RussiaRossiyskaya Imperiya

The enigma of the era; capable of great efforts, along with Austria, Russia was the great foe of the French Revolution and Napoleon in both fact and fiction, war and peace. As Frederick the Great learned during the Seven Years War, when capably led, it was very difficult to defeat a Russian army.

Prior to 1806, as with most continental powers, the Russian army was modelled after the Prussians of Frederick the Great, with no permanent organization higher than regiment. After its defeat at Austerlitz, the army was reorganized into large, mixed divisions of infantry, artillery and cavalry. In 1810 and 1811, the army was reorganized to use a corps system like the French, but different to the extent that the corps were usually either infantry or cavalry, and not all arms as the French corps.

Prior to 1802, each infantry regiment had two battalions. Afterwards, a depot battalion to supply replacements was added to each regiment. The infantry regiments were divided into grenadiers, musketeers (line infantry) and jagers (light infantry). Each regiment had two field battalions of four companies each. The first, or elite, company was divided into two platoons, one grenadier and one tirailleur (light). In the field these battalions averaged from 350 to 700 men depending on the campaign. Prior to 1808, the preferred method of fighting was delivering volleys from line formations, although, as a result of their constant wars with the Turks, Russian infantry was better able to maneuver in column and skirmish than the Austrian or Prussian armies. After 1808, there was more drill emphasis on maneuvering in column and charging with bayonets, to improve the infantry’s battlefield mobility. The infantry’s greatest asset was its stoicism under fire, and its stubborn refusal to run away in lieu of dying. This made the Russian army a very tough proposition, hindered primarily by the lack of professionalism in the officer corps. Officers came from the aristocratic class, and army service was looked on more as an adventure than a profession.

The Russian regular cavalry arms were numerous and took a backseat to no power in the quality of its remounts. Russian heavy and line cavalry regiments had five squadrons and averaged 600 to 700 troopers. The light cavalry regiments had ten squadrons and up 1200 troopers in the field. On distant campaigns these returns could fall significantly, with heavy regiments often being reduced to 300 or fewer troopers. The problem was command. Populated by some of the most famous reprobates from the Russian aristocracy, the cavalry was most often stupidly if not outright poorly commanded. The fabled Cossacks, while present in great numbers in all Russian armies, were not battlefield cavalry. Primarily suited for skirmishing and raiding, even when under the command of their legendary Hetman Platov, they would more than likely run from rather than deliver a charge against formed infantry or cavalry, much less artillery.

No army during the Napoleonic Era went on campaign with a greater ratio of artillery than the Russians. Not only was it present in great quantities, but the pieces themselves were also well made. Russian batteries, either foot or horse, usually contained twelve guns and/or licornes. By the Napoleonic Wars, the Russians had settled on 12 pounder heavy guns and 6 pounder medium and horse guns. In lieu of howitzers, the Russians used licornes, typically four 20 pounders in each heavy or position battery and four 10 pounders in each medium battery. Licornes were similar to howitzers but fired a shell on a flatter trajectory which theoretically acted as solid shot until the fuse exploded the charge. Prior to reorganizations after 1808, many Russian batteries used guns of mixed sizes.

The artillery suffered from the lack of overall direction on the battlefield, from poor and unimaginative leadership, and from bad gunpowder. Regardless, sheer numbers made up for these deficiencies. With their mixed divisional organization (10,000 to 15,000 men), each division might include 70 to 90 guns. With their later corps organization, each two division infantry corps would typically have two six pounder foot batteries, one twelve pounder heavy battery, and one six pounder horse battery, or 48 guns for no more than 10,000 to 12,000 men, and this does not include large numbers of reserve artillery batteries in the army artillery park.

Russia was the only continental power which had a guard to challenge the French guard. Its two oldest regiments could trace their ancestry to 1683, and, in outright imitation of the French, Alexander divided his guard into Old and Young. Over the era, the Russian guard continued to expand. Each guard regiment fielded three battalions, which were normally kept closer to full strength than the line battalions. In 1812, there were six infantry regiments, 6 regiments of cavalry, and six artillery batteries formed in a separate Guard Corps, the V Corps at Borodino. From the period of Austerlitz (1805) to Leipzig (1813), the Russian guard was much more likely to be committed than the French guard. The quality of the Russian guard never approached the French Old Guard, but nevertheless they were excellent troops and were rightly feared.

Gaining The Russian Army: Prior to 1810, as with other armies using large all arms divisions, command control is a real problem. The frequent, temporary, combining of divisional cavalry into separate organizations, and the use of temporary corps helped, to some extent. Division generals have all three arms to command and that is nearly impossible. The gamer must determine each division’s mission and concentrate in keeping those units which can accomplish the mission in command. The player will find as units rout away, he does not have time to send the divisional general to help them rally. After corps are organized, command control gets much easier. Cavalry is now assigned to separate, usually rather small, corps, and with subordinate divisional generals, a corps commander can maneuver and attack with greater ease.

Other Russian characteristics built into NAPOLEON’S BATTLES transcend the era. The player will soon learn that most Russian generals are poorly rated and have poor command spans. This makes it difficult to advance and keep an entire command in control. The Russian infantry is very difficult to disperse and to rout—infantry units never seem to go away. This is the great strength of the Russian army.