Atlas Trail
New Doctrines of War: From the Legion to the Insurgency
Six named doctrines this wave added to the atlas, walked in roughly chronological order: the Roman legion's own tactical evolution, the general pincer movement across every era, the general craft of the siege, Napoleon's massed artillery, the Prussian command habit that powered blitzkrieg, and the modern doctrine of winning a population rather than only a battlefield.
Stop 1 of 6.
Strategy and Doctrine
Roman Legion Tactics: the maniple system after 387 BC, replaced by the cohort system by about 100 BC, the tactical base this atlas's Roman commanders and battles fought under.
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Strategy and Doctrine
Pincer Movement: the general doctrine of enveloping both flanks, with Hannibal's Cannae in 216 BC its first well-documented case.
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Strategy and Doctrine
Siege Warfare: the general craft of blockade, circumvallation, bombardment and storming, from Caesar's double wall at Alesia in 52 BC to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
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Strategy and Doctrine
Grand Battery: Napoleon's massed artillery, decisive at Austerlitz in 1805 and Wagram in 1809, and famously broken at Waterloo in 1815.
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Strategy and Doctrine
Auftragstaktik: the Prussian command habit built after 1806 that let Wehrmacht officers exploit opportunity without waiting on orders from above.
Stop 6 of 6.
Strategy and Doctrine
Counterinsurgency Doctrine: the modern doctrine of winning the population, formalized by Robert Thompson in 1966 and applied in Vietnam's Strategic Hamlet Program.
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