Your favorite military commanders thoughout history?

[United Marxist Nations]

When it comes to military commanders, there is one man who stands head and shoulders above the rest. A true paragon, a mastermind of all aspects of the military machine, a veritable god amoung men. This man, who dedicated his life to fighting the scourge of silliness, this elite soldier of the British military, has no name. He is anonymous, unknown, his motivations and origins a mystery, shrouded in time.

We know him only by his rank.

He is...

(Image)

The Colonel.

A challenger appears!

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Arthur Wellesley - because fuck being beaten.

Despite the persistent myth that Wellesley "never lost a battle," the truth is that he was defeated several times. They just weren't famous battles. He was defeated by the Mysoreans on at least one occasion, but mostly by the French. He also suffered what Wikipedia likes to refer to as "strategic defeats," such as Quatre Bras.

[Greater Istanistan]

I like Mustafa Kemal, because he was bro-tastic, competent, and dedicated. He also wasn't callous or morally corrupt or anything. Cool guy.

Ah yes, and



the guy on the right.

[Byzantium Imperial]

Tamerlane would be my favorite of all the historical commanders. While not the.... nicest person who ever lived, he is perhaps one of the most brilliant.


He, like plenty of others, conquered an empire of almost unimaginable proportions. Unlike those others, he did this while fighting the battles alongside his soldiers, to the point that well into his old age he was still hacking at enemies. He was doing all this with a handicap, as when he was younger he was seriously injured in a hunting incidient, hence one of his names, Timur the Lame. (Tamerlane=Man of Iron)

He innovative use of tactics, ranging from setting camels on fire and sending them towards Indian War Elephants or constructing pyramids of skulls to demorlize future enemies from resisting, was highly effective, so much so that militaries that had finnaly begun adopting to combat the mongol style of warfare were swept aside anew. His invasions would be planned years in advanced, and in the interregrum spies would be sent ahead to spread rumors (or more often then not the truth) of what Tamerlane would do to those who resisted, sending the populations into complete disaray at the first sight of Timmurid forces.

He was just a few years shy of invading (given his track record, conquering is fair to say) China and bringing a near total restoration to the Mongol empire. Even so, his empire went from Damascus up to Sarai to Samarkand to Delhi, and given more time would have gone even further. His enemies were many and had few friends, but quite honestly his equals were none and he didnt particularly need allies. Dispite being descended from Genghis, this did not stop him from decisvly defeating the Ilkhante, destroying them utterly, and crippling the Golden Horde, which depending on your point of view may or may not have contributed to the independence of Russia from the Tartars, and dealing a near death blow to the ottomans.

And, in a day and age when all of your killing was done with either a sword or a bow and arrow, Tamerlane racked up over 15 million kills in his life time. An extremly impressive accomplishment to be sure. (the following I found on Wikipedia while looking for a good picture) In addition, the story of his death is a spooky one: after he died, he had a tomb constructed for himself, his own body encased in a jade casket, and the tomb was lost somewhere in central asia. A soviet archaelogist found the site, but upon entering noted the enscription "When I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble." an additional inscription inside the casket was found reading, "Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I." His body was uncovered on June 20th 1941. 2 days later, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the Invasion of the Soviet Union.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

There's also a rumor that the German defeat at Stalingrad coincided with the date the Soviets re-interred his remains, and that Stalin ordered the plane carrying said remains to make a rather sizable detour to fly over Stalingrad.

[United Marxist Nations]

There's also a rumor that the German defeat at Stalingrad coincided with the date the Soviets re-interred his remains, and that Stalin ordered the plane carrying said remains to make a rather sizable detour to fly over Stalingrad.

[X-files music]

[OMGeverynameistaken]

[United Kingdom of Poland]

There's also a rumor that the German defeat at Stalingrad coincided with the date the Soviets re-interred his remains, and that Stalin ordered the plane carrying said remains to make a rather sizable detour to fly over Stalingrad.

[X-files music]

no [x-files music while Rod Sterling narrates]

[Sun Wukong]

General Custer. He may have died, but I would rather hang out with him than some Nazi dude.

Yeah. Because Custer would never kill a whole bunch of innocent people because of their ethnicity.

[Byzantium Imperial]

There's also a rumor that the German defeat at Stalingrad coincided with the date the Soviets re-interred his remains, and that Stalin ordered the plane carrying said remains to make a rather sizable detour to fly over Stalingrad.

Wikipedia (and the citation) seem to confirm this rumor.... How odd. An old prophecy/curse that turned out to be true...
Just in time for halloween!

General Custer. He may have died, but I would rather hang out with him than some Nazi dude.

Yeah. Because Custer would never kill a whole bunch of innocent people because of their ethnicity.

Wernt those indians sitting on a giant gold deposit? If so its highly unlikely ethnicity was that significant a factor

[Senaastria]

Woodrow Wilson.

[Vareiln]

Helmuth von Moltke and Alexander Nevsky are among my favorites, but there are probably a few more that I'm forgetting.

[Arumdaum]

Yeah. Because Custer would never kill a whole bunch of innocent people because of their ethnicity.

Wernt those indians sitting on a giant gold deposit? If so its highly unlikely ethnicity was that significant a factor

How much would Custer have gotten?

Regardless, I'm pretty sure he was a racist shitbag either way, as were most Americans during that time.

[Warda]

The Cabbage Emperor. If your name is that cool, you just have to be awesome.

[The UK in Exile]

Arthur Wellesley - because fuck being beaten.

Despite the persistent myth that Wellesley "never lost a battle," the truth is that he was defeated several times. They just weren't famous battles. He was defeated by the Mysoreans on at least one occasion, but mostly by the French. He also suffered what Wikipedia likes to refer to as "strategic defeats," such as Quatre Bras.

He never lost a field battle, admittedly to maintain this record he did have to spend quite a lot of time running away, which is not exactly impressive.

[Nazis in Space]

Despite the persistent myth that Wellesley "never lost a battle," the truth is that he was defeated several times. They just weren't famous battles. He was defeated by the Mysoreans on at least one occasion, but mostly by the French. He also suffered what Wikipedia likes to refer to as "strategic defeats," such as Quatre Bras.

He never lost a field battle, admittedly to maintain this record he did have to spend quite a lot of time running away, which is not exactly impressive.

I dunno. I find running away when you know you can't win more impressive than entering a futile battle. Not to mention that running away without getting trapped is a skill all by itself.

This was your 'NiS says something nice about something English' comment of the year 2013

[Greater Istanistan]

There's also a rumor that the German defeat at Stalingrad coincided with the date the Soviets re-interred his remains, and that Stalin ordered the plane carrying said remains to make a rather sizable detour to fly over Stalingrad.

Wikipedia (and the citation) seem to confirm this rumor.... How odd. An old prophecy/curse that turned out to be true...
Just in time for halloween!

Yeah. Because Custer would never kill a whole bunch of innocent people because of their ethnicity.

Wernt those indians sitting on a giant gold deposit? If so its highly unlikely ethnicity was that significant a factor

The fact that you call them Indians makes ethnicity a factor. He was a racist anyways, and the fact that they were Native Americans would have contributed to the decision to drive them off the land.

[United Counties of Maine]

He never lost a field battle, admittedly to maintain this record he did have to spend quite a lot of time running away, which is not exactly impressive.

I dunno. I find running away when you know you can't win more impressive than entering a futile battle. Not to mention that running away without getting trapped is a skill all by itself.

This was your 'NiS says something nice about something English' comment of the year 2013

Attack at a time and place of your choosing...

[Nazis in Space]

I dunno. I find running away when you know you can't win more impressive than entering a futile battle. Not to mention that running away without getting trapped is a skill all by itself.

This was your 'NiS says something nice about something English' comment of the year 2013

Attack at a time and place of your choosing...

My bedroom, 8 pm.

[L Ron Cupboard]

the guy on the right.

So Carlos Santana.

[Ayreonia]

He never lost a field battle, admittedly to maintain this record he did have to spend quite a lot of time running away, which is not exactly impressive.

I dunno. I find running away when you know you can't win more impressive than entering a futile battle. Not to mention that running away without getting trapped is a skill all by itself.

This was your 'NiS says something nice about something English' comment of the year 2013

As one of my instructors put it, "a soldier has to be in good enough physical condition to be able to run away from the enemy."

[The Republic of Llamas]

Two of my favorites are Rommel and Napoleon!

I love you. Only person who could be better is Hannibal, and old Fritz is pretty good too.

[United Marxist Nations]

Two of my favorites are Rommel and Napoleon!

I love you. Only person who could be better is Hannibal, and old Fritz is pretty good too.

What about Alexander the Great? Or Julius Caesar? Timur the Lame? Genghis Khan? My point is, there are a lot of commanders that you are overlooking.

[Kouralia]

I love you. Only person who could be better is Hannibal, and old Fritz is pretty good too.

What about Alexander the Great? Or Julius Caesar? Timur the Lame? Genghis Khan? My point is, there are a lot of commanders that you are overlooking.

Or Wellington, who wasn't defeated to the extent of my knowledge, while he defeated Napoleon (with Blucher).

[The Nuclear Fist]

Two of my favorites are Rommel and Napoleon!

I love you. Only person who could be better is Hannibal, and old Fritz is pretty good too.

Rommel wasn't nearly as good as he was chalked up to be.