Strategy & Tactics

Field

Napoleonic Wars

The wars between Napoleonic France and the European powers, 1803–1815.

3 casesPeriod: 1805–1815

What the cases in this field share is a shape: most of the outcome is settled before the armies meet. At Austerlitz it was the inducement that made the allies give up the heights; at Trafalgar, intent distributed twelve days early; at Waterloo, which way each side fell back the day before. These wars are usually told as a genius improvising. What is legible here is the preparation that lets improvisation work.

Patterns found in this field

  1. 07
    A design of convergence

    The decision comes from troops who are not on the field yet — and from how many hours away they are.

    Waterloo — the battle that was decided the day before →
  2. 01
    A design of space

    Make the enemy give up, of his own accord, the ground you want.

    Austerlitz — the design that made the enemy abandon the centre →
  3. 04
    A design of command

    Assume your own chain of command will break, and build in advance for after it does.

    Trafalgar — the design that survived losing its signals →

A pattern is not a template to apply but a tool for checking conditions. The conditions under which each one fails are set out on the patterns page. The thirteen patterns

A large canvas of the battle of Waterloo with Wellington mounted at the centre among staff and wounded
Waterloo — the battle that was decided the day before

What decided it was not the tactics on the field but which side's second army had fallen back, the day before, in a direction that allowed it to join.

Pattern: a design of convergence
Decisive Anglo-allied and Prussian victory Read →
The Battle of Austerlitz painted by François Gérard
Austerlitz — the design that made the enemy abandon the centre

The reason the outnumbered Napoleon won was not a brilliant central breakthrough, but a design that made the enemy give up the centre.

Pattern: a design of space
Decisive French victory Read →
Turner's oil painting: a vast hull looming through gunsmoke, with drowning men in the water in the foreground
Trafalgar — the design that survived losing its signals

The outnumbered British fleet won without losing a ship not because of the two-column charge but because of a design that assumed the chain of command would break, and distributed intent and a default beforehand.

Pattern: a design of command
Decisive British victory (Nelson killed) Read →

Other fields

Second Punic War The Pacific War The Eastern Front The Hundred Years War The American Civil War Japan's Warring States period The Western Front, 1940–45 The Vietnam War The Western Front, 1914–18