Jim_NSD
Posts: 81
Joined: 9/19/2012 Status: offline
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Combat in the Napoleonic era required that the commander be an expert in combined arms tactics. Each of the three arms (infantry, cavalry, and artillery) had counterbalancing strengths and weaknesses. To win in this era required proper use of each type of unit and the proper timing to make it all go together. If a commander just lines his troops up and starts shooting any general from 1815 would rout them off the battlefield in short order. The tactics used in the Waterloo campaign were the culmination of 22 years of lessons learned the hard way on the battlefield. The tactics of Napoleon were made obsolete by technical advances. The level of tactical sophistication was not matched until the development of a new take combined arms that the descendants of the Prussians called blitzkrieg. -Jim
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Design Lead: Scourge of War "My God, if we've not got a cool brain and a big one too, to manage this affair, the nation is ruined forever." Unknown private, 14th Vermont Infantry, 2 July 1863
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