Tolkienite Military Fiction

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Never seen it. Forgot it existed. I'll have to watch it some time. Is this the 50's version or the 80's?

Forgot. Been a long time. Probably it was the 50's.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

So George Washington, who only left the area of what'd become the US once managed to start a global war which by all accounts I can find seems to have started with a dispute between Austria and Prussia?

There were two disputes going on. In Europe, there was a rematch over Silessia brewing. In America the French wanted to shore up their sphere of influence in the Ohio to assure passage between Quebec and New Orleans, while the colonies were looking for room for settlement. George Washington was sent by the Governor of Virginia (on the governor's initiative apparently) with orders to show the flag. Really it was the governor's fault for playing with fire that way. Washington was not a particularly effective "strategic corporal" his first time at bat but his main mistake was hiring a guide who was politically tainted. He was a prince from a defeated tribe who had a grudge against the French for supporting his enemies. When they met some French on a similar mission and got into a starring match, some idiot fired a musket, like as not the guide who actually wanted to start a war for his own political reasons. The Virginians won tactically, and the guide ritually cannibalized one of the corpses to announce his declaration of war. However there were to many French around so they forted up when a punitive expedition came round. Washington was forced to surrender and he and his men paroled but the fine print of the surrender included a confession to murder which was the other mistake he made. Not a wholly awful performance but just at the time when a slight mistake could set off a powder keg.