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Description
"When wars were decided by armed forces alone - that is, by only a small part of resources of nations - all those resources which were not put into the game remained untouched in the case of both victor and vanquished. The effects of the war were relative, hardly felt by the people, simply the exaction of tribute from the vanquished with which to begin the game all over again. But the World War exhausted the resources of all the people involved in it; as a consequence of its having been decided by the complete disintegration of all the forces of one side under the pressure of all the forces of the other side, the victors were left prostrate and the vanquished stripped of everything."

Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air, 1921

I've been doing some work on the Tightrope Walker setting, in particular how the alt-WW2 will play out. The below is an achronological map mapping out the main differences. The major POD of the setting is the establishment in Britain of a social experiment to create Slan-esque multidisciplinary geniuses through a programme of scientific nutrition, exercise and education. Minor PODs include the much wider distribution of Giulio Douhet's 'The Command of the Air' and British factories using a standardised toolset. The Tightrope Walkers, the products of said social experiment, are covertly sent to Spain and manage to engineer a narrow Republican victory in the Civil War.

My principle challenge has been how to allow the Axis to respond organically to the different challenges they face as a result of the TWs' actions rather than just being a punching bag, Drakaverse-style, as well as seeing where the TWs would be just as blindsided as the OTL generals (Singapore being a good case - troops bicycling through terrain previously considered impassable). The Axis wages a much more successful propaganda war, keeping the Americans out until the ( untimely) death of FDR, and boxing cleverer as a result of the lessons learnt from the Spanish Civil War.

Notable divergences:
- Successful Allied intervention in Norway, which gets used as an aircraft carrier for the rest of the war
- German occupation of Spain and subsequent occupation of Morocco by Britain (I have depicted Gibraltar as unoccupied because my initial ideas included the Rock holding out and being resupplied by air, but I have since been advised this is wildly unlikely and its loss would not significantly impact the Allied war effect given they now have Tangiers and the Balearics)
- De Gaulle doesn't make it out and France is given more favourable terms of occupation - attempts to organise a Free French movement fail
- Belgian Rexists are more successful and Belgium becomes a model collaborationist government. The Congo is under nominal Axis control (save for Ruanda-Urundi, taken by a British militia force). Katanga declares independence and begs for Allied assistance, but is ignored.
- With German forces used elsewhere, Italy is unable to force an overland route to Greece through Yugoslavia and settles for a separate peace establishing a Croatian puppet on the areas it controls as well as annexing Dalmatia. Greece remains an active front for the whole war, with Germany dismissing it as an Italian colonial venture.
- The TWs accelerate the timeline for Indian independence, creating a second, Hindu-dominated 'Indian National Army' of five million men alongside the British Indian Army (not to be confused with the OTL INA created by Mohan Singh with Japanese backing). Muslims are appalled by this move and Muslim-majority states refuse independence, creating the rather awkward situation seen below.

Description
"When wars were decided by armed forces alone - that is, by only a small part of resources of nations - all those resources which were not put into the game remained untouched in the case of both victor and vanquished. The effects of the war were relative, hardly felt by the people, simply the exaction of tribute from the vanquished with which to begin the game all over again. But the World War exhausted the resources of all the people involved in it; as a consequence of its having been decided by the complete disintegration of all the forces of one side under the pressure of all the forces of the other side, the victors were left prostrate and the vanquished stripped of everything."

Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air, 1921

I've been doing some work on the Tightrope Walker setting, in particular how the alt-WW2 will play out. The below is an achronological map mapping out the main differences. The major POD of the setting is the establishment in Britain of a social experiment to create Slan-esque multidisciplinary geniuses through a programme of scientific nutrition, exercise and education. Minor PODs include the much wider distribution of Giulio Douhet's 'The Command of the Air' and British factories using a standardised toolset. The Tightrope Walkers, the products of said social experiment, are covertly sent to Spain and manage to engineer a narrow Republican victory in the Civil War.

My principle challenge has been how to allow the Axis to respond organically to the different challenges they face as a result of the TWs' actions rather than just being a punching bag, Drakaverse-style, as well as seeing where the TWs would be just as blindsided as the OTL generals (Singapore being a good case - troops bicycling through terrain previously considered impassable). The Axis wages a much more successful propaganda war, keeping the Americans out until the ( untimely) death of FDR, and boxing cleverer as a result of the lessons learnt from the Spanish Civil War.

Notable divergences:
- Successful Allied intervention in Norway, which gets used as an aircraft carrier for the rest of the war
- German occupation of Spain and subsequent occupation of Morocco by Britain (I have depicted Gibraltar as unoccupied because my initial ideas included the Rock holding out and being resupplied by air, but I have since been advised this is wildly unlikely and its loss would not significantly impact the Allied war effect given they now have Tangiers and the Balearics)
- De Gaulle doesn't make it out and France is given more favourable terms of occupation - attempts to organise a Free French movement fail
- Belgian Rexists are more successful and Belgium becomes a model collaborationist government. The Congo is under nominal Axis control (save for Ruanda-Urundi, taken by a British militia force). Katanga declares independence and begs for Allied assistance, but is ignored.
- With German forces used elsewhere, Italy is unable to force an overland route to Greece through Yugoslavia and settles for a separate peace establishing a Croatian puppet on the areas it controls as well as annexing Dalmatia. Greece remains an active front for the whole war, with Germany dismissing it as an Italian colonial venture.
- The TWs accelerate the timeline for Indian independence, creating a second, Hindu-dominated 'Indian National Army' of five million men alongside the British Indian Army (not to be confused with the OTL INA created by Mohan Singh with Japanese backing). Muslims are appalled by this move and Muslim-majority states refuse independence, creating the rather awkward situation seen below.