Napoleons troops in England?

Hey Guys,

I was wondering, how effective would Napoleon's 'Great Army' have been in England? How much land could they actually conquer and if they could take the whole of Great Britain, what would happen to Scotland, Wales and England?

Also let's just say that the French somehow get their troops across the channel and onto England somehow, by ASB help or something, I'm only interested in the success of the 'Great Army' in Great Britain.
 
The main problem of Napoleon was to get the "Grande Armée" across the Channel because the French fleet was not powerful enough to deal with the Royal Navy. An invasion became impossible after Trafalgar, where the French Fleet was destroyed by the Royal Navy. And the British made sure Napoleon couldn't get the Navy of other nations with a strong navy such as Denmark (they destroyed it) or Portugal (they helped the Portuguese escape)

But if "Grand Armée" had landed, the British would have been in serious trouble, especially if you consider Napoleon's tactical genius. He could have done them much damage.

In the worst case for the British, Napoleon would have totally defeated them and destroyed the UK so that it wouldn't rise up against him again.
When I say destroy, I mean giving Scotland and Ireland independance. I doubt he would do much about Wales though...

However, the worst case scenario for Britain is also the most unlikely : I think Napoleon will just make sure to neutralize Britain somehow, maybe going as far as to make it a puppet state.

But! An invasion of Britain isn't possible if you don't somehow destroy the Royal Navy or get enough ships in the Channel to neutralize it for the period of time necessary to land the troops. And even then, the difficulty are enormous : supply and reinforcements will need to come the same way which will be a big trouble if the Royal Navy's still around.

The only other way to try to invade Britain would be by Air. However, Airships hadn't been invented yet : you'll need to have it invented before Napoleon's invasion. And even then, you'll need the French to have the strongest Air Force or to be the first to developp it.

You can also think ASB and read the Temeraire Saga for more details...
 
Well, the French were the world's great pioneers in ballooning, and Napoleon would have been aware of the technology. If any nation in the world in his era was going to develop an air force, it would have been France.

Still, leaving that aside, if we manage to nullify the Royal Navy with a handwave, I agree that the British ground troops would not have been enough to stop the Grande Armée. What old Nappy would have decided to do with Britain politically after he conquered it, I don't know, but I do agree that if he could have gotten to it, he would have conquered it.
 
Halcyon Dayz said:
Cicero the Younger said:
Well, the French were the world's great pioneers in ballooning, and Napoleon would have been aware of the technology. If any nation in the world in his era was going to develop an air force, it would have been France.

They did.

French Aerostatic Corps (1794-1802)

It appears that those ballons were only use as scouts and to observe the ennemy's movements in battle. While it could prove useful to Napoleon in Battle if the project lasted longer, they are not meant to be use to fight. So, it's not really an air force...

What we're talking about would be ballons that could act as troop transporters and aerial fighting units, probably mainly as bombers as it would be hard to transform a balloon into something else.

And considering the dates, it seems to be little short on time to allow such a project to developp that much.
Of course, "Impossible n'est pas français". But still...
 
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