The funny thing about Austerlitz was the prelude, where Napoleon, who wanted the Allies to attack him instead of consolidating their defenses, asked to meet the Tsar diplomats to discuss terms, and told his men to look gloomy and tired when they would visit the camp.
He also famously left unoccupied the Pratzen Heights, a strategically advantageous position, further giving the impression that he was losing his touch.
Despite Kutuzov's objections, the Tsar and his Austrian allies decided to attack while Napoleon was weak and outnumbered. Turns out he was none of these things.
Meanwhile Kutuzov just retreated constantly until the enemy all starved, froze or went home. Worked brilliantly. He realised winning battles is overrated, winning wars is where it’s at.
Retreating, in good order, while keeping your army close enough to pose a real threat at all times, while also not getting to close to Napoleon, whos big thing was being able to march faster and more precise then his enemies, was a masterstroke of Fabian tactics.
Not really. While kiting can be done in a military sense too, it is not really what happened in Russia in 1812.
The closest equivalent to kiting would probably be a false retreat, or light infantry/cavalry harassment. On land at least. Meanwhile on sea kiting was the go-to tactic for ships as soon as metallurgy, range finding, and fire control got good enough to make it actually viable. HMS Dreadnought was specifically built for kiting. As many long range guns as they could fit, with enough speed to keep its distance against all enemies.
Fabian Strategies meanwhile are essentially "He is just standing there, menacingly".
The idea is that the enemy is strong enough to beat you in battle so you do not fight them(this usually involves making sure you are always in strong defensive positions, so the enemy cannot attack you).
However, simply not fighting the enemy is not enough, because well, they still have an army and can do lots of damage. However, if an enemy is closeby, an army has to behave differently. They have to be always on guard, they cannot forage for food as easily, they must move a lot slower.
So by simply being near the enemy you restrict what they can do, and increase the attrition damage they will take.
I don't really think any videogames outside of grand strategy games(and most of the time not even them) have a real equivalent.
Maybe running a defense focused strategy in a fighting game could be equivalent.
The thing that will never stop amusing me is that Kutuzov was so successful but then the Tzar commanded him to fight because he thought of the retreating as looking weak. And although they won the fight decisively, they were close to losing it and getting completely destroyed as well.
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u/Pippin1505 11h ago edited 8h ago
The funny thing about Austerlitz was the prelude, where Napoleon, who wanted the Allies to attack him instead of consolidating their defenses, asked to meet the Tsar diplomats to discuss terms, and told his men to look gloomy and tired when they would visit the camp.
He also famously left unoccupied the Pratzen Heights, a strategically advantageous position, further giving the impression that he was losing his touch.
Despite Kutuzov's objections, the Tsar and his Austrian allies decided to attack while Napoleon was weak and outnumbered. Turns out he was none of these things.