Ever since I started playing total war I've wanted to max out army sizes to really understand how battles looked but the game engine was always limiting. Now with our own tools we are free to bring the past to life in True Size and it is glorious. A big thanks to all who suggested this topic and supported us along the way! If you'd like to support our continued efforts, consider joining us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/InvictaHistory What should we cover next?
@@artofstorytelling9406 The Meta was mostly highly professional troops who went to win by firing off muskets with heavily guarded flanks, minimal artillery support. Naploean abused this by simply not participating in the musketry duel. Instead hitting them hard with concentrated artillery barrages, and hitting them with attack columns in the usually weak center.
Late Roman or Byzantine Military sizes would be very interesting. They were very varied and not well covered. And it would round out the Roman part of this series in a nice bow.
@@timoverdijk3176 We are working in Unreal Engine 5 with a bunch of blueprint tools to help us bruild the models and array them. Then we have done a ton of work to create environments to deploy them on. Given our approach and the capabilities of the engine, we can create truly MASSIVE armies
What's crazy about that is that Total War Napoleon (even the mods) can only have less than 100 units loaded in which compared to Napoleons actual forces is minuscule.
Interesting fact: although the Russian “General Winter” gets the credit for destroying most of Napoleon’s troops during his disastrous retreat, in absolute numbers, more French soldiers died during the SUMMER, mostly from cholera rather than battle. For every 12 Grand Armée that entered Russia: 2 died from his wounds 2 were captured (1 dying in captivity) 5 died from disease or cold 1 deserted 2 returned (1 wounded)
@@Rusty_Gold85 General Winter causes just as much problems for the Russians as it did the invaders, but propaganda and disgraced enemy generals claim its Russia's ultimate weapon.
@@FRMaverick6 actually I was thinking about the famous Charles Minard graph showing Napoleon’s casualties chronologically. It’s shocking. That Epic History Channel is pretty good though. Apparently I’ve watched all of their Alexander The Great videos.
It's not a tale the winter of 1812 was the worst of the era with the coldest temperatures in the last 200 years, a taste of 1816 witch will be called the year without summer, the Sulfate concentration in ice cores from Greenland in the year 1810 was at it's highest ever showing a massive unknown eruption just like the mount Tambora in 1815 witch would lead to the food riots of 1816 and 1817 and were the highest levels of violence since the French Revolution while being the worst famine of 19th-century mainland Europe. @@Rusty_Gold85
When marching with multiple divisions, Napoleon always kept each division at most a day's marching distance from another division. In this way, the French army could not only screen larger territory, but also reinforce battles faster, than other contemporary forces. Once a division made contact with the enemy, the entire army would turn towards it and join the battle. One more thing, French troops did not sleep in tents in summer, thus could move rapidly with fewer weight. The entire Grand Army system was groundbreaking and effective.
Corps* not division, a single division (around 10,000 men) couldn't hold the ground against an entire army, but that's the idea yeah, we call it the " bataillon carré" (square battalion) in French, and it was notably used during the Prussian campaign of 1806 to cross the Frankenwald
@hanchao201010 French army did not move fast because of not sleeping in tents, they moved fast because they lived off the land - aka plundered civilian population. The British had ships and contracted merchants for supplies. The Prussians had centralized supply depos in each of their regions. And the French simply just stole what they needed.
How was the system "groundbreaking and effective" if it ended in total defeat with such pathetic military results for Napoleonic France? No one wasted more resources in manpower, horsepower and firepower only to have enemy troops march down his capital than Napoleon. More like running a juggernaut military into the ground until military occupation of France, not "groundbreaking and effective". Again, speaking as if you won when you lost.
@@ShangZilla Yes, but it is not even true that the French did not have tents ONLY in the summer. The French did not have tents in the winter either, notably in Russia 1812 where so many French soldiers froze from the elements. Decisions like the lack of tents shows that Napoleon simply DID NOT CARE about his regular troops, because he thought he could always conscript more.
Excited to see your Napoleonic content! For a channel that does not focus upon the Napoleonic period, the research seems to me so far to have been very well-done. Your video's haven't skimmed on Napoleonic history; they've went in depth to the history to a degree that can take a well-researched historian's take and filter it down for the average person. Great video overall! And I like to see the "bringing to scale" done here; actually showing how gargantuan even commanding a brigade of men would be on the battlefield, something incredibly important to remember when making any comments on pre-modern history, a time before radio and easy communications.
@@GuineaPigEveryday This comment made me chuckle, although I won't even lie, Ridley Scott's Napoleon is leagues less accurate than anything on Wikipedia about the Napoleonic period
Marshal Berthier and Davout were very important in helping form Napoleon’s corp system, training, and such. Hope you can do videos on their contributions as well. You are one of the very very few channels I trust to get such information right. Your research and presentation is second to none 👍🏻
This is fantastic! A comprehensive guide on the size of units and the scale of their formations! Please keep up all the spectacular Napoleonic content.
We plan on doing the cavalry and artillery next. Its admittedly a pretty huge endeavor given how complex these formations can get and how much they evolved over time. But the effort is worth it becuase these videos hopeully present the subject in a digestible and intuitive way
@@InvictaHistory Amazing. I cant wait to see any further work! Don't worry about your presentation, you are doing a fantastic job. P.S Thank you for replying
Comparing this with the previous videos, particularly of the legions. Is crazy how far ahead Romans were in terms of mobility and logistics than other armies even two thousand years later
Well yeah basically until the French Revolution and Napoleon, who reintroduced and adapted Roman principles, which is why France was able to conquer almost all of Europe with astonishing speed and efficiency (not to mention the military genius of Napoleon and the competence of his marshals)
@@fireandblood8142 To be fair, military geniousness of Napoleon was ovrehyperd.. by Napoleon's controlled papers\media. He was one of the first rulers to actively use state's propaganda machine for his own benefit (which was sorta required since Revolution was quick to dispose of it's leaders with the swings of public opinion). For example, his horrendous fiasco at Egypt with leaving his troops to die (not so different from how Russian campaign ended) was quickly swept under the rug and every arheologist\scientist participating in that compaign - was not allowed to speak any bad word about Napoleon's leadership.
Regarding the firings at 5:50, the regs of the time state that the 1st rank kneels 2nd ranks fires over their heads and the third rank leans between the files and also fires. In real cmbat the first rank stood, it didn't kneel, the 2nd rank leaned between the files and the third rank often reloaded the other ranks muskets.
I used to do napoleonic era reenactment in the line infantry and never recieved any order to kneel at the front line, always stood, and my Corporals, sergents, and officers were very keen to follow the "Règlement d'infanterie de 1792" which was the basic rules of infantry so I never considered kneeling even an option, only in tirailleur formation if I remember well but I'm not even sure about that.
@@AciesNN Agreed. The practice of kneeling is certainly attested to during the both the French Indian War and the Revolutionary War. My pet theory is that I think it largely fell out of favour on account of them. The experience of both the French and the British of fighting in North America made for some pretty massive changes regarding the importance of infantry maneuver and kneeling does not increase mobility, that's for sure.
@@imperialus1 Napoleonic armies stopped the practice of kneeling first rank because it was found out that once the soldiers knelt, it was very hard to get them standing up again.
Great presentation. I collect military miniatures scale 1/72. My Napoleonic French are 2,608 infantry, 545 cavalry, 180 artillerymen manning 14 guns, and 25 supply troops with 6 wagons. Seeing them all arayed, gives me some idea of the enormity of the armies of the period.
@@MrYeah2345 thanks mate. Airfix, HAT, Italieri, Esci and Zvezda; I really like Zvezda. A Russian company who make beautiful miniatures. Unfortunately not so easy to get here in Australia since the War with Russia. Do you collect miniatures too my friend?
Something that's easy to look is absolute *ton* of difference military theories, concepts, niche ideas, and all other manner of ideas that formed up just what napoleonic age warfare (and the periods immediately before and after) truly was. The big pitched battles in particular get lots of attention but what is often missed is the masterful movement of men and equipment at operational level and the lower levels within divisions and regiments. Operationally, the Battle of Austerlitz, Leipzig, Waterloo, and the Battle of Sedan (Franco-Prussian) come to mind as particularly interesting examples of the divisional and corps level movement of men which preludes and setups the conditions that become the famed pitched battles
1 Battalion = 12 Companies in the picture. 1 Comapny = 4 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 12 light officers of approximately sergeant or sergeant major rank on average. An officer = a staff of between 1 and 3. Battalions represented administrative structure of between 144-432 depending on how many cooks and stablehands might be brought from home by the sergeant majors, the lieutenant majors, the fouriers and the captains. It is likely that 250 staff was considered "well provisioned" when setting off from home freshly stocked, and after actual combat 125 or as few as 100 of that might be actually left, far below the 144 for a lean force sufficient to pass inspection. I wonder if there were any favored units that had a theoretical on paper 500 man staff that was only shot down to 200-250 after casualties from extra nasty engagement with the enemy and would have been considered excellent for the supplies of the other battalions it worked with? 1 Battalion is the smallest unit of force in RISK and must represent at least 100 reasonably educated officers and staff even in bad circumstances. :o Presumably 100 men is also close to the number that decision making absolutely must be a more formalized process: you'll see school classes of 25 organize loosely if the kids are smart or good, but more than 50 invites confusion even among smart good people.
I don't understand were that comparison is drawn from? Other then he fought everyone. France turned into a Republic/meritocracy which was attacked by coalitions of monarchies who wanted to keep the revolution from spreading and taking away their power.
Great video! I'm planning to make a 10mm scale napoleonic army, and I must say your video helped me a GREAT deal understanding the Grande Armée's organisation. Thank you!
I'm French and the importance of having women with the army at all times in charge of selling food and wine is probably the Frenchest thing ever 😂😂😂 Needless to say this is an incredible video and an awesome work, merci beaucoup!
@@tomgilesmarvoloryley one of the legends regarding the baguette's shape is that it was made this way to be conviniently caried in the bags of Napoleon's soldier!
@@sebastiencz3931 And baguette baked with electric oven was the only type of bread that can be made in bulk from 1920's-1930's after 25% of working age Frenchmen died in WW1? Was is true that boule bread only become common in French bakery again after 1950's, before then it was either baguette or factory made sliced bread for the country literally did not have workers to operate bakery at the end of the War?
The vid leaves out the Ordre Mixte or Mixed order formation. It was a infantry regiment/battalion in line with a regiment/battalion in column on each flank, forming an upside down U. This formation evolved in response to Fredrick The Greats linear formation. The column would pierce the enemies line with a charge. Had this formation been used at Waterloo Wellington's thin red line would have been turned into hash!
Great video and good visualization of the numbers and statistics. Some people fall asleep at night counting sheep, I fall asleep counting orders of battle.
I hope you'll get to those videos concerning the other sections of Napoleon's army. I'm DYING to know the details on the cavalry and artillery units, especially. But I'm also curious about the engineer and support sections as well. THank you for your hard work!
One of my favorite examples of the true size is the Napoleon film from decades ago. In the largest set pieces in the show the total combined men shown, the most ever used on film, the combined men of both sides in the film... is roughly equal... to a single Corps!
Incredible Historical Work Great Art Amazing Contextualization and Learning Examples It’s Fairly Trivial to Me but this Really Help’s People Understand how Immensely Complex The Mil Is Beautiful Work Thank You
That's because French armies of the period were expected to live off the land, either by forage or outright looting it from the civilian population. This reduced the need for long supply chains and let French armies move faster, but rendered them vulnerable to shortages or outright starvation if their enemies employed the scortched earth strategy against them, like in Russia and Spain.
@@Thanaeon It was a deliberate decision made to increase speed of movement, since relying on wagon supply chains made armies slow and cumbersome. Sherman did the same thing during his March to the Sea. There was risk, of course, not least of which was that pillaging the countryside would make the civilian population violently hostile (see: Spain).
Slight graphic boo-boo: The Armee Corps graphic used a slash for the Artillery like the cavalry. The proper symbol for artillery would a dot, not a slash.
9:29 Those designations weren't by height, but merit and unit type. Height was an issue, only in determining what "elite" status a trooper could attain. Veteran soldiers with a recommendation who weren't tall enough to be a grenadier, could instead be a voltigeur. Carabiniers filled the role of grenadiers in light regiments, while chasseurs were the regular troopers of a light regiment, equivalent to a fusilier in a line regiment. Both light and line regiments had voltigeurs, who were elite skirmishers.
I would argue that the most common brigade type is two regiments when looking at only French units from 1808 onwards. A brigade with more than two regiments normally has regiments with only a battalion in them and a brigade with only one regiment was usually a very large regiment.
The Napoleonic Wars would have been a delightful time to observe the army getting more equal for representation of competency in the command structures while still preserving some of the common sense culture that it would likely be advantageous for a rich man to be one of the officer staff on purely financial merit: Consider the honest real military advantage of landed gentry officers being able to supply their units with a spare horse or two not subsidized by the Imperial government. If your company owns a total of 4 horses then your Captain has at least 2 spares if his horse gets shot--that means that your General can have his horse shot, he requisitions your Captain a horse, your Captain has 3 horses, your Captains horse gets shot, Company has 2 horses, your Captain *still* has a horse, your Lt Major *still* has 1 horse to share with the other Lt, and this is either 2 horses for your Captain or 2 horses for your Captain's General. Out of 5 Sergeants, with one Sergeant Major, I would want 1 or 2 of them to be rich men and 3 of them to be smart men, that way the effectiveness during combat is optimized and we have extremely valuable expensive horses more than what the government provides us and it may be that if we do our jobs excellently and the officers do Not get their horse shot from under them, we just might be able to send a servant on a spare horse for an urgent messenger mission. I can imagine it would be uncommon and very difficult to horse all 5 sergeants and still have spares for the Captains and their superiors. I wouldn't let a sub sergeant have a horse. The sergeant major should be the richest sergeant in the Company and should be encouraged to bring his horse. The lieutenant major should be required to be wealthy enough to have a horse and the Captain is the one whose horse is probably provided by his government salary. A magnificent company would be able to provide 1 spare horse each for Lt major and Sgt major as well as Captain for a total of 6 horses in the Company and have possibly 12 servants including 3 or 4 stablehands. That would be luxurious and it would be very wasteful for those 6 horses to be shared by all the sergeants. More than 6 horses in a Company sounds like lying and I would report the fourier for dishonesty and corruption. We can't afford to pretend we've got more than we've actually got, that's not how things are done anymore.
Looking forward to seeing the cavalry and artillery videos!
11 หลายเดือนก่อน +4
Another excellent video about the size of armies, we just have to wait for the other part that talks about cavalry. I would also like you to make a video about the size and organization of the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870; I think that German effectiveness in that conflict would be more understandable if you explain it this way.
What fantastic content, the Napoleonic era is fascinating to me and i am really excited to see this in detail. I hope more Napoleonic content from other nations is on the way too 👍👍
The joys of VR mean one day things will be produced that allow us to see the battlefields in their true scale and maybe even watch them, be awesome to see once technology allows it
Really well done. The only error that I caught was the reversal of the left and right. The right should be on the left side as looked at from the front. The way it shows now, the colonel is on the left side. I only caught this because not to long ago I was a command sergeant major of infantry.
I've always wondered how all of these massive armies throughout history survived and didn't almost immediately destroy their own agricultural and industrial base.
In Russia, thousands of Napoleon's troops starved to death because as they marched across the barren landscape, what little food and supplies could be scavenged was taken by the Imperial Guard before other troops could get their hands on them. By the time the majority of the army approached areas the guard had marched through, the land was picked clean.
I recall that the British distinction between regular infantry and light infantry was that regular infantry are expected to march at 120 paces per minute, while light infantry could march 160 paces per minute.
We are just getting started : ) Hoenstly next year is gonna be epic. Thus far we have just been explaining the building blocks of various armies. Soon we wil lactually be able to pit them against one another at never before seen scales.
You got the right and left sides mixed up. It should be the right as of you were facing the enemy or the left if you were facing them. And ancient tradition dating to Rome and before when the strongest men stood on the right flank of the line as their shields would not protect their right side
The graphics are admittedly a bit confusing as the layout of the troops is correct (as if the enemy is at the top) but the models are facing south. Apologies for the confusion
@8:40 Why do you say the 1st section and the Captain are on the right flank, when in your illustration they are facing the camera and are therefore the left flank? Which is the correct one? And secondly, where are the messengers (the ones who deliver orders from the general to the units)? Are they attached to the regiment or brigade or where?
You would be correct. They are all facing the wrong direction. Facing away. The captain is on the far right side. And all other subordinates are behind the formations. Not in front as depicted.
What I find most difficult is how to communicate orders effectively during the battle (maneuvers, attack, counter-attack, retreat, move to that point, etc) with such big armies, coordinating all aspects, with no radio, no modern communication devices.
The quality of contents is great. Research, graphics and narrations. Everything comes together to give viewers deeper understanding of the subject. Your channel is a diamond in a sea of mediocrity.
Love the video but there is a massive error at 11:50 and orwards. The distinction between Soldiers, NCOs, and Commissioned Officers needs to be made far clearer in this video. A French Battalion in 1808 did not have 120 officers. In a Battalion structure shown in this video with 6 companies you’d be looking at 3 officers per company so that’s 18, and the added Battalion Staff of 4 so a total of only 22 officers! This naturally escalates the larger the formation listed. Distinctions of this nature are important.
We did try andexplicitly list all the different ranks when we zoomed in but yes I agree that the zoomed out view and summaries did simplify things a bit too much.
I always found it fascinating that the Revolutionary Directorate was able to withstand a full on invasion from Austria and Netherlands without the expertise of Napoleon during the war of the 1st Coalition.... I feel like this is often brushed over
Props the visualisation done in this video. So now I want a new game, that represents the scale of these battles accurately. How is it, that I don't know of anyone ambigious enough to do this? I always imagine an online game, where you play 3v3 battles on large maps,. Each player having roughly a brigade to field. You then give orders on a regimental or battaoillon level and with the helo of AI these orders get executed. The player then only can micro a battallon at a time. Something along those lines would be my biggest hope for a future game... perhaps one will get lucky. Anyway great video. I would love it, if at the end of this series there could be a to scale deployment overview on one of the famous battles, perhaps a smaller one from the Italy Campaign.
It's interessting how much of this organisation is still alive and well in many modern armies. For example the Swiss Army is pretty much still organised exactly like this.
Hard to picture the amount of people inscale. I first found out by going to a NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills and they announced the attendance at 78,000 people . It was nothing after I seen a Daytona 500 car race with 175,000 people .
This was very well done! I love the visual of it all. When going over formations you did miss one that was used extensively at the regiment and divisional level. Ordre Mixte.
Thank you for a wonderful presentation, however I think i noticed a mistake; in line , facing the enemy, a battalion has its grenadier or carabinier on the right of the line, the voltiguers being on the left. The right of the line was usually considered an honour position, for the elite.
Very nice video, my ears only slightly bleed when Voltigeur was pronounced with a hard G sound :) It's a "soft G" so it sound the same as Majeur (Major, like an adult)
![True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/deV34RTyPO8/mqdefault.jpg)
Ever since I started playing total war I've wanted to max out army sizes to really understand how battles looked but the game engine was always limiting. Now with our own tools we are free to bring the past to life in True Size and it is glorious. A big thanks to all who suggested this topic and supported us along the way! If you'd like to support our continued efforts, consider joining us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/InvictaHistory What should we cover next?
What tools do you use now to create these true size videos?
I'd love to know how Napoleon innovated warfare by comparing what the "meta" was prior
@@artofstorytelling9406
The Meta was mostly highly professional troops who went to win by firing off muskets with heavily guarded flanks, minimal artillery support.
Naploean abused this by simply not participating in the musketry duel. Instead hitting them hard with concentrated artillery barrages, and hitting them with attack columns in the usually weak center.
Late Roman or Byzantine Military sizes would be very interesting.
They were very varied and not well covered.
And it would round out the Roman part of this series in a nice bow.
@@timoverdijk3176 We are working in Unreal Engine 5 with a bunch of blueprint tools to help us bruild the models and array them. Then we have done a ton of work to create environments to deploy them on. Given our approach and the capabilities of the engine, we can create truly MASSIVE armies
As a veteran Total War Napoleon player i can say i am something of a General myself
Exactement.
its not the same and better play ntw3 its more realistical
@@grzybek7685 ntw3 ?
@@grzybek7685 ntw3?
What's crazy about that is that Total War Napoleon (even the mods) can only have less than 100 units loaded in which compared to Napoleons actual forces is minuscule.
Interesting fact: although the Russian “General Winter” gets the credit for destroying most of Napoleon’s troops during his disastrous retreat, in absolute numbers, more French soldiers died during the SUMMER, mostly from cholera rather than battle.
For every 12 Grand Armée that entered Russia:
2 died from his wounds
2 were captured (1 dying in captivity)
5 died from disease or cold
1 deserted
2 returned (1 wounded)
I can always tell if a Historian is any good or not is if they repeat that old General Winter tale.
@@Rusty_Gold85 General Winter causes just as much problems for the Russians as it did the invaders, but propaganda and disgraced enemy generals claim its Russia's ultimate weapon.
Someone's been watching epic history's channel...
@@FRMaverick6 actually I was thinking about the famous Charles Minard graph showing Napoleon’s casualties chronologically. It’s shocking.
That Epic History Channel is pretty good though. Apparently I’ve watched all of their Alexander The Great videos.
It's not a tale the winter of 1812 was the worst of the era with the coldest temperatures in the last 200 years, a taste of 1816 witch will be called the year without summer, the Sulfate concentration in ice cores from Greenland in the year 1810 was at it's highest ever showing a massive unknown eruption just like the mount Tambora in 1815 witch would lead to the food riots of 1816 and 1817 and were the highest levels of violence since the French Revolution while being the worst famine of 19th-century mainland Europe. @@Rusty_Gold85
When marching with multiple divisions, Napoleon always kept each division at most a day's marching distance from another division. In this way, the French army could not only screen larger territory, but also reinforce battles faster, than other contemporary forces. Once a division made contact with the enemy, the entire army would turn towards it and join the battle. One more thing, French troops did not sleep in tents in summer, thus could move rapidly with fewer weight. The entire Grand Army system was groundbreaking and effective.
Corps* not division, a single division (around 10,000 men) couldn't hold the ground against an entire army, but that's the idea yeah, we call it the " bataillon carré" (square battalion) in French, and it was notably used during the Prussian campaign of 1806 to cross the Frankenwald
@hanchao201010 French army did not move fast because of not sleeping in tents, they moved fast because they lived off the land - aka plundered civilian population. The British had ships and contracted merchants for supplies. The Prussians had centralized supply depos in each of their regions. And the French simply just stole what they needed.
@@ShangZillalol my bestie
How was the system "groundbreaking and effective" if it ended in total defeat with such pathetic military results for Napoleonic France? No one wasted more resources in manpower, horsepower and firepower only to have enemy troops march down his capital than Napoleon. More like running a juggernaut military into the ground until military occupation of France, not "groundbreaking and effective". Again, speaking as if you won when you lost.
@@ShangZilla Yes, but it is not even true that the French did not have tents ONLY in the summer. The French did not have tents in the winter either, notably in Russia 1812 where so many French soldiers froze from the elements. Decisions like the lack of tents shows that Napoleon simply DID NOT CARE about his regular troops, because he thought he could always conscript more.
That Napoleon Total War soundtrack, always sends a shiver through my spine. Timeless music
@@1992zorro ikr
Better and more detailed than the movie Napoleon i saw this evening.
Excited to see your Napoleonic content! For a channel that does not focus upon the Napoleonic period, the research seems to me so far to have been very well-done. Your video's haven't skimmed on Napoleonic history; they've went in depth to the history to a degree that can take a well-researched historian's take and filter it down for the average person.
Great video overall! And I like to see the "bringing to scale" done here; actually showing how gargantuan even commanding a brigade of men would be on the battlefield, something incredibly important to remember when making any comments on pre-modern history, a time before radio and easy communications.
If David Scarpa watched even one of video of this channel he might’ve written something better than the Wikipedia fanfiction he wrote
@@GuineaPigEveryday This comment made me chuckle, although I won't even lie, Ridley Scott's Napoleon is leagues less accurate than anything on Wikipedia about the Napoleonic period
Marshal Berthier and Davout were very important in helping form Napoleon’s corp system, training, and such. Hope you can do videos on their contributions as well.
You are one of the very very few channels I trust to get such information right. Your research and presentation is second to none 👍🏻
Epic History TV has a video about them
Berthier and Davout were important for organisation
While for training, it was Soult and Bernadotte who were the disciplinarians
This is fantastic! A comprehensive guide on the size of units and the scale of their formations! Please keep up all the spectacular Napoleonic content.
We plan on doing the cavalry and artillery next. Its admittedly a pretty huge endeavor given how complex these formations can get and how much they evolved over time. But the effort is worth it becuase these videos hopeully present the subject in a digestible and intuitive way
@@InvictaHistory Amazing. I cant wait to see any further work! Don't worry about your presentation, you are doing a fantastic job.
P.S Thank you for replying
@InvictaHistory Would you ever consider a video on the Napoleonic Irish Legion or "Wild Geese" of the Royal Army before him.
Another great video !
@@InvictaHistory Apart for the imperial guard system?
Comparing this with the previous videos, particularly of the legions. Is crazy how far ahead Romans were in terms of mobility and logistics than other armies even two thousand years later
yep, you truly understand that warfare was allready an art
Are you referring to the space marine legions?
@@It_is_I_Rogal_Dorn He is referring to the Roman legions.
Well yeah basically until the French Revolution and Napoleon, who reintroduced and adapted Roman principles, which is why France was able to conquer almost all of Europe with astonishing speed and efficiency (not to mention the military genius of Napoleon and the competence of his marshals)
@@fireandblood8142 To be fair, military geniousness of Napoleon was ovrehyperd.. by Napoleon's controlled papers\media. He was one of the first rulers to actively use state's propaganda machine for his own benefit (which was sorta required since Revolution was quick to dispose of it's leaders with the swings of public opinion). For example, his horrendous fiasco at Egypt with leaving his troops to die (not so different from how Russian campaign ended) was quickly swept under the rug and every arheologist\scientist participating in that compaign - was not allowed to speak any bad word about Napoleon's leadership.
Regarding the firings at 5:50, the regs of the time state that the 1st rank kneels 2nd ranks fires over their heads and the third rank leans between the files and also fires. In real cmbat the first rank stood, it didn't kneel, the 2nd rank leaned between the files and the third rank often reloaded the other ranks muskets.
I used to do napoleonic era reenactment in the line infantry and never recieved any order to kneel at the front line, always stood, and my Corporals, sergents, and officers were very keen to follow the "Règlement d'infanterie de 1792" which was the basic rules of infantry so I never considered kneeling even an option, only in tirailleur formation if I remember well but I'm not even sure about that.
I believe this tactic became outdated before Napoleonic Era. Infantry constitutions though might remain the same for some time
The austrian kneel their first rank but the french didnt
@@AciesNN Agreed. The practice of kneeling is certainly attested to during the both the French Indian War and the Revolutionary War. My pet theory is that I think it largely fell out of favour on account of them. The experience of both the French and the British of fighting in North America made for some pretty massive changes regarding the importance of infantry maneuver and kneeling does not increase mobility, that's for sure.
@@imperialus1 Napoleonic armies stopped the practice of kneeling first rank because it was found out that once the soldiers knelt, it was very hard to get them standing up again.
Great presentation. I collect military miniatures scale 1/72. My Napoleonic French are 2,608 infantry, 545 cavalry, 180 artillerymen manning 14 guns, and 25 supply troops with 6 wagons. Seeing them all arayed, gives me some idea of the enormity of the armies of the period.
That is impressive! Cheers mate! May I ask what mixture of 1/72 figures do you prefer? Thanks again
@@MrYeah2345 thanks mate. Airfix, HAT, Italieri, Esci and Zvezda; I really like Zvezda. A Russian company who make beautiful miniatures. Unfortunately not so easy to get here in Australia since the War with Russia. Do you collect miniatures too my friend?
Man, these 'true size' videos make me wish for a video on the true size of Alexander the great's army.
At its peak, Alexander's army was between 40 and 50k men, just 5% of Napoleon's "la grande armée"
Something that's easy to look is absolute *ton* of difference military theories, concepts, niche ideas, and all other manner of ideas that formed up just what napoleonic age warfare (and the periods immediately before and after) truly was.
The big pitched battles in particular get lots of attention but what is often missed is the masterful movement of men and equipment at operational level and the lower levels within divisions and regiments. Operationally, the Battle of Austerlitz, Leipzig, Waterloo, and the Battle of Sedan (Franco-Prussian) come to mind as particularly interesting examples of the divisional and corps level movement of men which preludes and setups the conditions that become the famed pitched battles
1 Battalion = 12 Companies in the picture.
1 Comapny = 4 + 5 + 2 + 1 = 12 light officers of approximately sergeant or sergeant major rank on average.
An officer = a staff of between 1 and 3.
Battalions represented administrative structure of between 144-432 depending on how many cooks and stablehands might be brought from home by the sergeant majors, the lieutenant majors, the fouriers and the captains. It is likely that 250 staff was considered "well provisioned" when setting off from home freshly stocked, and after actual combat 125 or as few as 100 of that might be actually left, far below the 144 for a lean force sufficient to pass inspection.
I wonder if there were any favored units that had a theoretical on paper 500 man staff that was only shot down to 200-250 after casualties from extra nasty engagement with the enemy and would have been considered excellent for the supplies of the other battalions it worked with?
1 Battalion is the smallest unit of force in RISK and must represent at least 100 reasonably educated officers and staff even in bad circumstances. :o
Presumably 100 men is also close to the number that decision making absolutely must be a more formalized process: you'll see school classes of 25 organize loosely if the kids are smart or good, but more than 50 invites confusion even among smart good people.
The total war Napoleon music in the back is just the chefs kiss on this video, Napoleon is my favorite general in history
So you are not gonna compare Napoleon to Hitler like Ridley Scott did?
@@54032Zepol On the battlefield.
Hitler was small potatoes
Think Ridley compared Napoleon to Hitler and Charlie Chaplin's parody of Hitler 😂
I don't understand were that comparison is drawn from? Other then he fought everyone. France turned into a Republic/meritocracy which was attacked by coalitions of monarchies who wanted to keep the revolution from spreading and taking away their power.
Such a shame
Great video! I'm planning to make a 10mm scale napoleonic army, and I must say your video helped me a GREAT deal understanding the Grande Armée's organisation. Thank you!
I'm French and the importance of having women with the army at all times in charge of selling food and wine is probably the Frenchest thing ever 😂😂😂
Needless to say this is an incredible video and an awesome work, merci beaucoup!
I read that in WWII, the Italian generals had waiters, to serve their food. It was also different from what the majority of the soldiers ate.
Beautiful language, gorgeous women and brandy, a pipe and some warm food. You truly are a cultured people.
Just imagine how many baguettes were eaten a day by these guys
@@tomgilesmarvoloryley one of the legends regarding the baguette's shape is that it was made this way to be conviniently caried in the bags of Napoleon's soldier!
@@sebastiencz3931
And baguette baked with electric oven was the only type of bread that can be made in bulk from 1920's-1930's after 25% of working age Frenchmen died in WW1?
Was is true that boule bread only become common in French bakery again after 1950's, before then it was either baguette or factory made sliced bread for the country literally did not have workers to operate bakery at the end of the War?
as a napoleon and empire total war player, this was truly a masterpiece, thank you sir for doing justice to the Grande Armee
Great video as always!
The vid leaves out the Ordre Mixte or Mixed order formation. It was a infantry regiment/battalion in line with a regiment/battalion in column on each flank, forming an upside down U. This formation evolved in response to Fredrick The Greats linear formation. The column would pierce the enemies line with a charge. Had this formation been used at Waterloo Wellington's thin red line would have been turned into hash!
I love this channel!!!
Great video and good visualization of the numbers and statistics.
Some people fall asleep at night counting sheep, I fall asleep counting orders of battle.
Am glad I'm not alone Sir.
Wonderful video, Great content. Thank you very much.
THANK YOU
As a french, really nice video, a lot of work
The Murat cavalery charge at Eylau was huge
As a French (with an upper case in any case) what?
That was more interesting than the whole Napoleon movie :)
Great Video
I hope you'll get to those videos concerning the other sections of Napoleon's army. I'm DYING to know the details on the cavalry and artillery units, especially. But I'm also curious about the engineer and support sections as well. THank you for your hard work!
A rather complicated it is, and very thought out and intelligent as well..
One of my favorite examples of the true size is the Napoleon film from decades ago. In the largest set pieces in the show the total combined men shown, the most ever used on film, the combined men of both sides in the film... is roughly equal... to a single Corps!
That napoleon total war music brings me back
some corrections: line inf also had voltigeurs and you have to change the corporals in the section text from 8 to 4
Incredible Historical Work
Great Art
Amazing Contextualization and Learning Examples
It’s Fairly Trivial to Me but this Really Help’s People Understand how Immensely Complex The Mil Is
Beautiful Work
Thank You
Love the Napoleon total war campaign map music!
I'm surprised there's so few wagons. It doesn't seem enough to take care of the supply needs of units this large.
That's because French armies of the period were expected to live off the land, either by forage or outright looting it from the civilian population. This reduced the need for long supply chains and let French armies move faster, but rendered them vulnerable to shortages or outright starvation if their enemies employed the scortched earth strategy against them, like in Russia and Spain.
@@brianu2229 I'm surprised this was the case at this late a date, for an army otherwise so well organised.
@@Thanaeon It was a deliberate decision made to increase speed of movement, since relying on wagon supply chains made armies slow and cumbersome. Sherman did the same thing during his March to the Sea. There was risk, of course, not least of which was that pillaging the countryside would make the civilian population violently hostile (see: Spain).
Slight graphic boo-boo: The Armee Corps graphic used a slash for the Artillery like the cavalry. The proper symbol for artillery would a dot, not a slash.
Ah shoot you are right. Looks like an icon got copied over rather than using the correct one. Apologies for missing that
NEEEEEEEEEEEERD! 🤣
But not just any kind of nerd - you're a Napoleonic nerd, basking in the glory of historical knowledge like no other!
9:29 Those designations weren't by height, but merit and unit type. Height was an issue, only in determining what "elite" status a trooper could attain. Veteran soldiers with a recommendation who weren't tall enough to be a grenadier, could instead be a voltigeur.
Carabiniers filled the role of grenadiers in light regiments, while chasseurs were the regular troopers of a light regiment, equivalent to a fusilier in a line regiment. Both light and line regiments had voltigeurs, who were elite skirmishers.
I would argue that the most common brigade type is two regiments when looking at only French units from 1808 onwards. A brigade with more than two regiments normally has regiments with only a battalion in them and a brigade with only one regiment was usually a very large regiment.
well as a veteran i fought for france 1794 to 1814 of napoleon war 6 i can say napoleon was a chill dude
The Napoleonic Wars would have been a delightful time to observe the army getting more equal for representation of competency in the command structures while still preserving some of the common sense culture that it would likely be advantageous for a rich man to be one of the officer staff on purely financial merit:
Consider the honest real military advantage of landed gentry officers being able to supply their units with a spare horse or two not subsidized by the Imperial government. If your company owns a total of 4 horses then your Captain has at least 2 spares if his horse gets shot--that means that your General can have his horse shot, he requisitions your Captain a horse, your Captain has 3 horses, your Captains horse gets shot, Company has 2 horses, your Captain *still* has a horse, your Lt Major *still* has 1 horse to share with the other Lt, and this is either 2 horses for your Captain or 2 horses for your Captain's General.
Out of 5 Sergeants, with one Sergeant Major, I would want 1 or 2 of them to be rich men and 3 of them to be smart men, that way the effectiveness during combat is optimized and we have extremely valuable expensive horses more than what the government provides us and it may be that if we do our jobs excellently and the officers do Not get their horse shot from under them, we just might be able to send a servant on a spare horse for an urgent messenger mission.
I can imagine it would be uncommon and very difficult to horse all 5 sergeants and still have spares for the Captains and their superiors. I wouldn't let a sub sergeant have a horse.
The sergeant major should be the richest sergeant in the Company and should be encouraged to bring his horse.
The lieutenant major should be required to be wealthy enough to have a horse and the Captain is the one whose horse is probably provided by his government salary.
A magnificent company would be able to provide 1 spare horse each for Lt major and Sgt major as well as Captain for a total of 6 horses in the Company and have possibly 12 servants including 3 or 4 stablehands. That would be luxurious and it would be very wasteful for those 6 horses to be shared by all the sergeants.
More than 6 horses in a Company sounds like lying and I would report the fourier for dishonesty and corruption. We can't afford to pretend we've got more than we've actually got, that's not how things are done anymore.
Looking forward to seeing the cavalry and artillery videos!
Another excellent video about the size of armies, we just have to wait for the other part that talks about cavalry. I would also like you to make a video about the size and organization of the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870; I think that German effectiveness in that conflict would be more understandable if you explain it this way.
FINALLY an unbiased EN vid about napoleon, i love this channel, you didn't disapointed again
What fantastic content, the Napoleonic era is fascinating to me and i am really excited to see this in detail. I hope more Napoleonic content from other nations is on the way too 👍👍
The joys of VR mean one day things will be produced that allow us to see the battlefields in their true scale and maybe even watch them, be awesome to see once technology allows it
Cavalry and Artillary videos when?
Great video! Would love to see you continue with the French Napoleonic cavalry and artillery! Thanks
A good suggestion after the conclusion of this amazing series, the fate of soldiers who get captured, both by Napoleon and coalization troops.
I have subscribed. THIS CONTENT gives me LIFE!
Really well done. The only error that I caught was the reversal of the left and right. The right should be on the left side as looked at from the front. The way it shows now, the colonel is on the left side. I only caught this because not to long ago I was a command sergeant major of infantry.
I've always wondered how all of these massive armies throughout history survived and didn't almost immediately destroy their own agricultural and industrial base.
Usually, they did. The march of most armies is normally followed by a famine.
In Russia, thousands of Napoleon's troops starved to death because as they marched across the barren landscape, what little food and supplies could be scavenged was taken by the Imperial Guard before other troops could get their hands on them. By the time the majority of the army approached areas the guard had marched through, the land was picked clean.
I love these four trippers, a great sounding band and they remind me of another band with a similar sound and style but the name escapes me!
I recall that the British distinction between regular infantry and light infantry was that regular infantry are expected to march at 120 paces per minute, while light infantry could march 160 paces per minute.
What a great concept. Do this kind of video for every army in history/fantasy, and I will watch every single one
Love how you bring the big big scales to life, would love to get such an introduction in war epics 😘😘😘😘
We are just getting started : ) Hoenstly next year is gonna be epic. Thus far we have just been explaining the building blocks of various armies. Soon we wil lactually be able to pit them against one another at never before seen scales.
@@InvictaHistory Wow. I've got goosebumps already!
Hen are you finaly gonna upload videos for light batallions cavalry artillery and other stuff from napoleon
Informative, thanks for posting. And makes me want to get back to playing some Napoleon TW!
I have a suggestion:
German WW1 infantry company organization at various stages of the war, to show how organization changed as warfare changed.
You got the right and left sides mixed up. It should be the right as of you were facing the enemy or the left if you were facing them. And ancient tradition dating to Rome and before when the strongest men stood on the right flank of the line as their shields would not protect their right side
The graphics are admittedly a bit confusing as the layout of the troops is correct (as if the enemy is at the top) but the models are facing south. Apologies for the confusion
That was great. Thank you.
@8:40 Why do you say the 1st section and the Captain are on the right flank, when in your illustration they are facing the camera and are therefore the left flank? Which is the correct one?
And secondly, where are the messengers (the ones who deliver orders from the general to the units)? Are they attached to the regiment or brigade or where?
You would be correct. They are all facing the wrong direction. Facing away. The captain is on the far right side. And all other subordinates are behind the formations. Not in front as depicted.
Do Caesar and Alexander next!!
Great video. Especially appreciate the use of Napoleon Total War music! ;p
What I find most difficult is how to communicate orders effectively during the battle (maneuvers, attack, counter-attack, retreat, move to that point, etc) with such big armies, coordinating all aspects, with no radio, no modern communication devices.
Bugle calls, runners, riders
The quality of contents is great. Research, graphics and narrations. Everything comes together to give viewers deeper understanding of the subject. Your channel is a diamond in a sea of mediocrity.
When will the next part be released?
Excellent video. Very helpful as I am putting a French Army together.
Looking foreward to next episode....
Hi, very welcome video, no mention of Sappers though.
I like the very Roman looking wagon drivers for the commissary and ammunition wagons 😂
We had a few extras standing around for the Roman episode and they were more than happy to fill in : )
Love the video but there is a massive error at 11:50 and orwards. The distinction between Soldiers, NCOs, and Commissioned Officers needs to be made far clearer in this video. A French Battalion in 1808 did not have 120 officers. In a Battalion structure shown in this video with 6 companies you’d be looking at 3 officers per company so that’s 18, and the added Battalion Staff of 4 so a total of only 22 officers! This naturally escalates the larger the formation listed.
Distinctions of this nature are important.
We did try andexplicitly list all the different ranks when we zoomed in but yes I agree that the zoomed out view and summaries did simplify things a bit too much.
@@InvictaHistory The zoomed in was spot on! Can’t fault it at all. Keep up the amazing work all of you and sorry to have picked it up.
perhaps add Non Coms as a step between
at 5:26 you doubled the amout of corporals to 8 4 would be correct.
I always found it fascinating that the Revolutionary Directorate was able to withstand a full on invasion from Austria and Netherlands without the expertise of Napoleon during the war of the 1st Coalition.... I feel like this is often brushed over
Excellent !
you know those cantinieres ladies got ran through like napoleons enemies
Given that many of them were soldiers' wives, I hope not. Or only by their husband
Very good video
Well researched and well presented.
Props the visualisation done in this video.
So now I want a new game, that represents the scale of these battles accurately. How is it, that I don't know of anyone ambigious enough to do this? I always imagine an online game, where you play 3v3 battles on large maps,. Each player having roughly a brigade to field. You then give orders on a regimental or battaoillon level and with the helo of AI these orders get executed. The player then only can micro a battallon at a time. Something along those lines would be my biggest hope for a future game... perhaps one will get lucky.
Anyway great video. I would love it, if at the end of this series there could be a to scale deployment overview on one of the famous battles, perhaps a smaller one from the Italy Campaign.
You should try a game named Scourge of War. They also have a mp community named kriegsspiel.
Total War: Napoleon Is kind of like that
One minute in and it's already better than the Napoleon movie that just came out.
Oh, I thought that movie was about Josephine....
Its crazy how microscopic stuff are organised in the same way like this...
EXCELLENT!!
It's interessting how much of this organisation is still alive and well in many modern armies. For example the Swiss Army is pretty much still organised exactly like this.
Hard to picture the amount of people inscale.
I first found out by going to a NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills and they announced the attendance at 78,000 people .
It was nothing after I seen a Daytona 500 car race with 175,000 people .
Good video thanks
Great docu
Love this!
This was very well done! I love the visual of it all. When going over formations you did miss one that was used extensively at the regiment and divisional level. Ordre Mixte.
So interesting to see the similarities between modern infantry companies and Napoleons.
Cavalry and artillery component next please 🙏
Thank you for a wonderful presentation, however I think i noticed a mistake; in line , facing the enemy, a battalion has its grenadier or carabinier on the right of the line, the voltiguers being on the left. The right of the line was usually considered an honour position, for the elite.
Could you do another like this but on the British redcoats please and also one one the starship troopers force or a star fleet combat force
I hope you can add one soon on combined unit tactics like the Ordre Mixte or MacDonald's monstrous square of columns at Wagram.
Very nice video, my ears only slightly bleed when Voltigeur was pronounced with a hard G sound :) It's a "soft G" so it sound the same as Majeur (Major, like an adult)
Absolutely!
Anyone else excited by the prospect they could be a Grenadier by 19th century height standards?
Will start growing a moustache and getting gold earrings tomorrow!
Very cool
*11:00** CHEF DE BATAILLON (not "BATALION").*
The good old days.
Napoleon recruit allied troops(Dutch, germans, Spanish, italians, polish and Swiss) to augment his numbers that's why he could raise a million.
Wow, ghe logistics and organization!