AHC: Britain does not win Napoleonic Wars

Have Jouffroy d'Abbans experimental pyroscaphe more successfull and the academie royale des science alloz him a demonstration in Paris. That will be enough to make steam power an idea whose time has come for French enlightement and Napoleon will likely embrace it wholeheatedly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude-François-Dorothée,_marquis_de_Jouffroy_d'Abbans
so our solution to the French winning is...steamships?
So the only reason why the French lost was because of the lack of steam power?
Wouldn't it just be possible for the French to win through tactical success???
maybe not...
 
Have Jouffroy d'Abbans experimental pyroscaphe more successfull and the academie royale des science alloz him a demonstration in Paris. That will be enough to make steam power an idea whose time has come for French enlightement and Napoleon will likely embrace it wholeheatedly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude-François-Dorothée,_marquis_de_Jouffroy_d'Abbans
See my previous post, re Napoleon's treatment of the already-demonstrated (and actually in military use) balloons.
 
See my previous post, re Napoleon's treatment of the already-demonstrated (and actually in military use) balloons.

Not to mention that if steam actually looks like a viable option - a fleet capable of amounting to anything can't be built in a day - it's not as if Britain will ignore it.

Among other "What if France adopts ______?" Its enemies will respond. Some more effectively than others, but that France can do things different and no one will even think of a response is a bit much to ask.
 
Not to mention that if steam actually looks like a viable option - a fleet capable of amounting to anything can't be built in a day - it's not as if Britain will ignore it.

Among other "What if France adopts ______?" Its enemies will respond. Some more effectively than others, but that France can do things different and no one will even think of a response is a bit much to ask.

exactly...so, then how could France win tactically?
Or, at least, how would Britain not win (Stalemate OR Loss) during the Napoleonic Wars?
 
zep,
As I said several days ago, it's rather easy to have France win the napoleonic wars. :

"having france win the war (s) is actually quite easy. simply have Nap not make two huge errors: don't invade Portugal/Spain (I consider them basically two sides of the same coin) and don't get sucked into chasing/invading a retreating Russian army. Even with the Peninsular war, France was the master of Europe and the only thing that reversed that was a disasterous invasion of Russia. Without that reversal, how long can Britain hold out?"

Neither side can directly, militarily, beat the other (France can't get to England, England can't threaten France on land). Britain needs surrogate land masses/armies to arm and aid. Take away them, and Britain has a navy, an industrial base, and no way to use either. That was the point of the continental system, which turned out to be somewhat counter productive. a couple tweaks here or there, might make it work (such as ignoring Portugal, which really wasn't a threat, or not getting sucked into Trafalgar). France very well may have been able to simply ignore Britain militarily and not implemented the continental system. Britain only had a war to prosecute because France gave them one.
 
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