Greatest comanders of the ancient and medieval world

[Antonis]

What Siaerra said. Much of their tactics and strategic skills was passed on to them, they were moulded by those armies. I mean, without the Macedonian phalanx and all the recent changes in the army and state by Phillip II, Alexander couldn't be the conqueror he was at that particular time and place. Much like that, Genghis would be just a smelly warlord if there weren't the hundreds of years of horse-archers, their tactis and so on. Sure, personality-wise, we could compare them and they were undoubtedly great individuals and minds(to do all the things they done), but without their respective armies, what's the point of comparing them as military commanders?

Now, Nike, I relly understand what you are saying and you are right, from a point of view. But keep in mind that we are not comparing them Deadliest Warrior style(God forbid, we don't have the substantial amount of pig carcasses for that purpose), but instead take each commander(and army, of course) seperately and then we are trying to "flatten" the differences and adjust them to a point that they would be comparable(excuse my silly use of English). For instance, a couple of posts back, we tried to use the Scythian or Parthian horse archers as a medium tp resemble the Mongols and "pit" them into battle with Alexander. Yes, armchair discussion material, but we couldn't compare any personailities from different eras otherwise.

 

[NikeBG]

but without their respective armies, what's the point of comparing them as military commanders?

As I said, with their respective armies, you're not comparing them so much as military commanders, but as the armies themselves (with the military commanders in the background). What makes a commander a good commander is not his army (although, yes, he can't be a good commander without a good army, obviously). A good commander takes whatever army he has and does deeds greater than previously deemed possible with them. Yes, if Alexander or Genghis had taken a bunch of cavemen, instead of their actual armies, they wouldn't have "conquered the world", but IMO conquering the world isn't what really makes a great commander great - it's the amount of progress he's made from his starting position to his final one. Otherwise, the best commanders in history would, of course, be the modern ones, because their armies are obviously better than anything previously seen.

 

[Bluehawk]

If Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan were displaced through time and given command of ten thousand cavemen each, who could adapt to their new cultural and geographic surroundings the quickest, organize their force, and destroy their opponent?

 

[Antonis]

I would still say Genghis, since he was more hardened and less accustomed to niceties.

 

[NikeBG]

Hmm, that would work as an example, yes. And for further simplicity's sake, we can have the cavemen be Greek and Mongol respectively, so they speak the same language etc.

 

[Antonis]

That example would also pose some interesting questions, like which one would be the best to control and command an army of cavemen and such.

 

[RalliX]

In such terms, definitely Genghis.
While both of them were excellent commanders, it was Alexander's father, not himself, who built the Macedonian kingdom's army.
Genghis built his army nearly from the ground up, and thus would have more experience in this.

 

[Captured Joe]

 

[matmohair1]

 

[Kharille]

Why don't we expand this to greatest commanders of the ancient, medieval and contemporary world?  I guess since they're centuries apart its hard to do a proper comparison. 

Oh and what about Napoleon?  What can he do without his artillery?

 

[Antonis]

Well, the topic says ancient and medieval world. Napoleon hardly qualifies for either, so we would be way off topic. But, yeah, the title doesn't limit the selection into only two, so a great discussion could spark here.

 

[nikosierra125]

A commander is the brain, the army the body, the brain controls the body and both achieve great deeds, a body with out a brain is jut a useless lump, a brain without a body is just a big goo floating in a jar.

(I have not slept much today so in my head this makes much sense)