On the Flagellation of Deceased Equines

The Sandman · Aug 10, 2005

Here's a simple question: which particular timelines have been discussed, time and time again, without any genuinely new ideas being introduced.

Bonus points if someone can come up with new spins on these old TLs!

The obvious ones, for me, would be CSA/Nazi Germany wins, Austria/Ottoman Empire disintegrate (sometimes for no apparent reason), and most reasonable ideas relating to Napoleon. Anyone have any others?

Straha · Aug 10, 2005

Why not a peaceful CS wins TL? Get another republican in office besides lincoln and avoid attacking fort sumter?

Wendell · Aug 10, 2005

Straha said:
Why not a peaceful CS wins TL? Get another republican in office besides lincoln and avoid attacking fort sumter?

Dixie wouldn't have tolerated ANY Republican. Now, have the Republicans back Bell, and you may be getting somewhere.

Straha · Aug 10, 2005

Wendell said:
Dixie wouldn't have tolerated ANY Republican. Now, have the Republicans back Bell, and you may be getting somewhere.

Wait we must be confused here. YOU'RE thinking of a no ACW TL. While that's also very interesting its not what I'm talking about. A better POD for a no ACW TL is the whigs not splitting.

Darkest · Aug 10, 2005

What if the Nazis were nice to Jews? In fact, they preached that the Master Race is a hybrid between Aryans and Jews... Strength, beauty AND intelligence.

I wonder how that would work...

Straha · Aug 10, 2005

Darkest90 said:
What if the Nazis were nice to Jews? In fact, they preached that the Master Race is a hybrid between Aryans and Jews... Strength, beauty AND intelligence.

I wonder how that would work...

The rest of humanity is FUCKED? Einstein and heisenberg working for the reich. This could actually be a semi-realistic nazi global conquest ATL seed.

Darkest · Aug 11, 2005

Wow, cool, yeah, there are a lot of possibilities.

I personally would like to see some more world domination scenarios, as long as they aren't the Americans, Brits or Chinese. You gotta watch out for those ABCs...

Flocculencio · Aug 11, 2005

Darkest90 said:
Wow, cool, yeah, there are a lot of possibilities.

I personally would like to see some more world domination scenarios, as long as they aren't the Americans, Brits or Chinese. You gotta watch out for those ABCs...

Well Indian TLs are massively under done

Midgard · Aug 11, 2005

Byzantium survives and goes on to conquer the world is, well, a reoccuring theme, with the only variation being the actual POD. If the POD is before 636 they crush Islam by default, before it has a chance to spread into Middle East and Europe; if POD is in XIth century it is either Manzikert goes the other way, or Basil II is succeeded by a competent ruler (the latter is less covered).

Romans turning aeoliphile into a working steam engine and having an industrial revolution in IInd and IIIrd centuries is another oft-repeated idea, despite the fact that many of the economic and cultural prerequisites for industrial revolution simply were not there.

British victory in ACW resulting in a semi-utopian present; almost any Soviet AH with POD past 1953 results in either earlier breakup of USSR, conventional WWIII, or all-out nuclear holocaust.

Grey Wolf · Aug 11, 2005

thesandman said:
Here's a simple question: which particular timelines have been discussed, time and time again, without any genuinely new ideas being introduced.

Bonus points if someone can come up with new spins on these old TLs!

The obvious ones, for me, would be CSA/Nazi Germany wins, Austria/Ottoman Empire disintegrate (sometimes for no apparent reason), and most reasonable ideas relating to Napoleon. Anyone have any others?

Well, my current writing in the Writers' Forum 'La Tempete' is set where Napoleon triumphs in the Middle East (Nelson dies early and some incompetent Brit loses Aboukir Bay). France sees someone else dissolve the existing power structure and become First Consul. Napoleon carves out a New France in the Middle East...

Grey Wolf

Chengar Qordath · Aug 11, 2005

I've lately seen a few TLs that seem to involve the world wars with Germany's various opponents all being much weaker, yet somehow crushing the Germans much faster than historically.

Macsporan · Aug 12, 2005

Please, please please: no more timelines about the CSA winning the Civil War.

They're boring and they're all the same.

I've even done one and I detest the Confederates and everything they stood for.

It's sick, its obsessive and is so desperately dull.

Write out ten times: "I must not start any threads on the CSA winning the Civil War".

Swear an oath on your mother's grave (kill her if you have to) on a stack of Bibles, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita and the Death of Superman issue that you will never transgress again.

Thank God.

My work is done.

"CSA victory means wanking. Wanking means cumming."

KJM · Aug 12, 2005

Darkest90 said:
I personally would like to see some more world domination scenarios, as long as they aren't the Americans, Brits or Chinese. You gotta watch out for those ABCs...

How about all of them at once, as the Sino-Atlantic Combine?
(That gives me an idea for a scenario...)

Hendryk · Aug 12, 2005

Flocculencio said:
Well Indian TLs are massively under done

I quite agree. Hey, you started one a while ago, pity you didn't go on, it looked promising.

Flocculencio · Aug 12, 2005

Hendryk said:
I quite agree. Hey, you started one a while ago, pity you didn't go on, it looked promising.

Check the fiction forum. It turned into a short story and has spawned a sequel. See the sig.

MerryPrankster · Aug 12, 2005

KJM said:
How about all of them at once, as the Sino-Atlantic Combine?
(That gives me an idea for a scenario...)

Very interesting.

In the SF show "Firefly," the "evil empire" that the protagonsits fought with/ran from was apparently some sort of conglomerate of China and the United States.

Considering how interlinked the Chinese and American economies our (they buy gov't bonds and a lot of higher-tech stuff from the US; we buy enormous numbers of mass-produced Chinese stuff), an Americo-Chinese alliance seems possible.

Faeelin · Aug 12, 2005

Flocculencio said:
Well Indian TLs are massively under done

True enough.

You know, no one has ever explored a longer lived Bengalese hegemony in the 8th century. Or a more successful Cholan Kingdom in Southeast Asia. Hmm....

I don't think we've seen enough TLs on Napoleonic Europe; a lot of different things that could happen.

Eugene Bearnhais carves out a kingdom of Italy, perhaps. Or Westphalia survives as a kingdom under a different ruler.

The Spanish monarchy escapes to Mexico, and Latin american independence looks more like Brazil's.

Prussia regains its Polish territories at the Congress of Vienna, but lacks the Rhineland, which goes to, oh, Bavaria.

Wozza · Aug 12, 2005

There are plenty of underdone areas:

1. Different resolution of Napoleonic Wars
2. Different unification of Germany - not led by Prussia
3. Late 19th c Anglo-Russian war
4. Russian late 19th C PODs
5. Central Powers victory still has potential
6. Resistance to the Dictators in the 1930s

That is only modern era. Though I tend to think pre-modern PODS are interesting but hard to substantiate- we simply do not have the documentation to guess what people would have done

Justin Pickard · Aug 12, 2005

I use (2) and (4) a fair amount.

Also, the 1848 revolutions are always good fun...

Wozza · Aug 12, 2005

I wonder if we can change early 19th C French demography so France is still the prime power in Europe, that could be interesting.