fall of the dynasty and the total collapse of Austria's great power status, would the Austrians have been better off if they'd just forcibly incorporated Transleithania into a unitary...

  9. PC: Ottoman Invasion of Italy?

    If the Holy League fleet had been annihilated at Lepanto, would the Ottomans have been in a position to capture Brindisi or Otranto that fall, or land an army on the heel of Italy next campaigning season? What kind of opposition would the Spanish and their Italian allies be able to offer, and...

  10. John of Austria conquers Algiers instead of Tunis?

    Two years after the great victory at Lepanto, John of Austria led the Holy League fleet in conquering Tunis. However, the very next year, the Ottomans retook the city and subdued the presidio of La Goleta with an immense fleet. This was about the most a galley fleet in the 16th century...

  11. WI: Carthage Wins First Punic War?

    So looking through the major battles of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians lost a lot of battles where they actually outnumbered the Romans. Given the near-exhaustion of the Romans at the end of the war, I think the Carthaginians could have beaten the Romans if they could reliably win...

  12. Carthaginians besides Hannibal able to win battles?

    One of the striking things about the Second Punic War is the repeated failure of most Carthaginian generals besides Hannibal to win battles, even in quite even contests and ones where they actually had numerical superiority. The main exception is Hasdrubal's victories over the Scipio brothers...

  13. AHC/WI: Medieval principality with Roman confederation military mobilization

    During the Second Punic War, and the brief Gallic War immediately preceding it, Rome was able to mobilize about a quarter of a million men between the city and its allies in five field armies, most around 50,000. Assuming an Italian population of ~5 million in the third century BC, this...

  14. Theoretical WWII cross-channel air corridor logistics?

    Just as a thought experiment, I was wondering what the requirements for supplying the Allied Expeditionary Force in NW Europe during WWII entirely by air would look like, in terms of number of transports per division and overall. A WWII division might require 600 tons of supply per day, just...

  15. Lannes survives Aspern-Essling?

    Lannes was arguably one of Napoleon's best marshals, and the lack of generals as good as Lannes and Davout has been blamed for Napoleon's increasing difficulties during the Invasion of Russia and the War of the Sixth Coalition. However, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of...

  16. Lepanto tactics

    So reading about the battle of Lepanto, one of the things that stood out to me was the importance of reserves; the Christians were able to hold off the Ottoman left's attempted envelopment long enough for their right to return to action thanks to their reserve. By contrast, the Ottomans had...

  17. PC: Prussia acquires Saxony in Third Silesian War?

    Even after years of battle and attrition, by the end of the Seven Years War, Prussia occupied most of Saxony and Silesia, but lacked the strength to take Dresden or Glatz, and thus traded Saxony for Glatz so ensure the future security of Silesia. If Prussia hard performed better in some...

  18. AHC: Muscovy becomes world power?

    Simply put, how far can this remote, sparsely populated region in the middle of nowhere rise to become a great empire, either on the steppes or in Eastern Europe?

  19. PC: Ancient-style Galleys with cannon?

    So ancient galleys, like triremes and quinqueremes, were much faster than early modern galleys like fought at Lepanto. This has a few different causes, but as I understand it, the biggest factor is the shift from shell-first to frame-first construction, which made them much more resistant to...

  20. Technology PC: WWII Wheeled IFV

    I mentioned this a while back in the aesthetically pleasing AFV thread, but I've had this idea for a WWII period APC/IFV. Basically, you're looking at a 15 ton chassis (think BTR-80), 8x8, ~15-20 hp/ton, with a 37mm gun in a turret like the M8 Greyhound, armor proof against ~13mm ammunition...
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