7 Reasons Why The Battle of Waterloo is Still Important

[Drake001]

Seems like how raw and degraded new recruits would be would depend on how many you called up relatively to the population and years past (if you're calling a lot every year then the pool might become younger) and how soon you rushed them into battle/how much training they received.

Also, suppose you had to allot your supplies into two buckets: supplies for campaign and supplies for training. Austria may need 10 supplies per year in order to give very basic training but would only have 15 to spend....meaning they would have only 5 available to allot to the campaign pool.

[Shri]

AH! But the Brits were at their peak in the 1812-1815 period, esp. Waterloo, despite most of the Peninsular veterans being shipped to Canada and some in transit, the remaining English were lavishly equipped and the Cavalry had the best mounts in Europe. Uxbridge's confidence in his cavalry stemmed from these factors. Though Wellington rightly maintained a degree of pessimism.

[Le Ricain]

AH! But the Brits were at their peak in the 1812-1815 period, esp. Waterloo, despite most of the Peninsular veterans being shipped to Canada and some in transit, the remaining English were lavishly equipped and the Cavalry had the best mounts in Europe. Uxbridge's confidence in his cavalry stemmed from these factors. Though Wellington rightly maintained a degree of pessimism.

This is not quite correct. In April 1814, Wellington commanded 67 inf bn. Of these, 16 were sent to North America (plus 5 art batteries and 1 cav rgt). The majority of his veterans remained in Europe. The War of 1812 ended in Feb 1815. It is doubtful that any rgts would have been 'enroute' by the time of Waterloo. In fact, 2 rgts, the 4th and 95th, fought at both New Orleans and Waterloo. The 4th had higher casualties at New Orleans than at Waterloo.

[elxaime]

I suspect with all the armies our understanding of their capabilities is heavily colored by inaccurate recollections of the time, often openly partisan. I hope the designers lean heavily on more recent scientific scholarship as opposed to the picaresque recollections of court nobles and roaming hussar captains.

[Shri]

This is not quite correct. In April 1814, Wellington commanded 67 inf bn. Of these, 16 were sent to North America (plus 5 art batteries and 1 cav rgt). The majority of his veterans remained in Europe. The War of 1812 ended in Feb 1815. It is doubtful that any rgts would have been 'enroute' by the time of Waterloo. In fact, 2 rgts, the 4th and 95th, fought at both New Orleans and Waterloo. The 4th had higher casualties at New Orleans than at Waterloo.

At Waterloo, Wellington had some 65000+ troops, 50000 Infantry and 10000+ Cavalry + others (artillery etc). Other than 25000+ (many of them Irish), the remaining were mostly foreigners, some 6000+ were KGL troops (King's German Legion - a tough and battle hardened corps) In additions there were some 17000+ Dutch and 17000+ Other German troops, many of them inexperienced. The Dutch army was newly formed.
Less than 10000 troops were veterans of Peninsula wars, though the KGL were mostly veterans and about half of the "Other German States troops" (Brunswick, Nassau, Anhalt, Hanover etc) were probably experienced.

[Le Ricain]

The point that was trying to make was that your claim that half of the Peninsula Army was sent to North America was incorrect. In 1814, 16 bn of the army were sent to NA. Of these, two bn were able to return to Europe in time for Waterloo. At Waterloo, there were 23 British bn, of which 20 were Peninsula veterans. The other three, 2/33rd, 2/69th and 2/73rd, were veterans of the Dutch 1813-14 campaign. Also present were 8 bn of The King's Getman Legion, who were also Peninsula veterans.

[Philippe]

While I don't believe that everything that happened from 1812 on was a more or less direct consequence of the failure of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, I do happen to believe that after Leipzig everything Napoleon did was merely an attempt to postpone the inevitable. Leipzig guaranteed the loss of Germany and sealed Napoleon's fate. And that's why I don't consider Waterloo to be that important a battle.

My two favorite Napoleonic campaigns are 1813 in Germany and 1814 in France. The one in Germany because it is pregnant with a huge possibility, and the one in 1814 because it was essentially hopeless but saw Napoleon at his best (or at least almost as good as he had been in 1797). When you've spent a lot of time living with the 1814 campaign, you realize how bad things were for Napoleon during the 100 days. Yes, his army was in better shape and he could field a larger strike force, but to stop the tide of invasion he would have needed to win four or five battles of Waterloo, and short of a 'miracle of the house of Brandenburg' (which is what he was always hoping for in 1814 as well as 1815), the losses he would have incurred after his second or third win would have left him in the same boat he was in at the end of the 1814 campaign. The situation wasn't winnable because there were simply too many Austrians, Russians, and Prussians.

Having said that, I really hope this game has a standalone 1814 campaign and a what-if 1815 campaign that starts the morning after a hypothetical victory at Waterloo for comparison.

And I also hope the game uses a map that is more like the one in EAW than the one in the first Napoleon game or even the one in Rise of Prussia.

[DrPostman]

I like the EAW map as well, covers everything needed in this game except the
Far East and South Atlantic. Perhaps India might be kept in case the French want
to start trouble there.

[Shri]

EAW map is excellent, a Pacific Naval Box or an Indian Ocean Naval Box can be added to showcase more naval access and British trade.

[Field Marshal Hotzendorf]

The more map the better in my opinion. More room for maneuver.