Highly underused PODs with great potential
- Thread starter vultan
- Start date
Yes !
Hm, well, since you're Dutch, I'm not surprised...
The Battle of freaking Nicopol(is) doesn't become a total fiasco.
Seriously, it was an incredible collection of European armies, but due to their bad discipline, the Ottomans "ate them for dinner"... Surprisingly, Sigismund of Luxembourg was quite competent in it, despite having a "botchman of the battlefield" reputation.
The Germans stop basking in their success on the Western front and rush towards Paris before the French manage to pull the famous taxi-blitzkrieg on them. The Schlieffen plan is relatively succesful and Paris becomes an ATL WWI equivalent of Stalingrad.
The post-WWI high brass of France actually listens to De Gaulle and other young commander-in-chiefs and create a proper tank and armoured vehicle programme, instead of wasting resources on the Maginot line.
And one simple, yet cool POD I came up with recently (it's for a TL whose background I intend to use in my first AH short story) :
Queen Mary of Hungary doesn't die along with her unborn child in an accident in May 1395 and gives birth to a male heir for her husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg (who only had 1 legitimate daughter in OTL, with his second wife). Sigy being Sigy - an influental European ruler of the era and extraordinarily skilled diplomat - I've got a feeling that this TL will wind up as bizzarely as Max's Chaos scenario...
The Schlieffen plan is relatively succesful and Paris becomes an ATL WWI equivalent of Stalingrad. The post-WWI high brass of France actually listens to De Gaulle and other young commander-in-chiefs and create a proper tank and armoured vehicle programme, instead of wasting resources on the Maginot line.
And one simple, yet cool POD I came up with recently (it's for a TL whose background I intend to use in my first AH short story) :
Queen Mary of Hungary doesn't die along with her unborn child in an accident in May 1395 and gives birth to a male heir for her husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg (who only had 1 legitimate daughter in OTL, with his second wife). Sigy being Sigy - an influental European ruler of the era and extraordinarily skilled diplomat - I've got a feeling that this TL will wind up as bizzarely as Max's Chaos scenario...
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boredatwork
Banned
Iroquois/Cherokee side with the colonists vs the pink blob. Gain status as states
Changes USA-Native relations, development of US, who knows what else.
Punic wars worse for both sides - both Rome & Carthage end up exhausted, fade from history.
Mohammed fails to conquer medina - lack of this and other early military victories leads to a very different feel/flavor of islam
China never unifies on a sustainable basis - similar to Europe - short term unifications arise, but nothing sticks - butterflies incalculable.
Changes USA-Native relations, development of US, who knows what else.
Punic wars worse for both sides - both Rome & Carthage end up exhausted, fade from history.
Mohammed fails to conquer medina - lack of this and other early military victories leads to a very different feel/flavor of islam
China never unifies on a sustainable basis - similar to Europe - short term unifications arise, but nothing sticks - butterflies incalculable.
Oooh, that's a good one. If either native confederacy becomes a state, there's much more impetus for the United States to remain very autonomous.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert's 1583 attempt at colonizing Newfoundland is succesful? The British beat the French to Canada (and the St Lawrence basin, eventually the Great Lakes, and maybe even the Louisiana Basin...). Since the same factors that made Britain a settler colonizer exist, then their Canadian settlements will likely also be heavily settled, unlike the French OTL. The effects of this on the East Coast and the rest of North American colonies would be great...
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Have a junior branch of the Ottomans eventually convert to Christianity [this would be a POD involving maximum Otto-wank] and rule over some distant province.
Larger settlement in California or the upper Rio Grande during the Spanish Empire. Possibly with a greater surviving New Mexican or Californian dialect of Spanish.
Possibly combined or brought out because of a California or Colorado gold rush type event in the 1700s.
Possibly combined or brought out because of a California or Colorado gold rush type event in the 1700s.
Yes !
Hm, well, since you're Dutch, I'm not surprised...
You are sadly misinformed. What in the world ever possessed you to think I was Dutch? No, I'm a purebreed American, by jingo!
Slaughter
Banned
Brazil taken over by communists during the sixties.
Athens unifies Greece.
Zoroastrism becomes one of the main religions.
Akenathon's reform suceeds, Egyptians worship only Athon.
North and South America have horses.
Paraguay wins the Triple Alliance War.
The British fail to conquer India.
The Dutch stay in Brazil.
Athens unifies Greece.
Zoroastrism becomes one of the main religions.
Akenathon's reform suceeds, Egyptians worship only Athon.
North and South America have horses.
Paraguay wins the Triple Alliance War.
The British fail to conquer India.
The Dutch stay in Brazil.
Quatermain
Banned
Harry Turtledove did a short story about this. I forget the name, but I do remember that it involved a future Persian king being curious about the 'forgotten' Greek culture and the people that Darius had conquered and sending a scholar/diplomat to Greece to find out what he could.
I think an assassination of Pres. Buchanan might be interesting. I don't think it would have stopped the Civil War, at that point I think war was inevitable, but I do think it may changed the scope or 'shape' of the on-coming conflict. Buchanan was, I think, beset with option paralysis, or to take a more cynical view, had decided that he wasn't going to be the President that split the Union and that it might be best(for him anyways) to push the whole mess off on to the next guy.
If Buchanan had been assassinated, his VP, John Breckenridge would have taken over. Breckenridge was from Kentucky, and was a Confederate sympathizer who would go on to serve as a general in the Confederate Army.
I've had this really weird idea in my head for awhile now. It's Alien Space Bats; and really strange. Heres the description:
A virus breaks out in Africa that wipes out the Human population on the vast majority of the Continent, and mutates some of the animal species into; well, Furrys. In other Words; Cat people now walk the earth, along with Wild Dog and Jackal people. Ok, heres where things get strange; instead of the Moors; it's the Panther people who invade Visigothic Spain and take it over. This leads to people scratching their heads all over Europe and the Middle East. However; when the Pope declares the third crusade to reclaim the Iberian Penninsula, during the 1100's; the Panther Men invade and conquer France. However; the Britons and Brittaney fight on and push the Panthers out of Britanney. Brittany manages to reclaim some ground while the Muslims and Christians duke it out in Italy and Rome ignoring the Panther people. In the end, the Britons reconquer Normany; and essentially become this worlds France... Well; Northern France.
Does this weird idea count?
As for a really realistic scenario; I suggest checking some of Harry Turtledoves novels. Sure, the Sex Scenes are horrendous, but some of his idea are quite cool in my opinion. Like, 1812; where a Indian State exists.
A virus breaks out in Africa that wipes out the Human population on the vast majority of the Continent, and mutates some of the animal species into; well, Furrys. In other Words; Cat people now walk the earth, along with Wild Dog and Jackal people. Ok, heres where things get strange; instead of the Moors; it's the Panther people who invade Visigothic Spain and take it over. This leads to people scratching their heads all over Europe and the Middle East. However; when the Pope declares the third crusade to reclaim the Iberian Penninsula, during the 1100's; the Panther Men invade and conquer France. However; the Britons and Brittaney fight on and push the Panthers out of Britanney. Brittany manages to reclaim some ground while the Muslims and Christians duke it out in Italy and Rome ignoring the Panther people. In the end, the Britons reconquer Normany; and essentially become this worlds France... Well; Northern France.
Does this weird idea count?
As for a really realistic scenario; I suggest checking some of Harry Turtledoves novels. Sure, the Sex Scenes are horrendous, but some of his idea are quite cool in my opinion. Like, 1812; where a Indian State exists.
Sounds like the normal ASB thread stuff to me.
What if the Japanese ship Nunobiki-maru carrying funds and weapons to the Filipino revolutionaries was not sunk?
What if the Filipino revolutionaries simultaneously attacked Manila on the eve of revolution and the native deserters among the Spanish troops were not sent to Mindanao?
Will any of those two affect the course of the revolution to the point that the rebels were victorious?
What if the Filipino revolutionaries simultaneously attacked Manila on the eve of revolution and the native deserters among the Spanish troops were not sent to Mindanao?
Will any of those two affect the course of the revolution to the point that the rebels were victorious?
The Retvisan rams and sinks the Mikasa at the Battle of the Yellow Sea?
I like Russo-Japanese War PODs
Obviously, not having Makaroff blown up by a mine would also be one.
The Russian submarines getting a shot at the Japanese destroyer and hitting her, and thus being the first modern and successful submarine attack in history
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
I like Russo-Japanese War PODs
Obviously, not having Makaroff blown up by a mine would also be one.
The Russian submarines getting a shot at the Japanese destroyer and hitting her, and thus being the first modern and successful submarine attack in history
Best Regards
Grey Wolf