• Which army do you choose?


  • Good question Worsham.
    Charles had superior tactics and soldiers, but far too few. Poltava showed that.

    Would have to be one of the others.
    Napoleon did take Moscow, but could not hold it.

    I wi take the “modern” German army and hope the winter is not as fierce as 41.
    I love tanks and Stukas, so had to be this choice.

    Otherwise, you understand, Charles would have been my choice.


  • Afternoon, Worsham.

    I looked up The Great Northern War. Sweden experienced 25,000 combat deaths; as compared to 75,000 for Russia, and perhaps another 50,000 for Russia’s allies. Call it a 5:1 exchange ratio in Sweden’s favor.

    During the summer and fall of '41, Germany achieved a 10:1 exchange ratio against its Soviet foe. By 1943, improvements in the Soviet Army had caused this ratio to fall to 3:1.

    Napoleon’s army fell a little short of a 1:1 exchange ratio in its invasion of Russia. This would be my third choice of the options listed.

    I admit to being torn between the German and Swedish armies for my first choice. Both had significant qualitative advantages over their Soviet or Russian foe. Exchange ratios alone aren’t enough to make this decision for me; because one also has to take into account how hard the Russians fought against the Swedes; versus how hard they fought against the Germans. I don’t know how to determine the answer to that question.


  • I chose Charles XII. Peter the Great’s Russia had some divided loyalties.

    Secondly Napoleon.

    I would avoid an industrial Russia, as the 1940 USSR.

    The Kaiser’s amazing Army fought a Russia at a perfect time, between a massive industrial movement and great social unrest.


  • I picked Napoleon.

    He just made the same mistake as Hitler, namely making the war somewhat personal. The qualitative advantage of Le Grande Army in terms of tactics , equipment, leadership, and even quantity should have brought victory. Logistics could not support such an army, they still “marched on their stomach”. Napoleon only needed to destroy her armies, not sit in the capital ‘hope they surrender soon’ concept was faulty reasoning.


  • @Imperious:

    I picked Napoleon.

    He just made the same mistake as Hitler, namely making the war somewhat personal. The qualitative advantage of Le Grande Army in terms of tactics , equipment, leadership, and even quantity should have brought victory. Logistics could not support such an army, they still “marched on their stomach”. Napoleon only needed to destroy her armies, not sit in the capital ‘hope they surrender soon’ concept was faulty reasoning.

    Invading with 500,000 to 600,000 men as Napoleon did was impractical.


  • Charles XII and the magnificent Caroleans all the way. One of the most effective fighting forces Europe ever saw. Honestly, if Charles had manned up and walked on that foot of his, Poltova might have turned out very differently.


  • @DarthShizNit:

    Charles XII and the magnificent Caroleans all the way. One of the most effective fighting forces Europe ever saw. Honestly, if Charles had manned up and walked on that foot of his, Poltova might have turned out very differently.

    The most underrated military leader of all time.


  • He was the Pyrrhus of his day. An absolute master of the battle, almost to the point where his less than stellar strategic and political skills were moot. Him and Gustav The Great are among history’s greatest tacticians that no one knows about.


  • Since the poll question asks which man’s army I’d choose to invade Russia, but doesn’t specify the conflict in which we have to use them, my ideal choice would be to use Hitler’s army to invade Russia during the war that Charles XII fought against Peter the Great or the one Napoleon fought against Alexander I.  Assuming I couldn’t time-travel, however, I’d be forced to pick Hitler’s army in WWII for the simple reason that I have a better understanding of WWII warfare than of warfare in the horse-and-musket era.


  • Although it wasnt really ‘Russia’ back then.

    I’d pick Genghis Khan.


  • Napolean’s army was starving before they even made it to Russia. Moscow is essentially in the middle of the desert for an army that must forage.


  • @frimmel:

    Napolean’s army was starving before they even made it to Russia. Moscow is essentially in the middle of the desert for an army that must forage.

    "We march along the Moscow road,
    Five score adventurous men.
    The North Lights glitter in our eyes;
    A continent shall be our prize,
    Though cold slays five – twice five! – why then,
    We march along the Moscow road,
    Four score brave men and ten.

    We march along the Moscow road,
    Four score brave men and ten.
    Tobolsk is passed, Yakutsk is near.
    Ha! Ice and snow, think ye we fear?
    Take twice your toll.  We pay it. Then
    We march along the Moscow road,
    Four score adventurous men.

    We march along the Moscow road,
    Four score adventurous men.
    Though crows shall flock to those that die,
    And we gnaw shoe-straps, you and I,
    And famine slays again, again
    We march along the Moscow road,
    A few adventurous men."

    • from “Feodor Vladimir Larrovitch : an appreciation of his life and works”

  • I’m picking Hitler for 2 reasons first I’m assuming that I’m Hitler here and don’t have him screwing everything up. So I take Moscow in August. 2nd and most importantly I don’t have to march to Moscow but ride in a truck/tank/half-track or fly after my troops have taken it.

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