THE RISE OF NAPOLEON! Napoleon Total War: Darthmod - France - Italy Campaign #1 

*Welcome to #1 of My NEW Rise of Napoleon series! Starting with the Italy Campaign, followed by Egypt and then finally the Grand European Campaign we shall experience the Rise of Napoleon! I’ll be releasing this series every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at minimum but likely more often whenever possible. Part 2 will be out Thursday, Part 3 Friday, Part 4 Saturday and Part 5 Monday! Vive L’Emperor!*

One of my favourite facts about Napoleon is that even though he had lost everything and the coalition forces were encroaching on Paris, he raised a bunch of recruits that were green as grass and beat back the coalition forces repeatedly even though he was outnumbered 2 to 1 as well. The 6 days campaign is the best example of it, with 30,000 fresh recruits, probably teenagers, he killed 30,000-35,000 of General Blücher’s 55,000 men while losing only 5,000

I passed my senior synthesis with academic merit yesterday. Now, I will enjoy this wonderful campaign during my vacation, waiting for my college diploma. May Napoleon be victorious in his battles!

Here’s a fun fact the French Marshal Étienne Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre Macdonald was as, the surname might suggest, Franco-Scottish. His father was Neil MacEachen MacDonald, a veteran of the Scottish Jacobite Army and a Gaelic poet. He fled to France after the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. His son went on to serve not only in the Wars of the Coalition but in the Napoleonic campaigns - rising to the rank of Marshal of the Empire in spite of the fact Napoleon did not like him very much. He distinguished himself in the defensive campaign of 1814 and there’s a plaque commemorating him on the Outer Hebridean island of South Uist, the familial home of the clan Macdonald. After the wars he visited Uist in 1825 to find out more about his roots in Scotland.

My Favorite fact is Napoleon created the Corps system that nations still use today, so much of how modern Armed Forces operate can be credited to Napoleon as he laid the ground work for so much, from Logistics, to Command, and even concentrating firepower to decimate specific areas of an enemy force.

Napoleonic Wars factoid: during the campaign of 1813 the Russians deployed thousands of irregular horse archers from the steppes. Although he himself had been hit by an arrow at the battle of Leipzig, General Marbot estimated that throughout the campaign the “Bashkirs” had caused only one death and a few wounded, later describing them as comically ineffective and as “the world’s least dangerous troops.” They were enough of an oddity that Napoleon ordered Marbot to capture a few just so he could take a look at them in person.

Definitely purchased the book “Napoleon in Egypt”. The book is a nice read, you will learn a lot of what happened in Egypt, and it could help make the Egyptian campaign more enjoyable with knowing what Napoleon was dealing with

My favourite napoleon fact is his last words were France army joséphine

Sergent Travail Poome was exhausted beyond what he had felt in the two years he served in the Rupublic's Armée d'Italie. He watched over the men he served with during this campaign but, easily saw how malnourished, poorly-trained, and under-equipped they truly were. ("Au diable l’annuaire! Nous sommes ici en train de gâcher nos vies et ils ne peuvent même pas nous procurer de la nourriture ni même des vêtements!") thinking the Sergent to himself. All the soldiers in the Armée d'Italie were neglected so badly some units were said be on the very cusp of mutiny against the Armée itself. The effect of supplies being shifted toward the Rhineland instead of them was painfully clear from what he heard from the officers. Italie had now become a forgotten campaign for France and Allemagne was the priority for the Rupublic's Armée's to fight back against the Autrichiens. Hearing some footsteps and the neighs of horses coming from the camp entrance, Travail turned to see what was happening before noticing several officers coming on horseback with reinforcements following behind them into the camp. ("Ça doit être les nouveaux officiers.") he thought just about to dismiss them as usual but, noticed the officer leading them.He wore a thick brown jacket over his uniform with black boots on his feet and had a bricorne hat on his head. The man seemed to be just another general handpicked by a political ally for the Armée as to what Travail had overheard some of the other soldiers criticize many of the officers who lead them into battle. But, this man he saw seemed to give off a different look. Noticing him getting off his horse and immediately went to the officers section of the camp and so began to give orders to the other officers who rode beside him. They saluted him and moved out to other parts of the camp immediately to follow what ever orders he just gave them. Travail paid no attention to them during the moment and simply went back to his tent. Later during the night when Travail was walking his route as was his turn for night guard duties, he heard a voice call out to him. ("Toi là!") Travail turned around to notice a Majeur standing behind him and was caught by surprise before quickly saluting his superior. ("A l'aise.") The Majeur said to the Sergent. But, Travail suddenly noticed another man next to the Majeur, and it was the same man he saw ride at the front of the reinforcements! ("Votre nom et grade de jeune soldat.") The officer asked him to which Travail repiled ("Sergent Travail Poome.") The officer in the jacket looked him over with Travail feeling anxious from the looking the man gave him. ("Votre uniforme n'est pas à sa place, Sergent. Car vous n'avez pas de chaussures et votre expression donne un air usé et affamé.") The man told Travail in an tone of authority noticing the lack of shoes and the tired and hungry look he gave off to the officer. Then the officer turned to face the Majeur next to him ("Majeur, ce genre de négligence ne peut plus passer inaperçu. Assurez-vous que vos hommes sont correctement nourris, habillés et équipés. Je veillerai à ce que le ravitaillement arrive car j'ai des projets pour revigorer l'armée. Car ils en auront besoin dans les mois à venir pour chasser les Autrichiens.") The Majeur saluted in response before the man walked away from both him and Travail to his quarters.("Monsieur, qui était cet homme?") Tavail asked his superior wondering who the officer was for asking about the Sergent's lack of shoes and hungry look unlike the other officers. The Majeur turned to face him to reply ("Cet homme est notre nouveau général de Armée d’Italie.") The Majuer turned to face the direction the general walked to ("Il s'appelle Napoléon Bonaparte.")

Name for any unit really “Ridley Scott’s Disaster”

My favourite fact is that Napoleon's marshal, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected king of Sweden, turned against Napoleon, attacked Copenhagen on his way home from Waterloo, and seized Norway for a personal union.

That's what made Napoleon a legend not just taking the mantel of emperor and being a political figure but a tactical genius on the battlefield

My great grandfather x6 (dixon vallance) fought in the battle of Waterloo. There's a BBC documentary call The Scots at Waterloo that features his story on it. Still live in the town where he's buried .

Sharpe is my favourite series

My favorite figure in history is from the Napoleonic period. Thomas Alexandre Dumas, father of French author Alexandre Dumas, was a French revolutionary general in the early years of the revolution. He's a huge inspiration to me because he was the first black French general and has a pretty distinguished, albeit short, military career and exploits. He was actually the inspiration for much of his son's work, particularly the Count of Monte Cristo.

I love that they have Leia Organa was giving advice

think for the cavalry, frankish centaurs, napoleon was quite the student of ceaser and also fought in many places he did so a reference to ancient Rome and mythology would be quite cool

Name suggestion for the unit of Dragoons: Should be named after Murat since it's the best cav you got at the moment. Something like Murat's might or even Murat's merry men

So excited to watch. First post of many. Go get ‘em! On your comment about the terrifying nature of the warfare…in my classes (I’ve told you before I’m a College History Professor), “winning or losing” was much more about who still was on the ground rather than casualty totals. And it’s also why the British wore red or Prussia wore black…colors of death, carnage. It was the idea that both armies were saying to their enemy “here we are, you can see us and we are certainly not afraid of you-we are coming over there so get ready to suffer.” And both of those armies were known to have the fastest reload time, in some cases with elite units up to 3 times a minute. So, the opposing units would already be afraid pre-battle, and after the first volley or two, would break and run as those redcoats or black coats were on their way.

My fav fact (as per Ridley Scott) was that Napoleon did in fact charge into battle at Waterloo!

To get into the atmosphere I rewatched Oversimplified's take on Napoleon

A pert Olive cask aged Wine..Fair cheeses.. these Lamb cutlets are excellent. Victory needs a good meal.

As far as I know, there are special missons to capture Venice and the Papel states, but they only appear after I declared war on them. So you might have to experiment.

A classic, thanks Lionheart...reminds me of watching the old ETW British campaign from like 10 years ago.

One of my favorite facts from the historical Italian Campaign is that it hosts one of the most lamented near misses in military history. The combined Russian and Austrian forces in the theater were under the overall command of Alexander Suvorov, one of the very few undefeated field commanders in history and widely considered to be the greatest general of the period. He was Czar Paul I's favorite very general, and the Austrians had in part agreed to support a direct action against the French on condition that he led the combined army. This is all to say that he missed coming into direct action with Napoleon by a hair. Napoleon had had his magnificent successes in Italy and had already been moved to Egypt and Syria by the time Suvorov arrived, and so they never faced off. It is worth noting, though, that Suvorov in short order expunged almost all of Napoleon's gains in Italy, on a campaign that saw him meet and defeat many of France's other premier field commanders. This included a stunning escape from Massena over the alps with a force of some 18,000 infantry, while nearly completely surrounded by French forces numbering close to 80,000, to say nothing of being short of all critical supplies. It's often considered a topic of sincere discussion what would have happened had the two ever had the opportunity to meet across the field.

Okay. Didn't know this was gonna be a thing. I am very excited to watch this!

Ok, so much stuff to unpack. I am going to have to rewatch this at least once more. 1) The French goal of the Italian campaign is reaching the road to Vienna, thus forcing the Austrians to the accept a ceasefire. What does this mean in practice? Speed, manoeuvre and minimising French losses (as the will be harder and harder to replenish due to ever extending supply lines). What is the enemy's goal? To stop the French, or at the very least to delay them. This is the difference that will dictate the pacing of this campaign. Every time the French are bogged down, they are allowing the Austrian army to get reinforcements from Tyrol. 2) The army composition has to be built around the goals of the campaign. Maximising firepower, easy replenishment, protection on the flanks. In other words, heavy artillery, supported by the mass of infantry and protected by cavalry. 3) You need to create a second army. After the conquest of Piedmont, recruit a small force (half a stack) and send it to rendezvous with the main army around Mantua. Don't go North, go South, near the shore of the Mediterranean and then pivot North. By the time your main gorce reaches Milan, the second army should be on the other side of the river. Recruit some units in Lodi and in Milan, so they can hold those places once you leave. Once you take Mantua, consolidate your army, replenish your units and march on Klagenfurt. 4) If you go through the Alps, remember about the winter attrition. 5) Google the history of the Polish national anthem. It features Napoleon in a very important way.

I've finished the Sharpe series here on RU-vid, there's a guy who has the episodes from Rifle's to Waterloo on his channel, for people who want to watch the series. Btw, I recently purchased a copy of Sharpe's Prey, a book in the series that takes place a few years before the Story of the tv series, im still currently reading it and it has been quite an enjoyable time. I hope for more Napoleonic content in the future from you Lionheart, cheers from the Philippines mate❤

my first time watching this game and I'm loving it! The scale of these battles are truly epic (and well fought 😁)

Thank you so much for coming back to the good Total Wars. :)

I completely forgot you had this coming guess I have a little collection to binge this weekend. Glad to see some Napoleon

"Thanks advisor Leia" cracked me up so much

Yessir, been waiting patiently for this one.

So excited for this!

Napoleon is an artillery main REMEMBER 😊

Just finished watching your Prussia Campaign whilst I have been ill in hospital. Quite literally the only thing that kept me from going round the bend. Thank you. Now, I'm getting stuck into this. Fantastic stuff.

Unit name suggestion for any artillery unit, Bonaparte's Boom Boom!

You should place your Chasseurs in front of your militia let them fire at the enemy and then pull them back before the enemy can fire at you or your militia get in range of them. Then you can place them on the flank afterwards. This way you ensure that you weaken units like the grenadiers or other deadly infantry units before they reach your main line.

A series where Sean Bean doesn't die? Inconceivable!

Unit Name suggestions: For Voltiguers or Chassurs be called 69th Sharpe's Bane

Okay, a bit of an obscure reference here, but I think it'd be cool if you named one of the chasseur units "King Theodore's Revenge", especially if you used them in the battle for Corsica. Brief explanation: Many of the early Napoleonic chasseur units were actually Corsican. Theodore von Neuhoff was a German adventurer invited by the Corsicans in the 1730s to become their king, and helped them gain independence against the Genoese who'd colonised the island. The Genoese got reinforcements from the HRE and French, who defeated the revolutionaries and forced Theodore into exile. Theodore spent the rest of his life trying to help the Corsicans rise up again, and died in poverty and debt after spending most of his money to buy guns for the rebels. For this, Theodore is considered a Corsican hero to this day - even though he only spent a few months of his life there. So yeah, time for the Corsicans to get some payback. Not really a Napoleonic fact, but maybe it still counts?

I’ve never submitted a name suggestion before, but how about for an artillery unit “The Whiff of Grapeshot” or maybe also “The Grapes of Wrath” (though that one takes a bit more knowledge of French Revolution history to connect grapes to the famous Napoleon moment in 1795.

Excellent!!

fun fact: napoleon actually took his tin bath to every battle

Yay! Emperor Lionheart!

For the 6 pound arty, name one "Napoleons Retribution" and another called "Napoleons Brigade". The reason is because he commanded artillery himself during his younger days. Good luck and I look forward to the series.

If legends videos are anything to go by. Basically hill is love, hill is life

Hey Lionheart, How about "Lupes Wolves" after the excellent villain in the sharpe episode for a cavalry unit, he was my favourite of the French villains in the TV series. Great content as always

Hello Mr LH, Sir, Amazing start, again lack of depth to your line. You must maintain some Infantry to defend your Artillery. Later as these Army clashes gain en mass you will need a reserve. My quote I enjoy from this period; Quantity has a quality all on It's own! Cheers LH Love this content

Love this keep it up

Love the Italian campaign so much!! I would love to see a 6th Alpini Line Infantry Regiment too!

Maybe a bit late but for a future artillery name, you have got to use a historical one from Toulon created by Napoleon himself: La Batterie des Hommes sans Peur. The Battery of Men without Fear. During the Siege of Toulon, Napoleon's very first military action (as second in command), he was trying to take a fort that had a view of Toulon harbor and the British ships within. But one artillery position was so exposed that men refused to be sent there. So Napoleon gave it that name and suddenly he had no shortage of volunteers.

Fusilier of the Line "Napoleon's Cohorte d'Italie."

Can't believe how much I love this game. If only Empire...

I watched the film last week and I was quite disappointed in it. It seemed very rushed. It isn’t surprising really as his life was packed full of incidents, they should have made it into 2 films rather than 1. I read after that it was made by Apple studios and is intended to be streamed on Apple+ in January and that version will be 2 hours longer. The studio cut it down and gave it a theatrical release so it could be entered into the Oscar’s. Also it seemed to focus a significant amount of the film on his relationship with Josephine. I went to watch a film about him not him and his wife. 5.5/10 from me.

Infantry unit name for the grand campaign: "Hon-Hon, Bayonet"

Just watched Home Alone for the first time this year, please call Napoleon’s worst foot unit “Les Incompetent”

Going to watch Ridley Scott's Napoleon next week.

Ahhh back were it started 😃

I'd love to see some infantry named Platt's Maulers. Maybe some guys who charge in with bayonets and swords?

Here. We. Go! At last!

Name suggestions for the grenadiers: The eagle guard because one of an eagle’s symbols is loyal and devoted just like Napoleons troops we’re actually

@Lionheart have you ever watched the movie Waterloo? One of my top favorite films, and over 90% historically accurate to boot, according to my old History professor who specialized in Napoleonic history.

In case there is still Name suggestions received I have two here: One historically interesting for any artillery unit: La Batterie des Hommes sans Peur (The Battery of men with no fear). During his first victory at the siege of Toulon in the bid to capture Le’Guillete (one of the smaller remote forts around Toulon from which he then poured fire into the British navy) there was one artillery position that was under such extreme enemy fire that no gun crewman wanted to go there. That was until he went there himself and gave that position the above mentioned name. Truly a testament to that guys ability to inspire and manipulate. The second one for fun for Light Infantry: Boney’s Boneys If not for this campaign, I will post the same message under the main campaign :)). Cheers

Yey! More Napoleon! Feels like forever since your Russia LP

Unit name suggestion for grenadiers: L'oignon, it was a popular song of the imperial guard advancing for a charge. The title comes from a favorite food of Napoleon's fried onion.

Napoleon approves

Let it begin!!!

Sharpe the show and the books are both great deff recommend both

You should name the militia "les Misérables"

My favorite Napoleon fact is that Napoleon was not short. He was about 5'6" or something like that which was pretty decent height for his time. Also, artillery officers wouldn't be short, they would need to be tall to have the views to fire their cannons know.

Not a Napoleon fact but my friends and I have a theory that the reason Sean Bean dies in all his film roles is because he used up all of his luck in Sharpe! Makes sense if you think about it😂

I feel like going for artillery super early on instead of cav is a better call, just because usually cannon (with some well-placed canister shots) can turn the tide of a battle, whereas cav might not be able to do such devastating damage. And i personally find that cav are much better to maneuvered in smaller unit scale. larger unit scale means more infantry, thus makes the cav charge a bit less effective, especially in VH which you are playing on. If your cav stuck and isolated, they would be easily routed, and the mobility advantage just gone. And we all remember our lil inside joke about Lionheart and cav so yeah (hope that you can make good use of them better this time)

Love acrually being here for the series. Im going to, for the first time, suggest a name or 2: A cannon called 'The Temprementals' (in reference to that US ship that said 'Temper Temper' in the Korean war.) Or maybe an infantry regiment called 'The Lads'. Because... theyre the Lads.

Finally! I'm late to the campaign, but today I catch up!!!😁

I own this game but have never played it (I was deep into Empire when it came out). Be using this play through to see if I should give it a go or not.

Name suggestion: "Sharpes Eagle" for some line infantry

It has started

Name for a canon unit "Virtue and Terror"

Grenadiers should definitely be the “Lionhearts of France”

So it begins 🇫🇷

You may have misspoke, but Ultimate General: Civil War is their previous title the current game under development by the DarthMod dev is Ultimate General: American Revolution.

Sharp being one of the few works Sean Bean has done where he doesn't die .

the Falklands has a French settlement called Port Louis founded by Admiral Louis de Bougainville in 1774 so can you call an artillery unit Bougainville's guns?

A name suggestion for artillery The Napolean Blownaparts or The Scatterguns. Love the Napoleonic era.

should name a unit The Fiery Baguettes

hey lionheart I was wondering have you ever watched any Sharpe episodes? I love it, and Sean Bean, I thought it might be cool to ask if you've ever watched it and hear your opinions or favourite bits as it relates to this time period.

This great game has been forgotten too quickly , just like another RTS I like a lot - RUSE.

Took me awhile but I’m here to catch up😅👌

Napoleon's Fist for any artillery unit

Lmao really had me confused seeing Lea until you explained

Salutes. Was it here that moving along roads town to village works to extend range? [Turin next ep when a roar finn'ishes. .the best the enemy has left]

Name suggestion: "Foot-long Italian on Rye" for one of the cannons.

A name for standard line infantry: The Baugetteers

Sharpes rifles surely for comedic value

Not even 30 seconds before you mentioned sharpe I was searching if you get full episodes and you do haha. Looking forward to this series not played mutch of this game more empire than napoleon will you do another empire or third age series ? Also when are we getting stronghold legends campaign I was sure I was getting it last time you did the stronghold series now you are doing the remastered will you do a legends campaign?

Lionheart! A cavalry unit called Blown-a-part! And BTW: Napoleon is always depicted as being a very short man ,,, He was actually of average hight for a man in the start of the 19th century! The reason he got his short reputation was because the French inches were longer than the British, so on paper, to the British, he LOOKED shorter than average! ^^

To name any artillery peice LE PETEITE BOMBARD

I ve been checking out the american revolution game. you should definitly check it out when it releases. It not exactly the Empire 2 we wanted but its got the good bones to become what we wanted from Creative Assembly.

Fun Fact: It was often said that Napoleon had a large... Ego however during the final coalition war the other nations did not declare war on France, no... They declared was on Napoleon. When you have multiple empires declaring war on you personally maybe you can allow yourself a bit of an ego.