Who is your favourite military leader

[vlad06]

Scipio Africanus does it for me.

[Alexanderos]

Another good one , he managed to conquer Carthage , and he even defeated Hannibal at Zama. But still , he haid like 4 legions that helped him , Hannibal had only big one army , mostly mercenaries and he didn't receive any help from his country. Lol , i rememberd a speech scene from rtw : ''The enemy stands here alone ! No man has come here to die for them ! Does that not say something about their honour ?! Their standing among nations!?

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Napoleon is my favorite because I had lots of relatives fighting for him, not to mention one of my relatives was the commander of the army of engineers (responsible for building and destroying structures) He was an Aide de camp for Napoleon and commanded his own troops IV Corps. He was the one who saved the french forces at the battle of Leipzig. . I also like Hannibal, Cyrus, Shapur, Robert E Lee, and of course Vercingetorix.

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Well , my favourite would be Alexander The Great of Macedon . I think i fell in love with the Greek intro from Rome:TW . ''The greeks could rule the world. Alexander did. He took a greek army to the far hindus. There was nothing left to conquer. ''

Don't like Alexander because he conquered a great empire , he was a great conqueror though. Also its Indus river.

Alexanders personal life makes me like him less then other leaders. He was also you know an egotistical maniac

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Outside of that time frame:

Erwin Rommel
George S. Patton
Bernard Montgomery
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Napoleon Bonaparte
Frederick I Barbarossa

Erwin Rommel is a little overrated to me but he definitely was skilled.
Got to love Patton but never liked Montgomery very much.

[Nosjack]

Erwin Rommel is a little overrated to me but he definitely was skilled.

Considering he was a middle class man who rose up the ranks despite a lack of a proper military education I think he did quite well.

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Considering he was a middle class man who rose up the ranks despite a lack of a proper military education I think he did quite well.

He is definitely my favorite German commander of ww2 because his afrika corps were some of the most human and were never accused of war crimes (thats a feat worth noting)

I only say that because he lost normandy (but a lot of that wasn't his fault)

[anycolourfloyd]

Don't like Alexander because he conquered a great empire , he was a great conqueror though. Also its Indus river.

Alexanders personal life makes me like him less then other leaders. He was also you know an egotistical maniac

i think that probably describes the majority of history's great conquerors. was napoleon a pillar of humility? off the top of my head, i think i've heard the term megalomaniac attached more to him than any other name in history..

[Alexanderos]

Don't like Alexander because he conquered a great empire , he was a great conqueror though. Also its Indus river.

Alexanders personal life makes me like him less then other leaders. He was also you know an egotistical maniac

Maniac you say ? Well , take a an army of 40.000 phalangites some archers and cavlry , fight hordes of about quarter million of Persians , and we'll see who is a maniac then .

The army
Alexander inherited a well-trained army from his father and trained them even further. Perhaps surprisingly, the size of his army never went over 40,000. What Alexander did value and perhaps what kept his army smaller, was the mobility and speed gave military advantage.
Army pay was meager but was paid promptly. However he ensured they were well-fed. Permitted booty was fair and significant -- thus his soldiers were well motivated to win battles.
He also worked hard in other ways to maintain the loyalty and motivation of his men. He generally dressed like his soldiers and spent time with them, and was often found walking through the camp, stopping to talk and listen to groups of men. This outward appearance of love and concern, allied with his courage and determination, evoked great affection from his soldiers.
He would also ruthlessly bribe, punish and kill. If soldiers betrayed him, he would have no qualms in making an example of them. He brutally put down internal dissent, executing even suspects, including his trusty old general, Parmenio.


http://changingminds.org/disciplines...nder_great.htm

[Vercingetorix The Great]

i think that probably describes the majority of history's great conquerors. was napoleon a pillar of humility? off the top of my head, i think i've heard the term megalomaniac attached more to him than any other name in history..

Napoleon did some great things like save the republic which became disorganized, after beating the Italians there was peace for 10 years (which the uk broke). He also spread democratic ideas throughout Europe (though he did it through conquest). He also got rid of laws against Jews (he was even promising to give Israel back to the Jews). He believed in religious freedom.

I will always look for the good though because I am french

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Maniac you say ? Well , take a an army of 40.000 phalangites some archers and cavlry , fight hordes of about quarter million of Persians , and we'll see who is a maniac then .

The army
Alexander inherited a well-trained army from his father and trained them even further. Perhaps surprisingly, the size of his army never went over 40,000. What Alexander did value and perhaps what kept his army smaller, was the mobility and speed gave military advantage.
Army pay was meager but was paid promptly. However he ensured they were well-fed. Permitted booty was fair and significant -- thus his soldiers were well motivated to win battles.
He also worked hard in other ways to maintain the loyalty and motivation of his men. He generally dressed like his soldiers and spent time with them, and was often found walking through the camp, stopping to talk and listen to groups of men. This outward appearance of love and concern, allied with his courage and determination, evoked great affection from his soldiers.
He would also ruthlessly bribe, punish and kill. If soldiers betrayed him, he would have no qualms in making an example of them. He brutally put down internal dissent, executing even suspects, including his trusty old general, Parmenio.


http://changingminds.org/disciplines...nder_great.htm

He became paranoid and killed his cousin. He became insane and thought himself a god.
He beat a dying empire (Cyrus conquered 3 empires). He constantly drank and that led to his death. He might have been involved with his fathers murder (who totally deserved to be killed). However a lot of his actions are similar to other conquerors so I am not saying he is the worst.

[AeacidesOfEpirus]

1) Pyrrhus Of Epirus
2) Alexander the Great
3) William the Conqueror

Pyrrhus will always be my fav he went through a bad childhood losing his kingdom before he was of age and having to live with those Illyians lol. Pyrrhus was like Alexander in many ways and i think he was better then Alexander in many ways. i dont want to be rude against alexander but he had to fight a bunch of slaves with almost no training and wicker shields lol. Pyrrhus had to fight the armys of carthage,Rome,Macedon and Greek all armys gone down in history as the best warriors in the world.

He Beat Carthage in many battles but sadly lost at Lilybaeum, he beat Rome in a few battles but sadly lost once again no thanks to the Tarentum who was ment to give him more troops. he beat Macedon and eithen made an entire army mutiny against there leader so they could join him just because he went up to there camp put his helmet on and booyaa he owns another army ... and as we all should know he fought against the greeks like sparta but sadly died at Argos

For Me Pyrrhus was and always will be the greatest king and warrior in the world

[Alexanderos]

Alexander died due to an injury , that led to a disease from the infection. I believe he had a right to call himself a god , because he ruled 1/4 of the known world at that time.

[Vercingetorix The Great]

Alexander died due to an injury , that led to a disease from the infection. I believe he had a right to call himself a god , because he ruled 1/4 of the known world at that time.

But he was weakened by constant drinking which helped do him in. So is Genghis Khan Super God? Land mass really doesn't matter to me.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

i think if you kill like 250000 people you have a right to go a little crazy

[Vercingetorix The Great]

true true
Napoleon killed over a million so he is allowed to go super crazy

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

exactly
im not saying they did good things but they had a right to go crazy

[anycolourfloyd]

Napoleon did some great things like save the republic which became disorganized, after beating the Italians there was peace for 10 years (which the uk broke). He also spread democratic ideas throughout Europe (though he did it through conquest). He also got rid of laws against Jews (he was even promising to give Israel back to the Jews). He believed in religious freedom.

I will always look for the good though because I am french

haha yeah i kinda figured you were french..

i was just commenting on napoleon's personality, not his deeds, since you said you didn't like alexander because of his ego.

some people would argue that being crazy is the cause of killing over a million people, not the symptom..

certainly i think psychologists would have a lot to say about almost all of the famous leaders.

genghis khan is an interesting case.. and imagine if ogedai hadn't died and tsubotai recalled from the far west..

[Vercingetorix The Great]

haha yeah i kinda figured you were french..

i was just commenting on napoleon's personality, not his deeds, since you said you didn't like alexander because of his ego.

some people would argue that being crazy is the cause of killing over a million people, not the symptom..

certainly i think psychologists would have a lot to say about almost all of the famous leaders.

genghis khan is an interesting case.. and imagine if ogedai hadn't died and tsubotai recalled from the far west..

Man Genghis had some problems. However I never liked Genghis he never striked me as a GREAT military commander. Always seemed like he had a number advantage (but if you could provide me with some battles thatd be great).

Just like every other human being leaders have problems too, there is no perfect leader.

But don't take the Alexander hate seriously I'm just mad because my favorite king of ancient times was Cyrus and Alexander destroyed what he built.

Also French American born in the deep south...

[Thrillology]

1. Erwin Rommel (D-Day moral victor)
2. Dwight Eisenhower (Okay, he could have done much better on D-Day, and just bombard the Germans with allied ships before sending in land troops)
3. Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
4. Colonel Hal Moore (Vietnam War, 7th Cavalry)
5. Nguyễn Hữu An (Leader of the Vietcong who fought Hal Moore at Ia Drang Valley, Chu Pong Massif, "X-Ray" zones)
My favorite warrior:
1. U.S Armed Forces
2. Medieval Nobles (Had even their servants fight at their side)
3. Ming Warrior (They used guns in the 13th century!)
4. Murmillo Gladiator (The most famous type of Gladiator)

For Rome...
Julius Caesar
Pyrrhus of Epirus
Then...
Roman Legionnaire
Equites (Roman Nobles, kinda like a Knight but Roman)