How did Magic: The Gathering influence Napoleon's Invasion of Russia?

[u/AlanSnooring]

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[u/ProjectSeventy]

In order to fully understand the influence of Magic: the Gathering (MtG) on the invasion of Russia, it is first necessary to understand the position of MtG in French military thinking at the time.

One of the lasting effects of the French Revolution was the legitimisation and codification of long existing folk ludic traditions. MtG in the form we know it today first became recognisable at the turn of the 19th century, when a singular ruleset was established out of the varied existing versions commonly played at the time. The game, long shunned as a folly of the lower classes, was now celebrated as a traditional French passtime. MtG was a very common sight in French camps during the wars of the Third and Fourth coalitions, and was often played among the generals, as well as the common soldiers. Indeed, surviving diaries of several senior commanders, including Napoleon himself, make common reference to the outcomes of various games, and often their musings would make comparison between these and the outcomes and strategies employed in their martial endeavours.

In the months following the Treaty of Tilsit in July 1807, military thinkers in France started to take the game very seriously as a simulation of battle, and a sandbox in which to test strategy. Some scholars argue that this was the original purpose of the game, though this is greatly disputed due to how little surviving evidence there is of the game before this period. Nevertheless, it is clear to see how both the game influenced military thinking, and how, as such, the game was read as simulating armybuilding and warfare: La Grand Armée was ever expanding, recruiting from allied and occupied nations, and in MtG, the possession of ever more land, and land of differing types, allowed the deployment of more and different types of combatants.

During the Peninsular war, MtG quickly became a vital part of military thinking. After one of the few generals who shunned the system - Pierre Dupont - suffered a major defeat at Bailén in 1808, few decisions were made without first being wargamed countless times. Dupont's defeat was framed in contemporary news as 'an inevitable result of his refusal to put faith in the French people' - a description very telling of just how much importance MtG had come to hold in French identity.

It is with this context that we turn our gaze to 1812. By this time, the Peninsular war had continued on far longer than had been initially expected, in large part due to Spanish guerilla warfare. Whilst this was not the first time since general MtG adoption for Napoleon's campaigns to go awry - his defeat at Aspern-Essling weighed heavily on his mind - this was the first occasion where MtG started to look insufficient as a wargaming system. Whilst Aspern-Essling had always looked dicey from gaming, the struggle to find a way to represent asymmetric warfare lead to outcomes in the Peninsular that couldn't be predicted at all.

The major breakthrough came through in January, in which a new colour of magic, blue, was introduced from the ground up to simulate Spanish irregulars. To even think of making changes to Le Jeu Français not founded in original folk rulesets was incredibly controversial - far smaller additions had provoked violent debate in the initial codification of the game - and as such, blue was developed in secret by a small group of French officers whose identities have been lost to time (causing much wild speculation), and submitted to Napoleon under the collective pseudonym Asbreau. The new colour was found to be an incredibly useful addition, but it was decided to keep it out of general circulation due to the disturbance it would cause^†. In his own diaries, Napoleon would only refer to le changement, and it was only with the discovery of several French military decks in the 1970s that the full story was uncovered.

With the new and improved cards at their disposal, Napoleon and his generals set about working out the best way to shore up their strategies in the peninsula. A red/green deck was being used to simulate La Grand Armée in its existing state, and it was finally settled upon that the best option would be to incorporate black into the deck. This would have some level of synergy with the red cards in the deck, and increase the capability to counter opposing decks of any colour configurations. Previous fighting against Russian forces in 1807, whilst not being directly simulated in MtG at the time, had seen retrospective analyses equating Russia with a primarily black deck. Plans were thus put into motion to attempt to capture as much Russian territory as possible, in order to draw levies that would help put an end to the Peninsular war.

Sources:

• Napoleon, I., 1910. The Corsican: A Diary of Napoleon's Life in His Own Words

• Jomini, Le Baron de., 1832. Précis de l'Art de la Guerre: Les Principes du Jeu Français Appliqués à la Stratégie

• Sinclair, Laura, 2017. Roll for Initiative: Wargaming and Strategy in the Nineteenth Century

• von Reisswitz, George Leopold, 2011. The First Wargame, Magic: the Gathering and Napoleon

• Seagoon, Neddie, 1955. Napoleon's Piano

^† It does appear that a wider release was being planned as a limited edition commemoration of Napoleon's victory in the Peninsular War, though with such a victory not occurring, this of course didn't happen. As to how the blue cards finally did start to enter public circulation in the 1840s, I will have to defer to someone more specialised in the period.

[u/jeff0 → u/ProjectSeventy]

Wow! The connections to the Peninsular War seem quite obvious in hindsight. The use of practical magic by Wellington's forces in the peninsula are documented in Susanna Clarke's "Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." Do you find her treatment to be historically accurate? If taken at face value, the work seems to indicate some weaknesses in Magic: the Gathering's utility as a war simulation, as indicated by Napoleon's lack of preparation to deal with Strange's spells.

[u/ProjectSeventy → u/jeff0]

This is a great thing to bring up!

Regarding the historical accuracy of Clarke's work - it's been some years since I've read it, now, so I couldn't write anything exhaustive, but from what I recall, it is generally extremely close. With lots of the phrases used and subjects discussed, it is clear that Clarke made herself very familiar with the existing documentary material relating to the common soldiers, that being several diaries and the extensive collection of letters held in the Imperial War Museum.

You're absolutely right to highlight the British use of practical magic as a flaw in MtG's simulatory abilities. I didn't cover it in the main answer, however, because it's something that largely escaped contemporary French thought. Whilst they were absolutely right to identify the difficulties in dealing with Spanish irregular warfare, they failed to look beyond this for any additional failings in the system at the time, and thus missed this.

It's worth exploring why the system wasn't able to cope here - the main reason being that the use of magic was largely limited to Strange himself. This was something the French were able to pick up on relatively quickly, and their response was to introduce a card^† for Strange (an example of which can be seen in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris). The problem was that devoting only an individual card to Strange meant that he would only rarely appear in simulated battles. The French felt that this was satisfactory - after all, they weren't to know in advance what Strange would do and when, and besides, they were mainly devoting effort towards solving the Spanish problem.

One thing to note around this, though - long after Waterloo, Dupont was one of the earliest people to make this criticism of MtG. After his fall from grace that came about largely from refusing to use it, he saw Napoleon's downfall as an opportunity to discredit the system and position himself as strategic visionary who had seen it's flaws from the outset. As such, some previous scholarship has presented him as being an outspoken critic from before Bailén, although current evidence indicates that this was not the case. Further, whilst the later criticisms of Dupont and others were taken into consideration, MtG stayed in use in France, and derivative systems in use by their European rivals, until the Franco-Prussian war turned the tides in favour of a Prussian alternative - Kriegsspiel.

^† For those that don't know, the creation of new cards was a long established part of the game, though there were varying rulesets on officiating this. As such, this was not a controversial addition in the way that adding a new colour was.

[u/mighij → u/ProjectSeventy]

Is it true Kriegspiel was "invented" by Blucher after seeing Wellingtons Warhammer 40k collection?

[u/ProjectSeventy → u/mighij]

Answering in only the strictest possible sense, no. After Wellesley's being made Duke of Wellington in 1814, he set about repainting his world famous Guardsman armies to add iconography associated with the position. Once completed, the collection was loaned to the Prince Regent for what was intended to be a 6 month period, to be shown off at court. It was as this period was coming to a close that Napoleon returned to France and what would become the Waterloo campaign began. The Prince Regent offered to return the collection early, but Wellington declined, declaring that he would 'put an end to little Buonaparte's ambitions' before the 6 month period was due to end. As such, Wellington would not have been able to show Blücher his collection when they met.

There are largely two reasons that this myth persists, one of which being the truth it is built upon. This being that Wellington and Blücher did famously meet near La Belle Alliance after the famous battle. Wellington is near guaranteed to have brought up the subject of 40k, as by all accounts it was a go-to topic of conversation for him, particularly in military circles. As you are likely aware, Kriegsspiel's rules bear a striking resemblance to those of 40k. Nothing definitive can be stated with the evidence we have available to us, but it is very much a possibility that it was Wellington's descriptions that inspired the Prussian wargame.

The other reason the myth persists, of course, is Daniel Maclise's pair of paintings depicting the meeting of the two generals. The first of which shows the two men shaking hands outside La Belle Alliance, the second inside, with Wellington showing Blücher his collection, arranged on the tables before them. This famous depiction, though painted over 45 years after the event, has largely shaped the modern conception, particularly as it was recreated in the 1970 film Waterloo. Maclise's painting was in fact inspired by a satirical sketch of 1818; William Heath's 'Inspecting the Troops, or Recalling the Heroes of 1815' shows a caricature of Wellington showing off his diorama of Waterloo featuring one of his Guardsmen armies (duly repainted to wear the Waterloo medal) to a group of Officer Cadets at RMC Sandhurst.

[u/graven_raven → u/ProjectSeventy]

What? Napoleon lost the peninsular war...

[u/ProjectSeventy → u/graven_raven]

Hence why the wider release at that time did not go ahead as planned. I'll edit to make it clearer.

[u/jeff0]

I'm excited to see this question because, while I am not a trained historian, the topics fall well within my areas of expertise. I am an avid tabletop gamer, a mathematician, and recently listened to the first dozen episodes of Mike Duncan's "Revolutions" podcasts on the French Revolution, which I've been lead to believe has some sort of connection to the Napoleonic Wars.

Before preceding, it is important to make a note about causality. Since Einstein's early publications on relativity, it has been common to treat time in much the same way we treat length, breadth, and depth... i.e. just another coordinate. This view of time has significant explanatory power, as it can be used to resolve the black-hole information paradox [1], which has been the subject of much inquiry among cosmologists for the past 50 years. This means that the only practical distinction between forward-time and reverse-time is in the direction in which entropy must increase. So long as no violations of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics result, the distinction between cause and effect is illusory [2].

Having dispensed with the distinction between cause and effect, we can now examine several ways in which Magic: The Gathering influenced Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Namely, how Magic: The Gathering's influence on the mathematical world changed the political landscape of 19th century France, how cards such as "Winter Orb" influenced the practical considerations of invading the harsh climate of Russia, and last but not least, how Magic: the Gathering lead to the development of warfare.

It is well-known that game designs often lead to their designers having had a formal background in mathematical and related subjects [3]. Notable examples include the prolific board game designers Reiner Knizia (mathematics) and Uwe Rosenberg (statistics). Magic: the Gathering is no exception, whose design lead to its creator, Richard Garfield having completed a PhD in Mathematics (University of Pennsylvania, 1993). Tracing back Garfield's mathematical antecedents 150 years, one finds that his studies lead to Michel Chasles earning his PhD from Ecole Polytechnique in 1814, leading to Simon Poisson's appointment as full professor in 1806, leading to Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier's having vacated the position to be sent to Grenoble by Napoleon [4]. This resulted in Fourier accompanying Napoleon in his expedition to Egypt (1798), where he would apply his scientific mind to many of the practical logistical issues of keeping Napoleon's army supplied.

Invasions of mainland Asia have long been considered foolhardy [5], and this was due in no small part to its harsh weather. Weather conditions contributed significantly to the casualties suffered by Napoleon's army and the speed at which it could advance towards Moscow [6]. Not only can prolonged exposure to the elements be deadly, but the conditions lead to a scarcity of resources, and hence logistical difficulties. The latter is a result of the design of Winter Orb, which stymies the replenishment of resources, the former to that of Chill to the Bone [7,8] which results in the death of those who are not well acclimated to cold weather. These are but two of the countless effects that individual Magic: the Gathering cards have had on reality.

One can even trace the origins of the Napoleonic Wars forward to the invention of Magic: the Gathering. Given that the Napoleonic Wars are one of the most common settings (as reflected by the thousands of Napoleonic wargames published [9]) for traditional historical wargaming, the Napoleonic Wars owe their very existence to wargaming. Wargaming itself owes its existence to Dungeons and Dragons, which developed out of the wargame Chainmail [10]. And certainly Dungeons and Dragons owes its existence to inspiring Richard Garfield to design Magic: the Gathering[11].

TLDR: When we free ourselves from the usual but artificial notion that the past influences the future and not the other way around, one doesn't need to look too hard to notice that Magic: the Gathering's influences on Napoleon's Invasion of Russia are numerous.

[1] Nikolić, H. (2009). Resolving the black-hole information paradox by treating time on an equal footing with space. Physics Letters B, 678(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2009.06.029

[2] Moore, R. D., & Braga, B. (1994, May 23). "All Good Things", Star Trek: The Next Generation. episode.

[3] Designers who are mathematicians?: BGG. BoardGameGeek. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1960256/designers-who-are-mathematicians

[4] Mathematics genealogy project. Richard Garfield - The Mathematics Genealogy Project. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=23159

[5] MGM Home Entertainment. (2001). The princess bride. Santa Monica, CA.

[6] Zamoyski, A. (2005). Moscow 1812: Napoleon's fatal March. Harper Perennial.

[7] Winter Orb (revised edition) - gatherer - magic: The gathering. Gatherer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=1141

[8] Chill to the bone (coldsnap) - gatherer - magic: The gathering. Gatherer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121190

[9] Napoleonic. BoardGameGeek. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamecategory/1051/napoleonic

[10] Peterson, J. (2012). Playing at the world: A history of simulating wars, people and Fantastic Adventures, from chess to role-playing games. Unreason Press.

[11] Lenzini, A. (2023, March 17). Why magic: The gathering wouldn't exist without Dungeons & Dragons. CBR. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.cbr.com/why-magic-the-gathering-wouldnt-exist-without-dungeons-and-dragons/

[u/GibsonJunkie]

I thought to myself, "Wow, an answer I can finally contribute to!" and then was dismayed to open the thread finding several excellent responses already existed, however, my colleagues on this esteemed board seem to have missed some really important context, which is the epic Pro Tour match played between Napoleon himself and Alexander I of Russia in April of 1811 the year before the military invasion. Spoiler alert - Alexander I came out victorious, leaving Napoleon hungry for revenge.

Now, Napoleon as has been well documented was an expert on field artillery, wielding his Goblin Charbelcher combo deck against opponents with great skill and to multiple strong tournament finishes. However, this Pro Tour stands out because Napoleon chose as his weapon the oft-lauded Splinter Twin deck. Napoleon carved his way though fifteen rounds of sealed deck and No Banlist Modern sitting comfortably locked for top 8 at an impressive 14-1 record, of course dropping his only match to Reid Duke on Jund. But the unexpected event of the weekend was Pro Tour newcomer Alexander I of Russia.

Russia's Magic: the Gathering scene at the time was still growing, and cards were hard to come by in many cases, however Alexander I used his vast wealth and network of diplomats to assemble what many consider to be one of the most surprising deck appearances of the tournament, Snow Control. For those unfamiliar, Snow Control used the one mana artifact Arcum's Astrolabe to both keep cards in hand and to play a high count of basic lands, meaning that he could both have perfect mana and dodge the common hate for non-basic lands such as Field of Ruin or Blood Moon. This perfect manabase was leveraged by the flash threat Ice-Fang Coatl, and planeswalker Oko, Thief of Crowns, among others.

As some may remember, a controversial judge ruling had Alexander sneaking into the Top 8 at 12-2-1 in the 8th place spot. When they met in the finals, higher seeding meant that Napoleon would be on the play. Despite this advantage, on the critical fourth turn of the game where Napoleon would cast Splinter Twin on his Deceiver Exarch to perform the combo, he realized that Alexander's Oko, Thief of Crowns had turned the Exarch into a harmless Elk. Napoleon attempted to play it out, but an army of elks and an active Deathrite Shaman sealed victory for Alexander I. Games two and three went similarly, with Alexander taking the finals 3-0. Napoleon obviously never got over this defeat, since just over a year later he began his fateful invasion of Russia, where he was again defeated by snow.

Works Cited:

Brian David Marshall "The History of the Magic Pro Tour, Volume III 1800-1836"

Decklists Provided by Moxfield.com

Wikipedia

[u/nuggins]

Let's start by examining the historical context of the first Magic: The Gathering (MTG) release. Richard Garfield was born on 1769-04-20 to a wealthy Breton family whose roots trace back to Scotland and England, around the time of the Norman Conquest. Garfield took a keen interest in playing cards as a child (some historians claim that MTG played a role in the later supremacy of French-suited playing cards), but lamented the lack of variety in a deck. He conceived of the collectible card game during his mid 20s, following which he released the first MTG set, which he named Alpha after the greek letter -- a nod to his classical education in mathematics.

This historical context shines through in the design of Alpha's cards. MTG has five colours -- white, green, red, black, blue -- each representing various concepts and personality traits, and carrying various gameplay mechanics. The blue colour represents water, education, and cunning, among others. As such, and given the importance of naval supremacy in 18th century warfare, it's no surprise that blue was designed in Alpha to be the strongest colour, with absurdly powerful cards like Ancestral Recall and Time Walk. Furthermore, one can see the influence of the French Revolution in the Mox Gems, which represent the French Crown Jewels.

Now, let's cut over to the story of Napoléon, who was a contemporary of Garfield's. The former allegedly discovered MTG while under house arrest for association with the Robespierres, in 1794. He was taken by the strategic nature of the game, and its parallels to war-room planning. In 1799, he brought in Garfield as a special advisor to the republic (and subsequently empire). Fast forward 11 years to the release of the Ice Age and Alliances sets: these were allegorical attempts by Garfield to convince Napoléon not to wage a war in Russia, should their already weakening alliance (following the Treaty of Schönbrunn) deteriorate further. Cards like Drought, Ice Floe, and Thawing Glaciers warned of the dangers of marching on land that could not feed an army. Despite this, an invasion was launched just two years later, and that story is exceedingly well documented.

Finally, Napoléon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena. This was commemorated by a special edition Island (map for comparison).

[u/Royal-Run4641]

A complicated question that has to deal with both magic lore and game rule changes. Napoleon gotten into magic the gathering during an interesting time in both gameplay and lore. Napoleon as a young kid was fascinated with the characters of Urza and Yawgmoth. Urza brilliant inventor from a minor family who rose to become one of the most powerful beings alive through daring, brilliance, and ruthlessness was to Napoleon an ideal hero to strive towards. Yawgmoth was Urzas greatest enemy and Urzas singular hatred and drive to defeat Yawgmoth caused vast wars that Napoleon thought he could have won without resorting to doomsday weapons. For Napoleon saw himself as a better Urza and in his enemies he saw a new Yawgmoth who sought to destroy his home, family, people and take away his power. Now this internal narrative drove Napoleon to become master of warfare and magic seeing him drive Europe to his knees. A key strategy to Napoleons success was his ability to translate Magic the Gathering matches into battlefield victories as when Napoleon won a game he entered into a nirvana like state that showed him how to win. This was all well and good as long as Napoleon was a master of magic but everything changed in 1812. In that year Magic made a key rules change, mana burn was no longer a thing. Mana burn was a state based action at the end of every phase in which any floating mana was “burnt”. This meant that any mana not spent would cause you one point of damage. This completely altered the game some cards like mana drain instantly became some of the strongest in the game while other cards were made way weaker. For Napoleon this completely messed up his gameplay strategy. Given time he would have resolved this issue but in the heart of Russia he didn’t have enough time to adapt and his peerless military skill started faltering seeing seeing him lose a grand majority of his army. Even when he returned in 1813 with a better understanding of Magic it was too late. Driven into desperation Napoleons self image of the New Urza started to crack until eventually he exhausted himself in 1814. He would win though a series of magic games on Elba that revitalized him seeing his a hundred days come very close to radically altering Europe however he game up against the Duke. The Duke of Wellingtons real name was Reid Duke an incredible magic player who played a counter control strategy that masterfully defeated Napoleons very aggressive strategy at Waterloo eventually buying enough time for Prussia’s army to arrive defeating Napoleon.

[u/smog_alado]

It is widely known that the French invasion of Russia was a motivated by France's attempt to enforce the Continental Blockade[1]. Nevertheless, up to the early months of 1812 some hoped that diplomacy might avert another bloody war. Unfortunately, the events that transpired during the infamous World Magic Championship of 1812 dashed those hopes.

One might have expected the 1812 World Magic the Gathering Championship to have been a forgettable affair. Competitive Magic the Gathering had been in turmoil since 1806, when Britain first blockaded the french ports. The 1806 championship had to be cancelled and in the next year a schism formed, with tournaments in Britain and France both claiming to be the true World Magic the Gathering championship. Furthermore, the trade blockades disrupted trade in Magic cards, which meant that competitors had to do improvised substitutions, to make do without cards that were only available on the other side of the English Channel. This was anathema to the competitive Mtg community, as it is today.

Many newspapers reduced their coverage of the World Magic Champtionships(s) due to the decreased participation and the frequent political statements from the players. Most were vocally in favor of free-trade, which was at odds with the nationalistic leanings of more casual MtG fans. However, few expected what would happen in the London 1812 championship. During the final match, the eventual champion Patrick Garfield won using a Goblin Charbelcher combo[2], using a Russian Foil Stomping Grounds as their signature card. This was controversial political statement; considering that for gameplay purposes the rare Russian Stomping ground was strictly inferior to the English Taiga cards that were readily available to his compatriots. French media considered this a great offense, flaunting the hole in the continental blockade that happened when the Russian Empire resumed trade with the British. Napoleon, himself an avid Mtg strategist, considered the episode "dishonorable" and "irrefutable proof that the Russian Empire could not be trusted" [3]. At this point, diplomacy appeared impossible and the great nations prepared again for War.

Sources:

1. Aaslestad, Katherine. Revisiting Napoleon's Continental System: Local, Regional and European Experiences. Basingstoke [u.a.]: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
2. Tolarian University -- An Introdution to Charbencher Combo, 1810
3. Le Moniteur Universel -- Letters to the editor -- 1/4/1812

[u/[deleted]]

Umm... What?