For Want of a Nail

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Anyone given any thought to doing a scenario based on Robert Sobel's alternate history For Want of a Nail? Outside of North America, there aren't a lot of details, giving any potential modder a large degree of freedom. Any interest?

 

[KINGBEN]

What was the plot in that book?
Have you heard of "The Two Georges"?

 

[aprof]

What was the plot in that book?
Have you heard of "The Two Georges"?

Isn't that the book co-written by Richard Dreyfuss about George Washington and George III where America becomes a dominion of England?

 

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Isn't that the book co-written by Richard Dreyfuss about George Washington and George III where America becomes a dominion of England?

*g* The story in that book was so braindead... it was a stupid attempt to make a few dollars with a book that some no-name ghostwriter scribbled down in a week or so, and the publisher had Turtledove put his name put on the cover for better marketability. :wacko: Didn't like it one bit...

But here's what For Want of a Nail is about:

For Want of a Nail is an alternate history classic. The outcome of one battle in the American Revolution diverges from reality, and sparks an unstoppable chain of events which affects the history of the whole North American continent.

In reality, the British general John Burgoyne, heavily outnumbered by American troops, surrendered his army to General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, a major turning-point of the Revolution. Robert Sobel takes a step sideways and presents the alternative version: reinforcements arrive at Saratoga, Gates' men flee, and Burgoyne is victorious. Rather than openly allying itself with the American rebels, France withdraws its support, as does Spain, and the colonies surrender.

Those former rebels who refuse to live in the Confederation of North America established by the British leave their homes and settle in what becomes the United States of Mexico. From then on the two continental nations find themselves constant rivals, locked in military, political and economic conflict. Sobel provides a detailed, intricately documented insight into two warring powers that develop in such dramatically different ways from their shared origins.

http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheets/for_want_of_a_nail.htm

 

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Sobel wrote FWOAN as though it were describing a real world. It has fictitious source material written in said world, and is very detailed. We get excellent development of the histories of the CNA and USM. For more info, check out http://www.kebe.com/for-all-nails/