"Your favourite Napoleonic battle" Topic

What is your favourite battle of the Napoleonic Wars?
For myself, it would have to be Waterloo. It was the first Napoleonic battle I ever read about, and so it holds a special interest in my heart.
If I had to choose a second favourite it would be Jena in 1806.

Borodino, partly just for the sheer titanic awfulness of it, but mostly because I built a Russian army.

My Brits are in the Waterloo uniform and my Austrians are in a mix of pre- and post-1809 dress suitable for Wagram, but my favorite battle has to be Marengo.

Trafalgar!

Ron

Austerlitz

Albuera

Mine are Gross-Beeren and Dennewitz in 1813.

Jim

Wagram John Miller

Fuentes d'Onoro was pretty exciting.

Jena

Austerlitz

Quatre Bras followed by
Eylau
Auterlitz
Marengo
Valmy

Wagram

There are so many that are interesting that I don't know if I could pick one.

Perhaps the Napoleonic battle (battles, actually) that I find more interesting is Leipzig, followed by Albuera (it was such a close run thing that it is still amazing that the Allies were able to win after all), Aspern-Essling and Auerstadt.

Borodino

Wagram

Any battle where Marshal St Cyr has a major role!

Teugen-Hausen. French and Austrians and Davout at his best.

Borodino

Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Aspern-Essling, Wagram, Salamanca, Leipzig.

Krasnoye, Berezina: when the French survive against all odds (late 1812). Great scope for wargaming, from ranged battle to skirmishes.

Essling and the Berezina.

For small actions, Graz in 1809-'Un Contra Dix'

Baylen.

Austerlitz, the masterpiece of the Emperor and Waterloo as I grew up with that Battle.

Teugen Hausen. Small, I know, but I became addicted to the 1809 campaign. I drew the short straw in our group many years ago and therefore became the commander of Austrians. I grew a great fondness for Archduke Charles and his white-coated soldiers. (painting white! I know!)

Waterloo.

Lutzen – the Marie Louises grow up.

I agree with basileus66, there are far too many interesting actions. However, some of those that I found particularly interesting are:

Rivoli 1797 (a great fight and an action that basically won the Italian campaign for the French)
Marengo 1800 (an incredible comeback victory for the French after an amazing crossing of the Alps)
Austerlitz 1805 (a tactical masterpiece)
Medina del Rio Seco 1808 (outnumbered Bessieres defeating the Spanish)
Talavera 1809 (night attack and battle that first attracted me to the period and French side of things)
Albuera 1809 (close run action in which the Spanish saved the day)
Raab 1809 (Eugene finally shows he could beat the Austrians)
Borodino 1812 (for its epic struggle)
Dresden 1813 (Napoleon's victory against the odds)
Leipzig 1813 (for the numbers involved and effect of troops changing sides)
Mincio 1814 (Eugene beats the Austrians, just)
Ligny 1815 (Napoleon's last victory but a hard struggle)
Quatre Bras 1815 (a tough fight that could have gone either way)
Waterloo (an inconclusive struggle until the arrival of the Prussians who saved the day)

Every battle has some aspect that is interesting and different to others, and I imagine, to some extent, sieges could also be included, such as the two sieges of Saragossa 1808-1809, three sieges of Badajoz, first siege of Burgos 1812 and the lengthy siege of Danzig 1813, as horrific and brave as they were for those involved on both sides.

Cassano d'Adda
Trebbia
Novi

Ligny
Waterloo
Wagram
Elchingen

Eylau and Heilsberg

Waterloo and Borodino.

Salamanca

Marengo

Austerlitz

Waterloo

Austerlitz
Marengo
Wagram
Borodino

Etchmaidzen / Erivan, 1804, Russia v Persia

The one I keep reading about and returning to is Albuera.

Leipzig- size matters. Until Bernadotte shows up.

Wagram
Aspern-Essling
Eylau
Teugen-Hausen

Leipzig, and anything else without the British. Napoleonic books when I was growing up were ALL about Waterloo and Spain… Being English written of course. didn't even learn about the other battles until I was a teenager.

Now, consequently, I despise British Battles if there is another choice.

If I have to choose one (at the point of a bayonet!) it would be Eylau.

Auerstadt and Dresden

Waterloo
Leipzig
Borodino
Aspern-Essling
Wagram
Eylau
Jena
Marengo
Friedland
Austerlitz
Rivoli
Paris

There used to be a popular column in the British magazine "Private Eye" called "Pseud's Corner"……?

Friedland--the first fifteen hours when so few fooled so many. And thus made it possible for Napoleon and that idiot Ney to ride up in a blaze of glory and claim the victory.

The many battles within the battle of Leipzig

I also really like Zaragoza and I've gamed it before which I've never heard of anybody else doing. The Peninsular War is my least favorite Napoleonic campaign to game or read about although I am interested in the French battles with the Spanish only which often are overlooked. Zaragoza was the Stalingrad of it's day and it's a great story worth learning about.