Letter from Gisèle Faure to his wife in Rennes Brittany Mes chers belle épouse, This week started off with us hunting for any hiding Austrian troops in the woods as we marched on their capital. Having become part of Napoleon's staff I must admit I both hate and enjoy, I hate all the officers I have to salute on the daily and the more fancy men who parade around like peacocks. However, I love the control and freedom that I have been given when it comes to helping train up cavalry. While there are generals who command the different units. I am the man Napoleon trusts to go see through the red ribbon and chicken teeth that some commanders are producing as their excuse for their unit's current shape. A large chunk of the problem comes from officers who were part of other armies before Napoleon took the throne. These men were lazy under the republic and most likely the reason their men are of such poor quality is because of their corruption. It gives me such joy to investigate and determine what is actually going on, however, I do long to be back with my true heavy cavalry. Alas that is what this army is missing greatly but at the same time it boasts an impressive amount of lancers willing to try and take up the mantle. Today I read the battle report about the bloody mountain siege, Ney was my first commander when I joined the cavalry and honestly one of the best horse commanders we have in the whole army. He deserved his marshal's baton however I can only imagine his frustration of not more cavalry and faster horse drawn cannons. He is a man of action and this siege would likely have played out differently had he had more maneuverable and lighter troops. However, given the heavy rain reduced a fair amount of the fight to men clubbing and bayonetting each other as their weapons jammed it is tough to say how much greater he would have done. As you may recall from earlier in this letter we were hunting this forest for enemy forces, today we caught them strung out on the march. Thanks to our scouts we were able to sneak up and get them into a perfect ambush, using the hills and woods to hide our forces until the last possible moment. The battle would have been a perfect thing had two light cavalry commanders not made the foolish mistake of charging lancers head-on. They should have listened to my council and had one bait the lancers into a pointless chase while the other drove for and took the enemy's cannons. We trapped them in a box but left some gaps so their panicked men to flee. As we have learned if you give a man no choice but to fight to his death he will do so at great cost to you. If you give him means to flee he will flee. Yet this once again proves why the army needs heavy cavalry, these foes have more seasoned commanders from fighting us, not to mention time to study our victories over the Ottomans and other foes. We must remain creative, aggressive, and alert if we wish to continue to come out on top. We will likely need to wait before marching into the Austrian capital, I must confess I do worry about my brother as his army marches toward another siege. He is a part of the regiment's staff which ideally means he won't be on the front line but I know better than to assume that a lower-ranking staff officer will keep away from the fire. I can not imagine the worries you currently have; our child due soon, me currently off fighting a war, your brothers sailing for the other side blockading our ports, and your parent's letters urging you to join them hiding in London. While some talk about the bravery that soldiers do, I have learned the bravery of a wife left behind to tend to everything while her husband is off to battle is the bravest thing ever. I confess my dearest on nights like this, when it is raining and cold I think back to how I could be sitting outside our estate and talking with you for hours. How I look forward to seeing you and our child when I get home. ton mari aimant Gisèle Faure
"Bravest of the Brave" was earned during the retreat from Russia. He was cut off commanding the rearguard and made suicidal assaults against massively superior forces before an audacious night march saw him and his surviving troops rejoining the column.
There is a great an easy to read biography about Ney called “Bravest of the Brave”. I have to point out that he didn’t make any “suicidal charges” but after skirmishing at Krasnoi with an 80k army of Russians he detached and made his famous cross over the frozen Dnieper river. And then formed two squares and made toward Orza fending off Cossack attacks along the way. When Ney finally made it back to Danzig he had only 200 men left out of his original 34k, in the end Ney was forced to stand in the firing line shoulder to shoulder with his remaining troops and hold back waves of oncoming Cossacks. All that only to be condemned to death by his fellow generals and returned royalists after Waterloo, “all is lost, except honor”
your light infantry can only place stakes after the battle starts which is why i usually place them in front of depleted line infantry to weaken any surprise cavalry charges then move them away from my army as a diversion
I do similar but tend to get them to stake the approach to my gun batteries. If (rarely) I have none then I stake the flanks and try to lure them in with a square behind the stakes. The AI really loves to attack squares with Cavalry, one of those CA 'historically authentic' things? 🤔 🙄
Lionheart I've been telling you since the Italian campaign that you've been killing your own men with the heavy cav charges!! Dozens each time :( rip Edit: Also! You can deploy the stakes, but only after the battle starts
Lionheart can you try to recuit every units and use them for more diversity? And also it would be really cool if every famous general got their own specific theme army
Hello Mr LH, Sir, Excellent Grand Army ambush! I believe this is the first time I have seen the Grand Battery tactic from you? I enjoyed the double evelopment and use of Calvary to chase down those German/Austrians. For Marshal Ney's battle that was worse for wear, but I believe everything you did was correct especially turning their flank as you did with your Light Infantry. Remember Lancers are counter Cavalry and not hussars. Lancers counter Cavalry. They are meant to clash quickly, reform, and repeat. All your ports require a Militia unit to keep a quick raid from happening. Once a port is attacked it can be rebuilt quickly but that is still time. If your port has a garrison, it obliges the enemy to bring a landing party to attack and which you can counter. The British will be queen for Belgium or Brittany to liberate against you. An Army near Paris is always a sensible option until you have taken the RN out of the equation by taking their ports! Love this content and keep it coming please! 🍻
Wonder how many others were screaming not to charge the Lancers through the skirmishers? Can't even eat the damage there 🙂 I think Wellington tactics (sit on bum), would have been a better plan, let the guns chew on them for a while. Still, tough win, but a good one
This might be a crazy idea, but you might could send Murat and Nay once they get built up to Britain while Napoleon and Massena deal with the Austrians. That way you could already start crippling them before they build up too much. This all depends on if you can sneak them across the English Channel in one turn though. Keep up the good work!
Journal entry of Private Pierre Léon of the Voltigeurs: March 6, 1803 We pushed aggressively towards the Austrian and Russian forces. The Austrians fell back trying to lure us into an encircling by the Russians. Napoleon acted quickly and attacked the Russians. We caught in the Bavarian Forest. The Russian cavalry charged the 12 pounders and were slaughtered. The sight of hundred of more men and horse charge to their death will never leave me. I don’t know what I expected of war but this was not it. We flanked the infantry and took easy shots into their flank. I killed two men. I can feel myself not being the same boy that worked the stables anymore. I just hope my family will still recognize me. The cavalry ran down the rest of the army and cut them down. So much death and such little time. We are pushing north towards Vienna next. I hope our success continues.
Journal entry of Pierre Léon Private of the Volitguers: After the defeat of the Russians we stopped to recover our strength. While in wait our scouts spotted the Austrians advancing into the Bavarian Forest towards are position. Unbothered by this news Napoleon deployed us to set up an ambush. The Austrians approached from their expected position straight into our trap. We hit them first with the cannons and then closed the jaws. Despite the obvious disadvantage the Austrians still fought bravely and professionally. Inflicting more than expected casualties on our forces. The Austrians guns deployed rapidly and dealt devastating barrages against our cavalry. Many were lost but the battle was still won. I hope the Austrians lose their nerve soon but I feel I’m in store for many more conflicts. We advance tomorrow again towards Vienna. I once came to the city with my father to visit and see the city. Now I come as a liberator.
Great video lionheart, loving the new campaign. I'm a little bummed out because my empire tw save got corrupted, and I just don't have it in me to recapture all of Europe as the Usa anymore lol, so I'll live vicariously through you haha. I've noticed that you do direct charges into enemies, but sometimes I find it better to run the cav through the unit towards another because it breaks cohesion and lowers moral of the unit more, plus your cav gets the bonus for charging but doesn't get stuck in making it a lot easier to re-maneuver them. I'm also loving your shogun playthrough and was wondering if you'd be interested in doing a fall of the samurai campaign where you stay traditional instead of modernizing, and perhaps a pirate campaign for empire tw, because seeing pirates own the world would be pretty epic lol. Keep up the great work my friend, and congrats on baby number 2 on the way!
My Lord Lionheartx10, I am looking forward to you defeating ‘Perfide Albion’. About the charge order through your own troops: I think I saw you doing that in one of the other campaigns. But nothing much happened. I was staring to think that Darth Mod had gotten rid of the issue. Maybe it didn’t show much, because you were mostly using your cav against their artillery. You were mostly far away from the main lines. Epic comparison, I do declare! Austrians worse the Skaven, I dig that!
Letter from Gisèle Faure to his wife in Rennes Brittany
Mes chers belle épouse,
This week started off with us hunting for any hiding Austrian troops in the woods as we marched on their capital. Having become part of Napoleon's staff I must admit I both hate and enjoy, I hate all the officers I have to salute on the daily and the more fancy men who parade around like peacocks. However, I love the control and freedom that I have been given when it comes to helping train up cavalry. While there are generals who command the different units. I am the man Napoleon trusts to go see through the red ribbon and chicken teeth that some commanders are producing as their excuse for their unit's current shape. A large chunk of the problem comes from officers who were part of other armies before Napoleon took the throne. These men were lazy under the republic and most likely the reason their men are of such poor quality is because of their corruption. It gives me such joy to investigate and determine what is actually going on, however, I do long to be back with my true heavy cavalry. Alas that is what this army is missing greatly but at the same time it boasts an impressive amount of lancers willing to try and take up the mantle.
Today I read the battle report about the bloody mountain siege, Ney was my first commander when I joined the cavalry and honestly one of the best horse commanders we have in the whole army. He deserved his marshal's baton however I can only imagine his frustration of not more cavalry and faster horse drawn cannons. He is a man of action and this siege would likely have played out differently had he had more maneuverable and lighter troops. However, given the heavy rain reduced a fair amount of the fight to men clubbing and bayonetting each other as their weapons jammed it is tough to say how much greater he would have done.
As you may recall from earlier in this letter we were hunting this forest for enemy forces, today we caught them strung out on the march. Thanks to our scouts we were able to sneak up and get them into a perfect ambush, using the hills and woods to hide our forces until the last possible moment. The battle would have been a perfect thing had two light cavalry commanders not made the foolish mistake of charging lancers head-on. They should have listened to my council and had one bait the lancers into a pointless chase while the other drove for and took the enemy's cannons. We trapped them in a box but left some gaps so their panicked men to flee. As we have learned if you give a man no choice but to fight to his death he will do so at great cost to you. If you give him means to flee he will flee.
Yet this once again proves why the army needs heavy cavalry, these foes have more seasoned commanders from fighting us, not to mention time to study our victories over the Ottomans and other foes. We must remain creative, aggressive, and alert if we wish to continue to come out on top. We will likely need to wait before marching into the Austrian capital, I must confess I do worry about my brother as his army marches toward another siege. He is a part of the regiment's staff which ideally means he won't be on the front line but I know better than to assume that a lower-ranking staff officer will keep away from the fire.
I can not imagine the worries you currently have; our child due soon, me currently off fighting a war, your brothers sailing for the other side blockading our ports, and your parent's letters urging you to join them hiding in London. While some talk about the bravery that soldiers do, I have learned the bravery of a wife left behind to tend to everything while her husband is off to battle is the bravest thing ever. I confess my dearest on nights like this, when it is raining and cold I think back to how I could be sitting outside our estate and talking with you for hours. How I look forward to seeing you and our child when I get home.
ton mari aimant
Gisèle Faure
Thank you for the shout-out lionheart it is humbling to hear so many enjoy the story
That's good I love to read letters of troops and officers in old campaigns it makes it all so human.
Man l have to say that was very good work the letter was great I am shall I say speechless
"Bravest of the Brave" was earned during the retreat from Russia.
He was cut off commanding the rearguard and made suicidal assaults against massively superior forces before an audacious night march saw him and his surviving troops rejoining the column.
the epic history youtube Channel has a really damn good video on Napoleons retreat from Russia. hell all their videos are just amazing 10/10
There is a great an easy to read biography about Ney called “Bravest of the Brave”. I have to point out that he didn’t make any “suicidal charges” but after skirmishing at Krasnoi with an 80k army of Russians he detached and made his famous cross over the frozen Dnieper river. And then formed two squares and made toward Orza fending off Cossack attacks along the way. When Ney finally made it back to Danzig he had only 200 men left out of his original 34k, in the end Ney was forced to stand in the firing line shoulder to shoulder with his remaining troops and hold back waves of oncoming Cossacks. All that only to be condemned to death by his fellow generals and returned royalists after Waterloo, “all is lost, except honor”
your light infantry can only place stakes after the battle starts which is why i usually place them in front of depleted line infantry to weaken any surprise cavalry charges then move them away from my army as a diversion
I do similar but tend to get them to stake the approach to my gun batteries. If (rarely) I have none then I stake the flanks and try to lure them in with a square behind the stakes. The AI really loves to attack squares with Cavalry, one of those CA 'historically authentic' things? 🤔 🙄
Only lionheart can make napoleons destruction of Europe seem wholesome
Campigns going to be brutal I think. Your gonna have to learn all the troops again to get the proper match ups/trades
Lionheart I've been telling you since the Italian campaign that you've been killing your own men with the heavy cav charges!! Dozens each time :( rip
Edit: Also! You can deploy the stakes, but only after the battle starts
Lionheart can you try to recuit every units and use them for more diversity?
And also it would be really cool if every famous general got their own specific theme army
Hello Mr LH, Sir,
Excellent Grand Army ambush!
I believe this is the first time I have seen the Grand Battery tactic from you? I enjoyed the double evelopment and use of Calvary to chase down those German/Austrians.
For Marshal Ney's battle that was worse for wear, but I believe everything you did was correct especially turning their flank as you did with your Light Infantry.
Remember Lancers are counter Cavalry and not hussars. Lancers counter Cavalry. They are meant to clash quickly, reform, and repeat.
All your ports require a Militia unit to keep a quick raid from happening.
Once a port is attacked it can be rebuilt quickly but that is still time. If your port has a garrison, it obliges the enemy to bring a landing party to attack and which you can counter. The British will be queen for Belgium or Brittany to liberate against you.
An Army near Paris is always a sensible option until you have taken the RN out of the equation by taking their ports!
Love this content and keep it coming please!
🍻
You should invest one turn's worth of money on your economy. You've got mines, factories, farms, and some roads that could be upgraded!
This series got me back into Empire (I don’t have Napoleon). And man that Pirates Uber Alles mod is awesome, really loving the experience
Wonder how many others were screaming not to charge the Lancers through the skirmishers? Can't even eat the damage there 🙂
I think Wellington tactics (sit on bum), would have been a better plan, let the guns chew on them for a while. Still, tough win, but a good one
This might be a crazy idea, but you might could send Murat and Nay once they get built up to Britain while Napoleon and Massena deal with the Austrians. That way you could already start crippling them before they build up too much. This all depends on if you can sneak them across the English Channel in one turn though. Keep up the good work!
Cherbourg to Ireland>Scotland> London. You can pick Cardiff off after that. My first moves in my first NTW campaign
Journal entry of Private Pierre Léon of the Voltigeurs:
March 6, 1803
We pushed aggressively towards the Austrian and Russian forces. The Austrians fell back trying to lure us into an encircling by the Russians. Napoleon acted quickly and attacked the Russians. We caught in the Bavarian Forest.
The Russian cavalry charged the 12 pounders and were slaughtered. The sight of hundred of more men and horse charge to their death will never leave me. I don’t know what I expected of war but this was not it.
We flanked the infantry and took easy shots into their flank. I killed two men. I can feel myself not being the same boy that worked the stables anymore. I just hope my family will still recognize me. The cavalry ran down the rest of the army and cut them down. So much death and such little time.
We are pushing north towards Vienna next. I hope our success continues.
I think Ney’s “Bravest of the Brave” nickname was from the retreat from Russia when he was with the rear guard
Journal entry of Pierre Léon Private of the Volitguers:
After the defeat of the Russians we stopped to recover our strength. While in wait our scouts spotted the Austrians advancing into the Bavarian Forest towards are position. Unbothered by this news Napoleon deployed us to set up an ambush.
The Austrians approached from their expected position straight into our trap. We hit them first with the cannons and then closed the jaws. Despite the obvious disadvantage the Austrians still fought bravely and professionally. Inflicting more than expected casualties on our forces. The Austrians guns deployed rapidly and dealt devastating barrages against our cavalry. Many were lost but the battle was still won. I hope the Austrians lose their nerve soon but I feel I’m in store for many more conflicts. We advance tomorrow again towards Vienna. I once came to the city with my father to visit and see the city. Now I come as a liberator.
Great video lionheart, loving the new campaign. I'm a little bummed out because my empire tw save got corrupted, and I just don't have it in me to recapture all of Europe as the Usa anymore lol, so I'll live vicariously through you haha. I've noticed that you do direct charges into enemies, but sometimes I find it better to run the cav through the unit towards another because it breaks cohesion and lowers moral of the unit more, plus your cav gets the bonus for charging but doesn't get stuck in making it a lot easier to re-maneuver them. I'm also loving your shogun playthrough and was wondering if you'd be interested in doing a fall of the samurai campaign where you stay traditional instead of modernizing, and perhaps a pirate campaign for empire tw, because seeing pirates own the world would be pretty epic lol. Keep up the great work my friend, and congrats on baby number 2 on the way!
Coming here from the Satsuma campaign. This is definitely worlds different in terms if gameplay and tactics being used.
My Lord Lionheartx10, I am looking forward to you defeating ‘Perfide Albion’.
About the charge order through your own troops: I think I saw you doing that in one of the other campaigns. But nothing much happened. I was staring to think that Darth Mod had gotten rid of the issue. Maybe it didn’t show much, because you were mostly using your cav against their artillery. You were mostly far away from the main lines.
Epic comparison, I do declare! Austrians worse the Skaven, I dig that!
Are you going to give the good special troops to Napoleons army instead of the regular fusiliers?
18:31 It was during Russia
the cannon from toulon
Austrian sausage is harder to chew, maybe cook it a bit longer....