The individual Prussian soldier was not that much more effective than the soldier of any other nation. Indeed, at times the quality of Prussian troops were actually lower than that of other countries. The Prussians had reduced the training of their Landwher from 12 to 7 weeks per year prior to their devastating defeat at the hands of Napoleon and Davout at Jena-Auerstädt in October 1806, especially at Auerstädt, where the main Prussian force of some 60 000 were defeated by 27 000 French under Davout.

The Prussians spend a lot of money on their army, to the extent that the saying "Other nations have armies. The Prussian army have a nation" arose.

The Prussian success (or rather, staving off of disaster) during the 7 years war could be attributed both to the drill and fire discipline of the Prussian infantry, which could reload and fire faster than its enemies, although as the war wore on and the Prussian army conscripted more and more men for their army to replace casualties, this superiority in quality was worn down. The Prussians did however use artillery to great effect.

The Napoleonic Prussian army was inferior in quality to the French army, which showed clearly at Jena-Auerstädt. After these defeats, Scharnhorst and others started a series of reforms that would put the Prussian army at the peak of its efficiency throughout the wars of the 19th century.

But it was not the individual Prussian soldier - although he was well drilled, disciplined and well equipped and supplied that made the huge difference.

Rather it was the meticolous Prussian attention to detail in staff work. Officers, while often noble in extraction, were promoted on seniority and performance, and had to go through a very good training and studies at the Prussian military academy. The Prussians formed a telegraph corps as early as 1830, understood logistics, large-scale manouvre and how to use their troops and keep them supplied better than any other army during the 19th century.