I guess Kalle isn't a fan of Ghengis Khan either lololol.

I'm not going to argue whether or not these military leaders were noble men of moral standing. In determining whether or not these people were great generals, I'm only going to look at how effective their strategy/tactics were, and how good their opponents were.

Being a "good guy" has nothing to do with being a great general, but some people have it in their heads that the "good guys" should always get the best generals (and better quality troops in smaller numbers than the "bad guys", and/or worse off in the supply department than the "bad guys". This gives us, the "good guys" a sense of heroism by defeating a "superior force" by outsmarting or outfighting them, whereas if it was the other way around with the good guys with the numerical superiority, its just not what our society deems as "heroic" and therefore not worth mentioning/celebrating.)

There is no such thing as playing "fair" in war. If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose. Two parties can come together and "agree" on a set code of conduct (such as concepts of chivalry and honor), but there are NO RULES. You see these first-world countries these days calling guerilla fighters and terrorists "cowards" and challenging them to a "fair fight".

When one side has massive overwhelming superiority in 1 form of combat, and the other side has only basic resources, challenging the worse off opponent to "your game" and advertising it as a "fair fight" is just plain bitching. Expecting your opponent to stand out in the open while your superior resources blast them out of existence is plain stupidity. If a guy has to sneak around and stab you in the back to kill you, well hey, who's left standing in the end to complain?

If you as a nation have either the choice to fight "dirty" and have a chance to win or cease to exist, which one would you pick? War is a nasty business, concepts of honor and chivalry make it more palatable to our society.

Even if Manstein or Rommel wiped whole nations of people off the face of the Earth by massacre, it still wouldn't change the fact that they were better quality military leaders than arguably anyone on the allied side.

Ghengis Khan DID wipe whole kingdoms off the face of the Earth, and look who's leading the medieval bracket LOL.

Hell, I'd say Zhukov deserves to be on this list over other allied generals of other nations purely because he fought on the Eastern Front against better quality opposition.

I think Kalle has mistaken this poll for "Who's the best nice guy of all time?". I vote Gandhi