best Napoleonic Units

[Amman d Stazia]

along the lines of the 'best historical elite warrior' but limited to Napoleonic units.


I'm starting with a poll for the French units mentioned so far.

I'll let the general discussion flow for a little while and then put up a poll which may or may not include some or all of the following:

France, 1808 - Imperial Guard Infantry Grenadiers

Britain, 1814 - 95th Foot (Rifle Regiment)

Poland, 1808 - Vistula Legion Lancers

Montenegro, 1814 - Golden Curaisser Guardsmen of The Ultra Grenadier Legion....

Spoiler

that's a joke

For all your 'candidates' please put in the year or years in which they were at their peak - eg the French Carabiniere a Cheval were unstoppable in 1809, but piss-poor in 1813.

 

[Ule]

does the british royal navy count? ya know the battle of the nile and trafalgar were both very well done.

or the royal highland units, 1808-1840, continiously lead heroic bayonet charges that often managed to win over thier side of the battle. and often fought on against over whelming odds, usualy resulting in a bayonet charge all the while wearing a skirt!(also wiki says that many of the highland regiments werent disbanded after waterloo as many others were, an intresting fact)

 

[rapier17]

With regards to the Scottish infantry, the Battle of Assaye is a brilliant example of their stubborn will & incredible discipline when under fire.

The 60th Royal American Rifles are worth a mention for the British army as are the 88th Connaught Rangers ('The Devils Own'), the 27th Regiment of Foot (Inniskilling), British light infantry regiments in general and the Kings German Legion cavalry regiments.

 

[matmohair1]

- http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/frenchguard/c_impgren1b.html

Spoiler

 

[Captured Joe]

I would say, the Hesse-Darmstadt Chevaux-Leger regiment, 1809.
They performed excellent during the 1812 campaign also, but their regiment was destroyed during the so-called 'death charge' together with the Baden (or Westphalian?) Hussars I believe.

So:
Hesse-Darmstadt, 1809 - Regiment Chevaux-Leger

Also, their uniforms kicked ass.

Spoiler

That looks like Guard Foot Artillery...

 

[matmohair1]

yeah, couldn't find sapper ones, so I settled for whatever looked beardy !

 

[Ililsa]

The 60th Royal American Rifles are worth a mention for the British army as are the 88th Connaught Rangers ('The Devils Own'), the 27th Regiment of Foot (Inniskilling),

The Irish do seem under-appreciated a lot, they're worth more than one mention.

Personally I find it hard to think of what regiment would be considered 'elite' on its own, obviously the Guards of various countries, but they're not going to last that long on their own in open field. Support counts for a lot.

 

[Lord Burgess1]

Gloucestershire Regiment were pretty good. 1801 at the Battle of Alexandria they had some pretty steely balls.

 

[matmohair1]

les dromadaires

Spoiler

 

[Amman d Stazia]

I was going to add the Irish Legion (later, Regt Irlandais) to my handful of examples, but decided not to as I already had a couple of French examples.

I take it that your favourites, matmohair, include the Pioneers of the Guard?

 

[Vicccard]

yeah, couldn't find sapper ones, so I settled for whatever looked beardy !

The guy in the right is a sappeur. Of a light infantry regiment, that is.

- eg the French Carabiniere a Cheval were unstoppable in 1809, but piss-poor in 1813.

As was basicly all French cavarly in '13 

 

[moraka]

Amman de Stazia, it should really be organized within type of soldier, infantry(infantry of the line, grenadier etc), cavalry(light, medium heavy), navy. For example Napoleon said, that the mameluks where the best light cavalry in the world. But they where just a small part of the elites in his army.

 

[Bluehawk]

They were not unstoppable at Wagram in 1809, when the Austrians swarmed them with twice their number in Uhlans and charged them hard in the flank.

The most successful Russian cavalry unit was probably the St. Petersburg Dragoons, who captured four French colours which is more than any other regiment in the Russian Army: from the 11th Dragoon Regiment at Raussnitz in 1805; from the 18th Line Infantry Regiment "the Braves" before Eylau in 1807; from the 44th Line Infantry Regiment during Eylau the next day; and from the 14th Cuirassier regiment (2nd Dutch Cuirassiers) at Berezina in 1812.

And they accomplished all of this and struck fear into Les Braves and their comrades while wearing rose facings. In 1808 they were honoured with new "Order of St. George" banners and in 1814 with "for distinction" plates added to their helmets. In 1827 they became an uhlan regiment.

Spoiler

 

[Amman d Stazia]

I've removed the option for Reynier's infantry in 1811 for the following reasons:
There were over several days and 4 or 5 seperate actions, over 16 different units involved not only from Reynier's formation but also from Mermet's and Marchand's - Although the French troops by and large behaved very well throughout these actions, I have to ascribe their successes to Ney's command, rather than the valour of any individual unit, and the units in question could not maintain a reputation beyond this particular series of actions.

If anybody wishes to suggest an alternative 4th option I will include that.
As the poll says, please note that French-allied troops are to have a seperate poll, which will cover the Vistula Legion,  Gardescorps Squadron Lanciers-chevaliers d' Berg, and many, many more....

 

[Captured Joe]

Lanciers-Gendarmes?

 

[Amman d Stazia]

done deal.  I put 1808-1812 down for now, I think 1812 was when they broke the British dragoons wasn't it?  And, I've allowed all Gendarmes - not just Lanciergendarmes, since my understanding is that the Lancer units evolved gradually, beginning as ad-hoc arming of regular Gendarmerie a Cheval with lances, so they would clearly be the same unit with or wihtout lances.
Let me know if you want the poll option changed at all?

 

[Captured Joe]

It's perfect.

I guess I shouldn't vote on them myself, to keep it 'fair'?

 

[Amman d Stazia]

this is a democracy - you can vote for whatever you like.  Besides, I'm not going to vote for them, so someone had better ! 

 

[Amman d Stazia]

I'd forgotten about this one, but the poll has now run its course and the Grenadiere a la Garde Imperial are of course the best French unit.
I notice that I forgot to specify foot Grenadiers.  Doesn't matter.  new poll time...

British units next, I think:

I'm going to put this list of candidates up for debate:

92nd Highland Regiment (1792 through to 1815)
Foot Guards 1815
Hussar Brigade 1808-1809
88th Regiment of Foot 1809-1815
Royal Horse Artillery 1810-1812

 

[Almalexia]

inb4 someone raises a fit about the 95th Rifles not being on that list.