Why have so many successful leaders commit such idiotic mistakes?
Octavian August
>lets send legions to forests, they will surely win
Hannibal
>who cares about one small city?
Ceasar
>who would even dare to assassinate me?
Richard III
>why should we wait for my vassals?
Napoleon
>lets invade Russia
Hitler
>lets invade Russia again
because the human finickiness on their faults
if they were not great they would not have had the chance to make such idiotic mistakes
and so forth
>>837927
>why are humans fallible?
>>837927
Napoleon
>Let's fight the british while we're being unprepared
>>837927
Everyone of those decisions were a gamble.
Bad mistakes were like this:
Barbarossa
>>Its a nice day for a swim
>le russia is unbeatable meme
>>838038
But it even beat the Soviet Union!
>>837967
The British were not the cause of Napoleon's downfall, and fighting them unprepared was never a problem (unless some Prussians were nearby)
>>838038
Russia is easily beatable, provided you don't invade their homeland
>hurr durr im gonna form my own political party rather than reform the establishment party im a member of
>>837927
>Ceasar
>>who would even dare to assassinate me?
He literally knew he had enemies who wanted to kill him. he was a week or 2 away from leaving on another campaign to leave the city for the safety of his loyal legions and their camps.
nice hindsight, OP.
>>838071
They did exactly that in the Crimean War
>>837927
>muh Napoleon lost cus he invaded russia :D:D
Thanks public education.
Napoleon's forces BTFO Russia and took Moscow. However, the Russians took on a scorched earth policy and thus burned all the crops. Not only did thousands of Russians starve from this, but the French were forced to retreat as well.
If the Germans didn't split their forces, they could have easily taken Moscow or drained the Red Army's oil via the Caucasus.
This "Russia is impossible to invade" is a total meme. The Mongols, Sweden, and even fucking Poland had their way with Russia countless times. /his/ needs to stop acting like an American classroom.
>>837927
The issue with losing the legions in Germania to ambush wasn't Augustus' fault, you dolt.
>>837927
>Octavian August
>>lets send legions to forests, they will surely win
What the fuck do you think Gaul was? What about the Marcomannic wars?
Germanicus, Marcus Aurelius and Caesar himself fucked the Germans up real well on their home turf. The destruction of the legions by Arminius was a combination of Pubilius Quinctilius Varrus' incompetence, the deception of Arminius, a roman-raised soldier chieftan who worked with the Romans for over 20 years without incident, and guerrilla warfare.
>Hannibal
>>who cares about one small city?
It wasn't his lack of care towards Rome herself, it was the fact he couldn't seize the opportunity due to fighting guerilla warfare while his Carthaginian cucks back home not supporting him with funds or troops that he needed.
>Ceasar
>>who would even dare to assassinate me?
He couldn't appear as a tyrant, so he got rid of the whole armed bodyguard thing. There's also evidence to suggest his epilepsy was fucking him up a bit. Clemency was a great virtue of Caesar, and it's only with hindsight that we see Augustus' Sulla-like destruction of his political enemies would work.
>>837927
Hubris.
>>837927
>Hannibal
>"who cares about one small city?"
What the fuck are you babbling about you gigantic mongoloid. He was literally beating Roman armies in Italy without a single loss during his campaign in the war for over 18 years despite his army being drained via attrition. The Carthaginian senate and noble families wanted to wash their hands of any implication in the war if Hannibal lost so they frequently intentionally dragged out sending reinforcements, supplies, and money to Hannibal forcing him to use his household's own coffers to keep fighting Rome.
That isn't his fault.
Why not mention the leader that never made a mistake? Slow and steady wins the race.
>>839401
Not exterminating poor Mithridates was a mistake...
>>839535
He had no choice, he had to save Rome. Though now that you mention exterminations and whatnot, not exterminating Pompey was a pretty big mistake.
>>837927
most of these leaders were trying something that had never been done before, in hindsight it is easy to judge, but at the time they had no way of knowing what would happen
>>839401
His mistake was in thinking that reforms made at the point of a sword would fix the problems that allowed him to make reforms from the point of a sword. He wasn't around to see the failure, though.
>>839854
It's too much to expect tards to see reason.
>>838751
>Russian Empire
>taking Moscow
>victory
Moscow was not even a capital back then
>Germany
>defeating USSR
You can't defeat Russia in 4 months. And Wehrmacht was unprepared for winter war
>>838869
Hannibal could conquer the city of Rome and win the war, since Romans were not prepared for defensive siege. That is what I was 'babbling about'
>>838856
>guerilla warfare
>against Hannibal
He actually had half of Italy on his side. He could have won if he attacked city of Rome, but he decided to wait for Roman surrender which never came
>>840555
>Hannibal a shit
Marry me please, so many people don't know this.