Honorverse Top Ten Tacticians, Strategists

cthia wrote:

roseandheather wrote:-Honor Harrington
-Mark Sarnow
-Lester Tourville
-Hamish Alexander
-Thomas Theisman
-Judah Yanakov
-Abigail Hearns
-Michelle Henke
-Michael Oversteegen
-Aivars Terekhov

In no particular order, because I don't want to be eaten!!

(Honorable mentions to Jennifer Bellefeuille, Esther McQueen, Alfredo Yu, Wesley Matthews, and Theodosia Kuzak.)

Chicken shit? I know the feeling. She won't accept mine out of order. I am stalling!

Esther McQueen not on your list?
You been drinking?

roseandheather wrote:-Honor Harrington
-Mark Sarnow
-Lester Tourville
-Hamish Alexander
-Thomas Theisman
-Judah Yanakov
-Abigail Hearns
-Michelle Henke
-Michael Oversteegen
-Aivars Terekhov

In no particular order, because I don't want to be eaten!!

(Honorable mentions to Jennifer Bellefeuille, Esther McQueen, Alfredo Yu, Wesley Matthews, and Theodosia Kuzak.)

cthia wrote:
Chicken shit? I know the feeling. She won't accept mine out of order. I am stalling!

Esther McQueen not on your list?
You been drinking?

Rose wrote:
Absolutely chicken shit!

Abigail bumped her. Esther was one of the all-time tactical greats, but Abby has more raw talent. Not by much, but she does.

cthia wrote:A small snippet of my nieces email to me.

<snip>
Idiots Uncle. Simply idiots. And mother is worried that I'll fall for one of these simpletons? I'm surprised that they can actually read. Being a college student doesn't guarantee intelligence does it? How can Lester Tourville not be on three of the lists? For goodness sake! And Hamish Alexander is listed at ninth place on one of the lists? At first I thought they just hadn't read all of the stories, but they have. Were you a jackass in college as well Uncle?

<snip>
One guy has Hamish ahead of Honor. Ok, I respect that, however if he thinks Hamish is so talented how can he not have Esther McQueen on his list? After all, McQueen was his one match at Trevor's Star, perhaps even better than he! <snip>

My sister is a bit irritated with me that my twelve year old niece is so upset with a group of eleven college students she recently met at her piano recital. They've been communicating about the top 10 tacticians in the Honorverse. And it is quite heated. They are arguing over position on the list and certain people not making the list. I admit, it is difficult to do. I'm too chicken to send her my list. She's so hot at the moment that she'd melt a geiger counter at ten paces! Choose your top ten, in descending order. Even someone not on the list. Only ten can be sent to Honorverse Tactician's Hall of Fame.

-Honor Harrington
-Lester Tourville
-Hamish Alexander
-Aivars Terekhov
-Javier Giscard
-Michelle Henke
-Sebastian D'Orville
-Theodosia Kuzak
-Mark Sarnow
-Augustus Khumalo
-Alice Truman
-Esther Mcqueen
-Yancey Parks
-Judah Yanakov
-Alfredo Yu
-Thomas Theisman
-Francis Yeargin

saber964 wrote:
You can't have Augustus Khumalo in this list because he has never fought in battle and he is more of an administrator

Annachie wrote:BrightSoul makes a good case for why I wouldn't make such a list. I always get confused between tactics and strategy too.

BrightSoul wrote:I'll give it a go, in no particular order first... putting them in order would tax my post work brain too hard and delay me for hours.

Raoul Courvosier
Honor Harrington
Tom Theisman
Esther McQueen
Hamish Alexander
Javier Giscard
Lester Tourville
Michelle Henke
Aivars Terehkov
Judah Yanakov

-I bumped Sarnow for Henke, her actions in SoF demonstrated strategic thinking at a level we hadn't previously seen from her or many other characters.
-I wanted to put Abigail on but her sample set is too small.
-I'm torn between Aivars and Oversteegan, both are exceptional strategists but Aivar's SoS actions were nothing short of brilliant, building the squadron, scouting the system etc.
-I Really wanted to put Alfredo on this list and might even be convinced to bump Yanakov for him

PS, this ended up pretty close to in order.

roseandheather wrote:

BrightSoul wrote:I'll give it a go, in no particular order first... putting them in order would tax my post work brain too hard and delay me for hours.

Raoul Courvosier
Honor Harrington
Tom Theisman
Esther McQueen
Hamish Alexander
Javier Giscard
Lester Tourville
Michelle Henke
Aivars Terehkov
Judah Yanakov

-I bumped Sarnow for Henke, her actions in SoF demonstrated strategic thinking at a level we hadn't previously seen from her or many other characters.
-I wanted to put Abigail on but her sample set is too small.
-I'm torn between Aivars and Oversteegan, both are exceptional strategists but Aivar's SoS actions were nothing short of brilliant, building the squadron, scouting the system etc.
-I Really wanted to put Alfredo on this list and might even be convinced to bump Yanakov for him

PS, this ended up pretty close to in order.

...this is actually a really good list. And I can't believe I left off Javier, though that was probably an instinctive reaction by my brain to prevent me turning into a sobbing waterfall.

And as much as I love Augustus Khumalo - good God do I love Augustus Khumalo - his greatest asset as a tactician is knowing when to get the hell out of the way of his subordinates who can do it better than he can. What he's good at, he is very very good at (politics, administration, snogging Estelle, etc.) but tactics is not on that list.

One thing I really want to see is Allen Higgins in a situation not designed to punch him in the gut and spit on him. He's never had a chance to show readers what he can do, and I'd love to see him finally kick ass for a change instead of being stuck in a situation where he can do nothing but get out and add yet another memory to the list of "reasons Allen Higgins has godawful nightmares".