WI: No General Frost in the War of 1812?

So, what if there won't be the General Frost in the War of 1812? What will happen to Russia? :confused:


(OOC: This is neither a DBWI nor a NOOBWI; I know perfectly well what I'm asking about, and it all makes perfect sense for me; the main idea of this thread is to see how soon will you understand what I mean (though the AH part is also interesting ;)); and what's the problem, anyway? :confused:

...So what, how?
January First-of-May)
 

MrP

Banned
Heh. I think we generally call him General Winter over here, but I may be wrong. Well, good news for Nappy's old army, certainly.
 
Not that great, though, inless I'm much mistaken. The winter of 1812 was hard, but not exceptional. Napoöeon actually lost that one fair and square, by not taking terrain and climate into account, not through some freak cold snap. So unless you get a completely unusual warm spell that prevents any freezing that winter, you'll likely just see fewer casualties for the Grande Armee. That could change things back home, though - possibly no convention of Tauroggen, no Swedish renversement.
 
Well, I guess no one went like "Russia? War of 1812? WTH? :eek:" ;)
And about winter - I meant, something like 2006/07; or 1826 (described in "Evgeny Onegin", early chapter 5) if you believe in global warming.
(The 2006/07 (and 1826) winter wasn't a "warm spell" (that's EFM, mister) - it just was an exceptionally warm winter. Like, no snow until January. And by then, there is snow even in France IOTL, isn't it? ;))
 

MrP

Banned
Well, I guess no one went like "Russia? War of 1812? WTH? :eek:" ;)
And about winter - I meant, something like 2006/07; or 1826 (described in "Evgeny Onegin", early chapter 5) if you believe in global warming.
(The 2006/07 (and 1826) winter wasn't a "warm spell" (that's EFM, mister) - it just was an exceptionally warm winter. Like, no snow until January. And by then, there is snow even in France IOTL, isn't it? ;))

I'm pretty sure one can describe an unexpectedly warm winter as a warm spell, y'know.
 
It would not change the outcome of this invasion.
Napoleon's invasion of Russia was a summer/autumn campaign and did end before the winter really began.
"General Frost" was and still is just an excuse for the enormous defeat.
 
1812-13 was a very warm year.

This probably made things even worse, actually. You're perfectly capable of dying from hypothermia at -10 or even +5, but you also have humidity to deal with. So come with fur coats and build shelters.

It wasn't the cold, therefore, but the lack of a good base of operations and secure supply lines.
 
Napoleon was already abandoning Moscow before the winter sat in. His troops might have had a easier time going back and he might end up with saving more troops in the end
 
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