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166번
\n\nThis trade ship is neither blessed with speed nor firepower and can be outmanoeuvred by most naval vessels. It is built for trade, and its low upkeep costs mean a large profit from each journey. If trapped it can defend itself slightly and maybe even drive off very weak attackers, but merchants are not fighting men, and their low morale and the ship’s light guns are unlikely to last long against a real warship.\n\nBritish merchant trading was the strongest in the world during the Napoleonic era, and this position was protected by the Navigation Acts first passed in 1651. Trade with British colonies had to be carried out using “British bottoms” or British ships, not to mention British ports and mainly British crews, effectively squeezing out any competition. Other nations tried similar protectionist policies, but without as much success. Despite this legal help, British merchant owners were not without their difficulties; the Royal Navy used press gangs to recruit seamen for the ranks and experienced merchant sailors were the first to be targeted, forcing merchant owners to pay high wages for less able seamen simply to run their ships.
167번
\n\nThough no longer necessarily equipped with carbines, the origin of their name, carabiniers still command respect and fear in equal measure from enemies. Rather than firepower, they have a powerful charge they use to plough through enemies, breaking and scattering men with their straight heavy swords. Their mounts are among the slowest horses used by cavalry, and are best employed in planned attacks rather than the role of reserve cavalry.\n\nHistorically, French Carabiniers had royalist roots but, unlike the other royal units, managed to escape abolition during the French Revolution, and instead found a place in France’s newly reorganised cavalry. Despite this, the carabiniers still had some royalist sympathies and frequently clashed with the Revolutionary authorities. When Napoleon came into power he showered them with “armes d’honneur” in order to gain their loyalty. It worked. After the carabiniers sustained casualties in 1809 against the Austrians, Napoleon revised their uniforms, giving them cuirasses and helmets.
168번
\n\nTo the uneducated eye, a mortar looks like a large, stumpy cooking pot, set at an angle in a heavy wooden frame. Indeed, the weapon’s name may even come from its similarity to the mortars used to grind spices. Mortars use indirect fire, firing their percussive shells and quicklime high into the air to plunge down on enemy positions.\n\nUnlike a howitzer, a mortar uses a fixed, and relatively small, charge of gunpowder to propel its shell. Range is adjusted by changing the angle of fire; accuracy is subject to winds and weather. There is also a practical minimum range to mortar fire as the weapon cannot be aimed in a near-vertical position. The men that handle them are incredibly vulnerable to fast moving cavalry.\n\nModern mortars owe their widespread use to trench warfare in the First World War. Current designs, based on the British Stokes trench mortar, come in many sizes. Most can fire shells with proximity fuses as anti-personnel rounds. The larger examples can fire sophisticated “smart” munitions that guide themselves onto targets.
169번
\n\nUnusually for a merchant ship, an Indiaman carries cargo, passengers, and a good number of guns. Intended to sail from Europe to the other side of the world and back carrying valuable, even priceless, cargoes, these ships have to be able to defend themselves. The Indiaman’s 9- and 18-pounders are sufficient to fight off smaller attackers, but it is vulnerable to boarding. Carrying a cargo does not help its speed either, and the added guns mean the upkeep has an impact on any profit made. However, a defendable trade ship is always more profitable than stolen goods or kidnapped passengers.\n\nHistorically, East Indiamen resembled ships of the line, both in their general configuration and paintwork. At the Battle of Pulo Aura (1804), the ambiguous appearance and aggressive handling of a squadron of British Indiamen completely humbugged the French admiral, Charles-Alexandre Linois. He withdrew in the face of “superior” forces. Commodore Nathaniel Dance, of the British Company fleet, received a knighthood and a handsome reward for his cunning.
170번
\n\nWell-trained and well-respected, the foot regiments of the King’s German Legion are responsible for holding the line in battle. When deployed, they brave the threat of artillery fire, skirmishers and cavalry charges to unleash very effective volley fire upon the enemy. Cavalry charges should be countered by ordering them to form square. They fight with justifiable pride in their skills in close combat, giving opponents pause with their brutal use of bayonets.\n\nHistorically, the majority of the King’s German Legion was recruited from the Hanoverian Army, which had disbanded after Napoleon’s occupation of Hanover. Given that the British monarch was also Elector of Hanover, the British lost no time in creating a legion of Hanoverian exiles, ready to fight and die to destroy Napoleon. The British soon held the King’s German Legion in high regard due to their exemplary behaviour on the battlefield and in training. Hanoverian officers had a professional attitude towards war that was largely lacking in their native British counterparts, who considered tactics and drill beneath the notice of proper gentlemen.
171번
\n\nWhen considered against other militias, the National Guard is clearly a superior force. However, they should not be expected to stand against regular military units; they are an armed police force, intended to keep order. In battle, they lack confidence, and may run. They are, however, useful garrison troops, can maintain public order, and are inexpensive to recruit and pay.\n\nThe French National Guard was formed in 1789, a result of “la Grande Peur”, or the “Great Fear”. Failed harvests led to unrest and the National Assembly needed a police force. The Troupes Provinciales were unreliable because they were recruited, by lottery, from the peasantry who were the source of the unrest. The National Guard, on the other hand, attracted the middle classes to its ranks, if only because guardsmen were expected to pay for their own uniforms and equipment. That social difference made them a more reliable force.
172번
\n\nWhen mounted, these troops can either use their deadly heavy swords in close combat or break enemy line formations with a powerful charge. Their horses allow them to reposition quickly to counter enemy moves, quickly lending firepower to beleaguered comrades. However, they have to dismount before firing their carbines. They sometimes need to be kept on a tight rein by a commander, because their eagerness for battle can sometimes become recklessness.\n\nIn 1807, the Danes refused naval support to the British. The British, for their part, feared the Danes would support the French, and so part of the King’s German Legion to Denmark. On the road to Copenhagen, the 1st King’s German Light Dragoons learned that there was an arsenal in the fortress of Friederickswerk. Despite having only a single squadron to hand, Captain Krauchenberg, the dragoon’s commander, sent a message demanding the fortress’ surrender. He claimed that an army of 10,000 was on the way. His enormous fib worked, and the KGL Dragoons secured an impressive haul of enemy guns and ammunition, just as daylight revealed their actual numbers! By then, it was too late for the hapless Danes.
173번
\n\nWhile these warships are among the most powerful vessels afloat, they are lubberly sailors, being both slow and unresponsive. This is not a serious shortcoming because, armed with 106 cannons firing 32-, 24-, and 18-pounder balls on their three decks, they deliver a terrible and destructive broadside. They actually have more artillery than most land armies! Their cost, however, is a drawback and few navies can afford to build or maintain more than a handful of them.\n\nHistorically, 106-gun ships-of-the-line were never common, and hardly ever sent to overseas stations. They were pure battleships, existing only to fight in set-piece actions, and not for mundane duties such as protecting merchantmen, policing the seas and hunting down privateers. They were commissioned and richly decorated as a physical representation of the glory of the state, but this practice went into decline as warfare became more intense, forcing ships to become more functional.
174번
\n\nWith a recruitment policy that demands the tallest and strongest men possible, this unit makes an impressive sight on the battlefield. Their presence and reputation has a positive effect on friendly troops, encouraging them on in any dark hours! Unfailing discipline means these men have excellent accuracy and their reload times are almost unrivalled; however, these skills make them an expensive unit; they are also vulnerable, just like lesser men, to artillery and skirmishers.\n\nIn 1809 Napoleon raised two units of Vélites from Turin and Florence in Italy. They were raised from well-to-do families; any man with an income of less than 300 francs was overlooked. This recruitment process was a masterstroke from Napoleon: by recruiting units from the middle and upper classes, and by giving their sons positions of power, he ensured the continued support of the influential classes. He continued to buy support from these people by posting their children to the guard and other units where they would see minimal action but still get to wear a lovely uniform.
175번
\n\nWith twice as many guns as an ordinary artillery unit, the Grand Battery is an exceptionally strong unit. Its cannons have both a long range and tremendous killing power. However, it is vulnerable to cavalry attack even when not emplaced, as it is slow moving. The gun crews are only armed with swords and relatively untrained in hand-to-hand combat. Fighting is not their task: serving the guns is their only duty.\n\nThe Grand Battery was the turning point of Napoleon Bonaparte’s career: he was promoted to brigadier-general thanks to his skills and drive. As a trained artillerist, he knew that the real killing power in an army was in the heavy guns, not musketry or sabres. The idea of a Grand Battery was used in many of his later battles. It relied on weight of fire against a single section of an enemy line to blow a whole through any enemy defences. Against the storm of shot that a grand battery could produce, flesh stood little chance. The best defence was to use a reverse slope and hide behind the crest of a hill, rather than endure such a bombardment.