Greatest Generals Ever

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Been kicking this around in my head and with some friends, wanted to see what you history/military buffs thought. Pick your top 5 generals EVER.

Here are my picks:
1. Genghis Khan. No surprise why.
2. Alexander the Great. Again, pretty obvious why.
3. Julius Caesar. Yeah, still no surprises.
4. Napoleon Bonaparte. Other than disaster in Russia, it should be obvious why here too.
5. Gustavus Adolphus. Probably the only 'surprise' on the list, he pretty much invented modern warfare and made Sweden relevant, if only briefly.

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

hannibal might want to be put on there, but... you could also argue that while he was a total sicko in the field, he ultimately failed to realize his goals. That doesn't change how much he owned the romans during the second punic war though

 

[Crashk]

George Washington

Erwin Rommel

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov

Stonewall Jackson

Eisenhower

and one of my very favorites....

Zulu warrior Ntshingwayo kaMahole had an immensely successful battle against Britain where a whole battalion of modern British infantry are wiped out by guys carrying spears, clubs and shields at the battle of Isandlwana in 1879.”


Most learned their art from.... Art of War which is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sun Wu" and "Sunzi"),[1] a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician.

 

[/MSG/]

hannibal might want to be put on there, but... you could also argue that while he was a total sicko in the field, he ultimately failed to realize his goals. That doesn't change how much he owned the romans during the second punic war though

He'd go on my top 20, because he was a genius, but if Scipio didn't make the cut Hannibal wasn't going to.

 

[/MSG/]

George Washington

Erwin Rommel

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov

Stonewall Jackson

Eisenhower

and one of my very favorites....

Zulu warrior Ntshingwayo kaMahole had an immensely successful battle against Britain where a whole battalion of modern British infantry are wiped out by guys carrying spears, clubs and shields at the battle of Isandlwana in 1879.”


Most learned their art from.... Art of War which is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sun Wu" and "Sunzi"),[1] a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician.

You certainly have some interesting choices. Washington, as a general at least, was pretty shitty.

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

Yeah I recently heard that washington was actually really clueless a lot of times and a lot of his genius has been the result of american mythology. I don't know how accurate that is though, or if it's just another pattern of people trying to deconstruct our heros.

 

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Legion, you're banned from this thread.

 

[/MSG/]

Yeah I recently heard that washington was actually really clueless a lot of times and a lot of his genius has been the result of american mythology. I don't know how accurate that is though, or if it's just another pattern of people trying to deconstruct our heros.

It's pretty accurate. He wasn't especially talented as a military commander. Now, as a leader, he was exceptionally gifted. But this is greatest generals, not greatest men.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

George Washington

Erwin Rommel

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov

Stonewall Jackson

Eisenhower

and one of my very favorites....

Zulu warrior Ntshingwayo kaMahole had an immensely successful battle against Britain where a whole battalion of modern British infantry are wiped out by guys carrying spears, clubs and shields at the battle of Isandlwana in 1879.”


Most learned their art from.... Art of War which is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sun Wu" and "Sunzi"),[1] a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician.

Mao was into Art of War as well. However, most these days would say that Art of War was just a compendium of well known military wisdom from various authors, and that Sunzi was a legendary figure.

The Pinyin Sunzi is a better spelling than Wades-Giles Sun Tzu if you're just applying the rules of English orthography to get the pronunciation, the second syllable sounds nothing at all like "Zu". From a phonetic perspective, Tzu actually more truthfully represents whats going on, but Wades-Giles is a rational system in an irrational world, people never read its actual rules and prefer to just wing it, thus sounding like idiots. So you may as well just go with Pinyin.

As for Sun Wu, that was his actual name. -zi is a Chinese word that means "master", and people would often simply call him Sunzi or "Master Sun" as a recognition of his status. This was the same for a number of legendary philosophers from Ancient China's Warring state period, like Kongzi (which Jesuit missionaries latinized to "Confucius") and Laozi (Lao Tzu).

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

He'd go on my top 20, because he was a genius, but if Scipio didn't make the cut Hannibal wasn't going to.

Scipio did beat Hannibal once, but Hannibal had been forced to fight on unfavorable terms by Carthagian leaders when he would have preferred to use a different strategy. I can't remember the exact details, but I know it wasn't his idea.

 

[Cancel 2016.11]

I keep thinking you guys are talking about Hannibal, from the new series, you know, "Hannibal".

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

-_-

sorry darla, this is a thread for people that are experts on people that were experts on killing other people.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Hannibal was a serial killer, though, I think that counts.

 

[Cancel 2016.11]

-_-

sorry darla, this is a thread for people that are experts on people that were experts on killing other people.

Obviously you have never seen Hannibal! But I won't comment again, I didn't realize it was Billy's thread he probably forgot to ban me and I seriously don't want to be DY-level obnoxious. Carry on.

 

[Minister of Truth]

If we're going to include American generals, the two best were probably Patton and Winfield Scott.

 

[/MSG/]

Scipio did beat Hannibal once, but Hannibal had been forced to fight on unfavorable terms by Carthagian leaders when he would have preferred to use a different strategy. I can't remember the exact details, but I know it wasn't his idea.

I'm not down playing Hannibal's ability, but he kind of lucked out in Rome. The roman generals of the time weren't used to thinking so it was easy for Hannibal to beat them. Scipio, however, did beat him. Maybe not under the conditions Hannibal' wanted to fight under but if he didn't Scipio was going to sack Carthage and end the war anyways.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Obviously you have never seen Hannibal! But I won't comment again, I didn't realize it was Billy's thread he probably forgot to ban me and I seriously don't want to be DY-level obnoxious. Carry on.

too late

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Been kicking this around in my head and with some friends, wanted to see what you history/military buffs thought. Pick your top 5 generals EVER.

Here are my picks:
1. Genghis Khan. No surprise why.
2. Alexander the Great. Again, pretty obvious why.
3. Julius Caesar. Yeah, still no surprises.
4. Napoleon Bonaparte. Other than disaster in Russia, it should be obvious why here too.
5. Gustavus Adolphus II. Probably the only 'surprise' on the list, he pretty much invented modern warfare and made Sweden relevant, if only briefly.

ftfy

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Been kicking this around in my head and with some friends, wanted to see what you history/military buffs thought. Pick your top 5 generals EVER.

Here are my picks:
1. Genghis Khan. No surprise why.
2. Alexander the Great. Again, pretty obvious why.
3. Julius Caesar. Yeah, still no surprises.
4. Napoleon Bonaparte. Other than disaster in Russia, it should be obvious why here too.
5. Gustavus Adolphus. Probably the only 'surprise' on the list, he pretty much invented modern warfare and made Sweden relevant, if only briefly.

Just curious as I am more a novice, but was Kahn really a general? Because I just read a book on Subotai, who was considered Khan's top general (according to the book). Again, I am a novice, so give me some slack if that is not accurate.

 

[/MSG/]

Just curious as I am more a novice, but was Kahn really a general? Because I just read a book on Subotai, who was considered Khan's top general (according to the book). Again, I am a novice, so give me some slack if that is not accurate.

In that case, the line is blurred considerably. But in general (ha, pun), yes the Khan was a general.