Napoleon's Army with Magic and Air Support and More

[Kobold Avenger]

Unless wizards and dragons are being fielded in vast numbers, they're not significant on the battlefield. I know that footage from Game of Thrones looks awesome, but a dragon simply isn't going to do much against an army of 40,000 guys with rifles. It kills a few hundred people with a pass, and is then gunned out of the air. A 10th level wizard has, what, eight fireballs memorized? Insignificant against a dozen batteries of howitzers.

Wizards and other spellcasters while not in huge numbers are common enough that there's a couple for every unit. A small unit might have a 5th level wizard and an apprentice/assistant.

You could say: "But think of the morale implications!"... and then the opposing general uses the fact that the enemy has a dragon as living proof that they are in league with the Devil. For many religiously-motivated countries in that era, the presence of a dragon might actually make the enemy fight harder (or recruit more troops) - because they are utterly convinced you are evil.

Dragons would be rare, it's possible the British equivalent nation might claim their Dragoons ride Dragons, but they probably mostly Wyverns and other more common flying creatures.

But intelligence... wow. A single wizard with a crystal ball would be a game-breaker in virtually any war. So many battles hinged on secret intel (or lack of intel), even in more modern conflicts with radar and radio and telegraph.

Better yet, the espionage opportunities. Infiltrate the enemy lines with a simple disguise self, and either charm or masquerade as the enemy leader. Heck, why even fight a war? Simply dominate or replace other national leaders, and they become your puppet states.

There's very likely many counter-espionage efforts from nations too, national leaders have security who use magic too. Every nation probably learned something about magic and espionage after the stand-in of British had their John Dee (the original 007) hundreds of years before.

Most of the middle and higher tiers of armies would be ready enough for disguise self. Actual Doppelganger agents though might get a little farther.

Unless magic is purely restricted to raw energy/matter manipulation (flashy special effects), it all occurs behind the scenes. When you really consider it, modern nations have nuclear weapons and stealth fighters and all kinds of "magical" nonsense. But the real power is in intel, finance, propaganda and leverage. That's going to be equally true if magic is real. Nobody wants the collateral damage of slugging it out with dragons, when they can avoid it all by using divination magic to locate where all the super-rare resources can be found... magically transmute dirt into oil... control the minds of opposing views... sway the voting populace with illusions and enchantment.

Well there's the possibility that a French Revolution equivalent could have been caused by (or just blamed on) Habsburg/Austrian Sorcerers like Marie Antoinette...

All the more reason after the Revolution was settled and put down that a powerful Warlock (or Sorcerer or Wizard) like Napoleon was able to grab all the power in France.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Insignificant against a dozen batteries of howitzers.

Looking up more about Napoleon, it seems that he was one of the historical innovators in the extensive use of artillery.

Though in my mind the fantasy version of him would have both artillery crews and units of Ogres (or other size large soldiers) with hand cannons as ground artillery.

 

[Nevvur]

Magic in mass combat was a consideration in the construction of the time line in my homebrew setting. I pictured some catastrophic battle that resulted in a fantasy medieval Geneva Convention regarding the use of magic to resolve political/military goals. As a campaign setting, stories are intended to take place several hundred years after this treaty was enacted, and it has generally been observed since its inception.

There have still been wars and lesser conflicts in that time, and magi have involved themselves in them, but the fireball spell is the white phosphorus of this world's war arsenal. Deploying fire magic is illegal in some places, and distasteful in most of the rest. Exceptions are made when used against undead and certain other creatures; no one is losing sleep over burning a giant spider to death. Fire is just generally seen as a terrible way to kill a person among reasonably humane civilizations, and in at least one human empire, is seen either as the province of the gods to inflict upon mortals they disfavor, or the craft of demons. Necromantic spells like Circle of Death are also verboten on the battlefield.

There are groups dedicated to maintaining and enforcing the treaty, but their actual power varies from region to region. In the end, any country that's desperate enough to risk censure or worse can bring some fireball flinging warmages to battle, but it better be worth it politically and strategically, because it could be damning for morale on all sides and in all sectors.

It seems that magic is to be fully integrated into the war machine proposed by the OP. I only offer my story to suggest it would be appropriate to determine if there are some laws regarding the use of magic in warfare, or if it's an all out arms race.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It seems that magic is to be fully integrated into the war machine proposed by the OP. I only offer my story to suggest it would be appropriate to determine if there are some laws regarding the use of magic in warfare, or if it's an all out arms race.

It's roughly the early 19th century about a century before World War I, though it's assumed by the major powers that people generally fight honourably. I don't see much of a difference between and Fireball spell and an artillery cannon. And keep in mind that the historical Napoleon was infamous for using anti-personnel grapeshot artillery against Royalist mobs. I do see that some degree of necromancy in terms of creating undead would likely be discouraged though.

If it's an all out arms race? Probably, this worlds version of the British, Russians, Austrians and so on would be trying to outdo the French in magical and technological weaponry. Historically Britain was undergoing the Industrial Revolution at the time, while France was sort of behind on it. I could see this world's British actually having a bunch of construct war machines.

Even though I am referencing historical events, doesn't necessarily mean things completely follow what happened historically. It's possible Louis XVI or Marie Antoinette weren't executed in the Revolution, Austria or the Holy Roman Empire could be an Elven Kingdom, Waterloo might not be a defeat for the Emperor and so on.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Let's not leave the Pope out of this. If the Church exists in this magical reality, it's already-enormous influence over the previous centuries would have been magnified. It might not feel very Napoleonic, though, so I wonder if you want a church in decline at this point.

 

[Nevvur]

Let's not leave the Pope out of this. If the Church exists in this magical reality, it's already-enormous influence over the previous centuries would have been magnified. It might not feel very Napoleonic, though, so I wonder if you want a church in decline at this point.

That would be an interesting idea, especially if the decline of the church resulted from a decline in clerical magic even while other forms of magic continued developing alongside technology. Allude to people putting their faith in technology instead of the gods, and how it weakens the divine.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'd certainly see the Church as being in decline.

Even if there's a single central pantheon, or multiple pantheons like a Hellenic-Roman and a Germanic-Asatru Pantheon for standing in historical religious landscape at the time.