Tutorial: Mass de Decision.

This is the tactical maneuver of "attacking the weak joint", which Napoleon Bonaparte used to great success.
Basically it boils down to...
- Grab and hold him in the front
- Use a flanking attack to create a weak joint
- Then attack this elbow with overwhelming force

In a gaming scenario (as in real life), this maneuver is consistently a battle winner.
Although the basic strategy behind this tactic is rather simple, it's execution is complicated and must be applied in a very precise sequence for it to be effective. Certainly, the most important component of this exercise is determining when and exactly where the "mass de decision" will be committed, but if any of the other constituent parts of the sequence are ignored or not fully implemented, it will fail.

> Video of sequence posted below <

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Initial setup:
Concentrate a Grand Battery of your heaviest and/or best trained artillery on the flank that's to be penetrated. Lighter cannon can be distributed elsewhere in your initial dispositions.
Infantry moves to contact the enemy on a deep but relatively narrow frontage.
Hvy cavalry is on either side of your formation, with the light cavalry in the rear.

Fix the line:
Half of your line infantry engages the enemy and tries to attract as many of the enemy's reserves to itself as it can. It must then pin these units and fix them in this area.
Your hvy cavalry charges the enemy hvy cavalry

Continue to fix the line:
The rest of your line infantry engages the enemy. They must make sure and draw even more of the enemy's reserves into this area to be fixed.
Your cavalry drives your opponents horse from the field (or at least renders them ineffective). After this, it's important that there's minimal pursuit. Your mounted units must maintain their positions guarding the flanks of your formation.

Turning maneuver:
Your "regular" infantry reserves are used to turn the enemy line by launching a flanking attack (the more of an angle you can create, the weaker the joint/elbow will be). This should draw out the last significant infantry reserves that your opponent has.
Your right flank is guarded by the surviving units of your hvy cav.
The Grand Battery commences fire into the elbow which was formed by the turning maneuver.

Final preparations for the critical strike:
The screening force moves forward and engages the enemy line. At the same time, the remnants of your line infantry push home the attack to draw out the last of the enemy's reserves.
Your "Guard" reserves, called the mass de decision (or deciding force), move behind the screening force along with the light cav.

The critical strike:
The mass de decision combines with the screening force and engages your opponents line at the weak joint.
Your Grand Battery hammers this elbow with everything it has.

Opening the gap:
Due to a superiority of both quantity and quality of troops and a lack of enemy reserves, the mass de decision gains a local victory and then walls off a corridor through the gap.

Exploiting the gap:
Your light cav surges through the gap and pursues the routed infantry.
Infantry units that have penetrated the gap and/or the hvy cav remaining on the right side are used to rout your enemy's left flank.
The surviving line infantry, which were being used to fix your opponents front, are now used to turn his line and open the gap further.
(all of which turns your local victory into a major one).

Pursuit:
The remaining hvy cav are now moved up to either attack the flanks of the enemy line and roll them up, or to charge any units that are remaining in the rear.
Your light cav continues its' pursuit of fleeing solders and your line infantry continues to widen the gap.

Victory:
Your opponents unit cohesion breaks down and their formation dissolves into a mass rout.

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Unfortunately, the caveat for achieving all of this is..

- Having line infantry skilled enough to hold their positions for a significant period of time, while simultaneously being outnumbered.
- Possessing hvy cav that's able to defeat it's counter-part.
- Having skilled artillerymen and a large enough number of heavy cannon to form a powerful Grand Battery.

Of course, however, Napoleon made sure he had all of the aforementioned...in abundance.

Well done, explained perfectly! +rep!

Thanks for sharing this, a good read.

Very detailed, Thanks...+Rep