Alternate History Thread II...

[Symphony D.]

I'm sort of curious as to who you mean, as going through a listing of important Nazis, none of the others with last names with B seem all that impressive. A few euthanasia doctor scum, a major and a colonel here or there, some Generals who lost importance early in the war...

For the record, my choice of calling Bormann "pragmatic" was also something of sarcasm. It was more reflective of the fact he had the wisdom to see the end coming far in advance of when it did. Sort of like Beria forecasting the woes of the command economy. He certainly won't wind up in a bunker thinking the Wehrmacht will sweep out of the fog of war and crush the Allies in the last moment as Hitler did.

Who leads Nazi Germany is also of little importance to me, to be honest. Their demise is but a means to an end. I suppose I'll have to study the members of the GDR a bit more closely when it's over though. But the more interesting theater will be Japan, anyway...

 

[das]

I'm sort of curious as to who you mean, as going through a listing of important Nazis, none of the others with last names with B seem all that impressive.

I wasn't talking about the Nazis...

Beria

Spot on. He was shot as an English spy, though in truth it was because he had way too many enemies, especially in the last few days. Bormann, from what I recall, had similar problems.

He certainly won't wind up in a bunker thinking the Wehrmacht will sweep out of the fog of war and crush the Allies in the last moment as Hitler did.

With all due respect I find that particular urban legend somewhat doubtable... But, as you quite correctly pointed out, its not too important anyway as they're all doomed no matter who leads them by then.

 

[das]

Btw, despite the distraction caused by me FINALLY acquiring GalCiv2, my work on my own althist is finally resumed (well, in a way I always am working on it, but I mean the actual writing more than two-three words thing). As a teaser, Barbarossa (well, one of them anyway...) will be avenged.

 

[Azale]

Is this the WW2-althistory...that me and stormy were thinking of taking? Or one you have specially reserved for yourself? Sometimes the althistories you make get confused in my head

 

[jalapeno_dude]

No, this one is the Hundred Years War one.

 

[das]

The Hundred Years War one, ofcourse, the Kerensky one is already finished and only needs stats and map.

 

[Azale]

Excellemundo, Ill pressure for those later. Not now. Thats not like me to pressure for things. Even if I do want them as soon as possible, I will not pressure for them. I refuse.

 

[Azale]

scratch that request, das, all I need from you is 1 thing. Think 1860...what cities would be deemed EC's in 1860? I need it for my upcoming NES, which I have finally found the stat source for!

 

[das]

It'll be faster for me to add them to a map, really.

 

[Azale]

you know the map I think...its the one from grandmasters preview thread. It has some touching up to be done to it, but its serviceable.

Uploaded to here: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads11/1860_map_final.png

 

[Symphony D.]

Three words: old map; eww.

 

[das]

Agree with the above. I demand a modernization!

 

[Azale]

Dont ask me to do it, Ive tried only to fail miserably. For now this will do until someone wants to renovate it.

Just give me the EC's already

 

[Symphony D.]

Something I'd read about awhile ago has fairly recently reinfiltrated my conscious thought processes, and I thought I'd share. Although alternate geography has been explored before in some limited detail, and maps other than Earth have been produced on a fair number of occasions, they've always posited a vaguely Earth-like environment. A lot of other possibilities for a world, say a desert world like Arrakis or Kharak present themselves, among various other types, but something I find particularly interesting is if you play with the planet's tilt enough.

It produces some strange results. Most notably, an equatorial ice-belt, instead of polar ice-caps. In particular, the poles become blazingly hot in summer, and pretty frigid in winter, retaining their regular half-a-year cycles. In general, the only place really habitable all year round would be near the equator; near the ice.

Said ice would also form basically a wall dividing the planet in half, and generally make it rather quite difficult to get from one side to the other. Indeed, your given civilization on one side would probably wind up with an interesting world view in which the world's a flat disc surrounded by a wall of ice, and the center is burning hot or freezing, with the stars in a dome above... sounds all vaguely Nordic. The other side, if ever found, would be a "new world" indeed.

Anyway, the interesting part of this is that not only would you wind up with a particularly unique geography, but as a result of the seperation, depending on how long you postulate the belt to last (and at what levels of impenetrability, etc.) it could be entirely possible that two totally seperate evolutionary paths occur on either side. In fact, if you extrapolate that out some, it would be well within reason for two totally seperate sentient species could arise on either side, or one could transit and diverge wildly...

It's just a thought, but it's rather more interesting idea to play on that your average given "random map" instead of Earth, since it represents an environment that, while similar, is in many ways rather alien. The effects can also be greatly played with based on what status the continents are in at the time, how much water is on the planet's surface, and so forth. Playing with the orbital distance, as the article points out, can also lead to interesting worlds in which there is hardly any ice at all anywhere, but the planet as a whole is much darker. Some interesting combinations could no doubt be found by someone willing to tinker.

In other news, yes I am working on Chapter II. No, it will not be up for a few days, probably.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Sounds cool Sym.

 

[Harleqin]

Sounds very fascinating, but pray tell.... what is the world Kharak? I know Arrakis, but the other is new to me.

Hmm.... a Norse Myth NES :drools:

 

[Symphony D.]

It was the starting point of one of the best games ever.

 

[das]

Nice idea. Not sure if this applies, but Lukyanenko (hopefully Gelion will visit this thread now, btw) had a planet with ******** naval development until the Industrial Age, due to it being too close to the center of the galaxy and thus having way too many stars (or somesuch - I read that book a few months ago, and can't find it right now). Also the two continents were so far away that two different lifeforms evolved (though one of them was genocided with biological weapons upon discovery...).

Btw, as for tilting the globe, there was a nice site somewhere about that, but I can't find it anywhere.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Kharak, adopted homeworld of the Kushan.

OF HOMEWORLD!

 

[das]

Btw, here's another interesting SF world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraksh

Still working on my althist, but now that I already finished writing about Albrecht IV's last years, things begun going faster.