Civilization V Leader | Napoleon of France

It is virtually impossible to overstate the military genius of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon (1769 - 1821 AD) was one of the most brilliant generals of all time. He moved his troops with astounding rapidity, and he always knew exactly where to strike in order to cause the most damage. Domestically he turned out to be a decent, imaginative ruler and France flourished under his control (until his endless wars sapped her strength and will to fight). An Army general to his core, he never was able to create a navy able to seriously challenge England's dominance over the oceans.
In the end, he just couldn't beat everybody.
- from Civilopedia

[@larskeizer2694]

Did you know that Napoleon wasn't actually short for that time? He was 1.70m, but because French inches are different than English it made it look like in English that he was a very short man.

[@gammadion]

Doesn't help that he was always surrounded by his elite cavalry corps, who were usually of noble birth and usually tall for the time. British propaganda played well though.

[@placeholder3853]

@@gammadion I think the elite cavalry had to be like 6'3" which even today is really tall, and they wore tall hats

[@Dingus301]

Also English propaganda at the time basically brainwashed everyone to thinking he was a tiny little leader, when he in fact was taller than the average height in France at the time

[@leondeserenno9293]

He was higher than most of other leader in his time.

[@mtfnoelle]

"HEY! I WAS AVERAGE HEIGHT FOR THE TIME YOU JERK!" - Napoleon Bonaparte

[@matrix91234]

I mainly hear it in American movies, or referenced. But my history teacher did talk about that, and you are right, it was propaganda at the time against France. Interesting thing is Charles XIV John of Sweden was promised Norway by England if he fought against Napoleon. Which ushered Christian Frederick to go to Norway to form the Norwegian constitution in 1814. The official alliance to Sweden ended in 1905. When Norway became a independent nation.

[@GarkKahn]

I always took it as simply misunderstanding that people were shorter back then For example 4-5 centuries ago in the south of my country the spanish explorers described a land of giants and claimed they were between 1,80 and 1,90 meters tall, and that's around the avg height for all of us now

[@placeholder3853]

There are many reasons, he was known in France as petite general, petite being a term of endearment but through translation becomes physically small. Often displayed in propaganda as small as a message of unsuitability on the world stage rather than a physical truth. Also often surrounded by a special French unit whose name I forget but I think the height requirement was like 6'3" and that had tall hats on top of that, even today these people would be considered very tall

[@Indaryn]

I wish he had the voice from the trailer of Napoleon : Total War. He sounds so young and not as intimidating in Civ5...

[@SourBitters]

"Actually I find Civ-V Napoleon kind of attractive." I say as I escort myself down a flight of stairs.

[@Cobalt985]

Holy fuck, I thought it was just me! Must be all that French (even though I'm Canadian lol)

[@gronizherz2012]

Tbh, he was very attractive in his youth, as an officer.

[@omgiam2hot]

It's ok, you're not alone

[@matrix91234]

Despite being a dictator, he did promote Democracy to the places he conquered. So i do kinda admire the guy

[@placeholder3853]

@@gronizherz2012 Not really, napolean was pretty socially inept, he only started getting real luck with the ladies when he had the leverage of being a celebrated officer

[@ZombieFighter95]

It's kind of weird that he'd address you with the informal "tu"...

[@affrun11]

Kaisergun He does this because it was considered normal to refer to other leaders as "tu", as vous would imply they were superior.

[@martindouge4504]

Also at that time, right after the Revolution, people tended to treat each other more equally and used the informal "tu" way more.

[@budicaesar1213]

using 'vous' could get you a free ticket to the guillotine at that time, so people used 'tu' instead

[@50shekels]

@@martindouge4504 I think it wasn’t meant to imply superiority among commoners. It was more out of respect. Germany for example still in some parts use the formal “sie”

[@dobefrmdadead]

Not weird when you consider he’s Napoleon and he’s a megalomaniac

[@SniperGhost-oq6cz]

napoleon best charecter millitiry in the histroy

[@germanMasterroach]

he doesn't say anything about Day of Judgment. He says ' You have fallen into my trap. I will bury you!'

[@nhqzed79]

Vive la France , vive Napoléon

[@thedarkprinceVvvvV]

thats a very true statement, during the egyptian expedition, he sent General Alex Dumas to free the prisoners the egyptians captured. every one thought General Dumas was the leader becuase he was very tall (6'ft) and well built. i don't think that was intended plan for dumas, but napoleon was indeed jealous of Dumas for a few reasons.

[@erenoz2910]

me: alright naps, i got half of your cities, you have -10 gpt, you don't make nearly enough troops to defend any city at all. i don't want the extra unhappiness from all your cities, so peace? napoleon: *BIEN SUR QUE NON*

[@CptFoupoudav]

They gave to him the voice of an adolescent, it's a really bad choice.......

[@Finwaell]

So I am playing as Catherine and minding mine own business when I notice Napoleon almost won both Cultural (me being the last Civ he is not influential or Dominant with and raising on me) and Scientific victory.. sitting on the other side of the continent with Paris having 4x the population of Moscow and 250+ defense... tried racing him to the scientific victory, but eventually had to use my backup plan... 6x atomic bomb and 6x nuke + all the tanks I could bear + bombers from a nearby fleet.. his three-city economic powerhouse turned to ashes at the last moment and I was able to snatch a very narrow time victory. Epic :) Worthy opponent.

[@LonkiDonki]

Finwaell No one wins against Russia lol

[@boristhespider9487]

It's funny how the subtitles aren't translating what he's saying at all. They're so random.

[@MrAlexriga]

My cousin picked this nation, just because of it's logo being similar to SR3

[@lordhoot1]

George III spoke English as a first language, and wrote it fluently as well. His father and grandfather spoke it fairly well, but as a second language. George I spoke very little.

[@jodylarcelet5960]

Napoleon was tall for his time

[@Finn_the_Cat]

According to my research napoleon was 5ft 6in and the average height was about 5ft 8in so no he was not tall for his time he was two inches below average, however he was the same height as Simon bolivar someone who isn’t mocked for being short so him being short is still a british propaganda lie

[@ducatusmediolanensismappin8292]

@@Finn_the_Cat no. Napoleon was 1.68 (or 1.69, the sources are conflicting), and the French male average height at that time was 1.64. The myth of a short Napoleon was made by his enemies and also because his guard was form by tall people (in Prussia, for example, if you weren't tall at least 1.87 you couldn't be enlisted), and he in comparison with they appeared short.

[@Finn_the_Cat]

@@ducatusmediolanensismappin8292 I believe I was using the average American height at the time so my research could’ve been off

[@ducatusmediolanensismappin8292]

@@Finn_the_Cat ah, ok. Perfect.

[@Cthight]

Is the picture actually just mist or is that smoke from cannons?

[@unsinkablesam8293]

I recognize Rokudan no Shirabe at 0:00 :) my boy was playing Nobunaga Oda

[@HistoryTwistedInc]

Deadliest Warrior pitted this guy against George Washington. In a battle of tactics, George Washington won. I smell patriotic favoritism.

[@frankjohnson123]

Someone who barely won any battles beating someone who nearly conquered Europe, sounds about right.

[@zico739]

HistoryTwistedInc I'm a patriotic guy, but that's utter bullshit, Napoleon is leagues above Washington.

[@HistoryTwistedInc]

Washington was mainly good at one thing, being a symbol to hold the devisive colonies together. Othwerwise he wasnt a very remarkable general and just hung around as an aristocrat.

[@shaunibabe1]

Murica

[@Crystar500]

This is old, but yeah - every matchup on DW that involved an American "Warrior" always resulted in the Americans winning. As an American, it was disappointing.

[@MonsterhunterFTWWTF]

That the reason why he was a very aggressive guy

[@Archflamingo]

Or Augustus.....he doesn't even look at you...

[@MASTACHIEFPWN]

He would have technically been born under the french flag. He was sent to a military accademy when he was very young, and his father was Corsica's representitive to Louis XVI. During his career, he would have most likely spoke french, even if Italian was his first language. I mean, if you are the leader of a country, the languistics barier tends to be a big thing.

[@florianfasquelle5212]

Toute cette classe à la française j’adore Vive la France !

[@spaaps]

LA FRANCE LE DEAL DE EXCEPTIONEL

[@MASTACHIEFPWN]

Interesting.

[@Shutruk-Nahunte97]

Being born in Corsica under a time when it was controlled by France, he would have learned French first. Since Corsica had lots of Italians on it and people from Italian decent (When Corsica was part an Italian City State) meaning he would have learned some Italian. Because of the mix of French and Italians on Corsica, there would be an accent when Napoleon spoke. So he would speak French with a slight Italian accent.

[@alexispeyrache5880]

It was ? It still sir. ^^

[@hannibalburgers477]

-French Empire- The Great Holy Corsican Empire

[@_chew_]

Why is there a symbol of the bourbon monarchy there? Napoleon was a son of the revolution.

[@donovaneverett1493]

TheShadowOfMadness well he did restore the monarchy with himself as Emperor.

[@die1mayer]

​@@donovaneverett1493 but his symbols were the bee and the eagle, also he crowned himself Emperor of the French instead of King by the grace of god.

[@Yamamanama]

In France, Napoleon Bonaparte thought beating Austria was mighty smart. But when he took on England too, he was beaten up by Wellington at Waterloo (and now he's just a pastry filled with creamy goo!)

[@leondeserenno9293]

I Demand Napoleon As LEADER IN CIV6

[@niggapoleonsurrenderparte7184]

I agree

[@thomasouellet4655]

Louis XIV would be a way better leader than Napoleon. If they wanted to do something different they could also go with Charles de Gaulle. I think Napoleon is kinda overused in civ games.

[@leondeserenno9293]

@@thomasouellet4655 lol Napoleon is the greatest human that history has ever known. He must be here in the game. Without him, France wouldn't exist.

[@Luna-lr8cg]

@@thomasouellet4655 Gandhi and Montezuma is too but they're still in VI

[@matrix91234]

@@leondeserenno9293 Also USA purely exists too thanks to support of France at the time. And the gratitude they get is surrender jokes for some reason.

[@Nemmy72]

When I picked him my first thought was: Is that Rumpelstiltskin From Shrek?

[@rzhevskiporuczyk7022]

Eugene Panasenkov moment

[@Caprican28]

Even in stories written, the soldiers he commanded and women he tried to get with described him as short, unsightly and was never taken seriously at first glance (by women.) Regardless if that is true about the measurements it is clear that the people he came into contact with still considered him to be short enough to write it down.

[@EtoileBleu52]

fake news

[@DragonQueen-ox8dk]

I'm basically just here because Psychonauts oof (With Fred being the descendant of Napoleon)

[@sid300e]

True he was born under the french flag but if I am correct it was only a year or two after the french annexed Corsica. Napoleon considered himself Corsican up till the french revolution started. At the military academy he went to he was picked up for being Corsican and speaking french with an accent.

[@altandemei2644]

However he proved them his worth in a snowball battlle in wich his military potential started to show, it's only once he will reach Paris and have to live with ordinary french people that his Corsican patriotism will start to fade to be replaced with a french patriotism due to the affection he would start to have for those "so simple but so righteous" persons as he said in one of his letters.

[@gammadion]

@@altandemei2644 That snowball battle story is dubious at best. Everyone who knew him when he was a child had some story they'd drag out of the closet and use to impress people. I mean, imagine someone you knew and perhaps disliked grew up and became your emperor. That would be really something

[@maxstirner218]

La Fra~~~↑nce

[@CarlosCrisps]

Just about to say that...

[@sr2971]

french Farquad?

[@guacaDCLXVI]

C'est quoi cette voix sacrebleu ?

[@RexGalilae]

Tu es Allemand?

[@halohamachi2682]

I know the guy who voiced Napoleon in this game lmao

[@idrisalmamri6612]

How old was he when he voiced napoleon?

[@irishgodfatherchris]

not really the Hannover dynasty appeared to have no problem in the UK even though they only spoke German until George III and even then his knowledge of English was very limited.

[@beedrone4212]

e x c e l l e n t

[@JR7noir]

Short Napoleon

[@mylifeboi4430]

HEY, HE'S AVERAGE HEIGHT FOR THE TIME YOU JERK

[@guacaDCLXVI]

Pourquoi il tutoie ? Wut ?

[@The1Floyd]

He would of course have had a pretty foreign accent, considering he wasn't even French.

[@TomZanovich]

Well, in fact, Napoleon was of standard size... For a Corsican. Compared to French people, he was a little shorter, but nobody ever insulted him because of his size, they mocked him because of the way he walked, how he was always excited...

[@artalando6905]

Français for ever

[@Archflamingo]

oh no i never said he was the most arrogant, i just said he was....at least a bit...and t tbh...just look at ramesses....he introduce himself as " the God" he's one of the most arrogant characters in Civ... along with attila and someone else that now i don't remember... but you can't say that Napoleon wasn't so...at least a bit... no?

[@vincemarenger7122]

All the translations are very wrong, not even close of what he is actually saying

[@dashua1735]

It's the same as every other translations, and America is not even saying what is written in his quotes if I recall correctly.

[@cigar70]

The voice is quite good, but he use "tutoiement" and not "vouvoiement" ' i am french) . It s a degree of politness. Mean than the Napoleon of this Game don t respect you at all and speak to you like a little kid

[@MASTACHIEFPWN]

True, but the saxons just beat the shit out of the english, and there is the fact that English is part of the West Germanic language group.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

Yes but Napoleon was not ethnically French, he was Corsican and indeed up until the 20th century most French people either spoke French as their second language or didn't speak French at all, instead they spoke languages like Occitan, Basque, Breton and even German.

[@leondeserenno9293]

After graduation of military academy he considered himself a Fully french. And recognized that the future can be only with Uniting with France and Paris.

[@Archflamingo]

No, they portraied him like this because he wasn't a humble person... just this... come on he crowned by hmself ripping off the crown from pope's hands just because e was getting impatient.... he was a bit arrogant.

[@arsouilleur5779]

la voix française est horrible...

[@guacaDCLXVI]

Norman Osborn pourquoi ils ont fait ça ?

[@sauronmordor7494]

ce moquer sans doute

[@dashua1735]

Personellement, j'aime bien la voix, mais peut-être que j'en suis un peut trop habitué et attaché.

[@zmuffin_2789]

Mais non... Elle n'est pas aussi mauvaise. Moi, je ne suis pas Français et la voix française ne me dérange pas...

[@thomasouellet4655]

@@zmuffin_2789 Il sonne juste très condescendant quand il parle à mon avis mais je trouve ca plus drôle qu'énervant.

[@urticadioica6004]

"Je suis Napoléon de France. Le militaire le plus modeste de l'histoire mondiale" 🤣 Et dire que c'est à cause de ce type que la margarine existe 😜 Ah non, c'était sous Napoleon III 😅 Napoleon Bonaparte a plutôt été à l'origine de l'invention de la baguette de pain, premier prix 🤔

[@jondycool]

This is not serious*....

[@librafrankie]

Muslim Al-Husseini Al-Hanbali

[@sarahkhairunnisa1558]

is my speak french

[@Archflamingo]

I hate this guy so much.... this dwarf always attacks me when i am doing nothing, just doing my buisness...he always loose but God...it's so damn annoying.. -_-*

[@wormswithteeth]

Napoleon: I am the smartest general in world history. Also Napoleon: *Invades Russia in winter*

[@leondeserenno9293]

Who knows that they will run and run and run. He actually won every battle. But he could not resist whole world alone, while he wanted peace with Russia and make with them alliance, read the book you jerk

[@MusicGamesEverything]

He made it to Moscow but the Russians didn't leave anything of use behind so he had to retreat

[@leondeserenno9293]

@@MusicGamesEverything annoying rusia. That incest must be banished.

[@MusicGamesEverything]

@@leondeserenno9293 what?

[@eliaslaurent479]

He didn't invade in winter you fucking idiot

[@irishgodfatherchris]

Why have they got Napoleon speaking French? yes he would've known the language but he was a native Italian speaker.

[@ytevysbhtb]

Dude, he was from Corsica, a FRENCH island -_-

[@leondeserenno9293]

He has kinda Italian accent, but he didn't know italian well. BTW french and Italian in basics are very similar. But after he removed the accent

[@Caprican28]

So many people here have no idea what they're talking about. He really *was short*. It's written in his damn wife's diary. It's written in the journals of other generals and soldiers also how short he was. At a first glance most soldiers doubted him early on because he was short and usually not one to take care (hygienically) of his appearance but eventually respected him. Go read the entires for yourselves.

[@jeanpuit2612]

You don't know what you're talking about, Napoléon was taller than the average Frenchman

[@Alex-kc3ex]

Caprican28 You are a fucking idiot

[@hugodudes]

He was actually 1,68m, which was above the average back then ; but he was surrounded with over 1,80m guards so yeah he looked short lol

[@commandertaco1762]

Caprican28 he was avaragr for the time