Re: Gustavus Adolphus the Great
I may be out on a limb here, but I don't feel a commander should be judged by his victories and defeats as much as how he handled the circumstances given to him. With the rather large scale of variables involved in a military encounter, I think that being 'undefeated' is as much luck as skill.
Take, for example, the American Civil War. The Confederacy had some brilliant generals, but those that survived the war were doomed to failure due to circumstances beyond their control. Robert E. Lee was a phenomenal strategist and his right hand man, Thomas Jackson, was actually undefeated IIRC, due to being killed at Chancellorsville. Give those men a set-piece battle and they would win it, sometimes even at incredible odds. However, attrition could neither be divided nor conquered.
In the same light, Germany in the Second World War is widely regarded as having the fielded the best commanders of the war. They pulled off some striking victories, and held off incredible odds - but political failures(Hitler's ineptitude) put overall victory just out of reach.
Are we then to believe that Monty was a better general than Rommel, Grant more adept than Lee, or Patton(undefeated IIRC) superior to Von Manstein?
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