Aeropulp

[Krensky]

Then, if the U.S. of A never came to be, because of the Secession actually taking place, there's no need to worry about Mexico "wanting it back". The "Texas range" could have actually become a full-fledge nation that was strong enough to fend of any serious threat to their nation, and Mexico's War of Reforma (first among ourselves and the against the French) was all we really needed to bang that final nail on the Texas coffin, as we concentrated on not loosing any more territory and try to establish any semblance of organized governement. So, my suggested Texan Free League would really have no problems from reclaimers.

Um.. Do you mean that we stayed part of Britain, or that the Confederates won the US Civil War? The first is a far higher order probability.

The fact that there is no social pressure or historical inertia to lead upto WWII, does not mean chaos due to greed and the fighting for control over the Amazon basin isn't brewing it, if slightly off-center.

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting to maintain some of those social and geopolitical tensions, without setting the world up for WWII. Smaller, more limited conflicts, but no great multi-party World War. Party of this involves nipping the Austrian nutjob in the bud, either by having him die in the Great War (there are numerous places), or by having him not be gassed (a possibility, but no one's really sure how much the mustard gas and conversion disorder screwed him up, although Hitler did say this is where his messianic delusions started. Without him and with the Great War dragging out another ten years, WWII drops to a much lower probability.

Removing Stalin was my main goal in Russia. Originally I considered having Lenin's Testament not get suppressed, leading the Soviet Congress to oust Stalin and stick Trotsky in, but the Testament wasn't too nice to him either. So I I looked for break points before that. I considered having him killed in Petrograd, but then I stumbled upon him smuggling Lenin out of Russia ahead of Kerensky's men laying siege to the Bolshevik party headquarters, and how he saved the core and large chunk of the Moscow Bolshevik party by having them surrender. So I flipped that. Lenin was too late, and was trapped with Stalin and the party. They refuse to surrender, and the Russian Republic forces kill them and the core of the party. This leaves Kerensky firmly in charge of the Russian Republic.

It's not that I wanted the Communists gone, so much as I wanted Stalin gone, and these tweaks make a nice large divergence to play what if with, in addition to maintaining Russia as a revisionist state, but without dealing with a Red scare or any of that bullshit.

[MilitiaJim]

I'm in favor of anything that kills the Bolshies, reds, commies, or other name for the moral half wits.

How would you focus the waste heat from a capacitor discharge into a semi coherent beam?  I know lightning bolts don't follow the straightest path, but is it close enough to an aimpoint to represent a credible threat of hitting your target?

[Txabier_Arrizotegui]

A heat beam could be the resulat of the ripple current's waste heat being concentrated in a ceramic chamber and released through heat-resistant glass pipes... Kind of superheated plasma, but not getting there in terms of heat. You just build a glass cannon that can take the heat, aim and unleash hell's breath.

The lightning aim techno-feat can be worked out by simply determining the size of the gun and its target, the motion factor (a heated dogfight between aces is the highest, hitting a "sitting duck" the lowest)  and that's about it. Thin is, the bigger your gun, the farther its "cohesive" reach and the bigger the size of the bolt, thus increasing your chance to hit your target...

Me thinks.

[MilitiaJim]

What would a Tesla bolt do to a plane?  The electricity could set off a rocket's warhead, but since planes of the 30's aren't full of electronics, I think they could survive without serious damage.  The biggest risk would be setting the fuel aflame if the aircraft is leaking.  Comments?

[Wolverine]

You could potentially do some major damage if you managed to hit an airplane's engine, or the pilot. Consider it the vehicular version of a head shot :p

An alternate to the tesla cannon could be a metallic harpoon connected to a steel wire. Once the harpoon hits its target an electrical charge is sent over the wire to the target. Perhaps a little cumbersome for use with aircraft, but it would be effective and make sure you knew where the charge was going.

[MilitiaJim]

That's way too boring, but it might work anyway.  I'm seeing three cables:  Two for the electricity, and one load bearing to retrieve the harpoon.  That would be a system for larger aircraft and zepplins, I would think.

[foproy]

for teh harpoon, its only boring till they players get a hold of it.

[Wolverine]

It would certainly be easier to use on slower moving vehicles, but it would still be interesting, as well as a particularly nasty way for a zepplin to repel boarders.

[MilitiaJim]

a zepplin to repel boarders.

Heck with repel.  Zark the attackers, reel them in, beat them down and take their planes.

[Mister Andersen]

On a tangent: the topic of Elseworlds (DC's answer to Marvel's "What If?" alt-continuity series) came up the other day, and the fact that Wonder woman has virtually none and pretty much all of them suck (the only decent one being the Justice Riders western, and even then she arguably gets gypped). One of the ideas for an WW Elseworlds was to have her rock up during WWI and intervene in Russia on the basis that the Gods realised just how pivotal that country was to the general toll of suck and death that was the 20th Century.

So imagine a Revolution that doesn't result in a path to power for Stalin because it happens at some point prior to 1914 along egalitarian socialist lines instead of the usual violent Marxist ones. Russia is thus too busy with its internal social transition to concentrate on aggitating in the Balkins as the Ottoman Empire collapses in order to preserve it's external regional influence (one of the things that got the Serbians all riled up).

Imagine Europe having just seen the Romanovs booted out of power basically for having been incompetent autocratic bastards without 3 years of devastating war providing a semblance of an excuse.

At this stage, Bismarck's gone and Wilhelm is running things in Germany. As someone not only convinced of his own divine right to rule an empire barely decades old but related to the now defunct Romanovs he has to be tremendously alarmed by this turn of events.

France, already a revolutionary republic, are probably going to be quite pleased by this turn of events befalling their ally state. However, what if Russia tells them they will not support France unless that country is invaded, thus kyboshing attempts to win back Alsaice-Loraine?

The Irish will also likely be quite chuffed about this, which is probably going to result in the UK feeling something akin to Germany's alarm as a closely related monarchy loses power and the bounds of social class are shattered.

The UK

[MilitiaJim]

When did lasers come about?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517809,00.html

Is that something a mad scientist could whip up?What would replace the Romanovs in Russia if the Bolsheviks die?

Assuming that the war peters out in the mid 1920s, by the 30s there are gov't sponsored companies working in South America, shifting their zepplins over the jungle, and commerce raiding their opponents?

[Krensky]

When did lasers come about?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517809,00.html

Is that something a mad scientist could whip up?

Well, the principles behind a MASER was described by two Soviet scientists in the middle fifties, and some guys at Columbia unaware of their work built a MASER about the same time.  Optical MASERS (aka LASERS) weren't around until the 1960s. The described device is a hybrid MASER/LASER. The lightning thing they mentioned earlier is more commonly called an electrolaser.

Tesla was mucking around with particle beam weapons in the 1930s though.

What would replace the Romanovs in Russia if the Bolsheviks die?

If you have the February Revolution occur, but for whatever reason, the October Revolution doesn'ty occur, then Kerensky and the Provisional Government would be in charge, and without the Bolsheviks, would probably look something like Finland. The Provisional Government were social democrats, progressives, and constitutional democrats. It's also worth noting that without the October Revolution, Finland might still be part of the Russian Empire.

If you have no 1917 Revolution at all, the Tsar is still in charge.

[MilitiaJim]

If you have the February Revolution occur, but for whatever reason, the October Revolution doesn'ty occur, then Kerensky and the Provisional Government would be in charge, and without the Bolsheviks, would probably look something like Finland. The Provisional Government were social democrats, progressives, and constitutional democrats. It's also worth noting that without the October Revolution, Finland might still be part of the Russian Empire.

This I like.  Theories on what would become of the aristocracy following the departure of the imperial family?  Wasn't it the Bolsheviks who killed them?  If the Czar had been forced to abdicate, would there have been a more peaceful transition, or would you still end up with a French Revolution scenario of the gentry that didn't flee being massacred?

[MilitiaJim]

According to Wikipedia, the theory for MASERs originated with Albert Einstein in 1917.  I think that would put MASER guided Tesla blasters firmly in mad science territory in the 30s.

[MilitiaJim]

Ok, so Wikipedia has all kinds of info.  Assuming what it has is accurate, I propose the following timeline for our alternate history:

1914: 
WWI Starts
1915:
War Drags On
  Gallipoli
1916:
  Western front stalemated.
  Neutrality becomes the official policy of the US.  Belligerents may purchase, but warships are not allowed in territorial waters.  US Flag carriers prohibited from carrying war materiel or sailing to ports controlled by belligerent countries.
1917:
  Submarine warfare in the Atlantic grows, French cease offensive operations.
  February, Provisional Government gains power.
  March-September, Russian army retreats east to fortified positions that are prepared for winter.
  October, Lenin and Trotsky assassinated in Petrograd.
  November, Russian Civil War begins, Germany advances towards Petrograd and hit the defenses.
  December, Germans begin retreat, Reds suffer heavy losses to White and German forces, US send materiel and allows volunteers to assist the White forces.
1918:
  Western front stalmated, British experimenting with more outlandish land war machines.
  Zepplins make raids over Belligerent Capitols.
  Whites crush Red rebellion, withdraw from the War to continue their political scheming.  Peasants are ignored.That's it for now.  The North Sea fleets of Germany and Britain spent most of the war eyeballing each other rather than have real engagements.  Is there any pressing reason to change this?