Marshal Saxe had theories of warfare in advance of his time, believing that manoeuvre based on rapid movements could achieve without heavy losses all that might be gained by large battles. He desired, but never achieved, tactically self-sufficient units made up of infantry, cavalry with some artillery and wrote that ten of these modern legions, amounting to about 34,000 foot and 12,000 horse, was a sufficiently large force for any purpose. For both protection and the improvement of morale, the Frenph Marshal recommended armour of leather helmets and buff coats, with thin steel plates. He believed that light troops should be armed with the rifles that were in current use as fowling pieces and preferred his troops to fire at will rather than in commended volleys. His theories on the employment of light infantry were used in advance of their time and these basic but never employed ideas of warfare were essentially the style which swept linear tactics into discard some fifty years after Saxe's death. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter #143 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1974 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com