The Cult of the Offensive

[Tani Coyote]

Not to mention Napoleon and Frederick the Great each had decades of development which led to the advantages they possessed for their victories. Napoleon's high casualty high reward battles won't work as well if the Republican levee en mass didn't provide him both with a strong source of manpower and a powerful core of "guards". Frederick the Great's impressive strategic, operational, and tactical maneuvers wouldn't have succeeded without his father's investment in the Prussian military traditions.

This is ultimately why I'm working to tie actual military efficiency in with economic power. Human wave tactics are still fine and dandy (as even if you sent thousands of men armed with only rocks against guys with machine guns, logically some of would eventually reach the machine gunners) but at high cost to efficiency and life expectancy of your regiments. Even a rich country can bleed itself dry with excessive military ventures, so god help you if you weren't even that to begin with.

No power has ever really been invincible, as even the greatest military eventually caves from some pressure or another as the debt, death toll, enemies or simple lack of sustainability inevitably add up.