Priory_of_Sion Posted December 6, 2017 Report Share Posted December 6, 2017 Someone took sabermetrics and applied it to generals and their success at warfare. Napoleon is currently the most successful by far with Caesar being a distant 2nd. The author left out a good deal of the Mongols conquests, so hopefully the data gets updated soon. Zhukov seems to be the best modern general in the data set. Unsurprisingly, Robert E. Lee, Patton, and Rommel are all vastly overrated. Here's a link to a visualization https://ethanarsht.github.io/military_rankings/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 Note that it only measures tactical acumen, not strategic planning. One good reason to question this application of sabermetrics is something every freshman military history student should know: The best generals win without fighting whenever possible. Yet, because SM assumes that war is like baseball (with a set number of games), rather than like, well, war, it penalizes many generals for the battles they won without fighting. Alexander, for example, was absolutely notorious for this, and so he likely deserves to be ranked higher than Napoleon. But I suppose you could argue that's stategy, not tactics. Priory_of_Sion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donward Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 As noted elsewhere, I'm not a big fan of sabremetrics simply because it cannot measure intangibles. If it doesn't pass the eyeball test, then something is flawed with the metric. Example: When Robert E. Lee is considered to be a worse general than his Confederate counterpart Sterling Price, something has gone haywire with the algorithm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priory_of_Sion Posted December 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 Pretty sure if you double the amount of battles Price fought in, then he'd be ranked behind Lee who has about twice as much battles. As Sturg points out, the major problem with this is the number of battles thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 So, given that, what would a reasonable quantitative metric for the strategic effectiveness of generals be? Oh, and please word your explanation in such a way that someone who is largely ignorant of sabermetrics can understand it, but also in such a way that it loses no technical precision so I don't walk away with any dumb misconceptions, because if I do acquire any of those I'll blame you. Also, make your explanation so compelling that I immediately start using it myself without crediting you and even begin to think of your idea as my own as I instinctively act on the programming you put in my head. (I'm trying to train you to be a killer lobbyist) Sturgeon and AdmiralTheisman 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturgeon Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 4 hours ago, Collimatrix said: So, given that, what would a reasonable quantitative metric for the strategic effectiveness of generals be? Taylor Knock-Out Index, obviously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xlucine Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 Would WAR-per battle be useful, for tactical assessment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donward Posted December 7, 2017 Report Share Posted December 7, 2017 7 hours ago, Collimatrix said: So, given that, what would a reasonable quantitative metric for the strategic effectiveness of generals be? Oh, and please word your explanation in such a way that someone who is largely ignorant of sabermetrics can understand it, but also in such a way that it loses no technical precision so I don't walk away with any dumb misconceptions, because if I do acquire any of those I'll blame you. Also, make your explanation so compelling that I immediately start using it myself without crediting you and even begin to think of your idea as my own as I instinctively act on the programming you put in my head. (I'm trying to train you to be a killer lobbyist) Phrenology. Why else do villains in movies have rooms full of the marble busts of famous generals? Priory_of_Sion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogensthegreat Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 On 12/7/2017 at 4:05 AM, Collimatrix said: So, given that, what would a reasonable quantitative metric for the strategic effectiveness of generals be? Oh, and please word your explanation in such a way that someone who is largely ignorant of sabermetrics can understand it, but also in such a way that it loses no technical precision so I don't walk away with any dumb misconceptions, because if I do acquire any of those I'll blame you. Also, make your explanation so compelling that I immediately start using it myself without crediting you and even begin to think of your idea as my own as I instinctively act on the programming you put in my head. (I'm trying to train you to be a killer lobbyist) Net value of all resources which the general did in damage to the enemy or kept the enemy from acquiring, minus total of all expenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect Posted January 4, 2018 Report Share Posted January 4, 2018 On 12/7/2017 at 5:05 AM, Collimatrix said: So, given that, what would a reasonable quantitative metric for the strategic effectiveness of generals be? Oh, and please word your explanation in such a way that someone who is largely ignorant of sabermetrics can understand it, but also in such a way that it loses no technical precision so I don't walk away with any dumb misconceptions, because if I do acquire any of those I'll blame you. Also, make your explanation so compelling that I immediately start using it myself without crediting you and even begin to think of your idea as my own as I instinctively act on the programming you put in my head. (I'm trying to train you to be a killer lobbyist) How often are the generals quoted in the Call of Duty franchise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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