Who Was (Mathematically) The Greatest General in History?

we stan a short king
ORIGINAL VID: • Napoleonic Wars: Battl...
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Edited by Rez | / rezandchill
FULL VOD: • Which General was the ...
0:00 Top 10 Generals of all Time
3:10 Napoleon's Masterpiece Video
#atrioc #war #napoleon

[@SlayCC]

General Quincy has popped more bloons than the entire population of the entire planet.

[@Arcavi0us]

And don't forget, he is the son of Quincy! It's a mercy that they never fought together

[@spencislame]

"pop"ulation

[@danielandree3947]

@@Arcavi0us they actively decided not to fight together, if they did, the two of them could single handedly concur the entire universe as a duo, as a duo they could have killed ever single god ever, it wouldn’t have been fair, so they choose to not team up, because it would have been so easy that it wouldn’t have been fun, they would have owned the whole universe in a matter of 4 hours 13 minutes and 12 seconds.

[@meee_5155]

Nothing gets past his bow!

[@mootness_]

@@danielandree3947 the blooniverse*

[@E_zakk]

So, about Napoleon's height, three things for those curious : 1 - At the time French measures and English measures in inches were different (pre-metric system and all that), one french inch was about 2.7 cm while one English/Imperial inch was about 2.54 cm. So Napoleon already seemed shorter than what he really was to the English. Brits marked him as 5'2 I believe (or close to something like that) where he was in reality closer to 5'6 - 5'7. 2 - There was quite a bit of propaganda from the Brits, because when you're at war with someone, (especially with someone who's kicking your and all your allies's asses on his own) it's always more intelligent to downplay or manipulate facts to your advantage, it's something still seen to this day and all throughout history. Also going 'haha smol' to a successful military dictator might have made him feel like less of a threat, and it was always better to talk about that than about all the battles you lost because of him. Standard media/politics stuff. 3 - Napoleon's private elite corps, 'La Garde Impériale' (The Imperial Guard) had a height requirement as one of the many standards for entry. That height requirement was to be 6 feet tall. And since he was almost constantly surrounded by them, he looked small. (And frankly, anyone in that height range surrounded by that many massive soldiers would look short.) So yeah Napoleon wasn't actually short, and as Big A said in the video, yes a part of why it's still remembered as such today is because the Brits 'Won'. And we all know that History is written by the victors.

[@iiFuSiiOnZx]

Still short lmao

[@huh4894]

your mind has been infected with fr*nch propaganda : (

[@wobblywack5531]

@@iiFuSiiOnZx man gave u all the facts and u still think he short, based

[@dqrkful4054]

@@iiFuSiiOnZx average history fan vs propaganda enjoyer

[@joeliao7776]

yes thats what ive learned too. he was average height for the time

[@rnglillian8081]

If you want to see a crazy battle where the surrounded army won, look no further than Julius Caesar's Battle of Alesia where he was sieging a Gallic fort when he got word that a massive Gallic reinforcement force was coming that would have absolutely destroyed his army, except he just built another wall around the wall of the fort he was sieging which allowed him to hold off both the reinforcements and the fort defenders.

[@atrioc]

looked it up and this is pretty sick - thanks for suggesting

[@rnglillian8081]

@@atrioc np big A. Love the content and keep up the good work o7

[@jjwang7597]

He outplayed the meta

[@Orixoon]

Dam this is literally an AOE 2 strat to block troop movement lmao

[@Roteberht35]

Caesar was just a pro Fortnite builder his engineers carried so hard

[@renuissance]

if i was napolean i would have just reset my save when i realized russia was a bad idea

[@jjwang7597]

He should’ve upgraded his troops with the Cold Resist perk in the tech tree

[@greenoftreeblackofblue6625]

He fucked up, it was on Ironman mode before he did a test save.

[@De_2lster]

Fun fact: after Napoleon got back from his excile, the great alliance didn't declare war on France, but on Napoleon himself. Making Napoleon the only person in history to have been declared war on.

[@MisakaMikotoLuv]

By multiple nations no less

[@evanwalker3513]

Hell yeah

[@smartyuno]

5 million years later comment but Cleopatra had war declared on her, personally, by Octavian. It was really a war on Mark Antony’s forces and Egypt but it was done this way for political reasons

[@sydknee_yt]

if your into historic battles and what not, i cannot recommend historia civilis enough. He goes over roman politics and battles mostly around Ceasar's reign in depth. He makes amazing stuff

[@spookybanana6987]

Love that Channel

[@lt2660]

Big vouch, his caesar stuff is especially fantastic. He also did 2 huge videos on europe after napoleon which are great.

[@MrJoosebawkz]

another great one is Mike Duncan’s revolutions podcast. He goes really in depth on basically every major revolution in modern history. Each revolution is its own “season”. I think he just finished up the Russian revolution a couple weeks ago after 2+ years but there’s 10 seasons total. he also has a finished podcast series on the history of Rome which is probably one of the greatest/most accurate sources on the topic (for a general audience)

[@lt2660]

@@MrJoosebawkz listened to the history of rome and yeah its pretty good. Havent heard to revolutions, but ive been meaning to check it out.

[@brun0z691]

You’re

[@davidt1d]

Whilst not a general I would like to suggest , admiral Yi Sun-sin sunk hundreds of Japanese ships(about 600) and never lost one.

[@DavidTheJohnson]

Big A should do a sequel about admirals, particularly, naval admirals!

[@Lucas-po6mn]

yi sun sin did lose ship in his final battle, the chinese admiral charged foolishly and he had do send his fleet to back him up

[@altrivotzck6565]

@@Lucas-po6mn Fucking escort missions.

[@davidt1d]

@@Lucas-po6mn I meant more so ships under his command.

[@danielandree3947]

Don’t forget sun tzu a god…. 40 years, never lost a battle, a campaign, or a war ever. Wrote the book on every strategy ever, and the strategies to beat those strategies, with his book still being used to this day for its concepts, to help countries fight wars in this day and age….. The greatest tactician to ever live, and it isn’t even close.

[@notadam.8074]

General Brandon “Child Soldiers” Ewing is one of the greatest generals of all time.

[@danielcintz8880]

based

[@ALEJANDR-bt6on]

10:55 Atrioc states "that was sick" which illustrates how this was a memory of his. This may be evidence to prove how he was alive during Napoleon's rule

[@ALEJANDR-bt6on]

12:17 Again! Atrioc alludes to the fact that he served in the french army during Napoleon's rule! He really is anicent

[@FreetstheGreat]

You should check out the Korean Naval Admiral Yi Sun-Sin. Dude’s a fucking undefeated legend that beat the Japanese on the sea with less boats most battles. He also overcame a shitty bureaucracy that fucked him over constantly.

[@DavidTheJohnson]

I mean, you have Caesar Salad, and Beef Wellington, but not anything based off Napoleon. Why is that?

[@atrioc]

powerful point

[@theholygrass19]

Pfft 😂 ever heard of a little something called Napoleon ice cream? That shit's bone apple teeth bro, get some culture 💀💀💀💯😈

[@mrebear9758]

@@theholygrass19 Neapolitan*

[@Kirisame312]

Napoleon's got a cake. Damn, and Ludwig is caked up. Big A's right, we gotta watch out

[@galactichasyoutube775]

You ever hear of Napoleon Dynamite ???🧨 🧨 Generals out here making food while napoleon making movies 🎥

[@familyarnould9351]

Refreshing to see atrioc mention his older friends. As much as I love stanz and lud, this homage is a good change of pace

[@stickyallover7016]

In my world history class last year the teacher would let students teach sections of the syllabus for extra credit. I did the Napoleonic wars and before I jumped into it I did a background section on napoleon and all his really good romantic fiction with a few excerpts.

[@itsmesky3545]

We used to do this except the teacher did nothing and the students taught basically everything. All the teacher did was quiz everyone after teaching whatever they were assigned and that went on for the whole year.

[@gaysfortrump2024]

@@itsmesky3545 work smarter not harder

[@shepinel]

I love that throughout history Russia’s strategy of “winter” is their best defense

[@oldac4892]

I think it's more like it's getting too hard to control the whole frontline and territory at that moment and with winter everybody just loses all logistics while it's actually easier for Russians to support the frontline because it's just getting closer

[@jaxkal9596]

Exactly the same but verbosed​@@oldac4892

[@bobbysnobby]

"Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics." Atriocs point about getting the soldiers where they need to be on time, and equipped is a massive deal particularly when communication is so weak. So most of the great generals in history were also a major player politically because they had the strings to pull to keep supply lines and resources geared towards the war effort. I think also Napoleon had the quote "You cannot stop me, I spend 30,000 men a month." which also contributed to the french ideology in WW1 spend more lives win the engagement. While in the Napoleonic wars it made more sense, in the more modern militaries killing power got so dramatic that spending lives willy nilly would end your army very, very quickly.

[@blackphoenixfamily8477]

The Charge of the Light Brigade had zero to do with mounted cavalry being "inefficient or ineffective" . The task that they were supposed to engage in was not what happened. They were supposed to prevent the Russians from taking guns from over run Turkish positions. They instead charged an entirely different battery, one that was well suited to deal with a mounted cavalry unit.

[@pilazpilaz]

The British successfully marketed their blunders during the Crimean War as "heroic", and the whole world forgot how awful their leadership and logistics were. What poetry does to mfs

[@dylan_jpn7672]

@@pilazpilaz tbf the poem is more to honor the people who died and makes the higher ups who 'blundered' out to be more foolish

[@edford3354]

@@pilazpilaz yeah if you read the poem it's not really about the charge itself being heroic and more a commentary on the futility and wastefulness of it and war and throwing away the cavalrymen's lives

[@MKULTRASPECIMEN]

The best general is probably some 27 year old HOI4 player living with his parents

[@averagedemographic8933]

WWII had pretty good horse action. A good majority of the German’s supplies was transported by horse and horses were decent for recon. The Polish used horse-mounted troops for high mobility in 1939. Also, back in Napoleon’s day I think they used paper cartridges so loading was quicker and easier, makes the cavalry life easier. Backup weapons like pistols would be useful as well.

[@magneticflux-]

In the wise words of Lil Nas X, they got the horses in the back.

[@DemonicPumpkin]

Horses were last used in battles in 1916

[@alexpapunasvili1488]

My great grandfather was drafted as a foot soldier, which was almost guaranteed death or life changing injury at the time, but since he knew super well how to deal with horses he got reassinged mid-war to tending horses, a much more peaceful position, and managed to survive the war that way. So yeah, horses being used in WW2 is the reason my great-grandfather survived the war. Horses were still great at transporting heavy weights and could be used to get important soldiers(like medics) from one place to another very fast mid-battle.

[@averagedemographic8933]

@@DemonicPumpkin The Polish used horses in battle in 1939, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_at_Krojanty. It also appears that US special forces used horses in Afghanistan in late 2001 and onwards it seems, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Special_Forces_Group_(United_States)

[@DemonicPumpkin]

@@averagedemographic8933 cavalry was last used on a large scale in 1920 in the battle of Warsaw

[@brightspark8052]

Calvary had its moments during WW1, they sucked on the western front with all the trenches but in the Middle East against the ottomans Calvary was pretty good. The battle of Beersheba was a super effective charge by the Australian light horse

[@hirukashiro5995]

*cavalry

[@thelyonking5812]

I had a history teacher who had a club about Napoleonic war games where you simulate battles of the Napoleonic wars. It was nerdy as fuck but it was awesome and I loved it. Shout out my awesome teacher, college teacher I had in all of highschool.

[@vordee6397]

Love you atrioc. Thank you for making my summer better.

[@zants_]

7:05 - 7:20 Atrioc's camera lines up perfectly and he becomes the soldier

[@Kai-K]

Regarding Atrioc's comments on cavalry; Napoleon did use heavy cavalry in this battle and they performed very well, but something that might not be immediately apparent is that here cavalry had artillery pieces with them, ones that could sometimes setup in under a minute. Montemayor has a fantastic (3 episode) series on The Battle of Midway which I would highly recommend for Atrioc to check out. I say this, even knowing they are long videos (22-42 min), because they are in my opinion the best "battle documentary" on KZbin. (it's probably still unwatchable in a stream context, to be honest)

[@apops86]

Great video, would love some more like it!

[@fatjoshuk164]

Great video, definitely watched it all already.

[@adubfree]

Chat was hilarious this video, loved the content too.

[@jacobhaa2jacob71]

11:05 😂😭 shoutout the editor for that one

[@themuffinman8936]

Artillery still saw effective use into the mid 19th century, however following disasters like the ‘charge of the light brigade’ in the Crimean war cavalry became more of a scouting\pickett force. Union cavalry under Beauregard effectively won the battle of Gettysburg by arriving first in the town of Gettysburg holding the confederacy long enough for the rest of the army of the patomic to arrive and secure the extremely defensive hills and forests behind the town. Cavalry suffered its fatal demise at the hands of machine guns the World War One. There was one battle in the east where Russian cavalry won a victory against unentrenched german forces however this was an exception and most cavalry was slaughtered. My father lived near a cavalry veteran of ww1 when he was a child. The man said his horse was blown up by an artillery shell, claiming till his dying day that the horse purposefully blocked the explosion and saved his life.

[@xixXxxXxix]

I always find it crazy that all of our ancestors had to survive to at least mating age throughout the entire history of this Universe including taking parts in wars etc for us to be here right now

[@peytonalexander5300]

I dunno man. None of those guys created a DYNASTY TO LAST A THOUSAND YEARS like Big Glizzard did

[@randomizednamme]

Napoleon been real quiet since the glizzy dynasty hit 1000 years

[@bshr1nk3yk1d]

8:40 Atrioc if you're seeing this watch Julius Cesear in Britain where he is repeatedly surrounded, and same with him in Gual against Vercingetorix at the seige of Alesia, do it on stream even, it's a very hype battle.

[@semibreve]

It would be sick for atrioc to get a history buff on the channel so he could go through some of these things im more detail and have chat ask them stupid questions

[@jdenton1337]

Napoleon: didn't have a 1000 year dynasty Big A: had 1000 year dynasty I'm not saying that Big A is the superior general but only one managed to establish his 1000 year dynasty...

[@calencrawford2195]

Who's Big A?

[@reid566]

More of this please

[@nicholasluff7452]

I would love to see strips react to more historical shit I’ve never been more entertained

[@linkluver_izn]

LOVE napoleonic history, awesome to see this video reacted to by big a

[@sodahappyjr]

after watching the entire napoleon series prior to watching this i have no clue why i’m here, but glad to see history being cool again

[@fred114b]

probably best video to date

[@danielf1833]

Can't wait for Coneys vids in a week to use the same thumbnail format with Atrioc's Glizzy hands included

[@v1sualv1bes64]

hey brandon just wanted to say that you make learning interesting. it doesn’t matter what it is, i love learning about a subject from you. it always leads me to do my own research and learn more about it myself. thank you honestly

[@erato4362]

I love how much Atrioc just kinda knows his shit dude. Didn't expect a Tennyson poem drop in this video thats why he's the big A like big Apple 💯💯💯

[@GuyWhoWatchesStuff]

The only thing that stopped Alexander was his solders thinking they would fall off the world if they kept going

[@Souledex]

I love that series so much

[@Dontdoit_]

I never thought I’d see this dope collar from the glizzy hands and short king Patch the meta Devs

[@scootchstudios]

I love Atrioc talking about the conversation between Hannibal and Scipio Africanus because I read a part of that story in the original Latin and thought it was so interesting

[@Kirby_ethan02]

Chat not making any old jokes to Big A is the craziest thing in this video tbh

[@gedehahsen429]

Should've watched the Borodino one. this battle was nuts

[@king0vdarkness]

Damn the game sense is on another level dude

[@outlawedbeast]

It’s crazy to think how different the world may have looked in those times or even today if generals of the past or Hitler just left Russia alone.

[@DemonicPumpkin]

It was too ensure an embargo

[@DemonicPumpkin]

Napoleon would have lost power he desired and appeared weak at letting Russia ignore an embargo

[@GrayGamer]

8:52 The devs buffed Gas attacks and Bombing cities

[@Ohboymason]

@4:35 Britains navy was so renowned and powerful for a reason

[@CaptainRedbeard.]

I fall asleep every night to this channel and famous battles 😆 weird coincidence for a cross channel video for my two top channels

[@Firo8]

gj Rez and Chill :)

[@Harry_Fullick]

Can't believe the Russia cold resist trait was still meta. It was never nerfed.

[@bruhmoment3719]

New to your channel. Are you secretly a history buff in the making?

[@cheeks3367]

atrioc you can’t just pick your buddies from college and say they were the best generals of all time

[@atrioc]

you should see wellesley's kegstand

[@PlumpNut420]

Yooooo, love the age of empires music!

[@suru2915]

Atrioc should know this by heart, he lived through it after all

[@stella9832]

6:42 I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud

[@goombacumba608]

REZ AND CHILL

[@pl9462]

Atrioc would probably love Kingdom, if he decides to check it out.

[@king0vdarkness]

3:40 I want to see luds reaction to this video lmoao

[@fudusaab4135]

Hari Singh Nalwa made the thumbnail but not the list or the video… sadge. Dope to see the representation, thanks for the representation Rez or atrioc, whoever made the thumbnail :)

[@fudusaab4135]

He definitely is considered one of the best generals, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh is considered the greatest ruler. Sikh Raj 💯

[@danielandree3947]

“I Have the High Ground Anakin, you can not beat me!” *Napoleon voice*

[@douggieharrison6913]

Hannibal's elephants are also the exact reason he lost after years and years of fighting. Dude could've taken Rome with nearly no doubt. Also next to Napoleon, Khalid deserves to be #2

[@MediumDon]

Napoleon got exiled and immediately said "run it back"

[@Gullington]

I'm a big Napoleonic history buff. Super stoked that Big A watched some vids about the little corporal.

[@semibreve]

It would be sick for atrioc to get a history buff on the channel to actually go through

[@Orapher]

Big A needs to play Holdfast sometime

[@stegotops7415]

Surprised there hasn't been anything from The Great War channel on Get Smarter Saturday yet

[@coreyprosise1392]

You forgot about Napoleons glaring defeat though. The Great Bunny Attack of 1807

[@daybreakhascome]

epic history tv's series on napoleon is so GOATED

[@tomkam5364]

You should also watch Napoleons spanish invasion, that shit was hilarious

[@Dbird.]

Never forget the great G.H. Ewing renowned general from the Vietnam War

[@samuelbruce8837]

Atrioc watching Oversimplified would be a banging vid

[@deranged_tofu_slab3781]

KZbin thinks this man be playing HoI4, he is watching people play it irl.

[@youngrootv]

Was Ghengis Khan on this list? Surprised if he, or any, of the great Chinese generals weren’t. Also I don’t know of any other streamer that could make this topic as interesting as Atrioc did lol

[@n1gtwhisper158]

The list was calculated with the baseball stat WAR (Wins above replacement). The creator of the analysis noted that he lacked info about Mongol battles which is why ghengis khan and subutani were not on there.

[@youngrootv]

@@n1gtwhisper158 that’s fair. It’d be interesting if there was a more comprehensive list but that would take a lot of research and time to pull off tbh

[@Kaiserboo1871]

@@n1gtwhisper158 Its difficult because many of the mongols “victories” weren’t so much battles as they were straight up one sided massacres of the enemy. I mean do you call the razing of a practically defenseless city a battle.

[@messi12knight]

Ghengis Khan should be #1

[@n1gtwhisper158]

@@messi12knight Absolutely not, this list doesn't take into account any amount of him rallying people across mongolia, just about wins above replacement for individual battles. Ghengis had a dominant army and overwhelmed his opponents, while Napolean fought many battles at disadvantage. Only really Alexander the Great could have beat him if he had more battles with similar successfulness.

[@RubySapior]

Insulted Admiral Yi wasn't mentioned. Probably because he was an Admiral and not a general. But still, in almost every battle he fought, he was outnumbered and undefeatable.

[@teddy90636]

You're telling me General Glizzy Hands isn't the best general in history?

[@user-kn5mp2gc5f]

OMG i love the hat love this video whoever added that pirate hat needs a raise STAT

[@Natty11100]

I mean Ghengis Khan started as basically an orphan and had to kill his brother since they were kicked out of the tribe and his brother was stealing supplies from the family and ended up taking back his tribe uniting all of mangolia, then conquering the top half of china who were oppressing them, then conquering most asia incuding russia because they disrispected his messengers(by killing them)

[@gregorysmyth6478]

how r u not more popular ur so funny

[@Kirisame312]

Damn, of all the get smarter Saturdays to miss...

[@masterblaster367]

Atrioc talking about history is fucking great

[@Mackintac]

That Mack definitely would be able to get grandmaster in starcraft

[@Stoneworks]

Everyone knows the best conqueror in history is Gandhi. Haven't you ever played Civ 5? ☢☢☢🤯☢

[@teddy90636]

Turns out you can pacify your enemies by nuking them.

[@miguelcalderon6564]

Another banger

[@jacksonmcguinness]

cash in cash out

[@giraffe357]

she keep swallowing my kids she a bad babysitter

[@cpmc5400]

Big A is also undefeated in battle. Both in LoL and marketing related gambits.

[@Gewrghs]

Yo Atrioc, a quick game recommendation for you. Please play The Return of the Obra Dinn. Its a mystery solving game were you are a detective trying to figure out what happened in a ship in the 1800's. I think you will like it alot.

[@gungy_vt]

"If they ever get behind you, you just lose" To be fair to Mack, while he may have gotten greedy and overextended, the British never called MIA on Napoleon as he roamed down for that gank, and they probably had days to do so.

[@noneofyourbusiness3288]

A list without Scipio Africanus and Pyrrhus of Epirus triggers me a little bit. Well as long as nobody puts Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf on a top-generals list, but you would have to be very high to do that.

[@hoppityhop5725]

big A should watch waterloo, great movie about the battle with over 1000 extras and its free on youtube

[@RobotSantaClaus]

Props to RezandChill for the fantastic choice in music! AOE!!

[@leprekahn1016]

I 100% thought this was an age of empires bit

[@greenbean4422]

I just figured out that the plot of Attack on Titan is what would have happened if we made Napoleon Bonaparte square off against WW2 Germany

[@RobSomeone]

Atrioc looks like the Act Man in the thumbnail.

[@technetium9653]

Yeah, the trench warfare meta was cringe and slow, but they did makeup for it during the interwar years and the second world war event, the cold war was kinda a slog again, I like that they added a ton more countries but proxy warfare has gotten boring, heard they will add nuclear apocalypse as the next event hope it lives to the hype

[@wobblywack5531]

Yeah devs kind of had an off season during the cold war, hoping they bounce back with sum nano technology next season

[@huskieend]

Brother general Pickett SWEEPS no diff

[@capnchris7217]

Napoleon was the Old School MJ for real 🤣 came back for his 2nd three peat