He believed in swift and decisive aggression as the best way to win a war, and broke up the massed Prussian infantry columns into smaller, more mobile and tactically responsive units, leaving much of the initiative in their deployment to their individual commanders, to the derision of many military commentators. By contrast, Austrian military doctrine regarded an emphasis on attack as a mistaken principle that had led the first Napoleon to disaster, and put its faith in a defensive strategy based on military strongpoints and fortresses.
