The Polish Legion are a type of line infantry in Napoleon: Total War and The Peninsular Campaign.
Description[]
The Polish Legion is a line infantry unit, able to give fire or charge home with bayonets.
The Legion may be regarded as socially inferior and paid less than other infantry, but they fight like the Devil when asked. They will honorably withstand shot, shell and saber and then go forwards [sic] with courage to drive off enemies. Armed with muskets and bayonets, they can steadily fire volleys into the mass of an enemy army, or fix bayonets and attack at close quarters. They may lack the pomp of other infantry, but they do all that is asked.
The Poles were ardent supporters of Napoleon and saw him as a liberator. This admiration was mutual; the Emperor declared that his Polish Legion infantry were to be treated with the same respect as their French equivalents. The Polish infantry excelled in defensive tactics, choosing to avoid the mass assaults the French favored. As a result they were less vulnerable to artillery attacks, and were even known to sit down under fire to reduce their vulnerability!
General Information[]
Available exclusively to France, Polish Legions have marginally worse reloading skills than Fusiliers of Line, but have superior melee skills (especially defense) and morale. They are correspondingly somewhat more expensive to train and maintain. Their better melee statistics but worse performance at range means that they must be used aggressively in order to justify their higher costs, particularly in multiplayer, where funds are limited. Polish Legions are often a timely and valuable addition for the French army in the Europe campaign: by the time France invades Poland, it is likely to neighbor hostile Russia, whose line infantry are excellent melee fighters.
While France may only train four regiments of Polish Legions, more can be obtained by liberating the region of Poland. A hypothetically unlimited number of this unit type may be gained by continuously liberating and invading Poland.
One regiment of Polish Legion is present in the French army in the Battle of Borodino.
Gallery[]
The Polish Legion has different uniforms, depending on the campaign.
.jpg "Polish Legion (Peninsular Campaign).jpg (51 KB)")
.png "Polish Legion Unit Card (Peninsular Campaign).png (8 KB)")