"The size of units" Topic

I know this would change according to specific campaigns & battles but as a rough rule of thumb, would elite units in the Napoleonic Wars tend to be larger, smaller or the same size as line units?

This would be a useful starting point in planning generic battles/campaigns.

this really kinda depends on what is your unit of maneuver? Company? Division of Companies? Battalion? Brigade?

Battalion.

I suspect it varies by nationality, doctrine, and how far into a campaign they are. Elites would probably straggle less, and some (eg. Old Guard) would suffer less attrition simply through being held in reserve most of the time, but I doubt they'd *start* a campaign much stronger than line units. The one obvious exception is the British, for whom huge Guard battalions were the norm – most British battalions struggled to field 600 men, but light battalions were often stronger than average, while the Guards were usually nearer a thousand men.

I also think Russian Grenadier and Guard Battalions were pretty big, though I might be wrong or thinking of later periods.

As a generalization I'd go with same as line or larger.

I've never seen Russian grenadier or Guard battalions as bigger then regular musketeer battalions.

however Russian converged grenadier battalions(not line grenadier) were only about 60% of the size of a regular line battalions.these were made up of the grenadier companies of the Depot battalions of the musketeer regiments(and not the grenadier companies of combat battalions, as is sometimes misunderstood).

the Russian Guard regiments did field 3 combat battalions , as opposed to the standard 2. so a regiment would be 50% larger on campaign.