French win Franco-Prussian war.

How about having the French Mitrailleuse up front in every battle instead of behind? From what I can remember, the Prussians knocked those things out in most battles.
 
I remember a timeline where they do poorly in Mexico and it becomes their winter war. Showing the deficiencies in their current millitary. It doesn't have to be Mexico, but a skirmish or something that makes their millitary shortcomings painfully obvious.
 
I remember a timeline where they do poorly in Mexico and it becomes their winter war. Showing the deficiencies in their current millitary. It doesn't have to be Mexico, but a skirmish or something that makes their millitary shortcomings painfully obvious.
Why didn't that happen in OTL?
 
Why didn't that happen in OTL?

The French army on its own terms was actually pretty good. They inflicted some painful defeats on the Prussians IOTL, with everything going against them. The Prussians just managed to force a fight that played to their strengths and the enemy's weaknesses.

Since I can't see the strategic picture changing, the French need to be better prepared for it. The wars they fought before, though, all didn't really motivate them that way. The problem is, the only options for getting into wars that would do that - wars where they faced strong armies with modern artillery and railway-based logistics - would butterfly away the Franco-Prussian War with near certainty. Maybe if they just paid closer attention to 1866? They could learn something from the Austrian experience.
 
How about having the French Mitrailleuse up front in every battle instead of behind? From what I can remember, the Prussians knocked those things out in most battles.

Well, the Prussians had better artillery. I'll bet they'll use the grand batteries to punch through and destroy the mitrailleuse positions before charging. Probably after being repulsed bloodily a time or two.

Mitrailleuse was very high profile weapon, hard to conceal. It had its weaknesses.
 
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