The Napoleonic Wars – A Quick Reference in Preparation for Napoleon Total War
Part I
Napoleon Bonaparte, a man that was an era, born from the humble island of Corsica, one day to have all of Europe at his whim. Born on August 15th 1769, Napoleone Bounaparte, was raised on Corsica, but when he was 14, his father sent him to a military school in France, where he was bullied for his strong Italian accent and pale skin. Yet he was beyond that. When asked to knell down to eat as a punishment, Napoleon (as we will now refer to him as) replied “In my family, we only knell before God.” The master had no reply, and in his report, wrote “Stubborn, but confident...” During the revolution, he raised through the ranks, being dismissed, the reinstated, then sent to prison for being a friend of Maxamilien Robespierre’s brother. But released after 2 weeks and reinstated as Brigadier General in Paris.
After making his reputation at the siege of Toulon in 1793 against Anglo/French Royalist supporters, where the commander of the Republican Artillery was wounded, Napoleon took his place, and to his credit, won the siege.
The Italian Campaign
In 1795, The Directory (The ruling government after the revolution and the guillotining of King Louis XVI, a body of numerous men appointed by the National Assembly) was being threatened in Paris by a mob of royalists, Napoleon was sent by the Directory to stop them, and with his famous whiff of grapeshot, destroy the numerous royalist mob. As a reward, (but also seeing that Napoleon was becoming quite powerful, they wanted to keep him busy) they sent him to Italy to command the army of Italy, he was sent there only to stop the Austrians from entering Frances southern border, but Napoleon took this as an opportunity to make something of himself. When he arrived, he found the army in ruins, some men had no shoes, they hadn’t been paid in weeks, and some men were starving, so much that the cavalry men ate their horses, not even half the men had the correct uniforms. But Napoleon alongside his chief of staff, Louis Alexandre Berthier, organised the army bringing it up to standards, with supplies like shoes and uniforms, ammunition, etc...
In 1796, Napoleon now faced with two enemy armies, that of Sardinia-Piedmont, and that of the Austrians. Now what Napoleon did will echo throughout his military life. He kept the enemies separate, defeated each one in turn. He first turned to the Piedmonts, he defeated them in small but hard fought battles, and won with his forces mainly in larger numbers since he had divided the enemy. He then crossed the River Po and attacks the Austrians at Mantua, where parts of the army retreated back to a series of 4 forts that secure Austria’s Italian lands and borders. So the French took Mantua, and the Austrians kept trying to relieve it as it was their key fort. He then pushed forward towards Vienna, and fighting a series of battles along the way like Lodi and Rivoli. Finally reaching Vienna, he dictated to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian government the Treaty of Campo Formio.
The Egyptian Campaign
He soon returned to Paris as a hero, General Bonaparte was no longer an unknown figure in Europe.
The Directory, in 1798, was thinking on how to invade Britain, but Napoleon proposed to them, that France take the initiative, and block Britain’s trade route to India by seizing Egypt. The Directory weary of Napoleon’s growing power, sent him off to Egypt, hoping the population would forget about him. He arrived in Egypt with an army of scholars, archaeologists, historians, artists, as well as soldiers. They discovered many things about Egypt, and without this expedition, we would know little about the land of the Pharaohs. While he was there, Napoleon seized power in Egypt, as there was no official government, except the mamalukes. Of course, Napoleon also prepared for war, he fought few major battles in Egypt, except the battles of the Pyramids and the Nile. The battle of the Pyramids was against ancient warriors, who were one of the bravest warriors on the planet, rather to die before defeat. This is where Napoleon developed his infantry square tactic, giving the enemy mamalukes, who were only on horseback, nowhere to breech the enemy flanks, mean while the infantry fired at the horses. On that day, almost the entire mamalukes army was destroyed, while only 30 Frenchmen where killed.
The Battle of the Nile was when the French ships where docked in a bay near the mouth of the Nile delta. The British furious over the French attack on Britain trade route to India, came and destroyed the defenceless French flotilla. Napoleon, now trapped in Egypt, had to try and escape, but his men were dying of disease and the heat. So he tried to march them up through Syria, through Turkey and up into Europe, but his men were diminishing, so Napoleon, and his Generals escaped on small boats back to France, leaving the army to rot.
The Coup d’État and the Second Italian Campaign
The Directory in Paris was now becoming unpopular, power was wavering and the people of the republic were calling out for a new government, a strong body. A coup was planned by Napoleon’s brother, who was head of the council of 500. He decided that France needed a new leadership, and Napoleon’s growing power, especially after Egypt, which was a failure, but the public praised him for the Battle of the Pyramids, and the treasures he brought back. So on the 18th November 1799, Napoleon marched into the government house, with a group of soldiers, but was viciously mauled. The council was moved to a different building to discuss in peace the terms of the new government, and by eve, Napoleon had been named First Citizen Consul of the French Republic.
Now, the Austrians had risen back up in Italy, trying to take back their land after their humiliating defeat in 1797. Napoleon, who was not allowed as Citizen Consul to lead the army, advised the army Generals, on what to do, the Army of Italy was stationed behind the French Alps, which was a b**ch to cross. The Generals all planned to march around on a long but safe route, but Napoleon, having used Sun Tzu’s rule; “all warfare is based on deception” decoded to take the hard but quick passage. He arrived in Italy while the Austrians where separated, most were besieging General Massena at Genoa, where supplies were low, so the French at Genoa surrendered, while that was happening, Napoleon came down and flanked the Austrians in the rear. The Austrians at Genoa came north to face Napoleon at Marengo. Napoleon, who had divided his forces, sending Desaix to scout the area, but Napoleon didn’t realised that the army he was soon to face at Marengo was the main force. Napoleon during the battle was struggling, sent a message to Desaix saying “By God, come back!”
The day was won to the French, just, only since Desaix arrived on time. The second campaign was over, the victors, the French, and this made Napoleon extremely popular amongst the republic, that they gave him the title “Consul for Life”
To be continued....
(All written from my memory, so feel free to rep me!)
My Quick Napoleonic Reference in Preparation for Napoleon Total War - Part I
Just like the elephant animation, this Carthage scenario is actually in the game, it just has a small percantage factor for showing up, that's all..."we're way way pre-alpha and what that means is there is loads of features not just in terms of the graphics but also in terms of the combat and animations that actually aren't in the game yet.So the final game is actually gonna look way way better than this!” - James Russell, CA
