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Old 03-14-2014, 03:24 PM   #26
Frost
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Shropshire, uk
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
Try this idea, place a millitary genius in the family of a key supporter of Louis Napoleon (in our world the kid dies in infancy). The French still start the Franco-Prussian war outnumbered and outguned, but with a general of genius. Bismark finds the Prussian army fought to a standstill.
I would be tempted to make this putative military genius a logistic specialist rather than rather than the classic choice of a military commander. French performance in 1871, at least in the opening stages of the war was an artefact of haphazard mobilisation.

If the French were able to mobilise and deploy more effectively they might have been in a position to exploit the fairly significant weaknesses in the Prussian deployment. From the Prussian point of view a stalemate would be the least of their problems outright defeat would be a significant possibility.
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