Poll: Best War Leader

[mb16]

More importantly, the Allied forces (predominantly, but not exclusively, the US) developed atomic bombs. As soon as that happened, the Axis powers could not win. The Aliies might have had to remove alot of Europe and the Pacific, but they'd win.

May i point out that the USA didnt join the war till after the battle of Britain. So if the Germans had made all the right decisions, like continuing to attack the RAF and the UK had fallen. Where would you have attacked Europe(Germany)from? As i doubt that there we any planes that could carry a nuke and make a round trip USA-Europe without refuelling in those days.

 

[McShizzle]

I'm not sure about the best, but the 1st Duke of Marlborough was a pretty good war leader. Things didn't always go so well for him at peace though.

 

[The Harkinator]

I'm not sure about the best, but the 1st Duke of Marlborough was a pretty good war leader. Things didn't always go so well for him at peace though.

John Churchill, what a legend. So was Winston. Also Henry V, Napoleon, Alexander (war not peace) and many others.

 

[indiangrunt91]

Spoiler

Hitler was okay, but he was very lazy once he got to power. Basically he did what every good leader does, which is 'leave it to the experts'. He simply stated what the overall goal is, and got the people best at achieving that goal to plan it. Also, Blitzkrieg was (sort of) his idea. (it was kind of stolen from the British offensive in WW1, the Somme.)
Apart from Hitler I'm not very good at all this history stuff. I'll go with some of the Roman dudes. those guys were awesome. Particularly that one Carthaginian guy. Hmm, Hannibal? Yeah, he was great. Go round, recruit an army, take Rome, get betrayed by Carthage. All in a days work for that guy.

Apologies but a history major rant here
You know if he had left it too the experts the Germans probably would have won.
Hitler micromanaged everything from troop movements to individual generals and what they should do.
He even had an entire army in Russia move several hundred miles from there designated attack point on a whim

And Hannibal never got betrayed by Carthage but thats minor

I'll have you know that it was Heinz Guderian that developed Blitzkrig into what the Nazi's used, and not Hitler.

OT:
I always liked Julius Caesar.
Great general and glorious emperor.

right but why quote me in this?

I also like Caesar,
good promotor of himself, more than adequate general, excellent logistician
but never emperor, that didnt exist until Augustus but thats also a minor quibble

It would seem I have made a slight mistake when quoting here.
The comment was of course directed at PatrickXD.

But you are right, he was never emperor.
He was dictator, was he not?

yeah he was a dictator, because he knew the romans would never go for a ruler by the title or king, and was afraid emperor was too close to that (or am i speculating? i havent studied roman history in a while). i wonder how much further he wouldve gotten in his reign had he not been assassinated? my money is on all of modern germany at least, perhaps even to poland. though he wasnt stupid, he likely wouldve stopped on purpose before there to develop infastructure.

OT: I quote failed because I'm quoting both of you on this but..

I think it's wrong to say the Romans would have rejected the title emperor but not the man. I think Caesar played his cards at a time of great instability, and would rank in the Top 10 scoundrels. However Octavian was the person who actually united Rome under the concept of Caesar, with some exceptional military maneuvering.

Of course he was also semi-responsible for Teutonoburg...

clearly they didnt reject the title, they killed him despite him supposedly not wanting the title rex
and yeah caesar was as power hungry as alexander and probably would have been deposed or something

 

[Guy Montag]

William Slim. Accomplished more with less than anyone else in WW2.
Winston Churchill. Classic case of the right man in the right place.
William Tecumseh Sherman. He knew how to win, and more importantly he was actually willing to win.

as an aside, Rommel is totally overrated. He was good, yes, but a lot of his successes were based on circumstance and the incompetence of his enemies rather than his own skill.

 

[drisky]

The one who wrote the book on it, Sun Tzu.

 

[Jegsimmons]

well it honestly depends on the type of war. Napoleon was in fact genius, but he was artillery happy, it was his strong suit.
Patton used armor alot. It really depends, its best to have an even mix.


but if i had to choose five:
patton
napoleon
General Lee (he was pretty good but made a mistakes, invading instead of fighting defensively)
Major Winters (101st airborne, or just watch Band Of Brothers)
Rommel (he was a pretty good general and he did refuse to carry out "the final solution" which is admirable)

 

[the_hoffs_ego]

Personally I'll contribute Saladin as a great leader.

I have to second that. Also pretty much anybody else from the AoE2 campaigns. Except for Barbarossa, for obvious reasons.

 

[ELD3RGoD]

I'd say the greatest would be Sun Tzu, but not many people have mentioned the Taliban/ Mujahdeen/ IRA and their leaders. Surely striking fear into your opponents, fighting off the largest super powers using guerrilla tactics, attacking state capitals, spreading propaganda, continuing a war for many years and using 'persuasive' techniques to make people follow you are characteristics of a war leader, no matter what morals they have or don't have.

Also, the chinese dude with the teracotta (sp?) army and the pyramids.

Edit:

To the guy that said Germany wouldn't have won because the US (derp derp) were involved and that they made the atomic bomb, you should know that if Germany had pushed back Russia just once more, they would have had the precious few weeks to finalise their own nucleur arsenal which they had been developing and was almost ready to launch to America. And yes the documents were found that proved how close Hitler was to the arsenal and so on.

Also, to the guy who said Dujek Onearm, you are a legend, those books are fantastic.

 

[FllippinIDIOT]

Julius Caesar was a great leader, expanding the empire and conquering Gaul, the soldiers loved him and had the support of people. shame he got killed by part of the senate.

 

[coolkirb]

hmmmm well your right about Bismarchk not being a great war leader but he was a good leader in general.
As for picking a best leader Napolean was allways pushing the limits and helped make france a contenientle power but I think I will go with good old Canadian pride and go with Isac Brock, because if you can take fort Detroit without a single cassualty and by only fireing a couple of warning shots you must know how to play on your enemys fears. Ill allso give a nod to Arthur Curry, Vaudriel and Wolf (Montcalm was bad, sorry people of Quebec had to say it)

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

This man



If you want real i pick Hannibal

 

[meece]

Nobody mentioned Gustavus Adolphus? Shame on you all!

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Gaius Marius.
Was one of the few to become the 'First Man in Rome' - basically, the most powerful man alive.

Captcha: scroggs elated
Who in S?atans name is Scroggs, and why is he elated?

 

[RazaxWoot]

Churchill, 'nuff said

 

[Kortney]

Church Hill. Man who won ww2

Churchill, 'nuff said

Churchill was a politician during World War II. In World War 1 as an Admiral he fucked up nearly everything he touched. His awful ability to adapt to change during the Dardanelles campaign lead to him being stripped of his position and put on the front lines, and to thousands upon thousands of needless deaths. He also poorly mapped the Middle East and was responsible for a huge portion of conflict there. The man had great spirit and created moral during World War 2, but that's about it.

 

[Flig]

Shaka Zulu.


Conquering that much of Africa couldn't have been easy. Though I have no learning in this area, so I don't know.

 

[warprincenataku]

Alexander the Great for his massive expanding empire.

Ghenghis Khan for uniting the once independent tribes and taking over most of the Asian continent.

Hitler for almost taking over the world through both military might and his ability as an orator.

 

[Whoatemysupper]

My personal top 3 is
3. Aleksandr Suvorov for reforming Russia's military.
2. Alexander the Great for taking over the known world (died a bit too young).
1. Genghis Khan for creating history's largest empire.
All the leaders on my list never lost a battle.

 

[Mace Tulio]

al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baibars al-Bunduqdari.

First general to achieve a decisive military victory over the Mongols, successfully captured the Crusader held cities of Arsuf, Athlith, Haifa, Safad, Jaffa, Ashkalon, Caesarea and Antioch.

He basically single handedly expelled the crusaders from the 'holy land', as well as repelling the Golden Horde.