User blog comment:Scandinator/Article Ideas/@comment-1310192-20120218202511

I personally find that, had that Carthaginian ship not shipwrecked on Sicily, the Romans wouldn't get the technology to either copy the quinquirremes or create a viable ship so to carry a heavy corvus. Hamlicar Barca (I think that was Hannibal's father's name) would've defeated the Romans in the sea and blocked them from advancing to either Carthage proper, Sicily or Iberia, which could have led to a stalemate, though not an immediate Carthaginian victory. Although LG is right with the Second Punic War; it was impossible for the Romans to lose that one.

LG is right in Sea Lion.

LG is also right about Alexander looking south, although that might change if Alexander of Epirus didn't die and requested help in Italy from his brother-in-law, Alexander the Great. That would likely lead to Alex campaigning west and fighting against a Roman Republic. I think Livy did that one before.

It's rather unlikely the Chinese manage to deal with problems, as food wasn't exactly the only problem the emperors coped with (Nomads all around, plus instability and barely 50 years without warring factions of nobles, eunuchs or pretenders). If the Chinese expand west, there's the Tibetans and Uyghurs that can cut the narrow pass, plus the Muslims and Turks at a later age to the west. To the north, there's the Manchus and the Mongols; to the east and south, there are problems with the territory plus also advanced political territories. And of course, a pretender would probably crop up while the Chinese army was at another place. Although the TL could be done plausibly, it needs a lot of solving other than food.

Your ideas, though, are pretty interesting.