Ask Anything Napoleonic and I will Answer them O_o (Napoleon Bonaparte, not Dynamite)

[TLCBonaparte]

Ask away! I am feeling very Napoleonic today, so I will try my best to promote Napoleonic legacy :D


If you wish to know more about the emperor, you should check out this podcast!

http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.co.../podcast/feed/

[Mentosftw]

Why did he lose at Waterloo? I want to know all the factors involved and the motivations behind both generals' decisions.

[Phunkie]

Did Napoleon have to stand on a ladder to make out with girls?

[Armi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon 1.7m is pretty tall there buddy.

[TLCBonaparte]

Why did he lose at Waterloo? I want to know all the factors involved and the motivations behind both generals' decisions.

Yes, it is pretty curious how he lost. There are several contributiing factors actually.

First let's go to early stage of the battle. Here's a map for reference


As you can see, at the beginning, Napoleon came from South, Wellington's force sits at Brussels, and Prussian to the East. Wellington at this point didn't actually take napoleon seriously enough. I dono if it's misinformation or something, the british force that was sent to deal with Napoleon was really weak and small, Napoleon on the other hand didn't know that. He went with the classic Napoleonic strategy and send Marshal Nay, his calvery marshal to deal with The british to at Quatre-Bras. while he and the main force quickly move towards the Prussian. Here lies the first thing that went wrong, Napoleon wasn't able to finish off the Prussian forces because he sent too many people with Nay to stop british which at the time was only a small advancing force. Had Napoleon had his entire force with him, he could devasted Prussian and made sure this battle will only be between French and British. But he didn't have enough force, while they had a grea victory against Prussian at this point, they regrouped and later bite Napoleon in the ass at Waterloo. Marshal Nay on the other hand, didn't do squat with his force. He was convinced that he was facing the british main force and didn't move out to attack that measily advancing force, nor did he send people to check. After a while British started to renforce that advance force, now he really IS facing a big army. At that point British made its retreat back to waterloo.

Another thing that's completely fail on French force's part was, during the attack of Prussian force, Napoleon really could have completely wiped Prussian force even with Nay's force gone. This is so stupid. Because at the event, Napoleon sent a direct order to a general controling a corp that is positioning between Marshal Nay's force and Napoleon's main force. Napoleon's order was that this corp was suppose to move across Ligny and flank Prussian's rear. Had that general did what Napoleon asked, Prussians wouldn't be a factor at waterloo. The problem was, at the same time Napoleon's Order arrived, Marshal Nay also sent an order to this corp to support Nay's force which was facing British at the time. This stupid idiot ignored Emperor's direct order and moved this corp to support Nay who at the time was sitting back and watching British enforcing their position... Had that general obeyed Napoleon's order, waterloo might turn out very different.

Move on the the waterloo battlefield. Marshal Grushi fail to bring his 32000 reinforcement to support Napoleon. During battle Marshal Nay once again made some major mistakes that costed Napoleon's battle. During Battle, Nay led his 9000 cavelry men and led charge against the british canon fire attempt to break British line... now this plan wasn't bad, except HE TOTALLY DID IT WITHOUT ANY FRENCH ARTILLARY SUPPORT! Nay's initial charge was sucssecful, but british soon regained posture and formed square formation which counters calvary charges. Under heavy british artillary fire and no friendly artillary support, Nay pretty much lost the entire French calvary with this move. Which is why when Wellington moved his men against the slope and totally pot shot french advancement, there was no calvalry to support french infantry.

And as if things couldn't get any worse, Wellington's original plan was to stall French force enough until Prussian force arrives. And arrived it did, although defeated the previous night, Napoleon didn't have enough force to destroy them completely, and they regrouped and arrived at waterloo. That was the nail on Napoleon's coffin, at which point French surrendered.

[TLCBonaparte]

Did Napoleon have to stand on a ladder to make out with girls?

Only giant chicks.