It’s not just you, I thought Uchronia was DoW’s term too. I was driving myself NUTS trying to figure out what the term meant tho, so thanks for clarifying!

One of the most outstanding uchronia I’ve ever read is an alternative history saga called Time-line 191 and written by Harry Turtledove. This is a “What if” fictive elaboration about a hypothetical victory of the CSA upon the USA in 1862. The first novel is called “A few remain” and is based on a point of divergence breaking our time-line 10 September, 1862. In our time-line (the real History), Union soldiers retrieve the Robert E. Lee’s special orders 191 (aimed to prepare the battle of Antietam) and previously lost by a confederate messenger. McClellan (not the greatest general of the American Civil War) uses this miraculous opportunity to stop the advance of the southern troops. In Time-line 191, these orders are retrieved by confederate soldiers and McClellan is caught by surprise. Lee leads the army of Virginia towards a battlefield at its own advantage, destroys the army of Potomac, and captures Philadelphia. This quick victory triggers the recognition of the CSA by France and Britain and ends the war.

But that’s not all. Turtledove has been exploring his uchronia with a trilogy about an alternative WWI, another trilogy about the in-between wars period, and finally a tetralogy about an alternative WWII (that can gives you many ideas for Memoir’ 44 scenarios if you dare paint your confederate G.I’s in… butternut!).

In this alternative universe, incredibly rich and realistic, The USA occupies Canada and is leaded by a socialist president, the CSA is ruled by a fascist leader, Great Britain and France fall in the hands of nationalist parties (French monarchy is back), and the great central empires are still alive and strong (Prussia, tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungarian and Ottoman empires).

11 books up to now (500 pages each or around) for all that! And that’s perhaps not finished!!

A must for those who appreciate war novels…

I don’t mean to sound pompous here, but I guess I just assumed that most people knew what the term “uchronia” meant — just as most people understand that the word “utopia” is generally meant as a generic term, rather than a specific place (though Sir Thomas More’s “Utopia” was indeed the name of the island upon which the story was set.)

It would be nice, however, if DoW gave a concrete name to the “world” in which we will all be gaming, rather than just describing it with a generic (albeit apparently obscure) adjective.