Smarter Napoleon

He needed wisdom more then intelligence.


He was a lot like Pyrrhus of Epirus - great at winning victories, hopeless at doing anything with them.

Bismarck was inferior to him in almost every way, but made up for it in the crucial area of knowing when to stop.
 
Since Bismarck was a statesman and Napoleon was a warlord (in effect), I'm not sure being inferior to Napoleon at what Napoleon did means very much about Bismarck's ability.

Xgentis: I would say he did. Alsace-Lorraine was against his wishes/advice, to name the thing that comes to mind.
 
He was a lot like Pyrrhus of Epirus - great at winning victories, hopeless at doing anything with them.

Bismarck was inferior to him in almost every way, but made up for it in the crucial area of knowing when to stop.

On the contrary, Bismarck was quite superior to Napoleon. He successively engineered and contained a series of rapid, victorious wars with some time lapse between each of them and set up a system able to survive without sustaining itself on the basis of military laurels. Napoleon I never bothered to do this.

I am not downgrading it. It was brilliant just saying Austria was useless and had terrible generals which napoleon brilliantly exploited. He just doesnt get ten because austria lacked genius generals whoom Napoleon could have beatean. Russia had Kutuzov but as we know Kutuzov lost during third coalition due to austrian failures. Plus he also on used a brilliant strategy to beat napoleon in Russia wel not so brilliant just common sense. Nappy invaded Spain and did fight well against wellington but lost in spain for he was unable to hold it and the gurellas were in a status quo more to say in the end after siezing it during the peninsular war. So unless Napoleon showed osmehwere that he could defeat generals of say Turrene or conde or Wallenstein or even Cordoba or Parma class successfully during the coalition wars and completly then he would get the ten but that didnt really happen.

Kutuzov never won a tactical victory over Napoleon in his entire career. The better Russian generals were people like Barclay de Tolly and Wittgenstein, who ultimately did defeat Napoleon as part of the Sixth Coalition. Kutuzov also did not invent any kind of strategy in 1812, what strategy there was was again from Barclay de Tolly. And even then the whole 1812 campaign unfolded as much by accident as by design.
 
On the contrary, Bismarck was quite superior to Napoleon. He successively engineered and contained a series of rapid, victorious wars with some time lapse between each of them and set up a system able to survive without sustaining itself on the basis of military laurels. Napoleon I never bothered to do this.

While admittedly, the German Empire was more stable than the First French Empire, it does remain that nobody below the ability of Bismarck was capable of effectively ruling it, which created factors which led directly to its downfall. So in a sense, Bismarck did make the same (or at least similar) mistakes as Napoleon in regards to stability; he merely was good at keeping the issues on a leash, until he was no longer in a position to do so.
 
Kutuzov never won a tactical victory over Napoleon in his entire career. The better Russian generals were people like Barclay de Tolly and Wittgenstein, who ultimately did defeat Napoleon as part of the Sixth Coalition. Kutuzov also did not invent any kind of strategy in 1812, what strategy there was was again from Barclay de Tolly. And even then the whole 1812 campaign unfolded as much by accident as by design.

Few people defeated Napoleon directly, but Russian generals held off the French army when led by others. Wittegstein held off Oudinot twice, Tormasov held off Schwarzenberg and captured a whole Saxon corps. This was part of the plan in keeping the French army concentrated and not let it attack towards Petersburg or south.

There really was a plan to keep the Russian army in front of Napoleon as bait until they were strong enough to make a stand. Didn't work out exactly as desired in the end, but it was much more planning than the Grande Armee did.

I'd also mention Bagration, Platov and Miloradovich are pretty good commanders. Not sure what i can really praise Kutuzov on other than a commitment to preserving the army.
 
While admittedly, the German Empire was more stable than the First French Empire, it does remain that nobody below the ability of Bismarck was capable of effectively ruling it, which created factors which led directly to its downfall. So in a sense, Bismarck did make the same (or at least similar) mistakes as Napoleon in regards to stability; he merely was good at keeping the issues on a leash, until he was no longer in a position to do so.

Well, sure, but Bismarck's Empire still provided for some kind of stable existence during a relatively prolonged and crucial period of time. Napoleon's was engaged in perpetual warfare, the German Empire did not have *that* problem, at least. Not that it didn't have plenty of its own....

Few people defeated Napoleon directly, but Russian generals held off the French army when led by others. Wittegstein held off Oudinot twice, Tormasov held off Schwarzenberg and captured a whole Saxon corps. This was part of the plan in keeping the French army concentrated and not let it attack towards Petersburg or south.

There really was a plan to keep the Russian army in front of Napoleon as bait until they were strong enough to make a stand. Didn't work out exactly as desired in the end, but it was much more planning than the Grande Armee did.

I'd also mention Bagration, Platov and Miloradovich are pretty good commanders. Not sure what i can really praise Kutuzov on other than a commitment to preserving the army.

True. I would rate Bagration and Miladorovich highly as well, I don't remember Platov that well. I was just noting that Barclay de Tolly shaped 1812 much more than Kutuzov did. He was just a bit of a Bernard Montgomery type in being brilliant but alienating damned near everyone it was possible to do so except the Tsar. If he'd been a full Monty he would have alienated the Tsar, too.
 
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